A Year in the Life

Good lord, 2023 really went by pretty quick didn't it. What's that? It's almost 2025? It seems we've skipped a year haven't we? Somehow that's usually how things go for me and blogging. I'll set my mind to blog about all the books, or games, or trivial bullshit i'm involved in, and then life will get in the way of my daily posting routine and next thing you know it I've changed adresses three times and moved to another country. I got to go to anime Expo 2024 this year WooHoo!! Had an incredible time in fact! Went to some insane exhibits, saw some wild screenings (Look Back!!), meet and greets with a few really incredible people (HaneAme, NonSummer Jack, and most importantly Witch-Hat Sensei Kamome Shirahama!!). Stayed at the same hotel as the entire Trash Taste cast coincidentally and kept running into Garnt (arguably the one with the least trashy taste) at the elevators since apparently our rooms were on the same floor; wonder if he thought I was a strange, stalkery fan, but I never could get up the courage to ask him for a pic or a handshake or anything out of some strange desire not to make it weird (that probably backfired tremedously in hindsight). All said and done, managed to make it home with my wallet in One Piece *badum tss*. 

Altogether pretty swell experience if you ask me. Definitely making plans to go again next year, but preferably in a room of my own next time. Best friendo snores.

In terms of the not so swell, In the year that's passed since my last seasonal anime wrap-up and manga review posts (god, was watching Frieren and Apothecary at the time wasn't I??), my health shit the bed (then recovered, then shit itself again in the past week or so), my dog died (still fucked up over that tbh), and I've gotten promoted at work (twice! - yay?) but as a result now have far, far less free time, and also far less will to live less energy, so blogging has become rather complicated in that it's something that I'd always love to do, but never have the willpower to sit down at my desk and ACCOMPLISH. But, I've now bought myself a swiveling arm-desk thingy so I can sit in my big, comfy leather chair, and not at my crappy pc desk, so I mean to get back to it for a few reasons:

1) I'm broke, and all of my hobbies cost money.

2) I'm broke, and all of my hobbies cost MONEY.

My current obsession is the One Piece TCG. It started casually last year at Christmas. We'd get a few packs in every month at work, and I'd buy them, and rip em open and get nothing of any value. Then, they started getting packs at the local BNoble, which was all in good fun, until I cracked something worth about fifty bucks, that triggered a tragic dopamine reaction in my brain leading down the path of hunting for boxes. Several thousand dollars later and I've opened up close to a dozen by now, sourced from local LGS's (support your local business) - and not even remotely come close to breaking even. I reconciled this by starting to play the game too, instead of just collecting shiny cards, but I'm utterly shit at it, mainly as a result of only playing the Waifu leaders and not the decks that are S-tier in the meta (though my Reiju deck is pretty much tournament-grade, I just need to pilot it better).

Lately though, I've managed to curtail the OPTCG obsession to some extent by just buying singles for the decks I'm playing, and I sold off all the money-cards. I know when set 9 rears its ugly head I'll get sucked back in again though, so I think I need to make a break for it before I do any further lasting damage. Sadly, best friendo is pulling me back to the financial black hole that is MTG, and that's a dark, dark path I'm not keen to travel solo). I figure, the best solution to spending all of my time and money playing trading card games every week is to rededicate that time to pouring over the manga collection I've invested my hard-earned dollars in and write more reviews of the individual volumes/series that I've amassed at break-neck pace over the last few years.  

Maybe even sell some stuff off to make room for all the new series I'd prefer to pick up if I had the space for them, or so I tell myself knowing this will never happen.

Right now, my physical manga hoard is sitting at around 2500 volumes with another 500 or so in digital. Finding space for all these paperbacks has become a major conundrum. Owning my own little manga library used to be the end goal, but I've gone way past that and don't have any room for it anymore. Have had to start spreading the collection out into other spaces of the house - which the rest of the family aren't too keen on (especially since I started moving the mature books into the communal living spaces). They need to experience the culture though, so it's ok.

I've now begun measuring the value of the books I own in terms of missed opportunity cost; specifically as it relates to the value of the Honda I could have purchased had I been someone who made good financial decisions. Currently, we're looking at a nice 2025 Civic LX, but probably couldn't afford the sport, so I guess when all things are considered, that's not that bad right? 

But I digress.

