Feb 27, 2017
Well, after more than a year of reading Horimiya every month I've decided to drop it. I'm writing this review because I am yet to see any negative review for this manga.
SHORT REVIEW - Overall (4/10): If you're looking for romance do NOT read Hormiya. If you want a sort of slice of life (with very little progression) comedy, then It may be the thing you want, although if you are like me you won't find it to be funny.
FULL REVIEW: CONTAINS VERY MINOR SPOILERS
Story (5/10): At the begging, the concept for the story appears to be somewhat
...
original and refreshing, and the execution of said concept is rather good. We have a steady progression. Relationships developed naturally and every chapter functions as an extra step in the stairway that is the relationship of our two main characters (more on the characters soon). But then the stairway turns in to a hall. Since a little bit before chapter 40 things have been stagnant. The original plot has not moved at all. At this point (chapter 75) I've read more than 40 chapters of nothing going on, with the exception of more and more side characters. The quality of the comedy has also declined and the chapters seem to be getting shorter; and that is extremely annoying given that this is a monthly release. At this point, half of this manga is filler, and is all packed together after the first 40ish chapters. But maybe, the saddest of things is not how the main plot stagnates, but how it reverts. For the last 40+ chapters the main characters relationship is supposedly more serious than before, but you don't even see them holding hands.
Characters (3/10): Quirks and little oddities are a good portion of what makes a person, but it's no the only thing. Horimiya seems to forget that as the two main characters are more and more used as means to joke around with cowardice and sadism, and soon enough there is no mention of the things they had to do (cleaning the house, hide your own body) at the beginning, and those things were part of the characters. Without them they've lost richness. Our two main characters have transformed in to side characters as well. And let me tell you, there is an invasion of those. What we lack in progression we compensate (not) with side characters that look the same (the art style doesn't help) and have nothing to add. They are almost always the means to execute a joke. I've been reading this for some time now, and really, I don't know who most of these people are beside their name or position in the school. They're extremely shallow. From time to time a couple of interesting characters appear. The thing is ¿Are they relevant to the main plot? They're not. I belive the author needs to write something else where he could fit these character concepts that he has.
Art (6/10): Don't get me wrong, the art in Horimiya is very clean and neat. Initially I found it to be very pleasing, but with the added characters it's short comings became evident. Many of the characters look alike, to the point of being annoying. The male main character begins being distinctively different from the rest, but this changes rather soon. Sadly not only his looks become less unique, but also his standing in the manga. Characters aside, the art style is really clean, maybe too clean for my liking. It uses very few shadows and doesn't plays much with light. In consequence most of the drawings lack depth, everything is a little bit to much 2D.
Enjoyment (3/10): For a long time now I felt like this manga had become way to slow. Every moth I read a new chapter with the hope of it finally moving forward. But after 40+ chapters of very little happening I've gotten tired of it. I don't really care about the side characters, maybe if they were attractive to me I'd be content to keep on reading, but I wanted something more romance focused, or simply put, more focused.
Reviewer’s Rating: 4
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