Horimiya is a 2011 Manga series that was adapted from the 2007-2008 webcomic Hori-san to Miyamura-kun. It was serialized in Monthly G Fantasy with story by HERO (the author of the webcomic) and art by Daisuke Higawara, ending at 16 volumes in 2021. The original webcomic was later published in book form from 2008 to 2011 at 10 volumes and was adapted into an Original Video Animation titled Hori-san to Miyamura-kun -Shingakki- in 2012; five other OVAs followed in 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2020. A Sequel featuring side-stories titled Hori-san to Miyamura-kun Omake is still being serialized on the author's website, with it also getting a print run. Omake currently sits at 15 volumes.
An Animated Adaptation was announced and released in January 2021, with animation duty handled by CloverWorks. A second season, Horimiya -Piece-, was announced for July 2023 that adapts stories previously skipped over for the anime. Meanwhile, a live-action television series was broadcast in February and March 2021.
The series is published in English by Yen Press.
This series provides examples of:
- Aborted Declaration of Love: Hori to Miyamura when talking about the size of their hands.I like you...r hands!
- Absurdly Youthful Father: Hori's father was in his late teens when she was born. Her mother was apparently older, but may well have been a teenager too.
- A-Cup Angst: Chapter 65 is practically dedicated to Hori being compared to every other girl in the main group. She cares a lot, even if Miyamura doesn't.
- Adaptational Nice Guy: The student council trio don't have it in for Hori in the manga and anime like they do in the webcomic. The missing documents saga was much more sinister in the latter because they were all in on it, trying to get her in trouble on purpose. In the adaptations, it was a clumsy but genuine mistake by Remi and she was properly scolded by her fellow members.
- Affectionate Nickname: Sengoku starts calling Hori by her childhood nickname, "Kyo-chan" in later chapters.
- Always in Class One: When the main cast become seniors, they are, indeed, in class 1.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: Hori really likes it when Miyamura abuses her. Being the Nice Guy he really is, he's more than a bit creeped out by it.
- All Love Is Unrequited: Generally averted, as about half of the crushes are reciprocated in-universe. There are still some examples. Yuki had an unrequited crush on "Konoha," Miyamura's alter-ego/"cousin." Sakura and Yuki each develop crushes on Tooru, who is oblivious to both of them, until Chapter 48 for Sakura, and has/had unrequited feelings for Hori. Sawada has feelings for Hori, who doesn't reciprocate, and Yanagi has unrequited feelings for Yuki. Then there is Mizouchi who has feelings for Hori but eventually realises he can't fulfill her masochistic side like Miyamura (very reluctantly) can.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Miyamura's tragic backstory is that everyone considered him an outsider, up until the manga starts.
- Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Hori's father. It takes a special type of parent to ask his daughter if she's put on weight in front of her boyfriend.
- An Aesop: Never assume you know what someone else's life is like.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Inverted. When Miyamura confesses having some sort of feelings for Hori, he says it right in the middle of telling her relatively trivial information. This ends up backfiring by making Miyamura feel pathetic and giving Hori a mixed message.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Teenage Souta is full of these when he's with Yuna. When Yuna grumbles about their schoolmate Seno getting the wrong idea about their relationship, Souta bluntly shoots back that she's right that they're not dating. This temporarily makes Yuna freeze up, as she likes him but won't admit it (and vice versa but he won't admit it), and she repeats the statement; Souta then follows this up with an Armor-Piercing Response that they're not dating yet.
- The Atoner: One of the bullies that is still friends with Shindou, Tanihara, has guilt built up from placing the blame of the death of the class pet on Miyamura, which is implied to have started his years of bullying and isolation. He wants to apologize and make things right, but he has no idea how to go about it.
- Bait-and-Switch: How the introduction chapter for Sawada pans out. At first, it seems like she has a crush on Miyamura, as she keeps telling him to break up with Hori, until she reveals she actually likes Hori instead.
- Berserk Button:
- For Miyamura, it's blaming Hori for something she didn't do. When the Student Council blames Hori for some missing paperwork, Miyamura headbutts the President! Shindou also manages to press the button about teasing him about his relationship with Hori.
- For Hori, it's anyone looking down on and putting down Miyamura because he won't defend himself.
- On a similar vein to Hori's, Shindou's is Miyamura indulging in his severe Heroic Self-Deprecation tendencies.
- Beta Couple: Sengoku and Remi, since they've already been dating by the time the story starts. Shindou and Chika are another case.
- Birds of a Feather: Sawada and Miyamura turn out to be more alike than initially suspected. Both are in love with Hori, and both have experience with being bullied by their classmates. Little wonder why they have such a natural sibling dynamic.
- Bite of Affection: Justified. Hori bites Miyamura on the back of the neck during Their First Time, partially out of affection and partially to encourage him to grow his hair back out (since it'd be the only way for him to cover the mark).