Current life goal #1 is to get this place up off the ground, especially with the site formerly known as Rightstuf burnt to cinders and twitter quickly following suit. I used to post reviews of all the stuff I read on Rightstuf, Barnes&Noble and Goodreads, but then Crunchyroll nuked all the Rightstuf product review pages making that site, for me at least, very much the Wrongstuf. I haven't shopped there much since (did maybe one order to test things out... it didn't go well). I don't know why I never got into Goodreads more, but I suppose I should. Or mabye make a bookstagram? I guess that's a thing, but I'm not sure how I like hearing my voice in recordings. Generally, just want a place to reconcile my thoughts, longform, with words, about the books and anime I'm reading, and I want to do it on a more regular basis. Consistently. 

Over the last year I hit a life milestone with my anime consumption - I cleared the "Year of Your Life Spent Watching Anime" statistic over on MAL. Over 1000 series completed. That's just so much anime - and even with my average score being so much higher than the norm, so much of the anime was just... shit.  Goal #2 is to catch up on all the anime worth catching up on, and polishing off a bunch that aren't anyway, but in all honesty, the amount of anime that exists in the world is currently growing at a rate greater than the amount of time I have free in a week; even if I multi-task and watch anime while reading, or gaming, I still don't have enough hours in a week to watch everything that's airing seasonally taht I actually give two fucks about. This has led to a pretty huge backlog, which I'll gradually get through, but I'm being much less completionist about (and that kills me - really). I do however want to continue contributing anime reviews to MAL, but that site, like Goodreads, is picky about sweary content, so I'll most likely continue to cross-post the uncensored reviews here.

So, I guess expect more posts here from me if you'd care to read them. Or don't. Reading's hard, and nobody has the attention span for it anymore. Suppose I should just train an AI to write my blog for me; that would be the real 2025, way of the future, thing to do. But, sadly, I can't stand the idea that instead of the machines replacing my day job, they're replacing the escapism I used to seek out to get away from my day job. Crazy how things turn out isn't it? 

Manga Review: "She Loves to Cook, She Loves to Eat" vol. 2

Hungry for Volume 3

Sorry, I couldn't resist the urge to pun. But for real. When is volume 3 coming out, cus I need another serving of this pronto. (again, I apologize for the food jokes).

With that, my thoughts...   ...5/5 by the way. I'll say that up front. 

There's your TL;DR if you only wanted to see a score.

If you missed my review of volume 1, you can find it here.

Manga Review: "She Loves to Cook, She Loves to Eat" vol. 1 

Book 2 was great. Just great. There were a number of new and delicious looking dishes and each and every one of them made me hungry. Actually, physically hungry. This manga is a feast for the eyes. It's been years since I lived in Japan (I left in 2015 to return to the US for health reasons), but this has me hankering for Japanese cuisines I've not had in ages. Roll Cake, Character Bento, Stollen, Anko. Good lord I need to go order food.... 

Hopefully listing a bunch of the foods they eat in this volume didn't spoil anything, I'll talk some very spoilery things later, but i'll be sure to put a warning. In typical manga fashion, one of the characters gets sick in a chapter here (not really a spoiler, I promise! it's a regular occurance in all slice-of-life series); the other prepares a glorious bowl of kitsune udon. 

Oh. My. God. 

It really struck me, both in the heart and in the stomach. 

Having someone make you a big bowl of soup, when you’re too weak to do it yourself. It has a very comfy, healing warmth to it, even when you're just reading it happen to someone else. Almost makes me want to pull a Ferris Bueller and call out sick today (but who’d be there to make me Udon?).

 Beyond the food though, this volume really expanded on the relationship between Nomoto and Kasuga and cements the romance plot. In my mind, this volume moves it from the sub-plot to the main plot. I'll discuss more in length just after wrapping up the review portion here...

Lastly, I really appreciated learning more about each character’s backstory. They've definitely gotten more depth of character after this volume. This elevates the manga for me in a big way. I like three dimensional characters. Just like I'd like a third volume of this manga. Nowish. Sadly, there's no pre-order available yet, but hopefully we'll see an announcement of one soon.

I highly recommend this series, so, again, I don't get anything out of it, but here's the links to buy this book at your preferred place of book buying. "She Loves to Cook, She Loves to Eat" is published by Yen Press and has an MSRP of $15.00.

Barnes & Noble

Rightstuf

Amazon

.....

NOW

THIS IS WHERE I TALK SPOILERS

You've been warned...

