English Dub Review: Horimiya: The Missing Pieces “Yanagi-kun”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Yanagi has it tough. He can’t see well, has trouble getting up in the morning, and is polite to a fault. But with the right people by his side, he just might catch a break.

Our Take:

Last week, we were introduced to a student who shares the same hobby as Sakura named Akane Yanagi. Besides his favorite manga and poor vision, I don’t know much about this character. Fortunately for me, we have an episode dedicated to Yanagi as he struggles with his disadvantages at school.

The episode features three scenarios that showcase Yanagi’s personality further and his friends’ attempts to help him with his problems. The first involves Yanagi having to look for his contact lenses since he keeps losing them. From what I read about this character, Yanagi previously wore glasses despite constantly breaking them. I didn’t see him wear glasses in this episode, so I assume he did in the show’s first season. Following that, we have a small yet heartfelt sequence involving the students keeping Yanagi company while he waits for the bus that’s running very late. Hori and Remi even did some role-play to warn Yanagi about the delay.  

The second scenario has Yanagi skipping morning classes. The reason is that he’s been oversleeping. After receiving a warning that students can’t be tardy for a week, Yanagi asks for Hori and the others to be his wake-up calls. This sequence has the funniest outcome, as it turns out that Yanagi has misread the clock as 1:30 in the morning instead of 7 o’clock and ignored his friends’ calls and texts. Fortunately, Yanagi arrived on time, only to not realize that his clock was off.

Finally, we have a scenario involving Yanagi’s generosity toward others, including Sengoku. At the beginning of the episode, Sengoku thinks that Yanagi is being mean to him, but it’s revealed that Yanagi has trouble seeing without his contact lenses. Now, Sengoku attempts to befriend Yanagi after thinking he’s not interested in getting close to him. This resulted in some awkward yet gleefully amusing interactions between Sengoku, Ishikawa, and Yanagi, including Ishikawa thinking Sengoku was “groping” him instead of tickling him. This led to Yanagi confessing that he likes Sengoku for who he is.

Overall, the episode delivers three consistently entertaining arcs displaying Akane Yanagi’s personality and his friends helping him solve his problems. As someone who hasn’t watched the first season of Horimiya, I learned more from Yanagi from this episode and even the one from last week. So far, The Missing Pieces has done very well in exploring some of its characters for newcomers like me without having them visit the original series or manga. Not only did I grow immediately attached to them regarding their personalities, but I also had fun watching them goof off and support each other through friendship via its slice-of-life plots. I won’t be surprised if this continues with the remaining episodes.