Almost from the very beginning my fundamental sense with the Horimiya TV adaptation (the OVA too, though in different ways) has been disappointment and puzzlement.  A lot of strange choices (clearly the purview of director Ishihama, based on his own comments) which really limited the appeal of a flawed but often brilliant source material.  And that continues with Piece, though it’s less about this sequel itself than the circumstances of its existence.  And while I very much want to cover it, I’m getting the sense that it’s going to be very difficult for me to justify doing so.

What seems obvious to me is that Ishihama sees Horimiya basically as a school comedy first and a character story and romance second.  That was apparent in his choices for an admittedly way too-short 13-episode first season.  And it continues to be here.  The manga is weird that way – it kind of peaks as a drama very early and does trend more in the sitcom direction.  But there’s so, so much good material the first season ignored, and so far there’s no evidence Piece is going to include it (which was my sincere hope for it).  I like the stuff involving Kyouko’s family (and Izumi’s too, in limited fashion) very much for but Ishihama, it’s as if that part of the story barely exists.  And I don’t get it.

That leaves me in a situation where if I blog Piece, it’s probably going to quickly degenerate into mostly me bitching about what it isn’t rather than talking about what it is.  That’s no fun for anybody, not least me.  Again, these chapters  – undokai being the theme this time – are fine in a vacuum.  But they would work much better as they were written, as diversions intercut into the main plot.  Standing alone I find them pretty boring for the most part, to be honest.  I never felt this sort of comedy was HERO’s strength, and while Ishihama is a skilled director his raw materials are what they are.

I don’t know why food analogies always seem to suggest themselves with Horimiya, but this season is like a multi-course French meal.  All the little palate cleansers you’re served between courses serve a purpose, but they were never designed to be an entire meal by themselves.  And Piece is like Ishihama took all those palate cleansers, stacked them on a platter, and called it a meal.  At best there’s enough substance there for a snack, and therein lies the problem for me – both as a viewer and a reviewer.