A warning page from the editor. I feel like I've seen a couple pages like this in books before; one in 'Witch Hat Atelier' stands out in my mind. I'm on the fence about them, but I suppose it's a good thing. The way it's done here feels like they're protecting the publisher more than giving a trigger warning though. Still, I understand that I think this is done with good intentions. Probably.

FOR REAL THOUGH

HUGE

MEGA-SPOILERS

Don't blame me.

I warned you.

This page appears before a fairly poignant chapter featuring one of the main characters going through the realizaton process that she's a lesbian and in love with the other woman. It's a pretty dark awakening. I thought it was a very good chapter. Felt like a brick to the face a little bit, but It certainly moves the story forward in a very, very big way. In the first volume, there were hints of a romance subplot developing, but volume 2 makes it extremely clear where this series is headed.

I like this manga a lot. I appreciated that it took itself seriously, when needed, but didn't get stuck being a SERIOUS book. The manga was light-hearted, even if there's a chapter or two that really stand out as being tonally different; that's usually a big offender for me - when a book can't stick to a tone, I end up getting turned off because it puts me in a different mood when I finish it, then when I started. This one didn't. So, I'll take that as a good thing.

I'm eager to see how the romance plays out.

Manga Review: "She Loves to Cook, She Loves to Eat" vol. 1

I'm getting hungry just reviewing this manga

Full disclosure, I'm writing this review after I've already read vol. 2, but I tried my best to review it based on the first impression I got from the first volume when I read it originally.

Nomoto is an OL with an Instagram and loves sharing picutres of her cooking, but she has a problem. She's always wanted someone who can really pack it in. She wants to craft mega-sized dishes like bucket-pudding, or giga-pancackes. Huge omelettes. Great overflowing bowls of curry. The urge to just go nuts in the kitchen is welling up inside her. However, she's just one woman, living alone, and not interested in marriage (and especially not interested in becoming a 'good wife' for some random male coworker).

Then, one night, Kasuga appears, carrying buckets of KFC... which she will eat. By herself.

When trouble happens at work, and Nomoto goes a LITTLE overboard de-stressing with some serious kitchen time; a steak donburi of epic proportions is born, and the only way to keep it from going to waste is by having her neighbor help her polish it off.

And thus begins a beautiful friendship... and maybe, in the future, more...

This volume was great. I’ve reread it multiple times since it came out. I really like food centered manga (but especially ones that have a bit of romance to them - guess the way to my heart, ultimately, really is through my stomach); when the visuals are so good that you can smell the dishes, and get hungry yourself, that’s when you know you've got a hit. This manga definitely did taht for me. Every time I read it (i think i'm up to four times now) I end up needing to go grab a snack. I blame this series for my recent craving for Yaki-onigiri (gonna try it with Miso the way they do in the manga) and going on a hunt for the best Karage in the county… (I ended up finding a really good spot too! I've started getting takeout karage-bowls now after work). I’m sure this book has put a few pounds around my waist. This series also has the ‘Yuri’ tag on it, but I’m not sure if I’d call it a main plot, or a sub-plot; here in volume 1, there is a lesbian romance going on under the surface, but it has yet to develop into a mutual relationship yet. Hoping in the future both Nomoto and Kasuga realize their feelings for each other. But I feel like that’s where it’s going because I don’t see it becoming a one-sided affair.

This is an easy 5/5 for me. I've already bought and read vol. 2, with review of that one coming (shortly, and i'll spoil for you... my score doesn't go down).

She Loves to Cook, She Loves to Eat is published by Yen Press. MSRP $15

You can buy it at the following. I don't get anything for these links, but I loved the manga, I'ma recommend you just go right over and pick it up yourself.

Barnes & Noble

Amazon

Rightstuf


Now, if you'd like to read my take on volume 2... check it out here...

Manga Review: "She Loves to Cook, She Loves to Eat" vol. 2

Manga Review: "Insomniacs After School" #1 ---- 10/10

For a manga about two characters with Insomnia, they certainly seem to sleep a lot

This is a really charming book. It belongs in that wonderful niche slice-of-life genre called ‘Iyashikei’ [healing type]. Ganta Nakami and Isaki Magari are both high school students suffering from terrible insomnia, but they find themselves able to sleep, together (not in a dirty way), at school, in the old abandoned observatory. They revive the astronomy club in an effort to secure themselves some much needed rest. The vibe in this series is really great, reminding me of Call of the Night to some extent, just without all the vampire business. The characters are very average looking, maybe a bit frumpy even. I felt at ease watching them doze off in the middle of the day. It feels really weird saying that I was HYPED UP to read this series, especially when the energy level in it is beyond low. It’s chill. Unassuming. Just a nice little volume to help you relax. Will definitely look forward to volume 2 and the anime.

