Horimiya felt a bit sidetracked the past couple of episodes, which is a weird adjective to give to a slice of life series. This episode feels more focused by comparison as it stays centered around Hori and Miyamura. Some side characters do get the spotlight but their plots do tie into the main couple.
To start things off, we have Miyamura bumping into some classmates from middle school, including Shindo’s friend Makio Tanihara (Shoya Chiba). Both Tanihara and his buddy immediately return to talking down on Miyamura, though the bullying is short-lived as Hori proceeds to beat the crap out of them. That Miyamura silently bears with the verbal attacks is interesting. Given his track record, he certainly could wipe the floor on his old classmates. Him stay silent could be a force of habit from his middle school days but I can also see it as him placing his trust in Hori. He knows Hori would get pissed for his sake and Hori is more willing than him to throw down.
Tanihara later has a dream where he and Miyamura get stuck inside a locker. The locker basically represents Miyamura’s social situation. Despite the cramped interior, Miyamura calls the locker the “outside”, in reference to him being alone in his own circle as an outsider. A good point the fake Miyamura raises is that even though the space is cramped, Tanihara would prefer it if his friends were all there. Even though the conversation is a dream, it forces Tanihara to reexamine his treatment of Miyamura. Tanihara sees Miyamura as an outsider but the reality is that Miyamura wanted friends just as much as anyone and the only reason he’s put in his own “box” is because everyone did that to him. Now that Miyamura has a circle, and a significant other no less, him being “outside” is pretty much meaningless and Tanihara begins to recognize how badly he treated him. Another curious detail in the dream sequence are the presence of rabbits near the space. The exact meaning behind the rabbits is revealed towards the end where you learn that Tanihara neglected to feed some rabbits for his class and pinned the blame on Miyamura. Considering that it stuck with Tanihara, we can safely assume that this is the worst thing he every did to Miyamura and the one that he’s most remoserful over.
In the end, Tanihara puts himself on the path of redemption, first by meeting with Miyamura in front of his family’s bakery and promising to buy some sweets from the place. Something I really question is Tanihara choosing to apologize for his actions internally. I feel that’s a bit meaningless if he doesn’t actually say it out loud to Miyamura. To be fair, I suppose Tanihara feels too awkward about the proposition and he’d rather let his actions do the talking. That nitpick aside, I really enjoy the arc he has in this episode. At the start of episode, I was all for Hori kicking the guy’s ass but by the end of the episode, the guy manages to garner enough sympathy that I’m curious to see how he and Miyamura will get along going forward.
Between Tanihara’s scenes, we see Miyamura once again dealing with Hori’s newfound masochism. Like with the last episode, I find this bit hilarious. Poor Miyamura is so confused but him yelling and slapping Hori makes her happy so he’s forced to oblige. Funnily enough, Miyamura asks Kyousuke for advice. The fact that he’s asking his girlfriend’s father is funny enough but I also love the random choice of location. Why do those two discuss things over in the bathroom? Your guess is as good as me. Aside from making Hori happy, Miyamura pretending to be a bad boy does help his social life in a weird way. His former bullies see him in the act and they immediately get afraid of him.
Midway through the episode, there’s a short scene where Miyamura runs into Daiki Mizouchi, a classmate who has feelings for Hori and is jealous of Miyamura’s relationship with her. I get that Hori is popular and as far as rivals goes, I find Mizouchi more tolerable than Sawada. But I don’t know, I just don’t give a darn about this guy. Him having unrequited feelings for Hori just feels like a retread of Ishikawa’s. I like most of Horimiya‘s supporting characters but there are now a couple where I really wonder what point of them is, especially considering this show is pacing so quickly and has cut stuff out from its source material.
At the end of the episode, Miyamura helps Hori with some house cleaning, leading to them reminiscing on their pasts. Similar to the opening scene of the previous episode, Miyamura now looks at his past in a different light. Even though it wasn’t a pleasant era of his life, it did lead him to meeting Hori and to where he is now so he’s able to look at the past more positively. Part of me thinks this scene would be better served as a bookend alongside last episode’s opening scene. Still, I think it thematically pairs nicely with Tanihara’s little redemption arc, as both characters reflect on their past to move forward.
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