First on the non-sequel series that goes to my Winter 2021 list would be Horimiya.
Horimiya's Poster as seen on its official website
I've seen a lot of posts and feeds about this anime while scrolling Facebook and that really intrigued me. First impressions were definitely school , rom-com , and perhaps, a bit of drama based on the art and few words about the series. And it has a strong Ao Haru Ride vibes to it, which I find refreshing (the vibes) to watch in a while. But after doing a bit of research about the production, my hype just shoot up. I will write them down below in additional to some key info that you might be interested to know as well.
Source Material : Manga & Webcomic
"Horimiya is a re-telling of the original 4-koma webcomic Hori-san to Miyamura-kun."
Hmmm. 4-koma Webcomic? Interesting. So this might be a Sitcom series just like Nichijou & The Daily Lives of Highschool Boys. For some reason, I was expecting a bit on a traditional format but to be honest, I always enjoy this style of comedy format. I might have not read the manga but this sounds good enough for me though the actual series might be different and considering the manga is just a retelling of the original format.
Synopsis & Genre
Not to give away the whole series snippet but would rephrase the synopsis as:
"Two schoolmates of polar opposites unexpectedly find their way to a closer connection."
On MyAnimeList, the series is tagged as "Comedy, Romance, School, Shounen, Slice of Life"
Considering again the source material format, I will not expect too much from the plot but doesn't mean I will not enjoy it. If it's the same from Working!!! or Servant X Service, chances are high that I'll give this series a high rating considering how I enjoyed those mentioned series.
Key Staff
Ishihama, Masashi - Director
The only familiar series I found under his name for the same role is Shinsekai Yori. Quite on a different paper genre-wise. I'm very limited to his other works of the same genre so can't say that much.
Yoshioka, Takao - Script/Series Composition
Man, after looking for some titles under his name I got really hyped.
Some of them which I have watched are Working!!, Your Lie in April, and Elfen Lied.
Him previously working in Working!! (no pun intended) is definitely a plus for me considering this series would seem similar to Horimiya.
Yokoyama, Masaru - Music
He worked on some familiar titles, namely - Arakawa Under the Bridge, Your Lie in April, and a recent movie "Her Blue Sky." Hopefully, we can get OSTs worthy in our playlist.
Voice Actors
Screen-grabbed from MyAnimeList
Well, that's some experienced voice actors we got here. I could not say anything further.
Production Studio - Cloverworks
A rebranded studio of A1-Pictures behind the titles The Promised Neverland, Personal 5 Animation, Fate/Grand Order - Absolute Demonic Front: Babylonia, Rascal Does Not Dream of a Bunny Girl and so on. If you have watched the previous Cloverworks titles and enjoyed the visuals & animation, then chances are high it would be same for Horimiya. To be honest, I have only watched a few of their works but so far, their production quality is great.
Trailer Thoughts
Everything I wrote above is without knowledge to the PV.
Now after watching this PV, I have definitely no reason to skip this series.
Trailer alone looks good, from music to visuals.
Hopefully, I can do episode reviews for this series timely.
What do you guys think of this upcoming series?
Do you think I'm expecting too much?
Please share your thoughts as well!
Responses are appreciated!
Thanks!
P.S. No spoilers please. :)