The Horimiya Season 2 release date is confirmed for July 2023, the Summer 2023 anime season.
The new anime will not be a full sequel now that Kyoko Hori and Izumi Miyamura have taken their relationship to the next level, but what about their friends’ relationships?
On March 25, 2023, a new anime TV series called Horimiya -piece- was announced by Studio CloverWorks.
As expected, the new anime adapts manga stories that were not included in the first season. The Horimiya manga ended in March 2021 so there is technically no sequel to adapt.
In Addition, two new Hori-san to Miyamura-kun OVA episodes released on May 25, 2021. They are being produced by animation Studio Gonzo. (See below for more details.)
The first season of the Horimiya anime TV series was produced by animation studio Cloverworks, which is known for producing the popular The Promised Neverland anime, the Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai anime, co-producing Darling in the FranXX, and the Fate/Grand Order anime series. In 2021, they also released Shadows House and the well-reviewed Wonder Egg Priority, which was an original story.
The Horimiya anime’s first season was helmed by director Masashi Ishihama, who is best known for directing the Persona 5 anime and the Shinsekai yori (From the New World) anime. He’s also directed the 2016 Garakowa -Restore the World- movie and worked in non-directorial roles on Bleach, Encouragement of Climb, ERASED, FLCL ED, and Psycho-Pass.
Writer Takao Yoshioka handled the script and series composition. He’s also worked on the 2021 I’m Standing on a Million Lives Season 2 (and Season 1), Elfen Lied, High School DxD, Demon King Daimao, Major, The Seven Deadly Sins Season 2 (see our story on The Seven Deadly Sins Season 5: Dragon’s Judgement), The Testament of Sister New Devil, and The Familiar of Zero.
Artist Iizuka Haruko (Josee, the Tiger and the Fish, Children of the Whales) is the character designer. Composer Masaru Yokoyama (A3!, Black Fox, Fate/Apocrypha, Fruits Basket Season 3, Plastic Memories) created the music.
The Horimiya Season 2 OP (opening) and ED (ending) theme song music hasn’t been announced yet.
For the first season, the Horimiya OP was “Iro Kousui” by Yoh Kamiyama. The Horimiya ED “Yakusoku” was performed by Friends.
The Horimiya Blu-Ray/DVD page on the official website has confirmed that the first season will be released as seven box set volumes, with Volume 1 coming out on February 24, 2021.
The first season’s finale, Horimiya Episode 13, released on April 4, 2021.
- Updated May 6, 2021: Hori-san to Miyamura-kun OVA release date for volumes 5 and 6 confirmed.
This article provides everything that is known about Horimiya Season 2 (Hori-san to Miyamura-kun Season 2) and all related news. As such, this article will be updated over time with news, rumors, and analysis. Meanwhile, let’s delve down into what is known for certain.
FUNimation’s Horimiya English dub released
FUNimation’s Horimiya English dub released on Saturday, February 6, 2021. Here is the English dubbing cast includes:
- Marisa Duran voices Kyouko Hori
- Alejandro Saab voices Izumi Miyamura
- Zeno Robinson voices Tooru Ishikawa
- Anairis Quiñones voices Yuki Yoshikawa
- Belsheber Rusape voices Kakeru Sengoku
- Jalitza Delgado voices Remi Ayasaki
- Celeste Perez voices Sakura Kouno
- Y. Chang voices Syu Iura
- Emily Fajardo voices Souta Hori
The first season Horimiya was streaming with English subtitles on FUNimation, Hulu, and Netflix Japan (not Netflix U.S.). Although Sony’s FUNimation purchase Crunchyroll in December 2020, Crunchyroll is not streaming Horimiya.
Why the Horimiya -pieces- release date is in 2023
As of the last update, Aniplex, Square Enix, Studio CloverWorks, or any company related to the production of the anime has not officially confirmed the exact Horimiya Season 2 release date. However, the production of a 2nd Horimiya anime TV series has been announced for July 2023.