- Book Ends: The first storyline and OVA end as Miyamura reassures his younger self that he has friends, which happens at the beginning of the school year. The final installment of the original webcomic has Miyamura reassure and say goodbye to himself from the beginning of the year (as well as his other younger selves) on his graduation day.
- Call-Back:
- Remember the school trip to Kyoto and how Miyamura couldn't bathe in public in any circumstances due to his tattoos? Sengoku sure did, and apparently the male student body was a bit freaked out over it.
- In Chapter 15, Miyamura and Tooru encounter Yuriko Hori while walking out of school. Miyamura introduces her as his mother, which Tooru calls out, given that he's met his mother several times. Later, in chapter 66, the same happens, but this time with Kyosuke Hori, and this time Tooru ends up believing he is Miyamura's father of some variety.
- Calling Parents by Their Name: Hori always refers to her father by name as a sign of how little respect she has for him.
- Can't Act Perverted Toward a Love Interest: Discussed in chapter 62. Hori starts getting changed in the Student Council room with her Childhood Friend Sengoku present. He asks if she's okay with him being there, and she points out that she'd be perfectly fine bathing or even going to the bathroom with him present. When he asks if she'd be just as comfortable with Miyamura, she snaps at him, saying she could never do something like that. Bear in mind that Hori and Miyamura are already dating at this point, and have an active sex life.
- Cat Girl: Cat Boys, too. One of the more constant gags and omakes is Tooru having to deal with cat boy/girl versions of his friends in his dreams. They also have intermittent Age Lifts from young children age to 'middle-school' age to their current appearances and back again. Yuki, on the other hand, is a mousegirl.
- Characterization Marches On: Chapter 7 introduces Sengoku as something of a cool, levelheaded, and commanding figure (capable of bossing around and mouthing off Hori in front of everybody), while Remi is something of a lazy and stupid Alpha Bitch. Later chapters paint Sengoku as far more of a Cowardly Lion in regards to Hori (who mercilessly bullied him as a kid, as revealed in the beginning of the very next chapter), and Remi as far more friendly and compassionate (something that takes quite a few chapters to make apparent). Also he was more afraid of Miyamura in the end of the chapter, rather than Hori, and refers to Hori by her surname instead of “Kyo-chan”.
- Chick Magnet: Miyamura, with Hori, Yuki (under his guise "Konoha"), and the girls in their class especially once he cuts his hair, and for all of the grief Tooru goes through with his unrequited feelings for Hori, he has Sakura and Yuki crushing on him.
- Childhood Friends: Sengoku and Hori. They've known each other long enough that she doesn't even think twice about getting changed in front of him.
- Childhood Friend Romance: Eventually, what Souta and Yuna's relationship turns into. By high school, the pair have developed unspoken feelings for each other that only come out after an incident where Souta gets suspended trying to defend Yuna's honor.
- Chocolate of Romance: The Valentine's Day two-parter (Chapters 117 and 118) focus on Hori, Sanada, and her classmate trying to make or give some to Miyamura, Hori, and Iura respectively. Miyamura in turn makes a damn cake for Hori.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Hori is one, but not in the way one might expect; she's worried that Miyamura might fall in love with another guy, not another girl.
- Cock Fight: In a rare mixed gender example, this is Miyamura and Sawada's initial relationship in a nutshell (at least until Hori gets annoyed by them fighting over her and just avoids both until they get along).
- Cool Big Sis: Hori is this to Souta. Miyamura also acts as a gender-inverted version towards the latter, to the point that Souta prefers sleeping with him than his actual sister.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Everyone's pretty much identifiable by their hair colors, but in one particular instance when both are competing for Tooru's heart Yuki and Sakura are identified by white and red respectfully, due to their seasonal names.
- Comically Missing the Point: An early chapter has Miyamura try to defend Tooru after Hori rejected him. She gets irritated and hypothetically asks if Miyamura wants to date Tooru. Miyamura's objection is about the social ladder rather than the gender or any mutual attraction.
- Compressed Adaptation: The 13 episode anime adaptation leaves many chapters, and as a result some side characters, on the cutting room floor in favor of centralizing most of the episodes around Hori and Miyamura's romance. This comes to a head in the final episode where after Miyamura's marriage proposal on Christmas, the episode jumps ahead to their High School Graduation, which takes place in the final chapter of the manga, leaving out a good half of the manga's content.
- Converse with the Unconscious: See Anguished Declaration of Love above.
- Covert Pervert: Hori has a thing for having Miyamura act as a Fetishized Abuser. She also leaves a cruelly big bite mark on the nape of his neck.
- Curtains Match the Window: Basically much of the main cast have their eye colors match their respective hair, with Miyamura (blue eyes with black hair) and Shindou (bright green eyes with orange hair) being the peculiar outliers.
- A Day in the Limelight: Iura gets one in chapter 76 regarding his life at home.
- Dark and Troubled Past:
- Miyamura was basically having suicidal thoughts during his younger years. In a chapter where he meets his past self, and tells him that it will all be over one day and he will meet people who he loves and will love him too.
