The popular romantic comedy anime, Horimiya, aired as part of the Spring 2021 lineup. With the series concluded, now is the perfect time to jump into the shonen romance with a deceptively long history. About a pair of high school classmates, Kyoko Hori and Izumi Miyamura, who accidentally see each other's hidden side, Horimiya follows the two of them as they grow closer to each other based on who they really are, rather than what they let others see.
Horimiya was originally a four-panel webcomic, originally called Hori-san to Miyamura-kun was created by Hiroki Adachi, under the pseudonym Hero. Adachi published the series on their website Dokkai Ahen from February 2007 to December 2011. Square Enix provided a ten-volume print publication of the series under the imprint Gangan Comics from October 2008 to December 2011. Unfortunately, the original series isn’t licensed overseas or translated into English, but there are still plenty of ways for international fans to get into the series.
Where to Read Horimiya
In 2012, Hero published a series of side chapters involving all the characters in Hori-san to Miyamura-kun, called Hori-san to Miyamura-kun Omake. These special side stories, like the original 4-panel series, aren’t licensed overseas or officially available in English. However, fans who can read Japanese can buy the printed volumes on CDJapan. It may be difficult getting these physical copies, but luckily, those fluent in Japanese can also read the series online at Gangan Comics Online.
Under the guidance of Hero, Daisuke Hagiwara adapted the original webcomic series into a shonen manga, Horimiya, in 2011. The series was published in Monthly G Fantasy from October 2011 to March 2021. All fifteen volumes of Horimiya are licensed by Yen Press and are available on the Yen Press website. The books are also available at Barnes & Noble and Right Stuf Anime. However, due to the popularity of the anime series, most websites are out of stock of the printed manga for now. Thankfully, the series is also available in English digitally via Kindle, ComiXology, Google Play Books and Nook.
Where to Watch Horimiya
Horimiya was adapted into a 13-episode anime series that aired this year. The entire series is available on Hulu with English subtitles and Funimation with English subtitles and full dub. The series also has a live-action film and a TV drama that’s currently airing in Japan but can only be seen exclusively on Apple+ in Japan.
Before the current anime series, the original webcomic, Hori-san to Miyamura-kun, was adapted into four original video animation (OVA) episodes. The first four OVAs were released individually from 2012 to 2018 by Hoods Entertainment. Furthermore, it was announced that there will be two additional OVA episodes set to release in May 2021 by the studio, Gonzo. Hopefully, the new OVAs (Episodes 5 and 6) will be licensed by Funimation so that international viewers will be able to watch them, unlike the previous OVAs.
As of right now, the OVA episodes aren’t licensed for any online subscription platform, only being available via DVDs. However, since they were released a few years ago, it'd take quite a bit of digging to find them at a reasonable price. The physical copies of the OVAs include figurines and card sets and are sold on eBay with a price tag ranging from $110 to $585.
