Hachimitsu to Clover - Completed on 14/03/2015
Favorite Quotes Mayama"One moonlit night, in the summer of two years ago... I carried her to her bed after she had collapsed in the shower after work ... And just spent several hours looking up at the sky. Is her painkiller wear-off? Rika-san, are you alright ?Hirada Rika, talking in her sleep I was having a scary dream, Harada-kun. I'm so glad that you're by my side .. MayamaAnd then, as she awoke from her dream, her eyes became more and more transparent ... For the first time in my life I heard the sound of someone's heart breaking."
Review
So this is anime that I have been watching for the past week, and it’s truly amazing, it tackles a period of our lives that traditional anime neglects, adulthood especially right after the completion of post-secondary education.
“When I was young, I wondered how far I could pedal my bicycle before looking back” – Takemoto.
Honey and Clover marked my first anime within the genre of Josei, a genre usually aimed towards young women, but regardless I found it to be a refreshing, profound, and powerful anime. It has to be the single best anime I have seen up till this point. Watching this show you will realize something, specifically if you are in your final years of institutionalized education, that you need to redefine the purpose of your life, what you want to achieve, and why ? For me, I’m watching this show a month before I myself am leaving the realm of Undergraduate studies, and the connection you will feel to this show is indescribable. People know that whatever is worth having isn’t easy. I take that to be the over-arching theme in Honey and Clover, whether it be success, love, or self-realization, nothing that you can have strong thoughts about comes easy.
Yamada Ayu, is a prime example of that, she is the daughter of a Liquor Store owner, a store that’s been in her family for generations. She is the prized catch of the shopping district, and an overall strong and level-headed girl. For Yamada, the source of all her pain is her unrequited love for Mayama her childhood friend that she’s been infatuated for as long as she can remember. Mayama on the other hand can’t let her savor those feelings, and he turns her down romantically throughout the series. With the idea that the one person she loves can’t reflect her feeling, Yamada is a sad character, she drinks heavily to mask the pain she feels inside, and tries lecturing Mayama about the way of living in normal society. Mayama on the other hand, is the coolest cat around, I mean I would love to be this guy, he’s attractive, well mannered, has a solid career plan, and is as tenacious as a lobster, once he has something in his claws, he can’t let it go. Enter Rika-san, one of 4 female characters in this show, and the most reserved, cold, yet at the same time sentimental, pretty, and delicate. Rika-san was married to Harada-kun until he died in an accident, which severely disfigured her body. Through working at Harada Design Firm, via an internship, most of which was completed at the Rika-san’s house, Mayama one day found her collapsed in the shower, and then spent the whole night with her, though she was heavily burned from the accident, Mayama still saw some kind of beauty in her, a precious, reserved coolness that engulfs his young heat. Over the course of their relationship Mayama, and Yamada go through various trials such as a result of the rejection of Yamada, the introduction of Nomiya-san, and various celebrations where Yamada is always uncomfortable around Mayama. The rest of their riveting love story is actually kinda of down played, as both parties try to look for the reason neither one won’t give up their position.
Hagu-chan perhaps characterizes the whole series in the best way possible, she is an innocent-looking colleague of Takemoto, and has an almost DaVincian talent when it comes to art. She grew up in a very strict household, being raised by her grandmother who as she lost her eyesight became more and more difficult towards Hagu-chan effectively stopping her from creating any art, by giving her loads of chores to complete. Takemoto, her and Shinobu comprise the second love triangle, although in this one Hagu’s guardian, the group’s sensai, Shuu-chan as she calls him is also a key player, although I think to be honest, it’s really just there for comedic effect. In many ways she is cursed by her talent, and because of it falls ill whenever she overworks herself. Hagu-chan is one of my favourite characters because of how content she is with life, she once says “That after I leave university, I’m going back to the farm, and all I need money for is rice, and art supplies. Living Tokyo is very expensive, and I don’t want to trouble Shuu-chan anymore”. She might seem like the quintessential fickle girl, but she is in-fact really grown up, I think her main presence in the story is to show viewers their prejudices, maturity, and wisdom are not things that one can simply learn, but have to be experience, you have to go through a lot of discomfort before you get to the end. I think that most people believe that she is just a child, but she can take care of her feelings even better than Ayu. If the group, had one adult it would have to be Hagu, the others are very unsure of what they want to accomplish, while she knows what she can accomplish, and what to leave behind. Her love interests for a good part of the show is known to be Morita, but following his premature trip to America she is more interested in Takemoto, again this is very subtle, don’t expect this anime to give you giant signs, a lot of what goes on is actually between the lines.
Finally the last character I will talk about is Harada Rika, the love interest of Mayama. She is really the most realistic, and virtuous female character I have ever seen. She was known at the “Ice Queen”. While Harada-san and Sensai were in Hamabi, slowly with perseverance Harada broke through that shield and into her heart, and she became extraordinarily happy. Following the accident, she has maintained her beauty, her character, and most respectable, as far as Japanese culture her devotion to her husband. So much so as to wear the same pair of shoes that her husband gave to her, even though she is slowly harming herself, since she relies on crutches permanently. Her character is the most self-sacrificing, whenever she thinks she is approaching happiness, all of a sudden, she tries to distance herself from that person. I don’t know really what to say about her, she’s one of those beautiful women that has the ability to drive men crazy even well into her adulthood, but all I know is that she is mysterious, and I hope that they really focus on her in the second season. When it is found out that Sensai, Harada, and Rika when to Hamabi together, and were in fact roommates, Mayama gets warned by Sensai, that her body is badly burned, even though she is actually hurting exponentially on the inside. To which Mayama says he’s aware of it, and still attracted to her.
The most significant aspect of Honey and Clover is the story, in that it is very non-traditional, a story about growing up, and not knowing what to do, having feelings for someone, that they’ll never reciprocate, and finding your way in life. Takemoto says something along the lines of when he was young, he wondered how far he could pedal his bicycle before he had to look back. In the end, Takemoto realizes that he was actually feeling an emptiness inside himself and that riding his bicycle would be a means to show him how much he really cared about people around him, and how much they meant to him. With this I will try to end my so called review of Honey and Clover, it’s a profound show, one that the Anime community will likely never see again. It’s horrifically accurate, take it from someone that knows, and don’t let the emptiness build up inside of you, take the chance and express yourself, your happiness in within your own reach. Thank you again for the recommendation, we’ll definitely talk more about it, and now on to season 2!
