Way back when Horimiya started, people assumed Miyamura was an otaku. That quickly got debunked and dropped once he and Hori started hanging out and got to know each other. This episode of Missing Pieces reveals not one but two otakus in the cast and it happens to be Sakura and Yanagi (Jun Fukuyama). Kind of stereotypical of the show to go with the girl who wears glasses as one of the the otakus but whatever. I suppose Yanagi is a greyer choice since he doesn’t always wear a pair, even though he really should.
It’s possible that this segment is setting these two characters to hook up in the future. That always seemed like a possibility to me after they got friendzoned by Ishikawa and Yoshikawa though I’m wary on the prospect since it feels like the easy route to do. That said, it is cute watching these two talk about their favorite manga in publication and hang out together. There’s also an interesting dichotomy with their chemistry. Sakura is self-conscious about her looks and she, along with everyone else in the cast, thinks Yanagi is quite the looker. By contrast, Yanagi has zero awareness that everyone thinks he’s hot and he thinks Sakura is a cool and reliable person.
The second segment of the episode stars Yoshikawa. Honestly, I kind of gave up on this character. I’d be lying if I called her uninteresting but she never clicked entirely for me as I kind of disliked how she went about with her romantic subplot with Ishikawa. I was hoping that Missing Pieces might rectify this but seven episodes in, it hasn’t really done that. This episode hardly expands on its character as it just has her fantasying what life would be like if everyone swapped bodies and ponder if her hands are too warm. That’s it. The comedy does picks up when Yoshikawa hangs out with Ishikawa but I think that has more to do with the latter than the former.
For the second half of the episode, the spotlight is on Sawada. I didn’t like this character when she was first introduced and I still consider her superfluous but I must admit that she has grown on me, more so after this episode. The second half begins with Miyamura witnessing some students throwing Sawada’s scarf out the window. With some encouraging and careful words from Miyamura, Sawada admits that she’s being bullied so Miyamura mouths a very “polite” message to get the bullies to back off. After that, Miyamura walks home with Sawada and he draws off of his past to gives her some advice on dealing with bullies.
Considering that the original series wanted to sell me on Sawada’s unlikely friendship and familial bond with Miyamura, it could’ve used this scene. Not only does it advance the relationship between between the two characters, it also draws off of Miyamura’s backstory. The boy is no stranger to bullying so it’s really interesting to see how he reacts when a friend of his is in a similar situation. Miyamura gets to talk from experience and we get to see him be the brother who steps up for Sawada. This scene kills two birds with one stone and I’m surprised the original series didn’t take advantage of it.
Sawada’s situation is a peculiar one. Like, she does have friends but they’re all third years and all of her classmates think she’d rather hang out with the upperclassmen than with them. With different schedules and a slew of exams, Sawada can’t always hang out with her friends. And once they all graduate, she truly will be alone next year. That said, being friends with the third years has its perks. This episode demonstrates this at the end where Sawada wants to fix a club poster her classmates hung on a secluded bulletin board. Sengoku and Remi run into her and rather than help her fix the poster, they instead offer to hang it near the front entrance. The club gets more visibility and more importantly, Sawada grows a little closer with her classmates. Case in point, all the major upperclassmen are more than happy to lend an ear to Sawada and help her out.
Watch Horimiya: The Missing Pieces on Crunchyroll and Funimation
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