Horimiya Anime Review

It’s hard to be a romcom in a post-Kaguya-sama world. Audiences have gone gaga for that series’ arc-based storytelling and high attention to detail, creating a narrow set of expectations for other works in the genre. A show like Horimiya, which opted for a snapshot style to depict its much larger cast, was bound to face criticism for that decision. Despite that looseness resulting in a handful of marginalized characters, however, the anime did right by its primary couple, and even managed a couple of good spotlight episodes for its secondary cast. Over the course of 13 episodes, Hori and Miyamura’s relationship evolved from a tentative experiment to a lifelong commitment, with moments of both empathy and sensuality along the way. No one else in their unwieldy friend group reached that level of exploration, but the series managed to find consistent voices for several of them (most notably Yuki, who had really come into her own by the end). I’ll admit that Horimiya batted well below a thousand, but it had more hits than misses, so I’m here to play defense for it – mostly, anyway.

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Spice and Wolf S1 – 12 [Wolf and a Pack of Pups] – Throwback Thursday

I’m back with the penultimate episode of Spice and Wolf! Season 1 at least. This is a big episode with lots of things happening. Some I expected, others I didn’t, all of them were pretty good. So without further ado lets dive in!

Before we get to the narrative, and some big things happened let me tell you what, let’s talk backgrounds. Toshihiro Kohama and his team did a great job with these backgrounds. I haven’t talked about them much until now because most episodes take place in a singular location. Even when traveling there’s not that much variety. This week however we not only got to see multiple locations but also those same locations in multiple ways. Whether it be the sunlit fields outside Lamtra, a dark and shadowed forest or wet and drooping pines in a storm, Spice and Wolf looked good. If only it had the animation chops to back these up. I wouldn’t have to use as many wide shots for pictures as I do if they looked good up close. You know one thing that does look good when examined up close though? The narrative.

Yes its a terrible transition but roll with me here damnit.

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Horimiya – 12-13 [Hitherto and Forevermore/I Would Gift You the Sky]

Horimiya’s penultimate episode served as yet more evidence that the show values individual moments over any overarching story. The second half of this one jumped between characters on Christmas night without the use of formal scene transitions, and although it wasn’t hard to follow, it wasn’t as cozy as you might expect a holiday episode to be. There were some very weird scenes in here – why would Yanagi offer to buy Yuki’s older sister contacts when he’s only spoken to her twice in his life? What was the point of giving Remi an insect collection for Sengoku to be afraid of? Thankfully, this strangeness was balanced with warmth (Shu laying out a feast for his little sister, Shindo asking his girlfriend to wait for him until he graduates), which made the shifts in perspective easier to handle. Less tolerable was the weekly A-story, in which Ishikawa attempted to conceal his not-girlfriend from the nosy housekeeper – a Nickelodeon sitcom plot if ever there was one.

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Spice and Wolf S1 – 11 [Wolf and the Grand Scheme] – Throwback Thursday

I’m back with another episode of Spice and Wolf! This week Lawrence and Holo reconcile, Holo comes up with a money making scheme and Norah decides sticking it to the church is a good idea. None of these can possibly end in disaster, right? So without further ado lets jump in!

Before we get to the good stuff though I have to get something off my chest: I wasn’t a big fan of the tavern scene. I know that might not seem like much but this might be the worst scene in the season for me. Everything about their reconciliation felt… forced. It’s supposed to be forced in a way sure, Holo and Lawrence say as much in their banter. But it felt that way in a “meta” sense to. As if the plot needed it to happen and so it did, without much care for how it happened. As if the scene and dialogue was created before the context for it was. This made it feel off and a bit rushed reconciliation wise for me. I still enjoyed the romance in it of course! It’s mostly the “try again” bit that bugs me. That aside, onwards to the good stuff!

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Spice and Wolf S1 – 10 [Wolf and Conspiracies] – Throwback Thursday

Welcome back to another episode of Spice and Wolf. This week see’s my prediction come true as Lawrence’s greed bites him in the ass! But there are consequences I couldn’t have foreseen. Will Lawrence pay off his debt? Is Norah important? Will Holo get her preserved peaches?! Read on and find out.

Starting off, I was right Lawrence does get screwed! This is all a continued parable for the dangers of greed! What better way to take on the capitalist machine than snarky waifu’s with cute ears?! Jokes aside though, the writing was on the wall and anyone could have predicted this. The only question was how and in this case it appears to be natural market forces. No malevolent scheme or Church doctrine, just simple supply and demand as Lawrence doesn’t bother to check the market. It’s kind of weird to see him screw up so badly to be frank. Lawrence has always been this world wise experienced merchant. Making such a simple mistake as borrowing twice his net worth seems out of character. I suppose that’s the point though isn’t it? How greed can blind even the best of us?

