Horimiya: Piece

I actually enjoyed this more than the first season, even though it was a "filling the gaps" show. I don't have too much to say, so I'll keep it short. Also I watched this when it aired but am only writing my review now (lol).

I'm not saying that season one was bad, it really wasn't, but honestly having less focus on the romance and more focus on the slice of life this time around really provided some much needed depth to the characters for me. I'd go as far as to say that this is one of the very few shows I've watched were the ... characters feel like living, breathing people instead of characters in a series. I loved the romance, yes, but I loved the group dynamics more.

The OP for this season was really good too, but I don't have too much to say on that part. Banger song and banger visuals.

That's about it from me. If you only liked season one for the romance, don't watch this. But, if you felt like something was missing, or you want to see more of the friend group in a non-romantic setting, watch this. It won't disappoint.

Sigh, again, with another sequel to yet acclaimed shows loved by many. I’m sure nothing can go wrong, right?

It was … wrong and for the wrong reasons too.

This is one of those “It’s me, not you” cases. Horimiya’s concept is very much grounded and has clear expectations. A wholesome slice of life snip from the youthful high school days of two sweethearts, anyone can like that, and that’s why the first season has gathered such a curl following to an extent. However, with that promise, a sequel came in, only, not conforming to those sequel-esque qualities. Let me cut to the chase and just say ... that this is not a sequel, and more so a retrospective (recap?) outlook on the major events that have folded in the first season. Think of it as some sort of deleted scene, an extended version of what you enjoyed before, only, it wasn’t that enjoyable.

It felt like a filler season, you already know the outcome but here’s more topping, so to speak. It goes to say that if you aren’t reaaaaaaaly into Horimiya, then this one is putting you through a coma of boredom. And that’s despite the animation being high quality and the sound design as well, the directing was top-notch, but even all of that can’t make watching paint on a wall drying any more exciting.

Overall: 6.32/10.

This thing right here has maybe the most butchered pacing and broken sense of priorities ever. It is at least easily the worst out of every romance/slice of life manga to anime adaptations I've ever seen.

Season 1 of Horimiya was already flawed in that regard - it has a break-neck speed, left A LOT of stuff on the cutting room floor and still had the gall to waste time on absolutely useless filler like that green haired guy. But it was still good and covered the important stuff, albeit speedrun style

So, the CloverWorks had absolutely genius idea to just use the second season as a ... patch. Like, they literally dumped the missing stuff back to back without any proper context and sense of flow, and at first it even works. Of course, you still need to do their job for them and mentally put the scenes in their proper context, but at least they are cute and romantic, and I actually wanted to see them.

And then after 4 episodes it descends into pure torture.

You know how there are sometimes palate cleanser chapters in the romance manga? When something big just happened a chapter prior and now MC just does some stupid nonsense with some 3rd-rate side character to the time? Well, Horimiya:Pieces does nothing but this FOR.FIVE.AGONIZING.EPISODES.STRAIGHT. Back to back to back to back. I kid you not, the two leads of this romantic comedy didn't have any meaningful conversation during those episodes. Almost half the runtime. Hori might as well be the background character in them.

I almost gave up when they dedicated the entire goddamn episode to the pervert teacher. Like, who in the hell gives a shit? Who wanted this? Who asked for this? I usually watch 1 episode per day after work, and it was an entire work week of deafening white noise.

Thankfully, there is actually some good stuff after this.

You might say that they just ran out of good material and didn't have a choice but to create this death-by-filler torture device. Well, jokes on you because THEY DID NOT. There is still A LOT of absolutely A-tier stuff left unadapted. They still cut a bunch of absolutely wonderful Hori and Miyamura chapters but dedicated an episode to the horny teacher. What is even happening, I'm losing my mind here!

Just read the manga, guys. If you absolutely must watch the anime - look for the chronological order guides. Big parts of it are near unwatchable in the current form. I had more fun watching the Endless Eight than this bloat in the middle, and Endless Eight is miserable on purpose.