Once the news is officially confirmed this article will be updated with the relevant information.
The main issue was always whether the production would be greenlit now that the manga series has come to an end. Similar to how CloverWorks finished the remainder of The Promised Neverland manga in only 11 episodes, the first season of the Horimiya anime finished the entire story in 13 episodes. They even ended with a slideshow depicting skipped manga story arcs!
Reviews from both critics and anime fans have been very good, receiving similar scores to other romcom anime like Kaguya-sama: Love is War. The Kaguya-sama Season 3 anime has already been confirmed to be in production, but based the way the story was adapted Horimiya is very unlikely to become a multi-season anime.
AnimeJapan 2021 featured a special stage presentation for the Horimiya anime, but fans had to wait a whole two years until AnimeJapan 2023 when Horimiya -pieces- was announced.
Why the long wait? It’s possible the producers never expected this level of success and purposefully had Studio CloverWorks adapt the entire manga in one season. But now that they realized fans want more it takes several years to line up the studio, staff, and cast since the entire industry is booked up in advance.
Hori-san to Miyamura-kun manga started as a self-published series
The story for the anime series began life as the Hori-san to Miyamura-kun manga, which was self-published by Hiroki Adachi under the pseudonym Hero on his personal website from 2007 through 2011. Square Enix licensed the series in 2011 under the new title Horimiya.
Serialized in Monthly G Fantasy since October 2011, the retitled Horimiya manga rebooted the story with illustrator Daisuke Hagiwara providing the artwork. The 140 chapters of the original Hori-san to Miyamura-kun manga was released in 10 volumes by Square Enix, whereas the newer Horimiya manga has over 120 chapters and is up to Volume 15 as of September 2020.
Since 2012, Hero has also written and drawn hundreds of side story chapters called Hori-san to Miyamura-kun Omake. Square Enix has released the bonus chapters as 14 volumes as of September 2020.
Yen Press has licensed the official Horimiya English translation for release in North America. Published since 2015, the English version is already up to Volume 14. The English Horimiya Volume 15 release date for both the digital and paperback is scheduled for June 22, 2021.
Horimiya manga ending in March 2021
In February 2021, it was announced in Chapter 121 that the Horimiya manga’s ending was scheduled for March 18, 2021. The final chapter will be released in the Monthly G Fantasy April 2021 issue.
That means the manga series will finish with Horimiya Chapter 122: Graduation (Page 122). Thus, Horimiya Volume 16 will include the final chapter’s ending.
The final volume of the manga series will have a Special Edition. There also be a Horimiya Illustration Collection book to commemorate the series’ ending. Both are released in Summer 2021.
Unfortunately, Horimiya Episode 13 adapted the Horimiya manga’s ending in Horimiya 122.
Horimiya OVA episodes already released for the Hori-san to Miyamura-kun manga
You might be surprised to learn that the Hori-san to Miyamura-kun manga has already been animated. From 2012 through 2018, four Hori-san to Miyamura-kun OVA episodes were released by several different studios, including Gonzo and Studio Hood.
Coincidentally, the story for the first four OVA episodes mostly lines up with the first four Horimiya episodes, although there are differences in which scenes are covered. The fourth OVA episode covers plot elements that the main anime didn’t adapt until Horimiya Episode 5.
In addition, two additional Hori-san to Miyamura-kun OVA episodes are being planned for release on May 25, 2021. The two OVA episodes will adapt stories from the chapters titled Midsummer’s Day and A Kind Person.
Horimiya manga compared to the anime
The main factors in the Horimiya manga’s success are the slow-burn romance and how the small fluffy moments between Hori and Miyamura build their relationship. Readers came to care about the characters, support their relationship, and engage in the drama.
The main manga is a little bit more light-hearted than the original self-published manga. It’s also going to be many more chapters before the original climax and ending are reached. It’s possible a decision was made to purposefully elongate the main manga’s length since some of the stories from the Hori-san to Miyamura-kun Omake chapters are used to pad the plot.
