After ten volumes, it’s difficult to not start comparing Horimiya to the other long-running romance series I’m currently reading. But it speaks to the strength of Horimiya that by and large I still find myself thinking favorably of it, even when compared to other series. In my mind, there are two big factors for why this manga largely continues to succeed for me: the main characters and the side characters.
Well, to be a bit more specific, as I’ve said before I’ll say again: I still really enjoy that this series had Hori and Miyamura hook up so fast which means that the jokes revolve around their actual relationship and lives, not just “will they or won’t they?” I certainly don’t mind that joke all the time; Just look at how often Monthly Girls’ Nozaki-kun has a gag along those lines. But by settling the relationship quickly I feel like Horimiya gets to focus more on the “comedy” aspect of this romcom.
Plus, this actually means that it makes sense for Horimiya to sometimes turn it’s focus to the side characters and watch their lives instead. I feel that Kiss and White Lily for my Dearest Girl sometimes spends too much time introducing new side characters instead of focusing on the main couple but I was thoroughly entertained by the rather large amount of time spent on Sengoku in volume 10! Although again, Sengoku is already in a pretty established relationship so more of the gags were focused around “Sengoku too has a bit of a weird family life” which in some ways might be a universal feeling. As the US releases continue to catch up to Japan, I wonder if we’ll see the characters graduate high school at this rate, as it almost felt like there was some forward movement along those lines in this volume!
However, to end this review on a sour note, there was an extended gag I didn’t really like in this volume involving girls grabbing each other’s boobs. It’s always disappointing when series choose a lame “joke” like that instead of the actual conversations girls have about their boobs (such as “jealousy over the girl who can get away without underwire,” “how much can you fit into your cleavage” conversations, and discussions about the redistribution of fatty tissue in order to reduce back-pain). There was a small part of this sequence that I did laugh at involving different parts of the cast listening to each other through doors, but honestly, that set-up could have easily been applied elsewhere.
Also, it has come to my attention that Hori’s statements of “I don’t mind if Miyamura cheats on me with another girl but please no not a guy, I couldn’t take that” could come off as biphobic and I was reminded of that as I read this volume. Overall, Horimiya continues to be a fairly fun high school rom-com but that makes the moments where it doesn’t work stick out all the more noticeably.