One thing that I think gets really underrated in a lot of manga is the backgrounds, especailly nature/weather shots. They've really done a great job in this book with capturing some very pleasant scenes.

There's something about the sound of rain that always managed to help me wind down. It's gotten to the point where I've compiled an entire playlist on YouTube of nothing but just rain tracks, since, sadly, I live in probably one of the dryest parts of the USA. Generally we get about 14 inches of rain in an entire year... so, I've had to make do with the artificial stuff. I'll tell you though, seeing pages like these, gives me exactly that same mood that I'm trying to find.

Ultimately this series is exactly what I wanted it to be. A kind of sleepy, calming experience. I'm always up for more of those. Life is too busy. I need a book like this every once in a while to take it slow. I wasn't really expecting a romance subplot, but perhaps we'll get one??? There definitely seemed to be a couple sparks there in the first few chapters, but who knows if that'll actually happen, and if it does, when. Either way this series is already a 10/10 for me with just the first volume.

Anime Review: "Heroines Run the Show"

 

I started watching this when it was airing, but didn’t get around to finishing it until it’s already an entirely new year. Where did 2022 go? I regret putting this off. I wasn’t immediately grabbed by the premise, or how the plot got set up in the first few episodes, but it got so much better and better as things progressed. I don’t want to spoil anything in terms of actual events that take place in the series, but I think it’s OK to say a few things that were NOT in this show.

If you look at the genre tags and find “romance” missing, don’t worry, you’ve not made a mistake. When I saw this pop up in my feed initially I thought for sure it was going to turn into some weird romantic love triangle thing between the country girl and the two male idols, but I was very, very wrong.

Hopefully that’s not a spoiler, just a set of expectations.

“Heroine Tarumono!” is a unique slice-of-life, drama/comedy, and I suppose you’d call it an “Idol” anime, but I’m not too sure how it fits into that niche, since I haven’t watched many shows in that vein before.

What did I like about this show so much? Well, let me tell you…

A lot of it comes from the characters.

Hiyori, the protagonist, was incredibly loveable. I adored her character design, especially the bushy eyebrows. Her accent was great.

The male idols she becomes acquainted with Aizo and Yujiro started off pretty annoying, but they experience ACTUAL character development over the course of the show, just like the heroine does. I ended up liking both of them pretty equally by the end. I would have liked to see a bit more of them to be honest. Feels like there was more there than we got to see, especially with Yujiro and his family’s background.

The plot of the show is also really good. I won’t elaborate further to avoid spoilers. Just go with it.

I didn’t give it a 10/10 for a few reasons. For being an “Idol” anime, which features a lot of music, I found the songs to be the weakest point; especially the OP, which I ended up skipping most of the time. I guess good music and idols aren’t really synonymous… hmm. It also did take 4-5 episodes to really hook me in, which is kind of slow to be honest. Most people will drop something by episode 3 if they’re not all aboard by then.

All that said, definitely recommend this one. Solid stuff. 9/10

You can find the series on Crunchyroll!

Anime Review: "Urara Meirochou"

Urara Meirochou is a series I picked up entirely because Kayano Ai voices one of the characters, and not even one of the four main girls at that, so it’s not been a priority on my ptw list for a really long time, and I just got around to finishing it. I think it’s a bit underrated, in the sense that I rarely (that is to say never), hear it brought up in conversation or recommended, but looking at the score I gave it, and the average score on MAL, I think it’s actual rating is pretty accurate.

It’s good.

Not a whole lot more to be said…

But I’ll say it anyway.

This series is a very strange mix of genres: despite being undeniably a cute girls doing cute things (CGDCT) show, it also shares lots of trope elements with shonen series. Power of friendship, hard work, practice, etc. It’s a supernatural, fantasy, slice-of-life, comedy, and apparently it’s in the seinen category, despite being about a bunch of fifteen year old girls. It also features a good deal of very weird fan service, focusing on stomachs… it’s oddly simple to explain, and I’ll do that in a bit.