- Sawada had an implied loving and close relationship with her older brother, who died.
- Death Glare:
- Two accidental cases. First in chapter 30 (when Miyamura stares down a group of guys who were harassing Sawada while thinking of what to say), and later in chapter 66 (when Yanagi, who just lost his contacts and had Tooru on the floor looking for it, scares off Sengoku who wandered in). In the latter case, Yanagi didn't even realize Sengoku was there.
- Hori tends to give off these whenever girls (in the early chapters) or boys (in the later ones) get too friendly with Miyamura, or she suspects as much.
- The Ditz: Miyamura. In the early chapters, his lack of tact and lack of self-awareness were of minor annoyance to Hori and major annoyance to Tooru.
- Does Not Like Spam:
- Souta doesn't like carrots. His big sister doesn't like stew, even though her boyfriend loves it, and she cooks it for him.
- Miyamura doesn't like tomato peels. Not tomatos in and of themselves, just the peels.
- Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: Usually played straight, with Hori having a tendency to physically hit male characters who tick her off or trigger her tsundere button. However, it was addressed to an extent in Chapter 42. A misunderstanding that was more Hori's fault than Miyamura's leads to her beating him up enough to leave physical consequences. Rather than dismiss it, as would be the norm, there are conversations on both sides of the gender groups as to who is to blame and what is to be done about it. In the end, Miyamura's Nice Guy tendencies still let Hori off the hook and she went back to playing the trope straight at a whim.
- The Dreaded: Hori becomes this to the former classmates of Miyamura who bullied him in her presence. Considering she beat them up for it, it is for a very good reason.
- Driven to Suicide: Well, more like driven to suicidal thoughts. Miyamura's isolation from his classmates before the beginning of the story really took its toll on him.
- Embarrassing Tattoo: Averted: Miyamura loves his tattoos, but tries to hide them as much as possible when he's at school to prevent being bullied or getting in trouble with the school board.
- Erotic Eating: Discussed in one chapter by the girls as they talk about the different ways that messy eating would look attractive on a dude. They do mention that most of the boys they know (and crush on) eat politely, much to their dismay...except Miyamura, who eats quite sloppily with ice cream and licks it lewdly without a second thought. We get a more direct version of this when he eats the orange peel off of Hori's finger, and the camera shows how intimate that would look.
- Everyone Can See It:
- Hori and Miyamura. Even Souta, Hori's little brother, noticed it.
- Chapter 45 reveals that everyone has known Sakura likes Tooru except Sakura herself and, until this point, Hori. Hori and Sengoku both mention that they can't picture Tooru or Yuki dating anyone other than each other.
- Evolving Credits: The 2021 adaptation's credits change at episode 7, with colour choices becoming brighter and warmer and scenes changed alongside new footage to show Miyamura is no longer alone and has a developing circle of friends.
- Failed a Spot Check: Neither Miyamura nor Sawada noticed that they were next door neighbors, and that they went to the same school, for at least a year.
- Family Theme Naming: The naming conventions of most children are pretty lazy. From the Hori clan, we have Kyosuke, his daughter Kyoko, and her son Kyohei. The Sengoku family has Takeru, his son Kakeru, and his daughter Shizuru.
- Fetishized Abuser: Hori has a thing for Miyamura acting like one in her sexual fantasies. Later, she tries to invoke it by asking him to act like that. He very begrudgingly obliges her in separate chapters.
- First Kiss: A surprisingly understated one for Hori and Miyamura in Chapter 27 when she's eating a sweet and he steals it.
- First-Name Basis:
- Miyamura and Tooru attempted this in an early chapter but became embarrassed when they put it into practice. Miyamura promptly forgot about it by the next day (within the same chapter) and they remained on a Last-Name Basis since.
- The gang is trying to ease Yanagi into this (particularly Shu), but he's having a hard time with it because of his politeness. At the end of Chapter 74, at the very least he starts calling Tooru by his first name, and Miyamura tries to call Yanagi by his own.
- Flashback: Chapter 122 takes the reader back to the Hori's and Sengoku's parents' time in high school.
- Flash Forward: The "Ten Years Later" side story, based off of the webcomic's late-game strips (145, 206-208, 120-121 in the manga), takes place during Souta's teenage years when he starts attending high school.
- Florence Nightingale Effect: Slightly downplayed. Miyamura came and tended to Hori when she was down with a bad case of fever, then suddenly blurted out a Love Confession while she was asleep. On Miyamura's part he had already developed feelings for Hori, especially after his interactions with Ishikawa, so that moment was just him affirming it to her. As for Hori the trope was played straight, as the confession became the trigger for her Love Revelation Epiphany; so much so that she immediately woke up just as Miyamura had left.
- Four Lines, All Waiting: Horimiya gradually transitioned into becoming an Ensemble series, after Miyamura's Christmas Proposal. But the series trying to balance 10 principal characters, each with their own unique relationships within the cast, against the manga also being a monthly series led to many plot lines being slow to develop or reach their resolutions.
