English Dub Review: Horimiya “A Tiny Happenstance”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Hori is a high schooler with a side of her that no one else can know about. Instead of hanging out with friends, she helps out around the house and takes care of her little brother, Sota. One day Sota comes home with a bloody nose and a guy who recognizes her, Miyamura. The next day Hori invites him over at the request of Sota and so begins a routine with them at her place. In the process, they learn things about each other and it bleeds into their school life. Her friends note that they’ve been hanging out recently.

Ishikawa goes up to Miyamura and talks to him about his relationship with Hori. Miyamura realizes that Ishikawa likes Hori and they skip out on P.E. Ishikawa asks Hori if they can talk privately while Miyamura tells her that he can pick up Sota. Once Hori gets home the two talk as Hori is angry at Miyamura’s assumption. Hori cries and Miyamura apologizes for his assumption. The next day Miyamura sees Ishikawa who looks like he hadn’t slept a wink and consoles him.

Our Take:

Horimiya is the rom-com anime I’ve been waiting months for and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. The opening and ending are great and have an ongoing theme with cubes. It has some importance to Miyamura and Hori considering how much they learn about each other at her place. the voice acting was good I enjoyed Hori’s voice actor, Marisa Duran as Hori has her internal dialogue.

This first episode does well in establishing Hori and Miyamura’s personalities and quirks. From Hori repeating the word dummy several times to Miyamura’s grades being bad. In addition, it breaks away from the otaku stereotype that people assume Miyamura to have. In the progression of the episode, we learn along with Hori that he isn’t into that moe stuff and he has piercings and tattoos. That impulsive decision ends up as a source of conflict with his gym class.

There were a bunch of funny moments in this episode. Hori’s shock at Miyamura’s wild appearance in contrast to how he presents himself at school was good. The egg sale that has Hori depend on Miyamura for help because the emergency meeting was good. The transition to the announcement of the emergency committee meeting over the P.A was nice and it made me laugh when Hori hastily texts Miyamura to get the eggs at the bargain sale. Then there’s Ishikawa’s reaction to finding out about Miyamura’s tattoos in the changing room. It was funny and a good step to the guys bonding since it doesn’t appear that Miyamura has friends in high school.

Then there are the emotional moments in the episode. When Hori admits to Miyamura that she doesn’t want anyone else to see him in his casual appearance with Miyamura admitting the same thing. The scene was lovely and I like how his mention of her friend Yuki accidentally seeing him had an effect on her. The pink dart through her body as it passes through her was a nice visual effect. Also, Ishikawa’s confession was completely inaudible to us as if hearing it would be too painful for us. I do enjoy how the anime adds and omits effects like that to emphasize the experience. Lastly, there’s Hori’s outburst with Miyamura about his assumption of him hanging out with her being bad for her reputation. I’m glad they cleared up that issue albeit with more anger than expected.

Overall the episode was a great start. I hope to see more of Hori and Miyamura’s relationship as it develops and the high school hijinks included.