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After watching the first season of Horimiya, despite enjoying it from start to end, I'm sure at least some of us were also left with a slight sense of incompleteness.

The nagging feeling that there were some...missing pieces, if you will.

From a visual standpoint there was nothing to complain about, the main couple was great, and it's exactly the kind of low-stakes mainly fluff romance that would normally get full marks from romance enjoyers. But even so - some pieces are bound to go missing (okayi'm sorryi'llstopnow) when the truck carrying them has a space shuttle engine in the back and is flying at a ... breakneck average speed of about 10 chapters/episode, and their absence was strongly felt by many, especially in the latter half - where dissatisfaction with the not-always-successful attempts of the adaptation to introduce the large side cast of Horimiya to the audience was fairly common.

But what's said is done, and Horimiya is over. So what could this new cour possibly bring to the table at this point? Well, it brings exactly what it says in the title.

Horimiya : The Missing Pieces is not a sequel, and it's not a remake either. It is basically a...sidequel. It goes down exactly the same road as the original - but it leaves the space shuttle truck-kun in its parking lot, and walks with us at a pleasant, leisurely pace through the daily lives of the Horimiya cast.

Now, what's the point of that, you may ask? We already know the outcome of everything. We saw the graduation. So why?

Well, this part is just my opinion of course - but this approach is exactly what allowed the greatest thing about the Horimiya manga - the amazing chemistry between each and every character and the way they all flawlessly bounce off each other - to truly shine, creating something even better in the process.

The side characters, which basically existed somewhere in a limbo between relevance and insignificance in the main show, came to life this season in the best way possible through various skits featuring them in situations mainly unrelated to the progress of their romantic relationships.
One skit focuses on a girl realizing in horror that she'll most likely have to babysit her friends for the rest of her life if she wants them to survive making breakfast, in the next two the show suddenly becomes a Cute Boys Doing Cute Things show with gay undertones, and from there we go on to showcase the dire need of the entire Hori family for professional psychological help. Each of the skits is hilarious, most of them are unhinged, a lot of them are sweet, and they have some of the absolute best character interactions I have seen in my many years of watching anime.
And of course, HoriMiya themselves don't take a backseat - both of them, often together, participate in this madness. There's plenty of sweet moments between them as a couple, and their relationships with the rest of the cast are explored in depth as well.

As for my review of the "sidequel" approach itself - while it might not have the structural fluidity of a normal 24-episode adaptation, the reality is that such an adaptation is not always possible on the production side. And as far as alternatives go, this approach, to me, is an absolutely brilliant idea which I hope gains traction for previously finished Slice of Life shows. After all, who would say no to an extra season of the daily shenanigans of the characters they love?

To sum it up, if you liked Horimiya's characters even a little bit, this is an absolute must-watch. 10/10 to the idea, and an even stronger 10/10 to its execution. Thank you to everyone involved in this for making these 3 months a genuinely more enjoyable time for me.

I'll start by saying this - Kawaii Dake ja Nai Shikimori-san is a fluff romcom. Nothing more, nothing less.

The premise is very simple - an extremely unlucky boy has an extremely cute girlfriend who can switch to "cool" mode and be his knight in shining armor when his bad luck strikes again, and a group of friends who they both hang out and do mundane things with. It's nothing groundbreaking. There is no depth to it. Its whole purpose is to give you a dose of fluff.

So then, why a 9/10?

It's simple - because Shikimori succeeds at fulfilling that exact purpose with flying colors and ... more.

If you truly enjoy these types of shows, then Shikimori has it all - a huge amount of cute couple moments, a vibrant color palette, high school shenanigans, festivals, and most importantly - a fun supporting cast, consisting of both a group of friends with high chemistry between them, and surprisingly alive and kicking parents, whose interactions with the main couple are often even more fun to watch than the friends group shenanigans.

If I had to give a rating to the supporting cast alone, it would be as high as a 9.5/10 - even if you're less invested in the couple for one reason or another, every moment the side characters are on screen is a joy to watch. Whether it's the MC's mom inadvertently seducing her son's girlfriend or Hachimitsu delivering her deadpan one-liners, each of them made me look forward to watching the show every week just as much as the main couple.

And regarding the elephant in the room, Izumi - the male MC who I'm sure you've heard negative things about at one point or another before reading this review - his only "fault" is that...he's not very masculine. Other than that, he's just a regular, social guy with a small group of friends that includes his girlfriend. He's nowhere near the cringy loner MC that starts stuttering whenever a girl enters his line of sight, if like me that is what you first imagined when you heard the rumors. At the same time, he's also not a deep layered character, he's a run-of-the-mill romcom MC - but his only "fault" is, again, that he is more feminine than masculine. You could say that this is a gender-reversed romcom, but that'd be mostly wrong - Shikimori herself is just as feminine 90% of the time, when she's not protecting Izumi from whatever tried to kill him that day.

To sum it up, I recommend this show if :

- You enjoy fluff romcoms.
- You like girls being badass.
- You are looking for a chill slice of life show to just laugh and turn your brain off to.
- You like deadpan characters/Kuuderes. (seriously Hachimitsu alone makes this show worth watching)

I do not recommend this show if :

- You expect strong character development.
- You expect plot/romance progression, and are bored by "mindless" fluff.
- You expect My Dress-Up Darling like a lot of people did when starting this. (Why?)

