English Dub Review: Horimiya “It’s Hard, but Not Impossible”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Miyamura gets attention from the other girls on his hairstyle which makes Hori jealous. On the walk home the two cross paths with Miyamura’s middle school classmates. They start teasing him, and Hori is already in an angry mood when she beats them. One of those bullies is Tanihara, a friend of Shindo who meets with him at a fast food place. Tanihara recalls his middle school days and seeing Miyamura upset in front of the empty bunny cage. Meanwhile, Hori pleads with Miyamura to act more mean with her.

Outside the convenience store, Hori comes across Miyamura’s bullies after two of them stop their friend from meeting Hori’s fists. They react with shock to the sight of Miyamura hitting Hori when she meets up with him. At school a classmate, Mizouchi acts cold to Miyamura since he has a small crush on Hori. Miyamura loses his phone and goes to the science lab to search for it. Mizouchi is in the science lab and he helps Miyamura out, but Miyamura breaks his phone. Tanihara dreams of Miyamura and he asks Shindo for his number. Tanihara goes to Miyamura’s bakery and they talk about his family’s goods and the fact that Myiamura’s phone broke. Miyamura helps Hori out with cleaning up her bookcase and they talk about yearbooks.

Our Take:

This week’s episode of Horimiya shows how different Miyamura is from his middle school days. The episode features his bullies as they get a good look at who he is now. It has a good message on how people can change with Miyamura and the guys.

Hori standing up to Miyamura’s middle school bullies for Miyamura was great. She’s got his back and Miyamura’s thankful for that. Her kink on a mean Miyamura plays out well with Miyamura’s transformation in front of his bullies. Hori’s already gathered that Miyamura’s middle school experience wasn’t a pleasant one but she knows that things are different. It’s sweet how their relationship helps Miyamura become more confident. Also, I thought Miyamura consulting Hori’s dad on her desire to see another side of him was amusing. The talk turns into a roasting session from Hori to her dad and alleviates the tension from the earlier conflict.

I like how the anime brings up the issue of bullying and evolves it from the cliche beginning. Tanihara starts off in the beginning as a bully with his disgusting comment on Miyamura saying his name. However, his feelings of guilt make him remorseful over their middle school days. Especially with the bunnies that Miyamura cared for in his loneliness. The bunnies end up dead since Tanihara forgot to feed them over the summer. He doesn’t change instantly thinking that Miyamura ignores his call until he finds out that Miyamura’s phone broke. Tanihara apologizes mentally rather than saying it straight to Miyamura and I have mixed feelings about it. Despite never getting a vocal apology, Miyamura appears to understand Tanihara’s actions and its water under the bridge for them.

There’s also Mizouchi who’s got a small crush on Hori. Miyamura tells him that if he can’t punch Hori then they wouldn’t last. He even mentions his initial impression of Miyamura as a loner, but he’s a more confident person now. Both guys are hard for Miyamura to be friends with for different reasons. The guys connect on a certain level or at the very least aren’t acting negatively towards Miyamura anymore. It’s tough to make friends, but it’s not impossible for the current Miyamura. Also, I thought it was neat that the manga appeared when Hori and Miyamura were clearing her bookcase out.

Overall it was a good episode with Miyamura’s friend group growing person by person. He grew up from the loner in middle school to the confident Miyamura that he is now.