(TLDR Review at the bottom, as always, thanks for reading)
I never understood the love for Horimiya.
I am not one to go trash on anything with popularity for the sake of "I'm not like the other girls", well, not now anyway, but Horimiya has genuinely confused me. It has this absurdly large amount of acclamation which has led me to believe that Horimiya is worth my while, or at least when I first came across it. After getting into manga like Horimiya and Horimiya itself, I have come to the conclusion that well, this is more or less, well, "like the other girls" in the medium.
I
...
have to give props to Horimiya, in more ways than one though, it does a lot of things that not a lot of manga will attempt to do, and when those manga do attempt such techniques, it never usually works. I say this now because I am going to do quite a bit of pointing out flaws for this manga. I don't want anyone reading this to think that I hate Horimiya or something, I quite literally everything I have watched/read is good one way or another. Not even a joke. I can point out good things any day of the week. I do enjoy a lot of things. However, Horimiya just didn't fit the bill.
Narrative:
Horimiya first starts with quite an average start-up, we have two individuals who retain a hidden side to them from the rest of their classmates, only to be united by the power of plot no jutsu or something, I am not too sure. Also, side note, it suddenly occurred to me that how is Miyamura just allowed to hang out with Hori's brother like that at the start, and not get exiled from Japan or some divine punishment, the dude literally looks a shoujo protagonist came out of a yakuza makeover and no one is going to do anything about it. I thought Japan was very serious with people like him going as far as to not offer jobs and have parents that hate you for having such designs. But I mean, if that is going to be skipped over with no questions about it, so be it. In any case, with the union of Hori and Miyamura coming together, comes the strange part of the story, strange because it confuses me as to what Horimiya is trying to be.
Straight to the point, Horimiya's first problem is that it is pseudo-deep.
This far into the story and that statement doesn't mean much, only when you go further in is that you begin to understand that there wasn't much meaning to what went down in the beginning. Horimiya has quite a bit of drama prior to later changes with characters. People are arguing and at one point, things get a little physical. But after these events have elapsed, they don't mean much anymore, what I mean by that is we have all this setting of secrets being hidden, people having an unfortunate past, the crowds negative opinion. But they all go by like it means little. To be fair, Horimiya isn't a drama like a typical drama would be, one of the points in the story is to overlook superficial qualities, I think it does quite well in that category. But then, what was the point of the setup still? I will admit that it is smart to make the setup is some kind of personification of the people you don't need to think about in life, those who try to bring you down, but right after this everything changes for the sake of the new plot. Why wasn't it consistent? Or why hadn't it just gone another way around with telling such a tale? Was it because the characters were emotional hence needing the proportionally scaled responses from others in order to get somewhere convenient? Because if it did contain drama as such, why didn't it go the whole way, the later chapters of Horimiya do not check out with this category. The start is simply just there to drag you into a story where well over 50% of it isn't even remotely similar to the start. Everything that isn't the start is just high school students vibing, none of that of which was given before. Swift changes in the genre are hard to handle. Horimiya does this but it leaves you asking why. I am not one to say "oh because this was given, you have to stay like this" if the incredible change in the story is a good one, who am I to complain, I have seen this happen before with manga, an example is Watamote (I highly recommend it btw). But if Horimiya is going to forget its starting ground, then logically speaking, it had no value, to begin with.
Before I get onto the second problem I do have to talk about a good point of the manga. And that is progression. I won't lie, the character development and the progress of the story is loveable, it doesn't take a good while for Horimiya to develop, which does call for some pacing issues as well as characters speedrunning personality changes for the sake of "story go forward" but as the nice man I am, I actually looked over this, more truthfully, I didn't really care, maybe you won't too. But it is still a flaw regardless I would just point out for those who would like to know how the pacing runs. In any case, the progression of Horimiya is good for me. Not a lot of romance like to get to where the fans want it to be within a reasonable time frame, hell sometimes it does literally within the final few chapters. It is nice to know that Horimiya doesn't follow in this category, which gives it some of its own ground to stand on, thus making it more something people should take a look at.