I can summarize Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san in about a sentence : Girl teases guy, guy tries to get back at her and miserably fails because she has a plan for his plan.

However, I can't do the same for Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san 2 at all, because that wouldn't be doing it justice.

At its core, the second season doesn't change anything drastically from the first - we have our two main characters and their teasing formula, our three side characters from Ashita wa Doyoubi, a side couple, and a new addition of another side couple who don't get much screentime. So what makes ... the big difference between the two seasons? If I had to put it in one word, it would be passion. It feels as if a new team of die-hard Takagi-san fans have taken over the adaptation, and they've done everything in their ability to bring out the absolute best of what a story like Takagi-san could offer in this second season.

From fixing the awkward pacing issues of the first season that even as someone with the Takagi-san manga on his favorites list for a long time I could not ignore, to beautifully tying up episodic chapters to make them have more impact, to even coming up with completely new anime-original segments - which are all up there for me with my favorite manga chapters, that's how much I loved them - the studio have clearly given it their all for this season, and it is definitely reflected in how much I have enjoyed every single moment of it.

And of course, something important which I should probably have said earlier - the anime-original segments I mentioned include actual romantic progression! If you enjoyed season 1's "Critical Hit", then you're going to love this season - you'll be feeling those critical hits through the screen, as the "teasing" has long since passed the line most people would call "flirting".

To sum it up - if you liked the previous season, you are going to love this one. If you felt lukewarm about the previous season, there is still a very good chance you are going to love this season.

This season gets a honest 10/10 for me, and I wish every adaptation was given as much care as this one - but for now I'll just be happy that one of my favorites got one.

Crippling social anxiety is by no means a joke. Inside a socially anxious mind, there is a constant irrational feeling that all people around you are hostile and scary.

That is one thing Hitoribocchi no Marumaru Seikatsu understands well - and to my joy, instead of capitalizing on this subject to make cheap fun of the millions of possible situations where one with such a condition can embarrass himself to the point of becoming a social outcast, Hitoribocchi chooses to create comedy from a much more wholesome possibility - one in which everyone around Bocchi is everything but hostile. And it works.

Story : 8.5/10

Hitoribocchi no ... Marumaru Seikatsu is the story of Bocchi, a first-year middle school girl trying her best, despite her social anxiety, to make friends.
Despite the name of the show, Bocchi was never a loner - since kindergarten, she always had a friend named Kai around her. However, one day, Kai decided that Bocchi needs to be strong in order to tackle the real world (or, well, at least her new middle school - since Kai herself was going to a different one).
Kai knew that Bocchi would inevitably cling to her without making any friends from her own school, and in what surely was a heartbreaking decision for her, she temporarily broke off her friendship with Bocchi along with an ultimatum to her - make friends with your entire class before middle school ends, or we won't be able to be friends again. This ultimatum starts the plotline of Hitoribocchi.

Characters : 10/10

This is where Hitoribocchi truly shines.

Bocchi herself is one of the most likable characters I have ever encountered. Throughout the show you laugh, cheer for, and sometimes even cry with Bocchi as she tries to overcome social hurdles that for her are truly insurmountable at first. As someone who had severe social anxiety once and still has a good chunk of it left, Bocchi portrays it in a very realistic way, and even does many very specific things I've personally done in the past as a result of being socially awkward.

The rest of the main cast is great as well. They're more than just Bocchi's friends - each of them has a distinct personality of her own, and I'd gladly watch a spinoff with each of them as the main character. Certain episodes can even make Bocchi feel like a side character in order to focus on the side characters' antics and development.

Art - 9/10

No complaints about the art. Everything looked smooth, the character designs are great, and most importantly - the animators did an excellent job at adding life to the Bocchi manga, which is a very low-on-backgrounds 4-koma. For a slice of life show, the art passes with flying colors.

Sound - 10/10

The studio making this show and the VAs (especially Bocchi's) truly gave it their all here.

First, Bocchi's VA, Chisaki Morishita, is a complete newbie. This is her first role. And she did an absolutely incredible job, similar to Koga Aoi who performed the role of Kaguya from Kaguya-sama : Love is War last season. Everything, from Bocchi's crying noises, to her normal voice, and to all her weird voices, was nailed perfectly. The other VAs also did a great job, and their voices fit the characters very well.

C2C themselves decided to have some fun with the source material, and created 2 bonus songs - one from a single manga page, and one from a running gag in the show. The first one was used as a special ED and the second as an insert song, and both were the highlights of their episodes. It doesn't sound like much, but those two songs really made this adaptation feel special to manga readers and got a very good laugh out of anime-onlys.

Enjoyment : 10/10

Easily one of my favorite shows. You can't get much more wholesome than this show, and Bocchi is my spirit animal. Me liking this show goes way beyond just me being a CGDCT fan - it truly managed to become special to me.

Overall : 10/10

While the show's theme is indeed social anxiety, once again, do not worry - at no point does the show overwhelm you with cringy moments of the main character getting ridiculed after embarassing herself. The entire show is completely light-hearted in nature and will easily put a smile on your face.

If you're looking for a heartwarming slice of life show and this premise sounds good to you, then by all means, watch this show. You will not regret it.