May 7th, 2005
Mayama muses on his relationship with Rika (the “disabled” woman), while coming into conflict with Shuuji, who has known Rika since college and still entertains feelings for her. Hagu suffers a massive panic attack after she gets picked on by some other students, so Takemoto looks after her while Morita totally doesn’t grasp the situation.
Then, it’s Christmas! Christmas is traditionally not a happy time for Takemoto, as his mother used to work all the time (as a nurse), but things perk up when Santa Morita invites everyone to a party (involving such Yuletide traditions as…spaghetti…), which ends with drunken antics for all - except Rika, who stands by an unknown grave, alone…
In a series of superlative episodes, this one stands out as the best yet. While none of them have thus far really totally captured the utter insanity of episode 1, Honey and Clover really hits a dramatic high here with backstory and angst a-plenty, even alongside Morita’s bizarre antics (the “Moon River” section was brilliant, and SO appropriate!) and Yamada’s Tetsujin displays. It’ll be interesting to see how the Mayama/Shuuji situation plays out, but to be honest I find all the relationships in Honey and Clover compelling so that’s not exactly saying much…
Seriously, though. Spaghetti at Christmas?
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April 30th, 2005
It’s the end of the summer holidays, and Hagumi is about to return to college. She decides to hold a soba party, but Mayama and Morita fail to turn up - Mayama has girl trouble and Morita’s dad spirits him off. Hagu shows Takemoto her room and her homemade dolls, which leads to disaster for Takemoto as he foolishly decides to please her by offering to make some clothes for them - she picks the Rococo Style, much to his chagrin.
The following day, while heading into college, Takemoto sees Mayama helping a mysterious girl in a car before Yamada (from the last episode) comes and attacks him. Takemoto spies the mysterious girl in the infirmary walking with a crutch, but Dr. Hanamoto sidesteps his attempts to probe him on her identity and relationship to him, whil Hagumi gets upset over her lack of female friends. Finally, Yamada confronts Mayama once more about why he always runs away from her, the outcome of which leaves her utterly confused about her feelings for him, with only Morita to comfort her.
Redundant statement - Honey and Clover is awesome. Every episode is absolutely packed with little juicy plot nuggets in the multitudinous strands running through the story, the voice acting and art are still top-notch, and it’s all perfectly put together.
My one quibble is this - why on earth does Yamada get cross with Mayama for running away from her attempts to talk to him when she basically beats him up in front of her classmates? Strange girl.
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April 22nd, 2005
It’s all about Hagumi this time round. Morita makes a creepy webpage devoted to her as a forest sprite that brings odd fanboys to her door, but later makes it up to her by buying a pair of shoes she wanted. Mayama convinces Takemoto to hold a teppanyaki party in the apartment after seeing how much he likes her, while Mayama himself reflects briefly on his past relationship with Yumi, a potter who makes friends with Hagumi.
Morita is one scary bloke.
I’m trying not to say the same things I said about the first episode here, but it’s proving rather difficult. Essentially, it’s another series based around Ye Olde Shoujo Cliche of people in school/college going through life and falling in love, a genre I actually have very little experience with (aside from KareKano, I don’t think I’ve watched any such series to completion before). Yet Honey and Clover is definitely an extremely good addition to the genre, and probably the best series I’m watching from the new season (I may love Aquarion, but it’s not exactly brilliant quality!). Surprisingly enough, I plan to keep on blogging this.
I was particularly pleasantly surprised by Hagumi’s voice acting this episode. Last time she only really had to do reactions (which she’s really very good at it seems) but her voice isn’t as fearsomely moe as I might have expected - obviously I’m applying shounen standards to shoujo, but it was a relief that she actually sounds vaguely normal and like her age rather than her size.
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April 15th, 2005
OP - Dramatic (Yuki) - the singer unfortunately appears to have something lodged in her rectum judging from her voice, but the song is pretty good - and what an AWESOME opening animation! Stop-motion stuff with bits of food, it’s crazy but really really cool - and the end will surprise you!
ED - Waltz (Snowhare, I think it romanises as) - it’s not a waltz, it’s in 4/4… half-decent poppy song with a little extra scene at the end with lots of spinning clovers and stuff.
Takemoto is a poor, struggling art college student in Tokyo, living in a dormitory with his upper classmen friend Mayama and the distinctly odd Morita amongst others. After the trials and tribulations of attempting to get Morita to class on time (involving photographic evidence, wooden scooters and balletic dancing), they meet the daughter of a cousin of their teachers, Hagumi Hanamoto, with whom all three become immediately smitten, although Morita goes to extraordinary lengths to show this.
Of course, there’s a lot more to the first episode of Honey and Clover than that, which Garten has already covered. As a school “slice of life” show in the grand tradition of many shoujo shows before it, it’s quite difficult to summarise what happened here (i.e. not a lot), especially there were a lot of shots devoted to establishing characters that we haven’t really met, such as Yamada (who has some kind of problem with Mayama).
But I must implore all of you out there to watch Honey and Clover, as I absolutely loved the first episode. I’m a sucker for shoujo, as I’ve said before, but Honey and Clover’s first episode was really well done, a rarity in these days where shoujo shows get very little in the way of budgeting. The show is part of Fuji TV’s “Noitamina” initiative, attempting to attract an older (i.e. college-age) female audience to late-night anime, and JC Staff appears to have pulled all the stops out - I once read that the studio aims to do shows that are “different” (note that their other offerings this season are Gokujyo Seitokai and Loveless!), and Honey and Clover certainly looks the part, with gorgeously detailed backdrops and a slightly “washed-out” look which, unlike Bleach’s fuzz-filter, gives everything a hazy, wistful atmosphere - think Saikano crossed with KareKano and you’ll have some idea of the visuals. While I don’t “get” shounen comedy, I’ve never had this problem with shoujo usually, and I actually laughed more than once!
It’s too early to tell much about a lot of the characters - Hagumi could potentially be a little annoying; although she’s amusingly cute and terrified of Morita, she’ll need a bit more substance before I fall for her - but after one episode I’m definitely interested to follow the slightly odd lives of the oddball cast.
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