A great balance between the romance and comedy elements made up the fourth episode of Horimiya. As usual, this episode could be divided into three segments which in some way are connected, rather than being stand-alone from each other.
Getting closer with the Student Council
The episode started with an encounter of Ishikawa and Kouno. Just from this scene alone, our man, Ishikawa, might have a great chance with another girl, instead of Hori. He might not be our main character, but he is quite cool and has his way of words without any malice of course.
Kouno, on the other hand, might develop feelings. Maybe because no one seems to notice or perhaps appreciate her hardwork, until Ishikawa brought it up. I mean, not necessarily, she wanted validation, but recognition will definitely lighten someone's mood up.
Her response seems like new to her so that might be it.
Well, this might be too early to say this, but I am rooting for this pair.
Meanwhile, our male characters have some random conversation - their tongues.
This encounter made Sengoku to invite them for some free A/C time in the SC room.
Also, what is wrong with melon flavored ice-cream? Maybe it tastes like a syrup medicine?
Due to the hot weather, there would be no reason to turn down the offer. Guess what, the gang is now complete in the student council room!
While Hori and Miyamura are off to buy some chill drinks for the others, Ayasaki initiated an interesting conversation - if Hori and Miyamura are dating. I will give her another plus points for this episode but damn, she did not have to mention, that Ishikawa seems to be a better person for Hori. I already pressed "F" for our fallen comrade. Anyway for the comedy, I will still take that.
The segment continued with a common misunderstanding in rom-coms and Ishikawa is not yet done from suffering. Still, it ended in a positive note with Kouno clearing things up and helped Ishikawa.
The new ship started sailing and I am already on-board. What do you think of this pair?
Miyamura's Middle School Friend
The first segment all happened because of the hot weather, and this still continued in our second segment but this time, we had a broken A/C.
Miyamura casually talked about his sleeping habit without shame at all in front of Hori.
This just proves, that Miyamura lacks common sense especially from the opposite sex when it comes to potentially "embarrassing" things. Hilarity ensued right after. I had some good laughs with this scene.
Well, Hori just wanted to know more about Miyamura because he is still a big mystery to her. Also, we need more of this curious-flustered expressions of Hori.
It led up to Miyamura, recalling his friend, Shindo from middle school, who also happened to have an encounter with him just recently. Shindo misunderstood Miyamura and Hori's relationship until the first-name basis was brought up. All of that flashback just to prove, that Miyamura has his own embarrassing moments. Hori did not mind though. This girl is already clear as glass.
Speaking of the devil, his friend texted him with some flex and "precaution" reminder.
Miyamura finally getting ashamed and worked up in front of Hori just because of Shindo. I guess, she should be satisfied seeing Miyamura like that. Is he now normal enough for you, Hori?
Anyway, this Shindo is hilarious. I wish we could get more screentime for him, and yes, wish granted immediately.
Miyamura and Ishikawa also happened to be there and things get comedic violent.
It seems, that Miyamura and Shindo has this strong friendship, and could go all out without any hesitation. But then again, Shindo, stirring the pot, got me grinning hard.
This encounter led to another flashback, this time in Miyamura's middle school years where they met. Apparently, Shindo is a good guy to begin, and happens to share same interest and thus, affected Miyamura's middle school experience in a good way.
The segment ended with Miyamura's thought of how Shindo and Hori shared the same thing - they both changed his life.
Hori got sick
As a consequence of the hot weather again plus the circumstances in the previous segment, Hori got fever. Apparently, she has this strong independent woman attitude, that she still wanted to go to school even in her sick condition.
Good thing, our young boy Souta knew what to do, and made her rest in the bed. As expected, he sought help from Miyamura, as the siblings' mother, probably seemed busy with her work for the moment. Well, it seemed, it was not the first time that it happened, as what the flashback showed.
Miyamura seems reliable with it comes to this situation luckily. I wonder, if we could see a flashback of him of how he was raised by his parents.
Anyway, when Miyamura was just about to left the room to get her a drink, her pent-up emotions in reference to the flashback got triggered.
Miyamura's words reached her and assured her, that she will not leave her. To be honest, I like his rephrasing of "Where are you going?" to "Please don't go." It denotes an appeal or request to make an action done rather than asking a general question that seems passive. Miyamura definitely scored big here but wait, he is not even done yet.
He blurted out his feelings towards Hori but, I think he might be under the impression that Hori is already asleep. But why would he kept on giving reminders for her current condition if he knew, Hori is not awake? Or he really intended to say it out loud to her that time and casually left just like that?
As expected, Hori is also confused on what she heard but perhaps, she was surprised, and just pretended to sleep until he left. I have a feeling, we will not get a follow-up right away to this scene as implied by Hori's line to stay status-quo for now. All I can say is, confessing to someone sick might not be a good idea.
Overall, episode four in its entirety is great because of the romance-comedy balance. A lot of things happened, not just for our lead characters, but on the supporting characters as well. Definitely reminded me of Kimi no Todoke, which I really liked as well. But I am under this impression that, all key moments that could potentially move our story progression fast, stays only in that episode, and never mentioned back in the succeeding episodes. For example, Miyamura's confession will not be followed-up right away and probably will only be brought up in the near climax of the story or somewhere later. Considering again the original format of the source material, I could see why the storyline structure is designed like that. But I am unsure if this is considered as a flaw, because it seems, the characters would give an impression, that they have a selective amnesia of those key moments that is very relevant for the story to progress. They could have talked about those moments, but life goes on casually as if those moments never happened. If my guess is wrong in the next episode, then just forget what I said here. But it made sense, right? Another thing that I want to point out is the common circumstance in the three segments - the use of A/C because of hot weather. I know, this is just trivial thing, but in some way, that made all the three segments have some point of coherence. I appreciate that even, it is just a small detail.
What do you think of this episode?
Do you think this format will continue in the succeeding episodes?
Am I sharing too much screenshots from the episode in this post?
Please share your thoughts as well.
Thanks for the visit and keep safe!
P.S. No manga spoilers please.