Graduation arrives for Hori and Miyamura, which gives one last chance for things to get resolved. Somebody probably should have mentioned that to the author though.
This nearly gets me, it really, truly does. After waiting for such a long time, the saga of Hori and Miyamura comes to an end and just reuniting with all these old friends feels especially great. It starts even better by reminding the reader of how strong the art has always been.
There’s lots of silliness - Miyamura’s escapade at the graduation ceremony is just such unbridled glee and incredibly realized that it made me smile just seeing it. Remi’s extended bit stumping for the zoo makes for another great little moment as well.
We get a glimpse of what might have happened had nobody gotten together in the end. We get a very fun little bonus section that follows Hori’s brother in high school, plus another character who’s been with us for a while, along with their burgeoning romance.
It seems fantastic. But, then you look at everything that you aren’t getting. Do Hori and Miyamura really do anything romantic this volume? No. Is there closure for anybody else? No. All that fun stuff I just mentioned suddenly looks like a lot of wasted time when so much is left in the wind.
I get it, a lot of manga like to end nebulously, but this is a little much. I really did like the way that Miyamura comes to terms with how he was at the start of the series, but that’s just a retread of him talking to his middle school self.
And it’s not just Miyamura’s story anyway. I think I said it before, but you could write a paper about how badly Hori got done by this series; she just got meaner and meaner as things went on and it’s one thing to be a girl boss and another to be a grump all the time. It’s like her dimensions got sanded down as the series went on.
Make no mistake, I am always being hard on Horimiya because it was so incredibly good at the start. The first few volumes are sublime and, had it wrapped up or stayed focused on anything other than digressions, we’d be talking about an all-time classic. I know it’s still beloved, but the bitter aftertaste of all those wasted volumes will always be there for me.
Yet, in the moment, it’s stronger than it has been for a while and just turning your brain off turns this into one last hurrah with characters you’ve probably grown to love. Upcoming additional volume notwithstanding, of course. There is value to this, even diluted down.
And, of course, the one bit of closure they manage is to make sure one of my favourite characters is officially done dirty one more time. Thanks a bunch, book.
If you haven’t lost your love for this series, I think you will be happy with this. I know that high school isn’t the end of anything, but I’d like a little more finality than just trailing off into a bit of a shrug. I can safely say without the first eight volumes or so, however, nobody would care about this and, for me, this is the strongest example of a manga series that can coast for twice its length on goodwill entirely established at the start.
3.5 stars - I’m absolutely torn on this, but if I am realistic, it’s my history with the series that both buoyed this volume for me and sunk it at the same time. I think I’ll leave that sentiment there as my final statement, vague and nebulous, which seems about right.