Now the second problem with Horimiya. The "Between Story"
I call it "Between Story" because "After Story" doesn't make too much sense relative to these characters' lives and Clannad. The title I have given doesn't actually matter as long as you understand what I will give below. That was just a simplification.
As spoilerless and implicit as I can get, there are growing bonds between MCs. But what happens after is what makes the story worse. In romance stories, after the pinnacle of the story, or the climax if you like, nothing really happens from there on out, it is sad but real life isn't that exciting all the time, you can only shove so much until the plot gets ridiculous with trying to play with what is going to happen next. This isn't a bad thing to maintain realism, or for "nothing really happens" to happen, what is a bad thing is if that segment isn't of standard. That is where Horimiya falls. It doesn't have anything of high quality going for itself, maybe that is why most writers won't let characters get with each other until the very end. It makes sense because a drawn-out experience is better than one with the glory that dies out early. Horimiya is comparable to any, and I mean any, generic s.o.l out there. Two examples I will give, being the now completed "Pseudo Harem", and the second being the well-known "Komi-san can't Communicate" which is basically Horimiya but each important moment is split up very far apart. Stories like these get incredibly tedious because as said, real life isn't always outrageously exciting or intriguing, not that I hate realistic stories, but they tend to be generic. There is no real attempt to try something outside the box too if it could at all. Horimiya's later parts are just, that's it, no more goodness, just people doing stuff.
Now for the characters, I would say that they are, ironically in my taste, fine. They fit this type of story and I would argue that they are somewhat better than most characters in the manga I have mentioned above. Despite pacing being a little fast, character development is present. Is it good? Not the best. But it is liveable for sure, it gets slightly better on too. I feel like nothing is wrong with the characters, rather, they were handled poorly due to the story. If you really want arbitrary criticism, there is a tsundere and a gloomy dense dude but that blows away quickly, not the tsundere archetype, of course, there just had to be one. They both can't accept truths sometimes too, but that too disappears. Horimiya knows how to make a character, not a spectacular one, but decent nonetheless. They are basically what you would expect average high school students to be, growing with their friends as time goes by too. I won't look too deeply into characters for this review because there is nothing out of the ordinary that happens with these characters. The only one I can point out is Miyamura and how he changes for the "better" as a human. He grows out of his shell more and interacts with others like they were osananajimi from back in the PS2 days. Everyone else really doesn't have a selling point in all honesty. Quite forgettable in my eyes even though they are the top quality of their genre. I didn't have much interest in the characters, to begin with, so that might just be my bias you can consider if you want. There are also side characters coming and going because plot plot plot please let there be plot. Since side characters don't get the treatment of being remotely important, I won't even spend the time going on about them, you just need to know that you will only come out fully remembering 7 or 8 characters at most. The MCs do have development and a sense of humanity, but they are just the top players on a still very common field. You can reach the ceiling of floor 1, but that isn't the start of floor 2.
Art:
The art is painfully simple, it is easy to compare this with other similar manga and see the similarity in plain art style. In saying this though Hagiwara has no doubt coined this style for their own, it looks a little manhwa webtoon-ish at times but even if Miyamura was rocking with Sung Jin-woo hair, you could still no doubt tell a difference between the two. Sometimes the scenes feel a bit magical like they were out of a bubbly version of Shaft, but I noticed this early on and it doesn't seem to hold true later on in the story. I suppose in the grand scheme of things, it is pleasant to look.
Also multi-coloured monochromatic hair lol.
Enjoyment:
I will say this again for those who read my reviews or are new to reading them. I enjoy everything (in some shape or form). Everything. Horimiya is no exception. Sometimes Horimiya makes me laugh. Sometimes Horimiya doesn't make me laugh. Sometimes Horimiya is yes. Sometimes Horimiya is no. In a more universal enjoyment approach, I would like to imagine that all fans, regardless of if you hate this or not, probably found something at the very minimum decent with this. Whether it be the fun cliche setups here or the humorous misunderstandings. Other aspects that would arise is just how plain simple this is, whilst Horimiya seemed very confused, at least it has simplicity somewhere. I didn't mind reading about high school students vibing even if it didn't work storywise. It just happens for so long that it does feel boring to read at times, but it was endurable for me. I just happen to have crazy endurance. It is also really sweet at times. That's a win.
