Everyone has a side they hide from everyone else, and appearances and first impressions can be terribly deceiving.
This idea is at the core of Horimiya, a manga series newly publishing in the U.S. by Yen Press. At school, Hori looks pretty, popular, and frivolous, but at home, she wears no make-up, throws on t-shirts and sweats, and buckles down into caring for her elementary school-aged brother. At school, everybody thinks Miyamura is a gloomy otaku, but his gloominess is actually hiding something in the realm of 10 piercings and tattoos, not an obsession with anime and figures.
When Miyamura (in all his terrifyingly pierced glory) returns Hori’s brother Souta to her house and finds her plain, serious, and makeup-free, their adventure in mutual secret-keeping — and their companionship in freedom — really begins.
Horimiya is a cute series with light, straightforward art that matches the tone of the story completely perfectly. Though ostensibly about Hori and Miyamura’s struggles to keep their “secrets” hidden, the story focuses more on their relationship, as one might guess from the title. A boy who’s in love with Hori notices that Miyamura is skulking around with her much more often; Hori’s best friend finds Miyamura in out-of-school mode at Hori’s house and develops a huge crush on “Hori’s older cousin.”
Despite the heavily romance-centric plot, the manga has a different sort of feel than a lot of other romance manga. First off, the story’s tone is much more in the realm of humor than romance. Anyone who got past that “posing” stage from high school recognizes that pretending to be someone you’re not is actually pretty funny, in retrospect, and this manga is very conscious of that.
Second, which appeals very much to me, is a departure from normal rom-com manga tropes and plotlines. Miyamura believes he’s too gloomy to be with Hori, and when she finds out, she doesn’t hold him and comfort him and confess her love — she gets downright pissed off. “Don’t just assume stuff and decide to live with it!” she tells him.
As I mentioned, the art style of Horimiya is light and straightforward. In particular, I love the expressions that Hori and Miyamura make — if anything was a perfect indication that the story is supposed to be light-hearted and humorous instead of serious and romance-driven, the facial expressions are probably it.
The art also tends to highlight the difference between how the protagonists seem and how they really are: while Miyamura could be a typically brooding, macho shoujo romance bad-boy, he’s actually shy and scatter-brained and better described as “a derp” than anything. And Hori could be a typically clumsy, hapless shoujo protagonist, but she’s a hard worker, a surrogate mom to her little brother, and refuses to date a good-looking boy because she realistically understands he’d freak out if he saw her without makeup on.
Horimiya is a light-hearted and fresh comedic romance — not quite a romantic comedy. I’d recommend this series for manga readers looking for something funny instead of an epic romance or manga-lovers who want something to brighten up their week.
Story: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Art: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4 out of 5 stars
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Feliza Casano edits and writes for all sections of the site. In her approximate 2.3 hours of free time each month, she loves watching anime, reading science fiction, and working on her novels-in-progress. Keep up with her antics at felizacasano.com and follow her on Twitter @FelizaCasano.
Excited to read this one!
You’ll probably really enjoy it! I’m looking forward to the next few volumes in the series.