Horimiya: The Missing Pieces

Horimiya: The Missing Pieces – All the Tea, None of the Scandal (Fans Did the Rest Themselves)

If you were hoping Horimiya: The Missing Pieces hid a secret den of cheating co-stars, screaming directors, and lawsuit-flinging producers…sorry. The actual production is suspiciously wholesome. But don’t leave yet: the fans have created enough drama, controversy, and chaos to fuel a whole CW reboot.

Cast Vibes & Behind-the-Mic Chemistry

• The closest thing to “cast gossip” is how disgustingly well the English leads get along. In a 2023 interview, Alejandro Saab (Miyamura’s English voice) and Marisa Duran (Hori’s English voice) talk about working together again on Hell’s Paradise and literally call it a “reunion,” with Saab joking he nicknames it “Bloody Horimiya.”
• They describe a level of comfort that sounds like rom-com chemistry, but purely professional: Saab says their recording chemistry is so good that even when the other hasn’t recorded yet, they already know how they’d read the line; Duran adds “there’s just a trust between us now.” ^[1]
• Translation: no feuds, no diva meltdowns, no “we recorded separately because we can’t stand each other.” Just two VAs who know each other’s rhythms frighteningly well. Very on-brand for Hori and Miyamura, annoyingly un-messy for gossip.

Scandals & Controversies (All Fictional, All Fought Over Like It’s Real)

The Miyamura Haircut War

• When Miyamura chopped off his long hair in the original 2021 anime, a chunk of the fandom went nuclear, and the discourse has kept echoing into the Missing Pieces era.
• A widely shared critique argued the haircut turned him into a “generic manga protagonist” and framed it as him changing to be “more acceptable” as Hori’s boyfriend, sending the wrong message about altering yourself for love .
• Fans still bicker on Reddit, TikTok, and Instagram about whether the cut represents growth or betrayal of his original identity. There are full video essays and edits dedicated solely to defending or dragging that one salon visit. ^[2][3]

The “If You Cheat, Do It with a Girl” Line

• Episode 10 of the 2021 series has Hori quip to Miyamura, “If you’re going to cheat on me, at least do it with a girl,” and that one line detonation-radiated across Western fandom.
• Anime blogs and reviewers flagged it as a major blemish; one review notes how the episode sparked controversy because the joke mixes jealousy with a throwaway bit of homophobia-coded insecurity .
• Reddit threads framed it as “terrible messaging,” while others defended it as an in-character, insecure teenage outburst ^[4].
• Missing Pieces quietly sidesteps this whole minefield, but discussions about Hori’s “problematic” tendencies still haunt every Horimiya space online.

Studio Drama by Proxy: CloverWorks vs. The Fans

The “You Butchered My Manga” Backlash

• Long before The Missing Pieces aired, CloverWorks was shredded on forums for how the 2021 anime crammed 123 chapters into 13 episodes. Fans accused the studio of “skipping large chunks” and rushing the adaptation so hard it felt like a highlight reel .
• Commenters complained that whole emotional arcs and side stories were dropped or flattened, fueling the narrative that CloverWorks “butchered” the pacing ^[6][7].
• Industry-savvy fans later pointed fingers at the production committee rather than the animators, but CloverWorks’ name still gets dragged anytime adaptation quality comes up .

Enter: Horimiya: The Missing Pieces

• BuzzFeed explicitly frames Missing Pieces as a 13-episode “collection” designed to delve into “untold stories and behind-the-scenes moments” that shaped Hori and Miyamura’s relationship — in other words, the stuff the 2021 series skipped .
• It’s not a traditional sequel; it’s more like an apology bouquet of side stories. Even then, reviewers note that the pacing is still quick and some side characters’ subplots feel undercooked, hinting at ongoing constraints behind the scenes ^[5].
• So no one got sued, but fan pressure clearly bent the production schedule enough that an entire “fill-in-the-gaps” season was made to calm the mob.

Dub Wars & Voice-Acting Hot Takes

The Hori Dub Dispute

• On Reddit, some viewers tore into the English dub, calling it “particularly terrible,” with Hori’s voice singled out repeatedly. One thread complains that her performance sounded “too mature” and that the delivery felt off compared to the Japanese track .
• Other fans rose to Duran’s defense, praising the emotional nuance and internal monologue work, leading to the eternal battle of “SUB GANG” vs “DUB IS FINE, TOUCH GRASS.”
• No reports of actual conflict among the cast or staff — just fans ready to duel over whether Hori should sound more teen, more bratty, or more grounded.

Wild Trivia & Fandom Theories

A “Side Stories” Season Born from Complaints

• BuzzFeed notes that Missing Pieces exists specifically to showcase the “behind-the-scenes moments” and skipped manga material that didn’t make it into the first adaptation ^[5]. Fans on social platforms have jokingly branded it “Horimiya: The Fix-It Season,” since it patches in school trip chapters, sports festivals, and extra relationship beats ^[5].

Endless Debates Over What’s STILL Missing

• Even with Missing Pieces, Reddit and review blogs insist some arcs still feel incomplete or rushed, particularly for the side couples ^[5][6].
• Result: a cottage industry of fan edits, “chronological cuts,” and wishlists for a mythical Ultimate Horimiya Edit that would stitch the 2021 run and Missing Pieces into the “perfect” adaptation.

The verdict? Horimiya: The Missing Pieces might be one of the cleanest productions in recent rom-com anime—no cheating co-stars, no drunk con drama, no lawsuits. The real spectacle is us: a fandom that turned a haircut, a single jealous line, and some skipped chapters into years of ongoing discourse. Hori and Miyamura may be healthy as a couple; their fanbase, gloriously, is not.