Summary

• Horimiya's unique storytelling format required adaptation to create a cohesive love story for Hori and Miyamura.
• The 4-koma format limited the original plot's depth, leading to the anime's focused development of the romantic narrative.
• Director Masashi Ishihama aimed to bring more romantic comedies to Japan through the refreshing take on Horimiya.

It’s not usual to see the genre “romance” paired together with the “shonen” demographic, but when they are, it’s usually in reference to a major hit like Horimiya. That is not the only factor that makes the romcom special, though. The source material for this anime is a webcomic that is in a 4-koma format, which is to say, each “chapter” is made up of only 4 s. This inevitably makes the story feel more like a comic strip than a cohesively placed narrative, making it almost impossible to watch the anime in the same order the comics were released.

A very detailed guide to how to watch the anime Horimiya, and its sequel Horimiya: The Missing Pieces in chronological order was published by Crunchyroll, since both seasons are available to watch on the platform. The process involves pausing episodes at odd times to go and start watching another one at a specific time stamp, and then go back to start or even to a third episode. It’s definitely a tedious task that only devoted fans may be able to accomplish, but why was Horimiya adapted like this anyway?

Horimiya Had To Be Modified To Make It Suitable To Tell a Romantic Story

Staying Loyal to the Original Format Might’ve Resulted in a Very Different Anime

Horimiya’s original story was dissected and rearranged to make Hori and Miyamura’s love story streamlined and coherent.

The 4-koma format is a little over a century old. Horimiya is not the first anime to be adapted from this kind of comic strips. In the past, other popular series like Lucky Star, Nichijou, and more recently, Pop Team Epic, also had an origin in those types of comics. The key difference is that all the aforementioned anime are mostly episodic comedies with a very loose plot, if any at all. It’s a natural consequence of the original storytelling. Having only 4 s to unravel a plot can only achieve so much.

That’s the main reason why Horimiya’s original story was dissected and rearranged to make Hori and Miyamura’s love story streamlined and coherent. Anime director Masashi Ishihama revealed in an interview that the studio, Clover Works, mainly used the manga as source material for the anime. There is no major difference between the order of the contents in the 4-koma and the manga, the only change is the way it’s told. Many chapters still had to be skipped for the anime to focus on the development of the romance.

Ishihama stated that he feels romantic comedies aren't especially popular, and so he was excited to direct Horimiya as one:

It is unfortunate to say, but I do not have the impression that it is the “most popular genre” in Japan, which makes me hope to see much more of them. - Masashi Ishihama

Horimiya: The Missing Pieces is much more loyal to the source material, being much more of a slice-of-life anime than a romance, however, it does not work on its own, as it is just an addition to the plot of the first season. There are fanmade projects that have edited the episodes of both seasons into a chronologically accurate mastercut. Either way it is watched, Horimiya is still a captivating romance that retains plenty of its comedic elements.

The last decade has seen not-shojo romance series rise to popularity, like Kaguya-sama: Love is War, Skip and Loafer, and, of course, Horimiya. Even if trying to watch the anime in chronological order becomes an ordeal, the reward is a funny story with a cast that feels much more like a group of friends and classmates than a ing cast. If anything, its author, Hero, has crafted a story that works amazingly as a traditional romance, and a goofy slice-of-life.