Overall - 5.5 (6)
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TLDR Review:
Story - 4: Hey, it does a good thing with the pacing—though even that has its problems—in allowing itself to stand on its own, but really and truly Horimiya is rather low quality and baseline, with prior elements changing for the sake of whenever the plot needs to go somewhere. It tries to incite a real story but ends up being rather bland.
Characters - 6: Only Miyamura is good. Others are decent characters, top of their game in terms of the genre, but there is nothing to expand on that making them rather average. Side characters you won't remember too.
Art - 6: Simple art you will remember if shown again to you with its coined character design. Bubbly at times too.
Enjoyment - 6: This is fine, I liked it, but it should have got cut off ages ago or tried something out of the ordinary. It is very simple.
Overall - 5.5 (6)
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I remember coming across Horimiya a while ago on most popular or top-rated, I can't remember, and thinking to myself, "hey this looks decent" and decent it was, more like generic, but I am being nice here. Horimiya in the grand light of things is truly overhyped beyond belief. I have been told time and time again that simplicity is what gives it the credit it receives but it tried to incite a real story with its pseudo-deep writing and then proceed to say it never happened and then do the "nothing happens". Bruh. I mean, it is just an alright manga in my eyes. Nothing too deep or special. I would recommend this but it would be as if it were some other romance manga no one really talks about. It has its benefits and doesn't at the same time. There is better out there.
Yes, I will recommend Kimi ni Todoke. The pinnacle of wholesome vanilla ice cream on a good beach episode. Horimiya probably stole from it anyway. How shameless! :kuuderehmph:
 Alternative TitlesJapanese: ホリミヤ More titlesInformationType: Manga
Volumes: 17
Chapters: 139
Status: Finished
Published: Oct 18, 2011 to Mar 18, 2021
Genre:
Romance
Theme:
School
Demographic:
Shounen
Serialization:
GFantasy Statistics Ranked: #2382 2 based on the top manga page. Please note that 'R18+' titles are excluded. Popularity: #16
Members: 358,392
Favorites: 25,509 Available AtResources | Reviews
Filtered Results: 29 / 132
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Mar 20, 2021
(TLDR Review at the bottom, as always, thanks for reading)
I never understood the love for Horimiya. I am not one to go trash on anything with popularity for the sake of "I'm not like the other girls", well, not now anyway, but Horimiya has genuinely confused me. It has this absurdly large amount of acclamation which has led me to believe that Horimiya is worth my while, or at least when I first came across it. After getting into manga like Horimiya and Horimiya itself, I have come to the conclusion that well, this is more or less, well, "like the other girls" in the medium. I ... 
Jul 25, 2015
After seeing review after review of 10 and 9 ratings I thought it was about time to break up the reviews a little bit and give Horimiya a 6 out of 10.
Story The sumary of this story is very cute. Hori and Miyamura act like a different person when at school, but when they get home they're true personality comes out. Hori is popular at school, but when at home she basically takes the role of mom. Miyamura is shy and withdrawn, but after school he shows off his piercings and tattoos. Then they find out about eachothers secret lives, and find comfort in the fact ... 
Jun 24, 2019
Alright so I have only written a few reviews but I decided I will write one for Horimiya. I feel the best way to explain Horimiya is to write the same thing I have said to my friend:
I really enjoyed Horimiya when it first came out. I had it rated at 10 out of 10 for a long time, but I realized that nowadays I am no longer excited to see a new chapter being released. Now, I kind of feel like I've been forcing myself to read this manga. I've read 92 chapters of the story so I have been keeping up for a ... 
May 22, 2017
I was drawn to this manga by the stellar reviews it had. Seriously, very few ratings below 7 ("Good") here. And, well, after reading 78 chapters within 24 hours, I feel like this manga needs a candid response to it.
Story: 4/10 Typical "opposites attract" storyline. The girl's popular af and the guy is basically an outcast. The twist? They are completely different people outside school, who start interacting through a chance encounter and thus starts their story. There's less "will they/won't they" moments here, and well, they actually get together and the manga goes on. Now this could have been very good, BUT. But. ... 
