English Dub Review: Horimiya “Until the Snow Melts”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Tanihara runs into Hori and Miyamura, and Hori makes a request for Miyamura. Meanwhile, Yanagi bumps into Yoshikawa as she’s shopping with her sister for supplies. He brings up Ishikawa which gets Yoshikawa thinking about their fake relationship. At school, Sakura hears the rumor that Yoshikawa and Ishikawa are dating. She asks Yoshikawa about it and Yoshikawa doesn’t deny it. She knows full well that the other girl has feelings for Ishikawa and feels guilty enough to go to Remi about it. After a few days, the others worry about her since she hasn’t shown up for school lately.

After a talk with her sister, Yoshikawa faces the possibility of her fake relationship ending with Ishikawa. She gets a text that Sakura confessed to him. The next day she shows up at school and Ishikawa privately talks with her on the rooftop. He explains Sakura’s confession and how he thinks that she deserves someone more than him. They get on the topic of the weather and it is the coldest of the year. The parallels between spring and winter with Sakura and Yoshikawa are apparent as Ishikawa mentions the pros to snow. It gets Yoshikawa to smile for real and they return to their companionship.

Our Take:

This episode concludes the love triangle with Yoshikawa, Sakura, and Ishikawa. As expected it was bittersweet for Sakura, but Yoshikawa and Ishikawa’s relationship status is still up in the air.

First, it starts off light-hearted with Miyamura, Hori, and the guys. It shows Hori’s insecurity about Miyamura leaving her for a guy. Miyamura agrees to her request and even goes as far as his male friends to maintain a certain distance. The scene shows Miyamura’s willingness to abide by Hori’s request much to the guys’ dismay. The segment was a small dose of humor for the episode to transition into the emotional turmoil with the love triangle.

The episode transitions into Yoshikawa’s perspective with her run-in with Yanagi that brings up the topic of Ishikawa. It gets her to confront her feelings towards Ishikawa with Sakura asking if they’re dating because of the rumor. The fake dating between the two wasn’t going to last forever and Yoshikawa gets that reality check. She’s aware that lying to Sakura is bad and even goes to Remi about it. It’s an interesting scene to emphasize Yoshikawa’s cowardness as it shows that Remi left while Yoshikawa wallows in her feelings. Remi’s words about Yoshikawa being unfair and given her knowledge about the situation are good. Her perspective on the matter is refreshing as a third party to the situation.

Yoshikawa’s sister discussing her bad habit was good. The flashback to their childhood over the hairclip emphasizes it. The emotional push she needed was Ishikawa’s text about Sakura confessing to him. The scene shows her dropping her phone and it worked well to show her shock. After her return with a fake smile, Ishikawa and Yoshikawa talk on the rooftop about Sakura’s confession. Ishikawa’s words about how Sakura could do better than him were a relief to Yoshikawa who wants to stay by his side.

Then when they start talking about the weather and snow. We get to see Yoshikawa’s comparison of herself to Sakura with their names and the seasons. Yoshikawa’s first name Yuki means snow while Sakura’s means cherry blossoms. Underneath Yoshikawa’s cheerful demeanor lies a selfish and unsure individual. However, Ishikawa’s words about the snow bring her out of that perception of herself. It makes her smile for real, and Ishikawa comments on it showing how close he is to her. It’s a heartwarming scene even if they don’t outright confess that they like each other.

Afterward, we get Sengoku noticing Sakura’s cheerful behavior these past few days. He tells Remi who merely answers vaguely. Then when he asks Sakura about anything changing in her life she wavers and that gets his attention. His attempt to comfort Sakura was nice with his comment on how the guy who made her cry should face expulsion. Sengoku does bring truth to the situation and that no one is at fault. No one has to reciprocate another’s feelings if they don’t feel the same way. It’s just life and that some people will go through heartbreak eventually.

Overall this episode was an emotional ride with its latter half. Its realistic take on confessing and fear of rejection makes the show stand out from others.