Autumn is over, and as winter rolls in, romantic tensions rise and shift between the students. The love triangle between Yuki, Sakura, and Ishikawa comes to a head; the Christmas season brings negotiations and compromises between those in relationships. With graduation just a few months away, Hori’s thoughts turn to the future — and the uncertainty that might bring.
Horimiya © HERO · OOZ © Daisuke Hagiwara / SQUARE ENIX
Volume 9 is mainly a continuation of different loosely-woven plot threads that surround Hori, Miyamura, and the people around them: Hori’s family, their friends at school, the student council, and others. The students are reaching the end of their final year of high school, and with graduation coming in March, everyone has things on their mind.
While several parts of this volume are standalone light comedy scenes, it’s when the Christmas arc begins that the plot threads start to coalesce into a more linear story. Aside from the expected story between the title characters, the love triangle that’s been woven between three characters — Hori’s friend Yuki, Miyamura’s friend Ishikawa, and student council member Sakura — reaches its climax as the Christmas arc begins.
The most beautifully-done part of this volume is the resolution of the love triangle. For a few volumes, the tension has focused mainly on the two girls, Yuki and Sakura, and by the time the subplot reaches its climax in Volume 9, the reader isn’t sure who to root for — in the best possible way. Hero and Hagiwara have captured one aspect of teenage love that’s often overlooked in young adult stories: that no matter what someone does, they may not be able to win the heart of the person they care for.
[blocktext align=”center”]Nobody’s done anything wrong. That’s what makes it hurt so much.[/blocktext]
I really appreciate that the love triangle is so well-written, and in a way that makes the love triangle plotline more about Yuki and Sakura’s personal development than being about Ishikawa, the boy they both love. In Volume 9, Yuki is confronted by multiple characters about her tendency to never speak up for what she wants; Sakura has been facing her shyness for several volumes by this point, and her character growth has already been evident.
This volume concludes with the sense of impending finality that readers who have already gone through their final months of high school will recognize; as a reader who went through those months almost a decade ago, Volume 9 has a gentle nostalgia that’s at once sad and lovely. Horimiya is definitely a young adult romance manga that’s worth picking up.
Story: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Art: 4 out of 5 stars
Overall: 4.5 out of 5 stars
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