The much-awaited continuation of Horimiya Season 1 finally premiered on the 1st of July, 2023 with the first episode of Horimiya: The Missing Pieces.
Horimiya: The Missing Pieces Episode 1 Plot
The first episode of Horimiya: The Missing Pieces is titled “The Journey Begins”. It starts with Hori reflecting on her high school experiences after graduation, and then it cuts to a flashback of her school trip to Kyoto.
https://youtu.be/UpF4oivxz_I
The School Trip
With Omoinotake performing the opening theme song “Shiawase” (Happiness), we start the flashback to Kyoto Hori and her friends – Yuki, Miyamura, Toru, and Shuu – go sightseeing, visit temples, and eat delicious food. Yuki is the most excited out of them all since it was her first time in Kyoto and Shuu, simply because that’s his character trait.
He was the most prompt out of them all to collect souvenirs since they barely stepped place into the city. Hori and Miyamura had already been to Kyoto before for their middle school trips separately but they still looked forward to making new memories in an old place.
As Toru and Shuu always bicker with each other, Miyamura and Hori wonder if things will go smoothly on this trip. Things are off to a rocky start as Shuu collects their hotel room key but goes in first and falls asleep, locking Miyamura and Toru out, which makes Toru almost knock the door down.
The Public Bath DebacleÂ
It’s time for the group public bath which only spells disaster for Miyamura because his tattoo-covered torso would be on display and that would mean unwelcome interrogations. In an attempt to dissuade Shuu from dragging Miyamura into the bath, Toru makes up the most ridiculous story ever to get him out of the situation- Miyamura is not feeling well because he is on his period.
This makes all the boys around stand in shock and give Miyamura a much welcome but more awkward space.
Dejected and exhausted, Miyamura is about to drag his body to his room when he meets Hori in the hallway who invites him into her room to use the shower as the girls have an attached bathroom in their room.
Fresh out of the shower and feeling better, Miyamura thanked her but hesitates before asking whether she would let any guy in her room, unguarded if he was in a tight spot. Taken aback by this question, Hori honestly answers that she obviously wouldn’t do that and she only let Miyamura in because he isn’t like other guys.
However, the air is still tense between them when Miyamura leaves the room without saying anything else. The next day, the group goes sightseeing and Horimiya tells Miyamura that he can use the washroom whenever he wants to but he turns her down because he found a schedule that opens the bath for latecomers and won’t contain any students that he might run into.
Hori is still flustered by his question from last night but maintains her cool in front of you. And just like that the rest of the holidays flow by as we see all their memories in a photograph.
The Uniform Debate
Back at school, Remi accidentally douses Miyamura while watering the garden and she apologizes by taking him to the infirmary and offering him a towel to dry himself with.
When Miyamura does not take off his soaked cardigan, Remi wonders why he goes to such lengths to cover his body and never participates in the swimming classes either but rather opts for running during P.E. class.
Miyamura dodges the question by saying that the council president, Sengoku also runs with him but Remi says she doesn’t mind when he does that because she already knows his reason behind doing so.
Sengoku is self-conscious of his slender body but for Remi, that’s one of his many charming features. Since she doesn’t know Miyamura’s reason, she is overly curious and even goes on to imagine that he is a girl posing as a boy.
This was Miyamura’s final straw as he meets with Toru to discuss ways to make the people around him less suspicious about his attire and they go to extreme lengths like talking about trying on a sailor-moon uniform which reminds Miyamura of the unpleasant incident when he was caught by Toru while trying on Hori’s middle-school uniform. Joined by an unwilling Sengoku, the three boys lose track of the conversation and instead start bickering about their preference for a girl’s attire.
The Dreaded Swimming Class
Just when things have quieted down, Miyamura and Sengoku are called to Yasuda sensei’s office where he informs them that they must take one class of swimming lessons as per new school rules which devastates both of them. They try to come up with excuses because they’d rather be “publicly guillotined than be seen in a swimsuit”. Fed up with their antics, Yasuda sensei caves in and tells them he’ll try to make exceptions for them.
The exception turns out to be pool cleaning duty while the other boys swim. Both of them have to clean the pool bare-footed on a hot day but they would take that over swimming any day. The episode ends with Toru saying that there’ll be quite a few tremors since it’s the start of an explosive summer.
In conclusion, the first episode of Horimiya: The Missing Pieces has so far exceeded the expectations of the fans with its funny ad-libs and great build-up and delivered what it had promised in its trailer. You can watch the new episode on Crunchyroll.
