Throughout most of the US, and indeed much of the world, there are currently record-breaking temperatures as summer heats up. Summer is my least favorite season, and I probably wouldn’t enjoy it even if there wasn’t terrifying climate change adding to its severity. So it was nice to watch some soothing episodes of Horimiya that take place in the winter. All three episodes have something to do with it being cold outside. Here are my recaps and thoughts for Horimya: Piece episodes 4, 5, and 6.
Episode 4: Hori Kotatsu
This was a fun episode for the most part. It happens during the winter of Hori and Miyamura’s final year at highschool. Most of the interactions take place around the kotatsu that the Hori family uses when it’s cold. There many short “skits” and brief interactions, so I won’t recount everything in the episode. I will at least give some highlights, though.
Kyosuke encounters Kakeru (Sengoku) while out getting snacks. He more or less abducts the poor student council president and brings him back to the Hori household. Kakeru spends a lot of time there in the kotatsu with Miyamura and Hori. Naturally, Kyoko and and Kyosuke put him through hell – sometimes teasing him on purpose, and other times just being annoying without really meaning to.
After Kyoko runs into Kakeru’s father in the convenience store, he is also invited to come and get warm in the kotatsu. It turns out that Kyosuke and Mr. Sengoku have known each other for a while. Despite Kyosuke asserting that they’re best friends, they fight like immature highschoolers. Mr. Sengoku seems to hate Kyosuke, actually. It seems that the Hori family loves to tease and annoy the Sengoku family as a whole.
Another highlight for me was the humorous part where Miyamura recieves a message from Shindo saying that he loves him and wants to meet him in the park. Miyamura is so comfy in the kotatsu that he falls asleep, leaving his flip-phone open. Kyoko sees the message and at first doesn’t understand that it’s from Miyamura’s platonic male friend. She gets jealous and furious. The misunderstanding was pretty funny.
The last thing I’ll mention is the incredibly sweet and romantic scene where Miyamura is peeling a Mikan orange for Kyoko. But Kyoko insists that she’s already eaten two and shouldn’t have any more. Miyamura tells her, “If you don’t eat it, I won’t kiss you.” And he passes her a slice of the orange through a kiss. My heart melted. I watch Horimiya for adorable moments like that.
Episode 5: Iura
Episode 5 was mostly about Shuu and Motoko Iura. It had some funny parts, like when everyone is late to school and the toast trope is used in a satirical way. Nevertheless, it was difficult for me to enjoy this episode wholeheartedly, since the underlying homophobia was bothersome. But I’ll get to that later.
This is the episode where Shuu’s little sister, Motoko, makes friends with a boy she likes from her middle-school. Shuu acts gross and creepy by being possessive and controlling of his sister and prying into her romantic life. Although it was mostly played for laughs, this gross behavior was not in any way justified by the narrative. That was a relief, at least. Also, even though it didn’t stop Shuu, I’m glad Motoko kept asserting herself and calling out her brother for being inappropriate.
The meat of the episode was that Kitahara, Motoko’s middle-school friend, has a crush on Shuu. Naturally, Motoko is disappointed because she liked Kitahara. There’s nothing wrong with expressing disappointment when someone you like doesn’t return the feelings. There’s also nothing wrong with feeling a little awkward when someone way younger than you “likes” you. Obviously, you have to turn them down, and that can be unpleasant. So it was also acceptable for Shuu to feel a bit uncomfortable about the situation.
That’s fine. The issue is that there’s still some weak homophobia in the narrative. None of the characters say anything hateful; it’s not that direct. But a) being a gay boy is lowkey treated like a joke, and b) everyone always assumes that everyone else is heterosexual, reacting with surprise when it’s not the case. There is also a vibe that anyone straight should be embarrassed if they are found attractive by someone of the same gender. These underlying messages were distracting and very unfortunate.
To be clear, I don’t think that Horimiya as a whole is homophobic – or at least, not intentionally or with any feeling of hate. It’s just that the culture of Japan is so homophobic that almost every content creator is ignorant about LGBT+ issues. However, I think Japan is changing slowly. Recent events have been encouraging.
In the meantime, I’m still going to enjoy some anime that isn’t directly harmful. There are certainly shows out there that have extremely negative representation and/or intentional homophobia, but Horimiya is not one of them. I look forward to the next episode.
Episode 6: Sleepover
The episode starts with a boys’ sleepover at Sengoku’s house featuring Miyamura, Iura, and Ishikawa. Sengoku is forced to sleep in the loft with Miyamura because of the cramped room. Shenanigans ensue as Sengoku tries to uncover the reason for Miyamura’s insistence on hiding his skin. He tried to take off Miyamura’s shirt, but gets caught by Iura – it was honestly pretty funny. Ishikawa manages to cover for Miyamura that night, stopping the line of questioning. However, Sengoku remains curious.
The rest of the episode was mostly about Remi’s relationship with Sengoku and friendship with Sakura. There were some very cute moments, including the hug between Remi and Sengoku in the cold winter. It was so adorable and it warmed my heart. I also loved when Sakura brought Remi the cookies she wanted from the bakery, strengthening their friendship. I’m not sure if I would get along with someone like Remi in real life, but in anime, she is completely precious.
Episode 6 was one of the better episodes, in my opinion. The jokes and misunderstandings made me smile and the cute moments made me melt. Additionally, I noticed a few really good shots of the different characters with the level of detail and beauty we saw in the first season. I would need to re-watch season one to verify this, but it seems like overall, the second season has less impressive visuals. But this episode had some exceptions. There were also some really cute and/or funny face expressions, especially from Iura.
I know this was a short episode review, but that’s all I’ve got in me for today. Thank you for reading my work – it means a lot to me!
Thanks for reading~
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