Dec 30, 2019
After finally deciding to return to Horimiya and catch up to the latest chapter, I'm coming off the experience with a bit of regret, to be honest. I feel as though it would have been better had I just stayed away and retained the sweet memories I had of when I first read it, but, alas, here we are.
Horimiya, unfortunately, suffers from the same problem majority of manga that get somewhat popular in the industry do -- it just... keeps... on... giving. This, in turn, means that the story will, pretty much by default, be bad. Not necessarily the worst thing ever, but due to ... 
Mar 21, 2021
Well, this is it. This is the end.
It's a good ride, a bit bumpy in some cases, but still enjoyable nonetheless. The story is decent. It's not unique in any way, but it's decent enough. I have some gripes about it though because it shouldn't have to be this long to finish this kind of story that the author is telling. And it shows since a lot of the latter half of the series is just padding out some time with character interactions that didn't change until the end of the series. If this was a 50 chapter story at max, then I would have given this ... 
Apr 27, 2019
I won't write a long review as this will be equally simple to the manga.
This series is bad story wise significantly because the plot doesn’t progress or progress too little without a goal or a objective. The series had a good start with the main characters having relatable issues, good designs and a fairy enjoyable romcom comedy and romance; on the other hand, once the manga story advanced it suddenly started repeating the same jokes, cliche tropes of the genre and the plot no longer progressed. They didn't address the main characters initial issues, as if it never even existed in the first place. Hence, ... 
Jun 28, 2020
I really liked it, maybe i give it a 10 in the beggining but it's getting worse over time, don't even have more a history, i'm not even getting excited anymore, when you read the chapter 1 to ~40 is really good, but now is repetitive, monotonous.
i'm reading it just because of curiosity(i write this when i was in chapter 115). And this manga is getting so poor in romance to, just have superficial things and comedy(not that good at all) But, despite that, the manga is really cute, and the beggining is really diferent of the others romance manga, so I think is good reading, but ... 
Aug 1, 2020
The story was going amazing for me - romance, comedy, drama and everything you would like in a romance, SoL manga. Our main characters are very interesting, the way their relationship is progressing (maybe a bit puzzled at some quite fast-paced instances but story still great!) is a nice change from other romance manga, and the side characters are great as well... until Ch.50.
In Ch. 50, something major happens between Morimiya and Hori which makes you excited for what's to come, yet the manga begans to slowly drift away the attention from them and starts to focus mostly on the side characters. By Ch.70, ... 
Apr 4, 2017
Are you a male over 20 years old? then this is probably not for you (or it is, if you enjoy teengirl-ish stuff).
Someone said this was a good romance manga and it has a very high score here so I kept reading (up to chap 40 atm). Well I have to say this is a good manga if you like slice of life stuff, but any guy with a little bit of testosterone left in him should probably read something else. I mean when you read a manga and: - There are more chibi drawings than actual drawings. - The guys are as skinny and as ...
May 25, 2023
A romcom with fresh perspective that had a strong start but couldn't finish it the same way.
Horimiya is one of the most realistic (as far as realistic goes in manga/ anime) story I have enjoyed reading. The start was quite good and was quite enjoyable to read. The confession was quicker than I expected as they didn't beat around the bush too much. But their progress halted after the proposal on chapter 63. When Tooru confessed to Hori in chapter 3, I laughed saying "The manga is call Horimiya not Tooruhori" and thought that I didn't have see a love triangle. But my issue with story ... 
Jan 3, 2021
Great example of playing it safe to broaden your audience.
Art is clean, pretty and stylish. Character expressions are a highlight. Side characters cover a broad range of tropes and personalities. Humor isn't groundbreaking, but it's enjoyable enough (personally). Story is derailed around chapter 30, nonexistent after. Characters do not progress. Their looks are altered seemingly to suit popularity polls or give a false sense of a maturing personality. Domestic abuse is normalized as if it's not something literally no one should engage in and played for laughs. Main abuser forgiven several times over the course of the manga, and the situation is never acknowledged realistically as ... 
