The new anime season has begun, and I feel like I’m already falling behind with all the great new shows. One anime I’ll be following is Horimiya: Piece, aka Horimiya: The Missing Pieces, a fresh and new kind of sequel. It tells stories from the Horimiya manga that got omitted from the first season due to time constraints. Let’s see if it’s worth your time!
Horimiya: The Missing Pieces Begins. What Can Fans Expect?
When anime studios go to adapt a popular manga into an anime, they have to make some hard choices, including which stories from the manga they should cut in order to tell a tight story that satisfies the most fans. But since readers of the original work might have their hearts set on seeing this or that scene in animated form, they might not be satisfied with the final product. But thanks to Horimiya: Piece, all fans can get what they want!
The original Horimiya was a relaxing love story about normal high school girl Kyouko Hori and the introverted Izumi Miyamura, who start out as classmates and slowly fall in love. But Miyamura has a secret: he loves getting stylish tattoos on his body, which is not exactly something that’s allowed by school rules. So he has to hide his tattoos and his outgoing personality behind a mask of introversion…even though he’s secretly the coolest boy in class.
Sometimes Fans Hate New Seasons of Anime. Will They Hate Horimiya: Piece?
Last season I wrote a post exploring why anime fans loudly bang on the table demanding new seasons of their favorite anime, then often don’t show up to support the show once the new season arrives. There are many reasons why this can happen, including:
- Bad signaling by the studio.
- Waiting so long that fans move on. Who wants to watch new Code Geass 12 years after the series ended??
- Changes of studio or art style between seasons. Everyone hates that!
- Studios taking sexy fan service out of a work where fans expect it.
- Also: sometimes we don’t want the beauty of a perfectly-executed anime season to be spoiled by future seasons. I’m looking at you, Love, Chuunibyou and Other Delusions.
But I don’t believe this will happen with Horimiya: The Missing Pieces. The reason is that we’re not getting a story continuation but a patchwork of moments with our beloved characters based on scenes from the manga. There shouldn’t be any anxiety that a new girl is going to transfer into the class and try to steal Miyamura’s heart, or that Hori and Miyamura will have a fight due to some dumb misunderstanding that lasts the entire season.
Let’s hope this new “experimental” way to do an anime sequel catches on!
What Is the ‘Secret Sauce’ of Horimiya?
Watching the first episode of Horimiya: Piece made me remember why the show was so much fun the first time around. Sure, it’s great to see Hori and Miyamura getting closer and closer, and eventually dating. But the real magic (corny as it may sound) is in the friendship that all the classmates have with each other, teasing and flirting and making memories of their school time together.
That’s really enjoyable to watch, and if they ever find a way to sell that feeling in a bottle, I’ll be the first to line up to buy.
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