The Horimiya Season 2 anime will have Kyoko Hori and Izumi Miyamura taking their relationship to the next level. And two new Hori-san to Miyamura-kun OVA episodes are releasing in May 2021. But when will Horimiya Season 2 come out?
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.
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.
Horimiya Season 2 release date predictions: Sequel renewal likely
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 Horimiya Season 2 release date. Nor has the production of a Horimiya sequel been announced.
Once the news is officially confirmed this article will be updated with the relevant information.
In the meantime, it’s impossible to speculate about when, or if, the Horimiya Season 2 premiere date will occur in the future.
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 it remains to be seen whether Horimiya will become a multi-season anime.
It’s predicted that the Horimiya Season 2 anime will be renewed by the anime production committee. The main issue is whether there is enough source material for the anime to have a quick turnaround.
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 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 in May 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, in the Horimiya Season 2 anime, the relationships of Hori and Miyamura’s friends will also 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.
It’s very likely that some of these later chapters will be adapted out of order in order to give Episode 13 the perfect 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 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 will pick up again in Volume 4: Chapter 21. The episode starts by adapting the story where Miyamura doubts himself and Hori has a major misunderstanding after Miyamura is spotted linking arms with another school-age girl.
Considering the anime’s pacing, it’s likely that Horimiya Episode 8 will adapt the sex scene of manga Chapter 37.
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.
All in all, it’s predicted that the finale, Horimiya Episode 13, will find a stopping point in Volume 10: Chapter 64.
Warning: The following paragraph includes major spoilers.
Chapter 63 is the best climax for Episode 13 since it includes the shocking marriage proposal. But Chapter 64 is the best stopping point since it only seals the moment by resolving their feelings rather than ending on just a cliffhanger.
The good news is that this stopping point leaves plenty of room for Horimiya Season 2. Some of the funnier skipped content could also be adapted by the second season.
Better yet, English-only manga readers who wish to read ahead of the anime can pick up the English Volume 10 right away.
Hori-san to Miyamura-kun Season 2 anime spoilers (plot summary/synopsis)
The last time we watched the anime, Hori and Miyamura decide 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 have to wait until the Horimiya Season 2 release date to watch what happens next. Stay tuned!
