English Dub Review: Horimiya: The Missing Pieces “Friends”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Sakura finds a kindred spirit to enjoy her favorite hobby with, and Sawada gets a little closer to the people around her.

Our Take:

Since the show is about friendship, it makes sense for this week’s episode to center around that topic. What better way to explore the power of friendship than with the two students who aren’t Hori and Miyamura? But, of course, with great friendship comes plenty of amusement and awkwardness, especially between a boy and a girl.  

One of those students in mind is Sakura, who previously participated in the cheer squad during Sports Day. Now, she’s expressing her favorite hobby outside of studying: reading manga, particularly Skull Ninja Konoha. After feeling depressed that the manga’s latest issue sold out, Sakura encounters Akane Yanagi, who’s also a fan of Skull Ninja Konoha. As they walked to get the new issue, however, the conversations between the two went from cute to awkward in seconds, with Sakura making a quick dash out of embarrassment. Yanagi would later encounter Yoshikawa at the library after she imagined her friends switching bodies. The moment involving these two seems unnecessary, but it isn’t without its laughs and an intimate moment between Yoshikawa and Yanagi. Additionally, I would credit the episode for providing an end-credit sequence centering on Skull Ninja Konoha, along with a new ending theme song.

Afterward, we have Honoka Sawada, Miyamura’s shy neighbor, taking the spotlight for the remaining episode. Sawada has no friends, mainly because the other students are saying rude things about her behind her back. They also threw Sawada’s scarf out the window, if that’s not despicable enough, at least from what I decipher. It’s good that Miyamura was around to put those mean girls in their place. Thankfully, that all changed when Sawada gained the opportunity to be around other people, mainly Sengoku and Remi. The two students help Sawada move the art club poster to the second-year bulletin board so more students can see it, making her popular with her classmates.

While the segment involving Yanagi and Sakura has moments of hilarity, Sawada’s is the most endearing, mainly due to her background. Sawada had an older brother who looked like Miyamura but died a year before the series’s events. Without watching the first season, I’m assuming that might be the reason behind Sawada’s shyness and depression. If that’s the case, the episode is suitable for expressing it without letting the characters explain it. I’m also glad that Sawada got the happiness she deserves from her friends, even though “Friends” is my first time encountering this character. Let’s hope she continues making more as her school year progresses.