Horimiya: Piece – 02 – No Slacking

With the fall sports day as a backdrop, this episode tells a number of vignettes that focus on the group’s shortcomings. Izumi and Kakeru may be boys, but they’re not athletic and have always loathed sports days, to the point they do a rain dance in the StuCo office. Sakura joins them, because she’s just loathing having to cheer as she’s singularly uncoordinated.

That said, Izumi becomes motivated when Kyouko tells him she won’t accept slacking. Whoops, my bad; he’s motivated when Kyouko tells him she’ll cheer for him. Even over the phone, Kouichi can tell that’s why. As for Sakura, she knows Tooru might be watching, so she accepts an offer of help from Yuki and ends up having fun practicing with her.

Poor, poor Sakura, always being grouped up with Remi and Sengoku for cooking class. The pair may make a cute couple, but they are downright hazardous in the kitchen. Just unspeakable, obscenely bad at everything having to do with cooking. They couldn’t cook rice in an automatic cooker.

Even so, Sakura tries her hardest to herd these two culinary cats and get them to make something. When that predictably fails, the rest of the class contributes a portion of their curry for them, out of pity. When Remi and Sengoku admit it will be hard for them to find spouses with their piss-poor skills, Sakura tells them if that happens she’ll marry them both. Now that’s friendship…and bigamy!

The final segment involving shortcomings deals with Kyouko’s tendency to get murderously jealous whenever Izumi so much as speaks to another girl. Her aura is so hostile both Izumi and the girl who forgot her textbook feel compelled to look back at her.

At her house, Izumi dodges and evades Kyouko, who isn’t angry and doesn’t want to hurt Izumi, but…just doesn’t want him looking at or talking to any other girls. Is that so much to ask? Probably!

The tables turn when Mizouchi notices Kyouko is a little chilly while painting a sign outside, filling in for Yuki. Mizouchi offers his jacked to cover her legs. When Izumi spots the jacket, he asks whose it is, and when he learns it’s Mizouchi, he takes it off Kyouko and replaces it with his warmer sweater.

He makes a quick swap when Mizouchi returns, but when Mizouchi leaves again, Izumi wishes he’d just keep walking forever. It’s then that Kyouko realizes Izumi is jealous, and that puts a huge charming smile on her face.

I don’t love these characters, nor do they love each other, because they’re perfect. I love them because they’re flawed and yet always ready to support one another; to lift each other up when one of them is down. That’s the Horimiya magic, and I’m glad to have it in my life.