Nothing worth commenting about any of the technical elements, they’re all just what you’d expect from a show like this, so I’ll just skip that and get right into the setting, plot, characters, story and what not.

It’s an alternate earth, and the series is set in a location called “Labyrinth Town” where witches, mystics, and fortune tellers are common place. Visually, the city is reminiscent of a fantastic take on the transitional period between Meiji and Taisho. Without much (or any) technology to speak of though, the series really does bring the fantastic charm, almost reminiscent of isekai.

The main character, Chiya, is like a moe version of Tarzan, but can speak human language for some reason. She has a thing for belly rubs, which she uses to communicate with the forest animals, which is where the fan service comes in – she uses the same technique on all the other ladies she runs into, which brings quite a bit of confused-echi to the series (the kind of echi where you’re questioning wether this is totally harmless, or actually really weirdly fetishistic, and since you’ve gotta question that, it probably means someone out there finds this arousing…). She goes on a quest to find her mother, which brings her to Labyrinth town, where she meets three other girls – they all then set out on a path of training, overcoming their own weaknesses in order to become “Urara”, this world’s version of fortune tellers.

From there, the series becomes an episodic show where each episode the girls face various trials, working together to grow.

This show shines in its characters, which are all very cute, kawaii, moe, and what not. They’re fun, unique and well voice acted (in Japanese at least, no idea if there’s a dub or not). Each girl has her own issues, problems, and fears that they have to overcome on the path to greatness. Their chemistry is good, and the balance between them is swell.

The main problem I have with the show is that it’s honestly just very forgettable. I have trouble remembering what any of the individual episodes were about, and just vaguely recall the setting and plot details (I had to consult the show summary to figure out what the town was called because it completely left my brain). It all really seems to be kind of unimportant, unfortunately, since as far as activities go, fortune telling is definitely more of an exotic one, and the setting itself is very pretty and seems to be full of potential for world building. There were certainly some very memorable moments, and impactful scenes, but on an episode-to-episode basis, I can’t really remember when things happened.

And that’s not really a good thing.

However, I’d recommend this anime if you’re looking for something cute to watch that doesn’t require you to think very much. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy. And try not to dwell too much about the belly rubs.

Watch it on Hidive. 

Anime Review: "Farewell, My Dear Cramer"

TL;DR - Fantastic manga, with great story, fun characters, and typical sports plot is horridly undermined by flat art, and really bad animation quality making for an ultimately disappointing adapation. Recommendation: Skip the anime, BUY the manga. 

Full Review:

There are basically three ways you can get a bad anime.

1) The source material isn't any good to begin with, so you get a bad series when it's adapted. These are rare, but when they happen, the can produce some serious stinkers.

2) The source material is a masterpiece, but when they adapt it, they cut out far too many elements, making an original story, butchering what made the original great, and thus utterly gutting the series. This is the kind of anime that truly disappoints people the most - see "The Promised Neverland" season 2. 

3) The source material is great, and they remain faithful to it, but something went wrong on the way from the manga to the screen and as a result the art and animation turns out terribly. It could be that the adapation's budget was too low, the production was too rushed, or the studio didn't put their best people on the job. Regardless, these cases are pretty sad for fans of the original material.

"Farewell, My Dear Cramer" (Sayonara Watashi no Cramer) belongs in the third category.

At the time of writing this, only three episodes have aired, so this review might be a little premature. When I heard that the creator of Your Lie in April had made a soccer manga, I was initially worried about the subject matter; but, there's no need for any trigger warnings when watching this. It's just a generally good, wholesome series about high school girls trying (or not really caring) about putting women's soccer back in the public eye in Japan, after excitement surrounding the women's side of the sport has died down in recent years.

After the first episode of this, I was intrigued enough to pick up the manga, and I blazed through the whole thing and sincerely enjoyed it. I found the story to be simple, but entertaining (typical for a sports series). The character design is cute, fun, and some times funky. The characters themselves were varied and unique. Each has their own backstory and struggles.

To be blunt, my major complaint abou tthis series is that the animation quality is terrible. Although the art itself isn't that bad (it comes off flat at times), it's animation is done horribly. There are motion manga out there with better movement than this (looking at you Gokushufudou), which is really a shame. If they had put the same effort into animating this that they had done with YLIA, than I think we'd have been looking at one of the most popular series of the season, but as it is here, the animation quality is so awful that it does a huge disservice to the character design and action and pretty much ruins it.