The main manga’s original premise was fairly fast-paced and plot-heavy during the first 40 chapters, with Chapter 37 being a major highlight. Then the manga slows down for about 20 chapters, engaging in romcom tropes like sports festivals and kotatsu shenanigans only to peak from Chapters 60 through 64.
From thereon, the momentum slows down as the manga shifted gears from a romcom atmosphere to a slice of life manga where occasional chapters move the main plot forward. Thus, if Horimiya Season 2 or a series of OVA episodes were to be made, the relationships of Hori and Miyamura’s friends would become more of the focus.
In adapting the overall story for the anime, CloverWorks appears to have made the decision to streamline everything down to just the primary plot beats. The Horimiya OP gave anime fans their first hints about what to expect from the anime’s pacing.
The Horimiya character Akane Yanagi is depicted in the OP (opening) and he debuts in manga Chapter 44. Motoko Iura already has a Japanese voice cast and that female character shows up in Chapter 76.
Many of these later chapters were adapted out of order in order for Episode 13 to adapt the graduation ending. Side stories like Chapter 65: They Just Don’t Make Any Sense may feel like a hilarious elbow to the ribs but they could be adapted in any order since they don’t require any special context. At the same time, lacking context means such chapters could be skipped by the anime, or shifted to Horimiya Season 2, without harming the main plot progression.
Horimiya Episode 1 adapted three chapters faithfully with some minor cuts including a scene that explains Hori’s “secret” and her attachment to Miyamura.
Horimiya Episode 2 significantly picked up the pacing and reached Chapter 9 by skipping chunks of three chapters. For example, the anime skipped Hori’s dream in Chapter 8.
By Horimiya Episode 3, the anime already had two whole manga volumes. Episode 3 followed the manga more closely in Chapters 10 to 13 except the fight scene (Chapter 12) and the hand comparison scene (Chapter 13) was reordered, which meant the impact of the words said during handholding was reduced.
The anime also skipped a scene where Hori and Miyamura became stuck in school during a sudden rain shower and they didn’t have an umbrella. This scene has already been adapted by Hori-san to Miyamura-kun OVA Episode 2.
Horimiya Episode 4 adapted more than 80 percent of Chapters 16 to 20. Most of the cut content was comedic moments and some of the dialogue was simplified but the scene with their reactions to the handholding was skipped.
Considering that the last episode ended with Miyamura confessing his love for Hori when he thinks she’s asleep, Horimiya Episode 5 picked up again in Volume 4: Chapter 21. The episode cut most of the chapter, including a long scene with Miyamura doubting himself, and skipped to when Hori has a major misunderstanding after Miyamura is spotted linking arms with Shindo’s girlfriend, Chika.
The anime made minimal changes to Chapters 22 and 23, whereas the final scene from Chapter 24 originally took place in a public pool. Only the final several pages of Chapter 25 were adapted so some interactions between Miyamura and Hori’s dad, mother, and brother were skipped.
The biggest change in Episode 5 was that the anime erased the character Yuuna Okuyama from existence, which is ironic considering that “Yuu” (有) literally means “exist”. But if you want to see that character animated she’s already in the old OVA episodes.
Horimiya Episode 6 animated the scenes leading up to Miyamura cutting his hair and the kiss with the candy scene from Chapter 27. The anime skipped the bakery visit from Chapter 28 completely but the majority of scenes from Chapters 29 through 31 were adapted with minor changes.
Considering the anime’s pacing, Horimiya Episode 7 skipped Chapters 32 and 33 then adapted the sex scene of manga Chapter 37. It also rearranged the scenes from Chapters 34, 35, and 36 that led up to this point, but it was so well done it was hard to notice.