- Friend to Bugs: Remi's room is filled with various bugs, both living in terrariums and dead on the walls. Which kind of sucks for Sengoku, since he's terrified of insects.
- Friendless Background: Miyamura had no friends until he met Hori in Junior High (if you see Shindou as more of an annoying pest than a friend). Sawada doesn't appear to have friends either, and is bullied by two other girls in her grade.
- Graduate from the Story: The main story ends with the graduation of the protagonists. Fittingly, the chapter is titled "Graduation."
- Green-Eyed Epiphany: Hori when Remi tells her she is going to confess to Miyamura.
- Green-Eyed Monster:
- Hori when all the girls in class are getting close to Miyamura to talk about his family's cake shop. She snaps a pencil in her hand—a mechanical pencil. Then again when they compliment him after she does up his hair after his Important Haircut—except she hits Miyamura over the head for his troubles. Later on she switches to being jealous if he spends too much time with guys instead.
- Miyamura doesn't take too kindly to Sawada's crush on Hori and sulks about it for quite a bit. He also takes a bit of issue with Mizouchi's crush on Hori.
- Yuki goes through something similar when she notices how close Tooru and Sakura are becoming and is secretly upset about it. Played for drama, as she actually feels really bad for her jealousy, and the chapter that focuses on it has someone call her out on her behavior towards Sakura.
- Happily Married: An off-hand comment by Souta suggests that his and Kyouko's parents' marriage may not be this—he says to his friends that their mother keeps removing their father's belongings from the house and that she is annoyed at his presence around the house. It may or may not be Played for Laughs. For the latter part, his friends see Hori and Miyamura as the parents, who later fights when there was a call from 'Saotome'. Hilarity Ensues.
- Hopeless Suitor:
- Yanagi for Yuki, to the point that she pretend-dates Tooru to avoid responding to his feelings.
- Tooru and Sawada for Hori, although Tooru does get over her later. Sakura is one to Tooru.
- Hug and Comment: Miyamura when Hori made him stew for dinner even when she hates it.
- Hypocritical Heartwarming: Miyamura's monologue in chapter 81 reveals that, even though Hori treats Sengoku badly, she gets mad if anyone else talks bad about him.
- Hypocritical Humor: Miyamura laughs at Souta when Hori tries to teach her brother high school math. She's quick to point out that he shouldn't.
- Imaginary Love Triangle: Chapter 86 takes this up to eleven with an imaginary harem forming around Sakura in the eyes of two background characters. Said "harem" includes Hori.
- Important Haircut: Miyamura cuts his hair short in Chapter 26.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy:
- Tooru towards Hori. According to Hori, Yuki is usually like this, from her crush on "Konoha" to books she wants to buy, preferring to be a Stepford Smiler who lets what she "loves" slip past her fingers.
- And then it becomes sad with Sakura towards Tooru. He kept up the charade and told her that he and Yuki were dating, and afterwards Sakura acts like the weight of the world is off her shoulders, but the moment she sees the two walk off together, it's obvious that she's hurting.
- I Want Grandkids: The patriarch of the Hori family, Kyosuke, tells Miyamura that he expects them to give him a grandchild (preferably a girl) as soon as possible, and even tries to come up with baby names. Keep in mind that at this point the two are still in high school and have only been dating for about a week.
- Inciting Incident: The entire series can be traced back to Souta tripping after getting scared by a dog and Miyamura walking him home afterwards. If that hadn't happened, Hori and Miyamura never would have become friends, let alone fallen in love. The penultimate chapter of the series even shows a What If? of just how different the main cast would have been were it not for a few key moments.
- Indirect Kiss: When Miyamura gives Hori's little brother some orange juice, she demands to know where hers is. Miyamura didn't buy her one and instead gave her what's left of his. Both Hori and Miyamura treat it as nothing big... until Hori goes to her room and explodes. Interestingly, there's a small instance in another chapter during school where she takes his juice box and drinks from it without a second thought.
- Innocently Insensitive: Miyamura, in a roundabout way. While in his Heroic Self-Deprecation phase, he tells Tooru that he damages Hori's reputation by being around her. Hori is the one who's most offended when she finds out but he only meant to put himself down. Played straighter and for laughs in regards to bringing up Hori's rejection of Tooru's confession. Miyamura never means any harm by it but that doesn't make Tooru feel any better when it's brought up.
- Intertwined Fingers: Leading to Hori's Aborted Declaration of Love.
- Intimacy Via Horror: Hori (who actually loves horror movies) attempts to invoke this in chapter 37 at the suggestion of her friends in order to appear cuter to Miyamura, but everything she does just ends up scaring him instead. This leads to Their First Time when he tries to comfort her.
- Japanese Delinquents: Sawada calls Miyamura a delinquint in her first chapter. Tooru ends up shaking with laughter because of how incorrect the accusation is.
