An anime adaptation of a very popular manga, a story so beautiful it will make you binge-watch multiple times until you can't get enough of it . So what's really special about horimiya? Unlike the popular shonen animes with bold and enthusiastic storylines, it stands out as a rather simple but elegant comfort anime. A very normal rom-com about normal teenagers in a normal high school who are trying to find out what exactly is normal.

Kyoko Hori is a popular high school girl with good grades and a pretty face. As many rom-coms do she also has a typical twist to her character. Because of busy parents she has spend her time taking care of her younger brother, Sota and doing housework. She's practically a housemom and a mother figure to her brother. She keeps this side of hers as a secret from her classmates and friends until oneday a handsome stylish badboy brings her brother home after he got hurt. And it turns out that this pretty boy is actually her loner classmate Izumi Miyamura whom everyone assumes is a gloomy, weird otaku when he's actually just a socially awkward guy with bad grades who uses his unkempt hair and school clothes to hide his tattoos and piercings and turns out to be pretty strong physically as he beats up one of his classmates Toru into a pulp when they got into a heated argument on Kyoko. Soon this unlikely pair realize that they have a lot in common and start to grow closer. When these two unexpectedly similar classmates have a random run-in outside of the classroom, a bubbly, sweet tale of school life begins. As the series progress we find out how every character has a hidden depth and duality and how maturely the show handles it, without pointless melodrama and cliches unlike most rom-coms. The story tells is about actual teens with with them facing problems that seem really important which probably won't matter in a few years but mean everything in that moment. And because of this you start to relate to every character and how they struggle to get done with life, family, school from their day to day lives. By the time you reach episode 5 you'll find more emotions and meaningful character development than animes of thrice its length.

Kyoko does not know how to face Izumi after his love declaration. But she does it anyway. The moment arrives and the way everything go is never like someone expects it. Soon after we find out that Hori has separation anxiety due to parental abandonment and that is why she's so possessive about Miyamura and will not let anyone else have him or see the side of him which she has seen and started to get attached to.

While Miyamura's shyness and low self-esteem is because of bullying and exclusion which eventually lead to him piercing due to self harm and impulsiveness. There are plenty of instances in his high school were he finally meets his new friends who accepts himself truly for how he is… they find him weird but still they consider it okay for him to be so... That’s when he wishes that he could say the same thing to the version of him before he joined high school hoping things would’ve been better for him in middle school… though he was saved to some extent by Shindo who was his friend in middle school and treated him like a normal middle-schooler unlike his other batchmates who viewed him as a complete outsider.

We all have sides we don't show to the world but are looking for people to share them with. This subtly honest portrayal of its characters and realistic slice of life romance is what makes horimiya so special. We learn that real relationships are messy and not goals but projects to grow together. It's about looking past the image people around you have and looking at them for who they really are. It's truly a very beautiful anime.