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Horimiya – 10-11 [Until the Snow Melts/It May Seem Like Hate]

Sometimes it feels good to be anime-only. Everywhere you look, people are complaining about the cut content in Horimiya’s adaptation, and I’m just sitting here in blissful ignorance. The anime has never saddled itself with a particular schedule that must be followed at all costs – it tells short stories about whomever it wants, whenever it wants. That’s been evident in plenty of past episodes, but it was also clear in these two most recent ones. Miyamura’s reconciliation with a former bully, which was the show’s main focus two weeks ago? It only surfaces in episode 10 long enough to support a gag about his potential bisexuality. Remember Sawada, Miyamura’s neighbor from week six? She wasn’t given another appearance until this latest airing, and even that was frivolous in comparison to the tragedy of her brother’s passing (which was revealed over a month ago). Apart from the trajectory of its two protagonists, Horimiya has never been a particularly disciplined series on a narrative level – that patchwork feel is part of its charm. It did manage to fix its gaze on a small set of characters last week, though, in the resolution (?) of the Ishikawa love triangle.

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Spice and Wolf S1 – 9 [Wolf and the Shepherd’s Lamb]

We’re back with another week of Spice and Wolf. This week Holo get’s jealous, Lawrence makes some business connections and a new waifu enters the fray! Who will win? Find out this week on Throwback Thursday!

This episode picks up right where we left off last week and to be frank? It wasn’t really my speed. The first half of the episode was slow going and I understand why. Spice and Wolf is introducing us to Norah, letting us get to know her and priming us for the arc to come. This isn’t automatically a bad thing as Spice and Wolf is all about slow travel and interesting conversation. But Norah doesn’t really have the same charisma as Holo and her presence makes Holo clam up. Depriving us of some prime banter, though we do get some about halfway in. That said, getting us invested in Norah early is a good plan if she’s going to be important later on. But this time is an investment and if Norah’s story flops or isn’t used then I probably won’t remember this episode fondly.

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Spice and Wolf S1 – 8 [Wolf and Virtuous Scales] – Throwback Thursday

Hello all and welcome back to another episode of Spice and Wolf! Sorry about this one being a bit late, but I just finished moving into my new home and I love it. Fios is a godsend. Switching back to Spice and Wolf though this a good week for us. Holo and Lawrence continue to deliver fantastic exchanges, meanwhile the pair finally leaves Pazzio for new pastures. What do they find? Read on to find out!

Starting with a basic overview, it looks like we are back to travelling and I’m glad for it. I would have liked a bit more of a notice of that fact though. The episode opens already on the road and in a new town, taking me a bit to realize we weren’t still in Pazzio. I figured it out eventually through context clues and dialogue of course. But jumping from one brick walled city to another with no in-between or notice could get very confusing very fast. As the only things to really delineate these towns from each other are the overhead views and the characters in them. That’s basically the only issue I have the with episode though. Spice and Wolf seems to struggle a bit with how to open but once it gets going it becomes rather capitating. Not the worst problem to have I suppose.

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Horimiya – 8-9 [The Truth Deception Reveals/It’s Hard, but Not Impossible]

It makes sense that Horimiya would follow a heavy episode (like the one we got two weeks ago) with a lighter affair, so I was prepared for “The Truth Deception Reveals” to be a fluffy side character piece. What I wasn’t prepared for was how much I’d enjoy it – we’re talking ‘make the squeaky-voiced twintailed girl likeable’ levels of enjoyability here. The girl in question is Remi, and though she’s had a mostly benign impact on the show thus far, anime girls who sound like they’ve inhaled helium tend not to be my favorites. The flashbacks to her first few conversations with Sengoku, however, were pretty charming. Her interest in him stemmed from both his equal treatment of others and his obsession with reading, two things that an average teen girl might be attracted to. Not every teenager would provide such a gracious window for their crush to confess their feelings, though. “What would you do if the world were ending tomorrow?” practically begs a romantic answer when asked in an intimate setting, so good on Remi for snagging her man with such a foolproof trap.

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Spice and Wolf S1 – 7 [Wolf and a Tail of Happiness] – Throwback Thursday

Welcome to The Bachelorette Spice and Wolf, I’m your host Lenlo and this week Holo is super thirsty. That’s it, that’s the plot of this weeks episode. By I’ll be damned if their dialogue doesn’t make interesting so lets dive right into it.

Initially I was kind of confused by this episode. Not much was really happening and for some reason we were still in the same town as before. I I thought that Lawrence and Holo would be on the run or maybe leaving at least. You know, getting out of the town that thinks she’s demon possessed and all that. But no we just wake up munching on apples and go shopping as if half the town wouldn’t have heard about the wolf girl. It’s not as if the church isn’t still hunting her right? But as the episode went on and the dialoged evolved beyond pointless needling it started to draw me in. I realized that this week was more of a check in on what their relationship is like now, rather than jumping into a new plot thread. Not perfect but hey, I can enjoy thirsty wolf girl flirting.

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