English Dub Review: Horimiya “Hitherto, and Forevermore”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Christmas is right around the corner when Hori asks Miyamura to spend Christmas with her family. However, Miyamura’s family bakery will be busy and he’ll only have time to drop off her cake. Ishikawa ponders on his relationship with Yoshikawa with the other guys who assumed they were dating. Yoshikawa and Ishikawa hang out, but Ishikawa tries to make sure that no one sees Yoshikawa enter the house. His family friend meets Yoshikawa and she gives her cake before they start playing video games. Then there’s Sengoku’s issue with the framed insects in Remi’s room and his fear of them.

When the holiday rolls around Miyamura stops by with their cake. He ends up spending an hour with the Hori family and Souta’s friend, Yuna. Miyamura goes back to his family’s bakery and Hori walks him there. In the snow Hori mentions how she wants to stay together with Miyamura even after graduation. As a result, Miyamura asks her to marry him and Hori promises to make him happy. Miyamura’s phone rings and they part ways until New Year’s Eve where they visit the shrine.

Our Take:

This week’s episode is a Christmas episode with everyone making plans and hanging out during the holiday. It portrays the relationships between couples and friends well. There’s Sengoku’s fear of bugs impeding him from having dinner with Remi and Sakura convincing him to go. Another example would be Shindo with his girlfriend in a somber mood over his progression in high school. Then he tells her to wait for him and lifts the mood. The show keeps its balance in between cute and fluffy moments to serious and somber ones while weaving them together.

Ishikawa’s friendship with Yoshikawa remains the same even after a talk with the other guys. There’s also that incident with Ishikawa trying and failing to keep his family’s friend out. That was amusing with the family friend’s persistence to meet Yoshikawa. Their relationship is fine the way it is to Ishikawa and he doesn’t make a move to change it. Their relationship veers off the expectation of friends getting together once the main characters do. It works to show that not all friends end up as a couple despite how their friends perceive their interactions.

It’s pretty amusing that Hori’s family protested more than Hori over Miyamura not being able to spend Christmas with them. Then her mom mentions how her next report card will be her last one since she’ll be graduating in April. The conversation gets Hori thinking about the future after graduation. It works to build up that moment when she talks with Miyamura about the future. Admittedly I didn’t expect Miyamura to propose or for Hori to say that she’ll make him happy. It was a nice role reversal in a way and shows their romance lasting after graduation.

Overall this was a nice episode showing everyone’s relationships in the Christmas mood. Horimiya doesn’t fail to give us real-life issues and solves them with a good conclusion.