My advice: unless the animation quality goes up drastically in the future (if it does I may come back and revise this review), I can't recommend this anime unless you're already a huge fan of the manga. If you're not familiar with the series, I'd just recommend going and picking up the source material, rather than bothering with this poorly animated adaptation.

Overall Score: 4/10

Anime Review: "Horimiya"

 

TL;DR

10/10 Romance with Comedy and Slice of Life elements to compliment the central character development. Fantastic voice acting, great animation, and an excellent OST. Only complaint is that there wasn't more of it; would have been nice to have 2-cours with more of the random slice of life stuff shown in the manga. You'll love this if you need a break from over the top RomCom's with too many rediculous tropes. This anime might not be for you if you're easily bored.

Horimiya 

Extended Spoiler Heavy Review

For my first review on this site, I wanted to cover something that's not only recent, since the majority of these will not be coming out in any timely manner whatsoever, but also something that I genuinely loved, and was excited for for years. Horimiya. This series, which premiered in winter 2021, is an adaptation of the manga of the same name with story by HERO and art by Hagiwara Daisuke. The manga has been going for almost a decade, concluding in the the final chapter at the beginning of March 2021. It developed a massive following and for a time was the most popular manga series on MAL that didn't have an anime adaptation yet.

Horimiya is the standard by which I measure all other high school pure-romance series. Although it gets labeled as a RomCom, Horimiya is a romance series first, with comedy and slice-of-life elements later. I'd group it up with series like Blue Spring Ride or Say I love You before I put it in wich something like Kaguya-sama Love is War. That's very important, because Horimiya is very vanilla. Omega vanilla if you will. This series is about as realistic as you can get in terms of high school romance, and has none of the frills or wild tropes that you see in so many other series these days. It is entirely generic with aboslutely no gimmicks to make it stand out, apart from the underlying premise that the main characters put on one face in public, and another in private, which if you know anything about Japan, you'd probably know is pretty normal.

This series embodies the Japanese idea that people have 3 faces: 1) the face you show to the world 2) the face that you show to your family and friends and 3) the face that we keep for ourselves. 

Hori Kyouko at school is popular, smart, and good looking, but at home she's a caring sister who lets down her hair to revel in house cleaning. Miyamura Izumi is a quiet, dark, gloomy guy in class, that nobody really knows much about, but at home he's pierced and tatted up; he's fashionbable and knows what's popular and trendy. Chance brings them to know each-other's "other" side and romance ensues. There's not much time between inittiation of interest and flag capture, which makes this series a lot different than shows that center on the chase. After the couple get to coupling, the show shifts its attention to the side characters and lets us see whats happening with them, while still giving us bits of fun RomCom SOL about the main MC's.

The thing that makes this series shine is that the characters are very fleshed out and have great development considering they're all just high school kids with normal problems, worries, and passions. None of them carry the burden of a multi-national conglomerate which they'll have to take over when they're grown. The relationships are incredibly realistic as well These are kids that know how babies are made (hint: it's not by holding hands), and have no qualms about getting down and dirty. The show is very classy about it though, and never shows anyone actually doing the deed. This show has zero fan service with the sexiest thing every shown being some bare shoulders (spicy). 

What I really like the most about Hori and Miyamura's relationship is that through their intimacy we get to see them expose their third face to each-other which brings them even closer. Hori, who's always in control in her life, awakens her masochistic side, but only for Miyamura. She gets off on him roughing her up (mildly) both in public and private; Miyamura obliges, grudginly, because he'll do anything to make her happy. She's kinky, and Miyamura's fleixble. Their relationship goes to levels that frankly we never get to see in most anime.

The major complaint that most people have had with the manga, for years, is that once the main couple reaches the end of their romantic progression (and commit to a lifetime together), the story shifts away from pure romance between the MC's into random slice of life stuff and stories about the side characters. There's not as much of this in the anime, as opposed to the manga, because it's only a single cour, 13 episode series. If they'd have given us more of that, the manga readers may have rejoiced, but they also risked losing more audience who weren't intersted in the day-to-day lives of the characters.

In the end, Horimiya doesn't disappoint. It's a nice breath of fresh air. I thoroughly enjoyed it and it lived up to all the hopes and dreams I had after many years of reading the original manga.