June 30, 2005
Honey and Clover Chapter 10
The gang goes for a ferry trip to Odaiba in the freezing December weather, where the girls and Morita pig out on their interesting tastes in food while Mayama gives Takemoto advice on his feelings for Hagu via every blogger's favourite storytelling device, a montage! After they disembark they find the park they're visiting's completely empty, and they rush to grab seats on the second biggest ferris wheel in the country (yes, finally the ferris wheel shows up) - Morita deviously shoves Mayama and Yamada together, while he boards with Takemoto and Hagu. The atmosphere is tense until Morita breaks it in rather spectacular style - however, surprisingly enough he apologises for his crazy behaviour! Obviously he's not totally inhuman after all. We don't find out what happened to Mayama and Yamada, but the gang heads for home a little less stressed than before.
Random things to note - the coffee Morita drinks when Yamada's reminiscing about Mayama has the initials JCS on the top, as in JC Staff. Plus I could SWEAR that Hagu did one of Sakura Kinomoto's "hoeeee!" noises at one point.
You know, nothing happens in Honey and Clover at all, really. I can see us having a completely non-commital ending when it finishes - perhaps they'll all go off and get jobs in random parts of the country where they won't see each other any more or something. But what the hey, it's still great fun to watch.
Thanks very much to Omni for noting what the insert song is this time round, incidentally. I've been really impressed with the music used from Spitz and Suga Shikao in the anime thus far, and I'm looking forward to hearing the new ED whenever it starts.
Yes, I heard the "Hoeeee" too, heh.
Posted by: Naddie at July 2, 2005 01:28 AMI think that the montage was important because it showed a lot of Hagu material, which emphasised for me just how weird she is. I had gotten over her being short, and reconciled myself to her being 19-ish, but now I'm kind of regressed.
Posted by: Alex Doenau at July 3, 2005 01:41 AMMy problem with Hagu is that she doesn't just look like a child, she actually seems to be on the level of one, in every aspect. An exceptionally talented child, but a child nevertheless. I mean, she speaks like a little girl, she behaves like a little girl, and apparently her thoughts and feelings are mostly those of a little girl. It's kind of disconcerting to me, because at first I, too, thought that she was just very short and kind of weird, like many artists are, but no, the fact seems to be that she actually IS a child, psychically. Maybe it's because living with her grandma, practically isolated from everyone, she's never really had experiences that would have helped her mature; and also, since everyone treats her like a little girl, her natural reaction is to behave like one (plus it's easier for her that way).
This is why I wouldn't really like her to get together with Takemoto, romantically, at least not until she is emotionally mature enough (the same goes for Takemoto, but at least HE will certainly progress, if the anime follows the manga). Takemoto treats Hagu like a doll, like a child that needs to be protected, looked after, etc., and she behaves accordingly with him. It's very sweet and all, but I just can't see it as a relationship between equal partners. (In fact, the only one who seems to be treating her as an equal is Morita... if only because he, too, is often pretty childish himself, and very awkward in expressing his feelings.)
Posted by: kuromitsu at July 3, 2005 02:56 AMOK... maybe... just maybe I can accept the fact that Hagu is 19. But two years have passed? No way. I just couldn't grasp that whole passing of time. The montage didn't help, even though I loved all the cute Hagu moments.
Posted by: newt at July 4, 2005 09:22 AM