- Jerkass: Miyamura's bullies, one of whom is named Tanihara. Tanihara turned out to not be a full on jerk as he seem to be.
- Kids Are Cruel: Miyamura was, in his own words, "dark and gloomy" in elementary school. His classmates had pounced on that relentlessly since, until Hori. Unfortunately, even in high school some haven't grown up.
- A later chapter focused on an old childhood classmate of Miyamura's implies that this happened because the boy blamed Miyamura for the death of the rabbit that was the class' pet, even though it was his own fault and Miyamura actually loved the rabbit. Years after the incident, he feels guilt and wants to apologize.
- Last-Name Basis:
- Hori and Miyamura typically only refer to one another by last name. The moments they don't tend to be very touching.
- Sengoku is addressed by almost everyone by his last name, even his girlfriend Remi, though oddly enough, he addresses both Remi and Sakura by their first names.
- Lethal Chef:
- Hori and Yuki just can't bake.
- Sengoku and Remi have no sense whatsoever when in a kitchen, as Sakura found out during cooking class. It's implied and played for laughs that they don't even know how cooking works.
- Like Brother and Sister:
- Sawada and Miyamura end up having this dynamic, which works decently for Sawada ever since her elder brother's death prior to the main story.
- The same thing goes for Hori and Sengoku, who have known each other their entire lives (their parents went to high school together) and have zero sexual tension. It's even suggested that they were bathing together as late as their first year of high school.
- Lighter and Softer: The Manga remake (and erstwhile Anime adaptation thereof) compared to the original webcomic. It still deals with some dark topics, but excises some other ones (like Shindou being a smoker, and early Tooru's dream about killing Miyamura out of jealousy over Hori.)
- Love Chart: Twice in Chapter 45. Hilarity Ensues.
- Love Dodecahedron: Sakura has a crush on Tooru, who has a crush on Hori, who went through a Relationship Upgrade with Miyamura while Yuki has a crush on "Konoha," Miyamura's alter-ego/"cousin," though she seems to have given up on him and has feelings for Tooru, who is in a fake relationship with her to discourage Yanagi, who has feelings for her, and Sawada has a crush on Hori.
- Love Epiphany: In chapter 59, Tooru realizes his feelings for Yuki. He makes a weird Love Confession to her, talking about "snow" (Yuki) and "cherry blossoms" (Sakura), without making any sense to anyone who takes it literally.
- Loves My Alter Ego: Yuki had a crush on Hori's "cousin," "Konoha." She gets over it when she finds out her mystery man is Miyamura, and she later to turns her attention to Tooru.
- Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: Hori isn't really what you'd call masculine, but she's very practical, loves horror films, is fairly strong, and shows a tendency to get violent (she used to be something of a bully towards Sengoku when they were kids, and her dad fondly remembers how when she was growing up, she gave him a lot of bruises). Meanwhile Miyamura enjoys baking, is frequently commented to have a pretty face, and is an absolute wimp when it comes to watching scary shows. Hori gets frustrated that Miyamura is in some ways "girlier" than she is.
- Men Use Violence, Women Use Communication: Usually inverted with Hori and Miyamura. Occasionally Miyamura will get violent, more so in the beginning then later on, but the amount of times he does so are rare enough to count on one hand. Hori on the other hand is far more prone to it, especially on the guys.
- Mental Health Recovery Arc: Miyamura is heavily implied to be suffering from depression before the start of the story, with his tattoos and piercing actually being a disguised form of self-harm, and the story follows his improving mental state as he falls for Hori and gets a group of supportive friends.
- Mistaken for Gay:
- Tooru (and by extension Miyamura) by some girls in chapter 10 when he proclaims that him being in class 1 was a result of “love”. He meant Hori, but given that he shouted that to Miyamura, assumptions were made.
- When Iura, Miyamura, and Tooru stay over at Sengoku's house for the night, Sengoku decides to try and look at Miyamura's body when he's sleeping, since he still remembers how he never took off his shirt when it came time to use the pool. Iura comes up to get his phone at just the wrong time in order for him (and eventually Tooru) to get the impression that Sengoku was bi.
- Motoko's crush and classmate, Kitahara, looks up to Iura a lot, but Iura himself gets worried that he might end up stealing the boy from her. The rest of his friends and even Motoko think there might be a man-crush there too.
- Mood Whiplash: Chapter 37 zigzags all over in tone, beginning with the girls talking about "sexy" eating habits that guys have and Hori worrying that her love for scary movies (and being less girly than Miyamura) might scare Miyamura away (and Hilarity Ensues when she tries and fails miserably to pretend to be scared of them) to Hori and Miyamura having sex, and Souta revealing he was at home when it happened when he confronts Miyamura about it. Only for things to end on a lighter note with Miyamura reassuring Souta that he won't take away his "big sister" from him and that he's his "big brother" too.
