What They Say:
“I Would Gift You The Sky”
As graduation approaches, Miyamura reflects on the past year, an uncertain future, and the new life he’s found.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
High school graduations are such a bittersweet moment. Four years (three if you’re in Japan) of the last moments of absolute freedom before entering the real world. All that comes down to graduation as you meet up with friends for possibly the last time. Those happy moments where you attend play sports, be in school clubs, or go get some grub at the local joint are at ending. Things could have gone so differently for Miyamura if he didnt get to meet Hori. In a moment similar to Christmas movies where the ghost of Christmas Past, Miyamura envisions a world where he didnt have the opportunity to meet Hori and befriend anyone in high school. His life continues to be the nightmare that it was for most of his life. And it’s not just his life that is in tatters, most of his friends’ lives have turned out to be horrible without Hori. Here the problems that I have with this. Hori is supposed to be the center of their lives but there are only a few occasions that show her being the pillar for everyone. She was a pillar for Miyamura and Iura and that’s about it. She didn’t make a strong influence on the others in this series for this vision to have the full emotional impact that it was aiming for.
Going back to Miyamura, his change in outlook is one of this series’s greatest aspects. He has always been looking away from his tragic past and running away. It’s understandable how he would want to avoid the gloomy aspects of his childhood. As he takes one last look at the high school rooftop where he spends countless days with Hori and the gang, he finally looks at the person he used to be. He has an honest conversation with his past self about the person he is today. His past self is finally willing to let go and let him truly move on. There comes a time where you have to face the harsh truth and move along. The way Miyamura has come to accept this is tremendous.
Hori and Miyamura’s journey was satisfying to witness. The story may be over but they leave the door open to an endless possibility of new adventures. They had wonderful progress as they started not knowing each other to be the perfect soulmates. Every step felt like it was coming at a genuine pace. The sky is the limit as they move on from high school and into a different world.
For a series finale, this episode hit most of the checkmarks that it was aiming at. This series as a whole took too much to try to cover in 13 episodes. There were way too many characters for it to be cohesive. Not everyone had a resolute ending and there were many questions left as the screen went black. Iura and his sister had some wonderful moments as she gets accepted to his high school and witness Iura’s inner loud-mouth personality. Sakura and Ishikawa move on from what could be. But the difficult part is that there no resounding conclusion to the possible romances between Yoshikawa and Ishikawa.
In Summary
Horimiya was supposed to be the story of two people falling in love and accepting each other. While it does have that component to it at times, it’s overpowered by Miyamura as he learns to accept himself with the help of Hori. It’s more that this is Miyamura’s story instead of being costars with Hori. Hori doesn’t live up to the tile namesake but she makes giant strides to be as close to Miyamura as possible. The manga recently ended and it felt like the anime was rushed to fit all of the content into such a small adaption.
Grade: B+
Streamed By: Funimation