Sep 27, 2022
Horimiya is a work that I recommend, but with one caveat: it's a good story that could have been excellent if it chose what it wanted to be.
This manga tells the story of Hori Kyouko and Miyamura Izumi, two young students who happen to discover each other's secrets and who don't want their schoolmates to know. From then on, the two start to support each other and meet outside of school, forming a strong bond that can end up becoming something more than just friendship. It's not a very original premise, but the comic parts are very fun and the ... 
Jan 11, 2021
I had Horimiya on my to-read list for a while and after watching the first episode of its anime adaptation this season, I decided I didn't like the second male lead's purple hair and wanted to dip my feet in the manga so that my perception of this guy wouldn't be permanently altered by the anime (if you know, you know). Unfortunately, I had a pretty hard time understanding why Horimiya is rated so highly.
Categorized as a shounen yet fulfilling pretty much every convention of a shoujo manga, Horimiya exists on the borderline between the two genres and delivers on neither positive qualities. Like ... 
Sep 16, 2020
First of all, I really enjoying this manga so far, so if you wonder why I only gave 6 out of 10, well I have to tell you that, I had some very major issues with it. Let me explain.
I would like to start with all the good things in this manga: 1, The story is someway refreshing compared to other typical romcoms. It feels like the creator wanted to make sure that the characters and the story do not contain any cliches. Horimiya doesn't have any unnecessary drama, awkward cringy scenes, and annoyingly slow moments. The humor is cute or just plain funny most of ... 
Nov 22, 2020
I'm writing my first ever review just to let out my frustration with this manga. It started decent, and me, being a loving slice of life manga reader was happy about it. The story was simple: two teenagers -classmates- who don't speak to each other found themselves outside of school only to discover that both of them are pretty different of what they seem to be in school. slowly, they start to know each other and calmly fall in love. that's it.
how can you ruin that? well, it was possible! the first third of the manga it's great, just a simple story with light ... 
Mar 22, 2021
Horimiya, Happiness, disappointment, death.
Being a fan of romance manga is hard. The trash heap of mediocrity we have to put up with in order to find the actual good stuff is embarrassingly high. From lackluster characters, no progress, to uncomfortable self insert harems, to the entire shoujo genre, one begins to question, is it really that hard to portray this common aspect of the human experience? Part 1: Happiness That’s where Horimiya comes in. Horimiya’s every romance manga reader’s wet dream, second only to being in a real relationship. It single handedly fixes everything wrong with the genre. It introduces interesting non generic characters, establishing their ...
Apr 24, 2021
This is a manga based off of a web-comic. The web-comic is sadly not translated into English yet, but the manga is basically the same story but with manga-styled drawing, which is good art. Something that is difficult is that there are a lot of characters and in manga-style, you can't tell their hair color (which helps differentiate them in the web comic/anime), so keep that in mind.
If you are looking for a shojo to read, this is it. It's not the strongest story, but it is cute. You don't have to wait chapters and chapters for the romance to start (looking at you, ...
Feb 8, 2021
Overall (6/10):
Despite its lack of focus and significant character flaws, Horimiya is a heartwarming and enjoyable slice of life story that is worth a look. In Depth review (Contains minor spoilers) Story (6/10): Initially, the story is fairly straightforward. The idea of them being friends and sharing their secret sides to each other is cute, and their interactions are enjoyable. Although their romance could be developed more, it is nice to see the two of them come together. The series does start to lose its way after around chapter 40. After Chapter 38, there are only a handful of chapters* that really center around Hori and Miyamura, ... 
Apr 15, 2019
Even though I really enjoyed reading this manga, I can't say many good things about it. Basically, the dynamics of the main couple, Kyoko and Izumi, is carrying all the weight. I hardly ever find any of the secondary characters interesting and the overall story is quite cliche.
Then why do I still like it? I find it refreshing. While most stereotypical high school romances focus on the "becoming a couple" through all sorts of events, this series is very down to earth. There are no love triangles, harems, a shy MC that can't confess, etc. The main couple gets together fairly early in the ... |