- My Sister Is Off-Limits:
- Averted, like the rest of his family Souta is encouraging of his sister's relationship with Miyamura. He only briefly approaches this trope in chapter 37, when he worries that he'll lose his big sister to Miyamura, but it dissipates when Miyamura promises he won't take her and will (still) be his big brother.
- Shu Iura plays this trope straight towards his sister Mokoto. In his spotlight chapter, by acting this way, he accidentally seduces the boy (Kitahara) that his sister was crushing on and brought over...much to his sister's chagrin.
- Nice Guy:
- Miyamura as we see him in the manga. He's verbally and physically non-violent unless provoked or forced, his attitude and actions towards Shindou notwithstanding. There is a chapter titled Nice Guy that shows him trying to be the complete opposite at Hori's behest. Even doing as much as being a little rude to his schoolmates has him in tears.
- Yanagi is almost frustratingly nice, given his polite speech patterns and his gentle, kind personality.
- No Antagonist: The story has no real villain that works against the protagonists, in fact, pretty much every character introduced is eventually added to Hori and Miyamura's extended friend group. This is lampshaded by Sengoku, who, when seeing Sakura breaking down crying after seeing Tooru and Yuki together, points out that one hard thing about this situation is that there is no villain; despite her hurting, no party involved in the conflict did anything wrong or acted with malicious intent.
- Not a Morning Person: Yanagi is terrible at getting up in the morning, and often destroys his alarms when they're attempting to awaken him at the expected time. He almost runs into trouble for this in school, given that his homeroom temporarily made a policy of punishing tardy students.
- Not What It Looks Like: While Hori and Miyamura are sent to get drinks, everyone starts discussing whether the two are dating or not, much to Tooru's consternation. When they start taking too long, the others start wondering if the two are "doing something", which just about sends Tooru into a breakdown. Only for the following conversation
to pretty much finish him off. (The real reason they took so long was because stuff kept getting dropped.) - Oblivious to Love:
- Miyamura does not believe that Hori could like him, despite just how close they are and how Hori acts towards him sometimes. Mostly due to his overwhelming insecurity, as he finds it impossible to believe he belongs around someone popular like her.
- Hori was oblivious to Tooru until he confessed. Tooru, meanwhile, doesn't seem to notice that Sakura has feelings for him. Or Yuki.
- Tooru seemingly figured out Sakura has a crush on him in Chapter 48, but he had to go through a misunderstanding with Miyamura first.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: Inverted. Everyone in the Hori household take to Miyamura immediately. Souta, Yuriko, even Kyosuke when he's done trolling him. Kyosuke probably has a closer relationship with him then he does his own kids.
- It's suggested in chapter 31 that Chika's parents don't like Shindou. Shindou says it's because he had to repeat a year, Miyamura implies it's because of his personality. Later in chapter 63 he says they outright despise him, and that their disapproval is hurting him, to the point he considers breaking up with Chika. Miyamura encourages him to love Chika despite her disapproving parents.
- Odd Couple:
- Hori and Miyamura.
- Miyamura and Tooru.
- Miyamura and Shindou are considered this in-universe by their very unpleasant middle school classmates.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Miyamura in chapter 38 when Hori gets ticked off by some very rude and spiteful former classmates of his. Right before she beats them up.
- There tend to be a lot of Oh, Crap! expressions whenever Hori is particularly angry—especially after Miyamura's Important Haircut and the ensuing female attention he receives.
- One Dialogue, Two Conversations:
- In an early chapter, Hori and Miyamura lose a game and must go off to buy drinks for their friends. When they return, Ishikawa is under the impression that they got physical with each other, especially when Miyamura apologizes for doing "it." It turns out that Miyamura was only talking about accidentally dropping Ishikawa's soda and was apologizing in advance for it exploding on him.
- In Chapter 66, Kyosuke shows up in front of Miyamura's school (well-groomed to his surprise) and meets Tooru Ishikawa. The resulting dialogue has Tooru think that Kyosuke is Miyamura's biological father (as Kyousuke just introduces himself as his dad), then thinks the two have some family issues when Miyamura calls him by his first name (and Kyousuke does a dramatic moment where he says he can call him dad). Tooru then wonders if he's Miyamura's step-dad or something else entirely. He never quite realizes that Kyosuke is Kyoko's father, and Miyamura's eventual father-in-law. Kyosuke may or may not have been stringing Tooru along, but Miyamura was just bad at explaining things.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: In chapter 43, Miyamura pretending to not be his usual Nice Guy self and instead being a little crass with his language seems to put his classmates on edge. The thought of Miyamura being aggressive and dominant seems to excite Hori, though.
- Pair the Suitors: Chapter 84 had a case of pairing the suitors of the suitors when it starts teasing Yanagi and Sakura (it simply changes the interaction she has from Miyamura in the webcomic to Yanagi). The two of them were originally interested in Yuki and Tooru, who in turn were originally interested in Miyamura and Hori. Similarly to the webcomic, nothing comes from this, and they graduate as platonic friends only.
