I am not going to lie on this one, I wasn't impressed with Himari's route at first, BUT it did get much better in the latter half of the Visual Novel. So despite the initial eye rolls, I had at the protags and Himari's initial interactions things got better.
I honestly at first had a hard time playing through this route after playing through Rina's and Yuzuyu's routes because of how they portrayed the MC. In the other two while he wasn't the brightest crayon in the box he had several other redeeming features that made you overlook that fact. However, in Himari's route, he really didn't have that many redeeming qualities at least till towards the end.
To say that you shouldn't go through this route however would be a lie, I think you just have to remember that the first half of the VN is going to be a rollercoaster ride of weird emotions and build-up to the point when they start dating, after that, I will say that it gets much better.
Himari was once the MC's childhood friend and living next to one another from the time they were in elementary school to middle school they grew up always being around one another. However, after the MC's mother moved to a new apartment they no longer had any contact with one another. And for a few years, they had no contact with one another which led to the end of their friendship for the most part. It wasn't until the 2nd year of high school that they were placed in the same class and started talking again.
Himari is unique in the fact that she is a high school student but appears to be younger, she also has a younger personality. That said she is pretty smart when it comes to most things but she isn't so good with the subject of sex or relationships. She is a partial Otaku and tends to have the eating habits of an old man.
The first half of the visual novel is the build-up stage and it is interesting, to say the least. It is not what I thought it would be but the two go through the ins and outs of re-establishing their friendship and then begin to expand on it to eventually start dating.
However, once the MC and her begin to start dating things move quickly, and at first, things are going pretty smooth, though I can say the relationship never actually goes bad but there are some things that the MC doesn't know until later in the route.
At first, they key their true relationship from their parents as they know that their mothers will be overly enthusiastic and will of course make a huge deal about it as they have been waiting for them to start dating for a long time. Eventually, though the two comes clean and of course they were right about what would happen, though it was all in good fun so it wasn't too bad for them.
It is during this time that they begin to discuss the disconnect between them and it is the MC that realizes that Himari had a crush on him for a long time and that it was her that decided that after he had moved to stop connecting with him. As they had grown up he and Himari were extremely close and it had earned the MC a bad reputation because he had few friends and even fewer friends than were boys. Over time Himari had realized that she was hurting the MC more than helping and in her mind, the only way to help him was to disconnect from him completely.
To that end she convinced herself she didn't love him any longer and that she would do what she could to work on herself and focus only on her own wants and desires that didn't include him. It wasn't until they reunited in High School that things changed. But instead of starting from the moment they were kids...she wanted to create a new relationship that wasn't one of pity or based on a sense of their childhood. Instead, she wanted to fall in love with the MC for who he was now and not what he was to her before.
The story ends with the two eventually graduating and moving in with one another after a while. They also decide to start a family and the ending shows their resolve with that in mind.
While this route was a bit...overdramatic and a bit of a strange take for the MC after playing through a few of the other storylines the ending I think was one of the more 'fulfilled ones. It felt like there was a sense of closure between the two and the story itself. While there could be more to their story, I think the ending for this one could stand on its own. Some would say that from the beginning she was best girl, and I guess from the normal meta she would be, but to me, I still feel like she wasn't. Not to say that didn't like Himari but she just wasn't what I was looking for.
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