Note: I’m watching and reviewing Horimiya blind. Please do not posts spoilers in the comments.
Well, I’m slower than a snail in molasses. But yeah, it’s been a “minute” since the first episode review and Horimiya: The Missing Pieces is airing right now. To reiterate, I’m still committed to covering the base show to honor my third poll results from a couple years ago and until I’m done with that, I won’t make a decision on Missing Pieces. I thought about covering both seasons together in chronological order but I decided against that to stay spoiler free. Plus, I don’t know if Missing Pieces‘ episodes cleanly fit in between episodes of the base shows.
The first major segment of this episode begins with Kyoko and Souta talking to their mother Yuriko (Ai Kayano) about Miyamura. During the conversation, Kyoko realizes that she actually doesn’t know Miyamura’s first name, Izumi. Since it’d be embarrassing to ask Miyamura, Hori goes through a series of silly schemes to indirectly learn his first name. First, she peeps and eavesdrops at the boys’ locker room during gym class. Then, she checks the class rankings. She tries asking Toru but the poor lad is still healing from her rejection. Her last scheme is having Miyamura meet her mother, thereby getting Miyamura to introduce himself with his full name. This would work except that Yuriko leaves shortly before Kyoko returns from an errand that Yuriko has her do (what a troll). At the end of her rope and confronted by Miyamura, Hori finally admits what she’s been up to. Needless to say, Miyamura and Souta find this hilarious (and I can’t help but laugh alongside them). I do wonder why Hori doesn’t just ask Souta for Miyamura’s first name. I guess Souta simply doesn’t know and he simply knows Miyamura as his “big brother”.
After that silliness, we see Hori helping the student council with their paperwork. Hori later explains that she used to pester the student council president, Kakeru Sengoku (Nobunaga Shimazaki), when they were kids so she helps the student council as a way to make amends. While that is understandable, it is also concerning considering that Hori is busy enough as is. The arrangement also gets frustrating as Hori does work meant for Kakeru’s girlfriend, Remi Ayasaki (Akiko Hasegawa), who more or less serves the student council as a sort of mascot. I don’t blame Hori’s friends for thinking the student council is taking advantage of her.
As he leaves school, Miyamura bumps into Remi, who accidentally drops the student council’s budget report on the floor. The next day, the student council confronts Hori about the report, accusing her of losing the papers and demanding an apology. While I don’t think Kakeru is intentionally trying to make Hori’s life miserable, it is frustrating how he doesn’t trust Hori’s testimony and confronts her out in the open rather than in private. Fortunately, Miyamura comes to the rescue, first by headbutting Kakeru (a bit violent to do but I can’t say it’s undeserved) and then by returning the papers. Remi getting teary-eyed when she realizes she caused everyone a lot of unnecessary trouble is pretty cute. I also like how Kakeru is now scarred of Miyamura. With how unsuspecting Miyamura normally is, I imagine that headbutt left more than a physical impression on Kakeru.
Towards the end of the episode, Miyamura finds out from Toru that Hori’s birthday is at the end of the month. After debating over what to give Hori as a present, Miyamura settles on a music compilation album after recalling an earlier conversation where Hori realizes she isn’t up to date with popular music. That Miyamura figures this out without Hori telling him and the fact that it sticks with him days later shows how attentive he is to Hori. During the birthday hangout, the two note that they’ll be starting their third year in high school. That puts a sort of timer on how long Miyamura will get to visit the Hori residence and it kind of establishes a “Will They or Won’t They?” element into the story. I suppose it’s to be expected but it does feel early, considering that this is only the second episode of the series. Miyamura and Hori may be hanging out a lot off screen but it hasn’t felt like a long period of time for me.
Watch Horimiya on Crunchyroll, Funimation, and Hulu
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