- Pitbull Dates Puppy: When Hori's character starts being Flanderized into being short-tempered and aggressive, her relationship with Miyamura begins to focus on a contrast with Miyamura's forgiving and kind behavior.
- Portmanteau:
- The title of the spin-off manga is a combination of Hori and Miyamura's last names.
- Also how Kyouko Hori's name came to be, from her father Kyousuke and her mother Yuriko.
- Practically Different Generations: Hori was already in high school by the time Souta was in kindergarten. This is probably part of the reason why their parents always leave her in charge of taking care of him.
- Pretty Boy:
- Outside of school Miyamura becomes incredibly pretty. Lampshaded by Tooru:Tooru: And when you take off your glasses and tie up your hair, you become even prettier than many girls. That's unreasonable!
- Yanagi in-universe. So much so that Hori considers him better looking than Miyamura.
- Outside of school Miyamura becomes incredibly pretty. Lampshaded by Tooru:
- Relationship Upgrade:
- Hori declares that Miyamura is her boyfriend to get her father to stop hassling him and doubles as her answer to his confession.
- Tooru and Yuki also go from friends to pretend-dating to actual dating. Tooru, however, sees it as them being more than friends and less them becoming lovers.
- After Souta's suspension incident, he finally admits his feelings for Yuna when they're at Hori's house. They more or less come clean to each other about their feelings at that point.
- Secret Identity: Becomes necessary for Miyamura when Yuki comes to Hori's to give back her notes and he (in all his Pretty Boy glory) answers the door. Meet "Konoha," Hori's cousin.
- Secret Relationship: Hori and Miyamura. Not anymore as of Chapter 26. They serve as each-other's Secret-Keeper concerning their private lives.
- Selective Obliviousness: Though Tooru appears oblivious to Sakura's and Yuki's feelings for him, he has noticed that Yuki has been more careful around him ever since Hori and Miyamura's Relationship Upgrade.
- Serious Business:
- For both Miyamura and Sengoku, it's being allowed to sit out compulsory lessons in the school swimming pool. They have their own reasons—as well as feeble excuses to try and get out of it.
- For similar reasons, they want to avoid the sports festival as well, though Hori's encouragement has made Miyamura think differently.
- Sexy Discretion Shot: Just as Hori and Miyamura are going to have sex, the scene cuts off before anything else can be observed. The most we can gather is that Hori bit him on the neck afterwards.
- Shirtless Scene: Miyamura has a couple to show off his tattoos.
- Shipper on Deck: Souta, Hori's brother, since this would mean seeing Miyamura more often. Eventually, he starts deliberately staying out of the house so that the two can have some time alone together.
- Shout-Out: To Naruto. Chapter 5's in-universe manga “Skull Ninja Konoha”, where Miyamura get's his alias as Hori's cousin from. Bonus points for the character even looking close to Kakashi. The manga is referenced again in chapter 84/ webcomic chapter 98.
- Slice of Life: The overarching plot of the series is the growing relationship between Hori and Miyamura and their interactions with the people around them. Sometimes, the point-of-view switches to one of their friends or schoolmates.
- Snow Means Love: Miyamura asked Hori to marry him when she was waking him home in the snow on Christmas.
- Stalker with a Crush: Honoka Sawada initially appears to be with for Miyamura until it turns out Hori's the one she actually likes.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Miyamura and Souta think on an identical wavelength on occasion, usually to Hori's irritation.
- Strong Family Resemblance:
- When Hori's father shows Miyamura some high school pictures of Hori's mother, he remarks that she and Kyouko look remarkably alike. He then despairs at the thought of Souta growing up and looking like his old man. In a Flash Forward chapter featuring high school-aged Souta and Yuna, this is exactly what ends up happening.
- Sengoku's father and his two nieces look exactly like older and younger versions of Sengoku.
- Stepford Smiler: Yuki. Cruelly played for drama in various chapters that focus on her.
- Student Council President: Sengoku.
- Supreme Chef: Sakura is seen as this by her classmates.
- Teacher/Student Romance: Yasuda Shin, the school's English teacher, pervs on the highschool girls he teaches, but hasn't actually done anything (yet). Everyone either threatens to report him to the police (in the case of Miyamura and Sengoku), or just threatens him (in the case of Terajima-sensei) if he tries anything.
- He briefly thinks his feelings are reciprocated by Yuki in chapter 52 when she comes running toward him, yelling his name. She was just looking for “a suspicious person” for the school festival's scavenger hunt.
- Teens Are Monsters: Sawada turns out to be bullied by a couple of her peers in high school. Luckily, Miyamura comes in to help her on that front, especially since he's had more than enough experience with that.
- Theme Naming: In chapter 84, Yanagi mentions how his name means "Willow" and Sakura's means "Cherry Tree".
