Honey & Clover

A few days ago I finished watching season 1 of Honey & Clover, so I decided to write a brief post about my impressions.

Since I started watching anime about 2 years ago, I have been quite partial to slice of life stories. I enjoy animes like Diamond Daydreams, Welcome to the NHK, and Bartender. Of the relatively few animes I have seen over these last two years, Honey & Clover is definitely one of the best.

Honey & Clover follows the lives of five Japanese art school students as they each work through a very difficult period of change and self-discovery. The main characters are Yūta Takemoto, a shy yet earnest young 2nd year art student; Takumi Mayama, a serious student in his last year of art school; Ayumi Yamada, an attractive and extremely talented young potter; Shinobu Morita, an mysterious, insanely greedy yet strangely compelling individual repeating his "final" year of art school for the 3rd time; Hagumi Hanamoto ("Hagu" for short), a brilliant 18-year-old sculptor with the appearance and general demeanor of a much younger girl; and Shūji Hanamoto, an art school professor and guardian of Hagu, his late cousin's daughter.

Upon meeting her, Takemoto immediately falls in love with Hagu, whom he finds intriguing. Morita is also taken with Hagu, and expresses his feelings in ways that horribly frighten poor Hagu-chan, such as posing her to look like a forest fairy or a mouse and then frantically snapping picture after picture of his adorable creation. The beautiful Yamada, though adored by almost all of her male acquaintances, is in love with Mayama. Although aware of Yamada's feelings for him, Mayama is obsessed instead with an older woman by the name of Rika Harada. Rika had lost her husband in an auto accident and bears both the physical and emotional scars of that horrible day. As a result, she is withdrawn and aloof, pushing Mayama away out of fear of hurting him.

The tensions of this thorny situation are punctuated by moments of uproarious hilarity, almost always inspired by some outrageous plot or behavior of Morita's. In one such instance (episode 8), Morita creates a Twister-like game mat to give to Takemoto as a last-minute birthday gift, but he uses too many colors (such as lapis, moss green, ocher, mineral violet, and passion blue to name a few). The contortions needed to cover the proper colors result in both Morita and Takemoto injuring themselves during the game and collapsing in a depleted heap of lifeless limbs.

There are also moments of tender poignancy throughout. In one of the most memorable scenes (episode 6), Mayama has to carry Yamada, who has had too much to drink at a party, back to her house. On the way, Yamada breaks into tears, desperately repeating "suki" ("I love you"), to Mayama, who soberly acknowledges her with gentle grunts. She is precious to him, but he doesn't love her the way she loves him, and probably never will.

It is this delicate combination of pain and humor that make this anime such a pleasure to watch. After following the story of these characters, it is easy to become attached to them and to identify with their sadness as well as their joy. It was difficult having to watch it come to an end. I am sure it will be quite some time before we shall see the likes of another series so rich in heart and humanity and beauty.