Horimiya: The Missing Pieces

Episode 4

So I guess the themes of this episode are that the Hori's are bullies and kotatsu's can be very comfortable? Those two things do seem to be the main elements that all of these skits have in common. I don't know if they took place back to back in the original manga, but it's nice that the director just thought it was a good idea to keep them all together, even if they weren't. The episode felt cozy, even if it relied on the same joke a bit too much. I've only been under kotatsu once, and they are incredibly comfortable to the point where it is very easy to fall asleep, so I related to this very much. Plus, it did lead to some cute moments between Kyouko and Izumi.

But speaking of Kyouko, I mentioned last week that I wasn't always a super big fan of our two leads as a couple because I feel like Kyouko does come off as a bit of a bully sometimes, and she doesn't seem to grow or change from her interactions in the series. More often than not, she's the one that needs to be placated, or she's the one with the overreaction that she doubles down on, rather than apologizing for it. This episode gave us glimpses of those character traits that I wasn't too fond of, and I'm not sure if making that a hereditary joke across the other skits was the right call, because I genuinely feel bad for Kakeru and his father if this is what they had to put up with for a good chunk of their lives. It does also recontextualize certain things, like the skit about how Kyouko doesn't mind changing in front of Kakeru because they've just been together for so long it feels natural, but I wonder if another part of the reason for that is that Kyouko just doesn't see Kakeru as a person all that much. I could be reading a little bit too far into that, but those are just some of the things that I thought about when it comes to the weird family dynamics in this episode.

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Horimiya: The Missing Pieces is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.