Horimiya: The Missing Pieces

Episode 8

It's nice to have an episode that pretty much completely revolves around one character. While Akane was never that interesting to me compared to the rest of the main cast, there are still some nice things to take away from this episode. Akane reminds me of that person in high school who was always popular or got along well with people without them noticing. They have a warm and welcoming disposition with a hint of innocence that makes you feel like it'll feel good to be considered their friend. That was one of the more reliable aspects of this episode regarding Akane and Kakeru's relationship. Kakeru is trying to get closer to Akane even though he feels like he's not the type of person that Akane normally associates with, which leads to some cute, funny misunderstandings. It's nice to know that by the end, it was made clear that Akane interacts with people based on how they treat him and since Kakeru is kind of the more formal one of the main cast, it makes sense that he would be met with a bit more formality compared to everyone else who acts like random children half the time.

The second relatable aspect was the whole sleeping situation. I am not a morning person despite having a day job that requires me to get up at about six o'clock in the morning, so the whole idea of having multiple alarms and even friends to check up on you and make sure that you get out of bed resonated with me deeply. I'm not sure what joke they were going for with the alarm clock, though. Is the idea that Akane is so out of it in the morning that he doesn't realize he scrambles out of bed and throws his alarm clock on the ground? I couldn't tell if there was a supernatural undertone to it for the sake of comedy or if it was something that the characters were seriously considering. Despite that, it felt good to see Akane get along with everybody. This is an episode we got to see more of him compared to anything we got in the original season. I wish we could see more of him back then, but it's better late than never.

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Horimiya: The Missing Pieces is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.