From the popular TV anime “Horimiya” in Japan, pick up the main character Isumi Miyamura!
With a slightly dark and geeky front face and a really bad piercing and tattoo guy behind the scenes, we’re going to get into his true nature!

Source: ©HERO, Daisuke Hagiwara/SQUARE ENIX, “Horimiya” Production Committee: TV Anime “Horimiya” Official Website

Character overview of Izumi Miyamura

A male character that appears in Horimiya and Hori-san to Miyamura-kun.

His bangs are long enough to cover his eyes, and his back hair is long enough to cover his neck, which is quite long for a man.
Outside of school, he usually ties it up behind his back.
During the film, he cut his long hair for some reason, and seems to have kept that length since then.

In high school, his appearance and demeanor are somber and dark that people around him seem to think of him as an otaku.
Until he became friends with Kyoko Hori, he had few contacts with girls and didn’t seem to have any close friends with boys.

He actually has his ears pierced, which he hides with his hair to prevent teachers from pointing them out.
Outside of school, he wears a total of nine piercings, initially even on his lip.
He also has tattoos on his arms and back, and wears long sleeves at school all year round to hide his arm tattoos.

His facial features are androgynous, and he has long eyelashes and is quite handsome.
His personality is introverted and negative even outside of school, but it doesn’t mean that he has a communal disorder, he is friendly with children and treats superiors with respect.
After getting to know Hori-san and making more friends, he seems to be opening up to those around him little by little.

His voice actor is Kouki Uchiyama.
Mr. Yoshitsugu Matsuoka was in charge of the “Hori-san to Miyamura-kun” OVA version.

 A slightly different “duality”

As I mentioned earlier, Miyamura looks completely different at school and outside.
Inside the school, she looks like a nerd, but outside she looks like a rock musician.

Usually, a character that exhibits duality in appearance has the same duality in the inside as well.
However, outside of school, Miyamura looks like an outlaw, but his demeanor and way of speaking are gentle, not rude at all, and he’s not much different from his image at school.
If he had the split personality that he looks like, he would have been a run-of-the-mill template character.

It was Hori’s younger brother, Souta, who led Miyamura and Hori to meet.
Miyamura protected Sota, who fell and had a nosebleed, and took him home.

Of course, Miyamura at this time also looked very different from what he was wearing at school, so even though he was his classmate, Mr. Hori didn’t realize it was Miyamura at first.
However, even though he was dressed in a flirtatious outfit with pierced ears, he accepted Miyamura without any signs of caring.
Also, when we talked in the classroom before that, Mr. Hori had heard from his friends that “Miyamura is dark”, but when I actually talked to him, he laughed and said, “It’s not dark at all.” .

Later, when Miyamura was asked by her father what she liked about Mr. Hori, she replied, “He doesn’t judge people by their appearance.”
Although it was not shown on the surface, it seems that Mr. Hori’s response was extremely happy for Miyamura.

Since then, the distance between Miyamura and Mr. Hori has decreased rapidly, and through this, a different side of Miyamura has been revealed.

I like manga in general, but I’m not interested in goods such as figures.
The house runs a cake shop, and it seems that you can make cakes yourself.
Overall, his grades aren’t very good, and he’s particularly bad at Japanese, so he can’t say things like “warm” well (becomes “warm”). He is a normal high school boy who is a little clumsy.

On the other hand, Miyamura also has a natural temperament.

Miyamura doesn’t get angry at all, whether at school or at Hori’s house.
His calmness did not change even when Mr. Hori hit him with unreasonable anger, and he was thought to have a Buddha-like personality.

However, when Mr. Hori was accused by the student council president, Sho Sengoku, for unreasonable reasons, he headbutted him without question, revealing his anger.
In addition, Mr. Hori was bewildered when he saw his behavior in a rather harsh manner, such as unreservedly insulting his junior high school friend Koichi Shindo.

Getting mad at someone you love and swearing at your friends is a very common feeling and behavior that everyone has.
However, in the case of Miyamura, the expression of his emotions is quite extreme.
Normally, you are always calm and have no short temper, but under certain conditions you can surprisingly show your emotions honestly.

Miyamura is quite delicate and sensitive when it comes to human relationships, and is the type to try to come up with an answer after thinking about various things (sighs) about the remarks and actions of others.
Nevertheless, he can act rashly and make insensitive remarks.
These can be described as ‘duality’.

Are piercings and tattoos compensatory behaviors?

Miyamura has a lot of piercings and even tattoos, but he doesn’t clearly explain why, and Hori-san and others around him don’t even ask about it.
Therefore, the reason is not clearly stated in the work (at least to the extent that it will be animated), and it is necessary to find out the real intention through fragmentary recollections and remarks.

First of all, it seems that there are more than a few reasons for simply “I like it as a fashion”.
When Sota suggested a feather-like tattoo, he said “sparkling” with a sparkling smile, so there’s no doubt that he likes that.

However, Miyamura tries to hide his piercings and tattoos as much as possible at school, and he always changes clothes in the bathroom, especially when it comes to tattoos.
Of course, piercings are fine, but if a teacher finds a tattoo, you can be expelled from school, so it’s not unnatural to try to hide it, but I don’t bring it up in my private life at all, and I don’t even recommend it to others.
Before I knew it, I had stopped wearing piercings on my mouth, and it doesn’t seem like I have a strong preference for it.

The next possible reasons are “youthfulness” and “admiration for immorality”.
These are all plausible, but since I’ve been getting more tattoos since I entered high school, it doesn’t seem to be the only reason.

Another possible reason is “compensatory behavior for pain and sadness”.
As far as the depiction in the work is concerned, these are the most likely.

When humans experience unbearably strong pain or stress, their protective instincts work to alleviate the pain.
Because if you don’t, your heart will be broken.

Some methods of relieving are controlled by reason, while others are not.
Going to the batting center or singing karaoke to relieve stress is the most controllable way.
Hitting others or hitting objects belongs to uncontrolled means.

If the pain is too great, the brain will try to forget the traumatic event itself.
It can manifest itself in the form of amnesia, or it can create a different personality that takes over the pain.

If the pain is not as extreme as this, but general stress relief methods do not help, compensatory behavior due to physical pain may be used.
It is a forceful way of forgetting or distracting from emotional pain by experiencing intense physical pain.

The acts of piercing and tattooing are accompanied by two major stimuli: “physical pain” and “immorality.”
There is no guarantee that these will relieve the pain in your heart, but many people unconsciously seek them out.

Miyamura seems to have had a dark personality since childhood, and when he was in elementary school, he couldn’t enter the circle and was isolated even when he formed a pair.
Immediately after the flashback scene where he was gossiped about, a scene is depicted in which Miyamura, who became a junior high school student, pierced with a safety pin.
This is a depiction that strongly suggests “compensatory behavior for pain and sorrow.”

After getting acquainted with Mr. Hori, he had increased the number of tattoos, but he said, “I won’t do it anymore,” and it can be said that he doesn’t feel as stressed as before.

The fact that Miyamura has nine piercings is proof that he has felt pain for such a long time, and the fact that it has not increased since he met Mr. Hori suggests that his life has been fulfilling. I’m here.

summary

There are quite a few anime characters with tattoos, but there is almost no precedent for this in romantic comedies.
It was even said that Miyamura’s tattoo was the reason why Horimiya was not adapted into an anime for a long time despite being a popular work.
I’m looking forward to seeing how it will be expressed in the anime!