Cinnamon Ass - Reborn Like a Zombie

Honey and Clover Chapter 7

Hanamoto-sensei has "bad" news for Hagu in particular - he's going to Mongolia to work on a book with his old teacher. This episode basically tracks everyone's reactions to this - Hanamoto-sensei says goodbye to Rika, who obviously cares far more for him than she does for Mayama, whilst Hagu reflects on how Hanamoto-sensei was there for her when her grandma died. Hanamoto-sensei sets Hagu a task to take her mind off things - find him a four leaf clover. The others all pitch in to help, but unfortuntely none of them manage to find one - but of course, that wasn't really the point, and it looks like Hagu will be fine for the year.

It's really very difficult for me to write the summaries for Honey and Clover - it's the subtle moments that I can't really briefly skim over that make the show, such as the scene where Mayama gives a bracelet to Rika or Hagu's tearful apologies to Hanamoto-sensei, quite so special. The direction also seems pretty deft at this point - none of the major characters ever feel like they're being sidelined for any reason, and this episode even managed to pull off a cheesy montage sequence without being bad!

The animation was rather Gainax-esque this episode - I watched an episode of FLCL last night and the somewhat jerky and occasionally comedic movements of the characters here really reminded me of that. Also, everyone appears to have incredibly tiny hands. Nevertheless, I liked the look of the episode because it suited the comedy moments really very well indeed, and given how bad Speed Grapher seems to be getting I'm grateful for decent animation at the moment!