Horimiya Episode 8 then adapted Chapters 38, 39/70, 43 and 44. Horimiya Episode 9 covered the second half of Chapter 38 and then 46, 47, 54, and 55. Horimiya Episode 10 did Chapters 58, 59, 60, and 61, although most of the comedy of Chapter 60 was skipped.
What’s notable is that there was a major time-skip since it was already Winter, which meant the Sports Festival would not be covered. The final three episodes also shuffled around story arcs that originally came much later in the manga so that some of the fan-favorite story arcs about the friends were adapted.
Horimiya Episode 11 skipped many chapters and covered the story arc for Syu Iura’s sister Motoko, which includes Chapters 75, 86, 103, and 91.
As predicted, Horimiya Episode 12 told another winter-based story that was originally set farther back in the manga timeline. In this case, Chapters 73, 63, and 64 were reordered to present the New Year’s marriage proposal.
With over 60 chapters unadapted, CloverWorks could have ended in winter and left room for Horimiya Season 2. Instead, Horimiya Episode 13 jumped ahead to graduation (Chapters 120, 121, 122), skipping even the valentine’s day arc.
While anime-only audiences probably won’t realize anything was skipped in the manga, the faster pacing doesn’t give heavier plot beats room to breathe before rushing onto the next plot element. Thus, the anime’s drama may not have the same impact in comparison to the manga.
Such limitations are an unfortunate drawback to the episodic anime format, but it’s no mystery as to why the anime production committee would want to focus on bringing Hori and Miyamura’s relationship to a perfect pitch by the first season’s ending.
As predicted, the finale, Horimiya Episode 13, finished adapting the main plot points of the manga series. Thus, the second season seems unlikely.
Warning: The following two paragraphs include major spoilers!
If the anime production committee had intended to leave the door open for a second season, Chapter 63 would have been the best climax for Episode 13 since it includes the shocking marriage proposal. Then Chapter 64 is the best stopping point since it only seals the moment by resolving their feelings rather than ending on just a cliffhanger.
Instead, the second half of the first season dramatically increased the pacing in a rush to reach the final ending. While adapting 122 chapters in only 13 episodes is disappointing, the idea makes sense since later chapters focus on developing other relationships. Thus, the anime’s focus was entirely on Hori x Miyamura.
The odd part was that CloverWorks chose to include a final ED montage that briefly showed anime-only audiences events that were skipped. Included was the Kyoto school trip, the rain scene, a chapter about Hori not liking stew, the “Where’s my sorry?” arc, a scene about switching jackets, the sports festival, and stylish Miyamura making braids.
On the positive, the way it was executed gave emotional impact to the anime’s ending, whereas in The Promised Neverland Season 2 the slideshow teased major story arcs that were summarized with a single image.
The good news is that this stopping point leaves plenty of room for more Horimiya OVA episodes. Some of the funnier skipped content from the first half of the manga could also be adapted in this manner.
Better yet, English-only manga readers who wish to read what was skipped can pick up the English Volume 10 right away.
Hori-san to Miyamura-kun manga Volume 10 spoilers (plot summary/synopsis)
As of Episode 12, Hori and Miyamura decided to ring in the New Year at the local shrine. As the pair and their friends return to their everyday lives and usual hijinks, both the special days and the humdrum ones prove irreplaceable.
But these precious days can’t last forever. Their last term in high school has just begun and graduation is coming soon. And with graduation comes many decisions needing to be made.
Speaking of making decisions, Ishikawa has finally come to the realization that he and Yoshikawa might be more than “just friends”. Ishikawa is now stuck attempting to navigate the murky waters between friendship and love. But one thing he does know is that the time he spends with Yoshikawa, however mystifying, is special in its own right.
The usually quiet Sakura usually only gets all fidgety when it comes to Tohru. Unexpectedly worked up by a shounen manga, sparks begin to fly when Sakura runs into the equally quiet Yanagi, who is also a shounen manga fanboy.
Unfortunately, anime fans will either need to pick up the manga or wait until Horimiya OVA episodes release to watch what happens next. Stay tuned!