- Through His Stomach: Hori often cooks for Miyamura as thanks for helping her with her little brother among other things. At one point, she even asked what his favorite food was so that she could make it as tomorrow's dinner. When it turned out to be stew (a dish she despises), she makes it anyway.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: After chapters of playing the boke to his friends, and even more of him lamenting never attracting female attention, Iura finally nabs the attention of a female underclassman (Sanada's classmate) and receives a Valentine's chocolate from her in the "Valentine's Day" two parter.
- Uncanny Family Resemblance: A picture in chapter 25 shows that Yuriko Hori (in her late teens/early twenties) looked identical to her daughter (with her eyes closed, natch).
- Wham Line:
- Two in Chapter 37. The first foreshadows Hori and Miyamura are going to have sex, and the second reveals Souta knew about it.Hori: [in narration] Perhaps that one word [Izumi] was what started it all.
Souta: [to Miyamura] "Are you guys always doing stuff like that?" - Yuki act as she read one in chapter 58, when she sees Tooru's messages.Tooru(message): Kouno-san asked me out today. So uh...
- Two in Chapter 37. The first foreshadows Hori and Miyamura are going to have sex, and the second reveals Souta knew about it.
- What Does She See in Him?: In the beginning, Tooru asks what Hori sees in Miyamura. He "sees" it, later on. After the Relationship Upgrade, the other kids in school don't even try to be subtle when expressing their disbelief. Sawada, who also has a crush on Hori, asks this as well.
- Inverted with Yanagi. He had confessed to Yuki and she wants no part in it, but everyone can't help but wonder what she doesn't see in him— he's smart, kind, humble, and incredibly handsome. (Yanagi is a bit too perfect in Yuki's eyes. She wants someone normal.)
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Heights for Tooru, bugs for Sengoku.
- Will They or Won't They?:
- Hori and Miyamura. They do.
- Tooru has this with both Sakura and Yuki. He rejects Sakura, but doesn't actually get with Yuki either.
- Whole Episode Flashback: Chapter 197 (adapted from the webcomic) is a flashback about how Hori's parents met.
- Workaholic: Hori's mother, to the point where she's rarely at home which forces Hori to take care of her brother.
- Would Not Hit a Girl: Kind of. Miyamura says he'd have headbutted Sawada if she wasn't a girl, hinting at this trope. He also (very unwillingly) will hit Hori (as she likes it, but practically has to badger him to do it).
- Yamato Nadeshiko: Yuriko, Kyouko Hori's mother shows this during her high school years. She sternly but politely tells Kyosuke he should never hit girls, then slaps the underclasswoman trying to intimidate her, while smiling.
- You Must Be Cold: At one point another classmate gives Hori his jacket to keep her legs warm, only for Miyamura to swap it for his sweater as soon as the first guy leaves. Hori is delighted, especailly since she'd spent the whole day looking for proof that he got as jealous of guys fawning over her as she did of girls fawning over him.
Tropes applying exclusively to the original Hori-san and Miyamura-kun and Omake:
- Art Evolution: The original's art was more lanky and looked like quick sketches. By Omake, it's still a relatively simple style, but it's much cleaner and rounder.
- Book Ends: The first and last volumes of Hori-san and Miyamura-kun have the titular characters in the same placement. It shows them at the beginning of their relationship for the first volume, and for the last it has them as a married couple.
- Changing of the Guard: Some of the chapters in Omake will focus on the ongoing adventures of either Souta and Yuuna in high school or the Hori/Miyamura and Sengoku/Remi children. At that point, Hori, Miyamura and crew have already had their fill of high school adventures.
- Distant Finale: The ending of the main story of the original webcomic is set years after the graduation of the protagonists. Souta now goes to the same high school as Hori and Miyamura, where the pair is now quite famous among the students. We also see an adult Hori and two children who are inferred to be daughter of Sengoku and Remi and the son of Hori and Miyamura.
- High-School Sweethearts: Hori/Miyamura and Sengoku/Remi end up being this in the future, with their children shown in the Distant Finale. Hori's parents are also this trope.
- Important Haircut: The strip "March 10" shows that at one point, Hori will cut her hair to shoulder length. She keeps her hair that way in adulthood, too.
- Like Father, Like Son: Sengoku's father and Kyousuke were friends in high school and grew up together. Likewise, Sengoku and Hori are forced to interact with each other as children and later become good friends. At the end of the story, Hori's son Kyouhei and Sengoku's daughter Shizuru become childhood friends, starting off the next cycle.
- Interquel: Omake, which does more stories about the gang during their high school years before the Distant Finale of the original webcomic. It's for this reason that the Horimiya manga can just pick stories from Omake to adapt in the regular series.
- Mistaken for Gay: Chapter 7 has the same situation as Horimiya's chapter 10.
- Name and Name: The original title. The remake's title is more of a Portmantitle, but keeps the original as the subtitle of the manga.
- Screw Yourself: Miyamura imagines that he can see a past version of himself one chapter. They end up kissing with tongue near the end of it, and neither of the two seemed awkward about that prospect.
