This episode begins with a dream sequence in which Miyamura is face to face with his younger self. At one point, his younger self contemplates if things would get better if he kills himself. It’s chilling and a bit surprised though with how ostracized Miyamura was, him being suicidal at some point isn’t outside the realm of possibility. Thank goodness Shindo carried those middle school experiences for Miyamura. While the conversation isn’t real, it shows how content Miyamura is with himself. As depressing as his childhood was, there was ultimately a light at the end of the tunnel. He found a circle of friends and more importantly, he found Hori. It all worked out in the end and that’s something Miyamura assures his younger self on.
With such a heavy opening scene, you’d think this episode would be squarely on Miyamura and Hori. Oddly enough though, this episode jumps to different perspectives and it’s not really about the show’s titular couple. I find the overall product enjoyable but it does feel a bit messy and unfocused.
The first major segment in the episode shows Remi reminiscing on how she and Sengoku started dating. Whereas most of the boys found Remi attractive, Sengoku wasn’t head over heels for her looks. Rather, the two connected over a shared interest in literacy. One of the books Remi borrowed from Sengoku takes place on the last day on Earth. The premise eventually served as a vehicle for them to admit their feelings to one another. It’s a cute backstory but it feels late to bring up the romance between Remi and Sengoku. We’re eight episodes into Horimiya and the past seven episodes barely showed the couple being a couple. I haven’t cared all that much about their relationship so this episode asking me to care now is a bit of a reach.
Midway through the episode, we briefly return to Hori and Miyamura. While Hori gives Miyamura a manicure, Miyamura steps on her as a joke. To his confusion however, Hori develops a masochistic side and requests that he hit and/or yet at her. Even though this development is pretty outrageous, I can see how it was in the making. Miyamura isn’t afraid to get violent but he’s a complete sweetheart to Hori. Hori is also very headstrong so the fantasy of her boyfriend suddenly lashing out at her understandably has a lot of appeal to her. I must admit that the bit is funny with how Miyamura has to force himself to be mean and how turned on Hori gets when he does.
For the last segment, a student from another class Akane Yanagi (Jun Fukuyama) confesses to Yoshikawa and asks her out. Yoshikawa wants to decline and asks her friends on how to go about it, with the gang eventually settling on Ishikawa pretending to be her boyfriend. The plan works though the gang is baffled that Yoshikawa isn’t interested in Yanagi as the guy is really good looking in their opinion, so much so it puts a dent in Ishikawa’s self-esteem.
You would think this façade would lead into our secondary couple becoming official but that’s surprisingly not the case. Instead, Yoshikawa learns that Yanagi has really bad eyesight so she asks him if he mistook her for Hori. Yanagi affirms that he really was seeking her out, causing Yoshikawa to second guess her decision. I wonder if the plan is to have Ishikawa and Yoshikawa date other people before eventually realizing that they’d rather be with each other. That could be compelling though I would feel bad for Sakura and Yanagi when they inevitably get dumped. All I know is that this is getting a bit complicated, more so than the show’s own, titular romance!
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