Note: At the time of this writing there have been 114 chapters of Horimiya so this review is only on those chapters. Preface I know very little about relationships in real life but I have consumed a large amount of anime and manga that deal with romance maybe some causality here?. Over time Ive developed a sense as to how these stories progress a sort of Heros Journeyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero27sjourney of animanga. Many typical romance stories in this field cover a subset of these three fundamental steps: the encounter the chasm of uncertainty and finally the climb. Bear with me I promise this will be relevant to the manga. 1. The encounter: the two main characters first meet and really get to know each other. Its often the premise of the story and theres a lot of creative variations of this. Maybe they were childhood friends who lived next door or maybe they both joined the same club at school or maybe they randomly switch bodies every few days or maybe they accidentally find out each others secret life. No matter what it eventually leads to the characters spending lots of time with each other often alone. 2. The chasm of uncertainty: as the characters spend more time with each other and get to know one another they inevitably find themselves catching feelings. They may deny it at first and/or recognize it and claim that theyre content with what they already have. It may feel like a wide chasm between friendship and romance and they dont know if the other person will catch them on the other end or if theyll fall and lose it all. The characters may go for a running jump over the chasm but then stop at the last moment unable to confess their feelings. Eventually though they do and its often one of the most satisfying parts of the story. 3. The climb: now that the characters have finally confessed their feelings and are dating the way they interact fundamentally changes. They enjoy greater intimacy together but they also get into fights and face challenges. The characters need to work together to scale this metaphorical mountain and significant plot and character development occurs as their relationship matures. PreRomance It is a common theme in the animanga world that the story ends soon after the characters cross the chasm of uncertainty leaving the rest to fan speculation if the story was not conclusive. Thats why when I realized I wasnt even a quarter of the way through the manga when Hori and Miyamura became boyfriend and girlfriend I was stoked Those earlier chapters were excellent with unique characters a delightful vibe and a plot full of emotion. The story wasnt altogether that original or profound with many scenes that paralleled parts of other anime and manga I had consumed but it was well executed so I didnt mind. Many of the best romance stories are simple and seem plain on the outside. The mark of a great romance story is its ability to make me feel sad about my lack of romantic experience and this one for sure did. If this was merely the exposition and it was already that good I had high hopes for the remaining chapters for the climb. During Romance What I got instead was a mediocre directionless story that undid much of what was built up earlier. It was far from terrible and there were definitely aspects that were enjoyable but I was simply astounded by how inconsistent the rest of the manga was. At some parts I felt like the author had actually forgot about what had transpired chapters before. Miyamura a formerly interesting and unique character both in personality and in design got both his hair and his intrigue trimmed. Horis parents who were previously so absent from their childrens lives that Hori had worried that Souta her younger brother would forget the words mother and father had become two of the most prominent side characters just chapters later. Hori But those were all negligible compared to the biggest violation of character development of all: Hori. Once a person who loved Miyamura for who he was she became his biggest critic of his tattoos his piercings his personality. Once someone who preferred to do housework than hang out with others she suddenly became part of the popular crowd and is always seen with them. One moment shes jealous of anyone with a girlish name who texts Miyamura the next moment she says shes not worried about other girls taking him. She gets violent at anything people do yet she does things to intentionally infuriate others. There are many places where she contradicts herself and its extremely jarring to see her do outofcharacter things like grope other girls to compare bust sizes. She is as far as I remember the most inconsistent fictional character I have ever seen. Hori seems to fill any mold she needs to in order for a plot to work out. When she needs to be loving shes loving. When she needs to be a tsundere well heck shes a tsundere now. There seems to be little to no rhyme or reason to this. The real shame is that individually the scenes and chapters are executed quite well. The author should have maybe made some of those ideas into oneshots instead of trying to fit them into the Horimiya world. An argument that can be made is that the inconsistency is really just character development or that Horis personality changes simply due to her nature. The author certainly takes these stances as there are portions of the manga where they make weak attempts to explain why Horis bizarre actions actually make sense. However lets dig deeper to to analyze what the real fundamental flaw in the story is. Remember earlier when I talked about what happens in the climb arc of a romance story? Specifically whats missing is the significant plot and character development that I was talking about. The primary plot stays pretty much dormant during the entire course of the manga after the two main characters start dating and the character changes can hardly be considered development. Theres for sure slice of life stories where nothing really happens for long periods of time where the enjoyment comes merely from the characters going about their daily lives but those stories rely on the charm and consistency of the characters as they interact with each other through various situations. Thats simply not present here. Moreover the characters get into big character defining conflicts and there were places where the plot could be meaningfully furthered but somehow nothing really ends up happening. The manga is stuck in a strange dichotomy where it is neither a pure slice of life story nor a dramatic romance but rather a poorly combined version of both. Conclusion That was a pretty major complaint but really that was my only one. The art is cute and high quality the side characters are unique and fun and disregarding the story as a whole the individual chapters are actually quite enjoyable to read. Its a pretty typical but good schoollife romance manga and if youre willing to overlook Horis massive inconsistencies I would recommend it as a great slow burn slice of life romance manga but I cant ignore them.