Honey and Clover

TheCriticsClub★ 9

For many of us who watch anime, the medium can become something more than simply animated entertainment. Sometimes, we will find ourselves connecting on a deep emotional level with a character or characters in a show. Sometimes, the story will seem less like a fanciful escape and more like a reflection upon society or our individual lives. These are the kind of shows stick with us. They'll make us laugh, they'll make us cry, and sometimes they'll make us realize something new about ourselves. Honey and Clover is one of those kind of anime. Based on the manga by Chika Umino, Honey and Clover follows thelives of five fledgling artists and their journey through the exciting and simultaneously terrifying world that we know as college. Through the eyes of these five students and observe them them growing, affected by the years of challenging experiences through which they have gained many cherished friendships and also come to know the agonies of unrequited love. One of the most noticeable aspects of the series is the animation. The bold, hard lined style you see in most anime will not be found here. Instead, animation studio J.C. Staff takes a wholly different approach by using a faded watercolor palette and soft sketched character designs. The style may not appeal to everyone, but it best reflects the true nature of the characters and their setting. Aside from the color palette, the animation goes through various perspective changes so subtly that it can even make the simple shot of a single character interesting. In essence, it is like art in motion. Naturally, the audio needs to work hand in hand with the visuals and Honey and Clover has quite a robust soundtrack. Many of the insert selections worked well to heighten and sharpen the on-screen emotions. However, not all of the songs fit each scene like a glove and at times it felt like maybe there might even be too many songs they had tried to fit in. Despite that complaint, the songs themselves were all very good, even the instrumental tracks, and “Waltz” may hands-down be one of the best ending themes of any anime ever. One aspect that may be universally agreed upon about this series is that the characters definitely make the show. Honey and Clover, like many other slice-of-life series, falls back on the characters to help carry the series and all five of the main characters do so phenomenally. Throughout the series, the perspective changes so that we see, hear, think, and occasionally feel what any given character is going through at that time. Depending on a viewer’s past experiences in college or even just life in general, certain characters will become more appealing and easier to relate to than others. Someone who has never been torn between someone they love and a close friend who loves them will have a hard time relating to a character like Mayama. Also, while a character like Takemoto may be more accessible to the male audience, Ayumi may be a better focal point for women. The most important thing to realize is that just about anyone who watches this show will find a character who they can directly relate to in some way or another. From Takemoto’s indecisiveness about his own life, Morita’s slacker appeal and almost unfair success, Hagumi’s torn desire between being a success she’s not proud of or a failure she can live with. These are not just character struggles, these are struggles we all go through and we begin to see these characters as our friends and companions as we make our way through our own ordeals. As said already, Honey and Clover is a slice-of-life series, which means it could take place anywhere at anytime with anyone inside the world as already is. It is a balanced and yet lively blend of romance, drama, and comedy without going too overboard on any single element, much like life itself. The story moves forward very quickly, skipping weeks, even months at a time between episodes. This could be viewed as slightly unrealistic as viewers may believe the characters should change faster than they do. Regardless, the character development is there, and does proceed at a realistic pace relative to the length of the series. Though the ending is inconclusive, those who enjoyed it to the end can take solace in knowing a conclusive second season awaits them to tie up all the loose ends. Much like how Azumanga Daioh is called “the anime you should watch if you’ve been through high school”, Honey and Clover is the anime to watch if you’ve been through college. Graduates who watch this will probably feel a good amount of nostalgia. At the same time, those of us who haven’t been through college or are still going through it will enjoy a realistic simulation of where we might be going and how we might deal with it. By empathizing with the characters and relating to them, you’ll come to see Honey and Clover as more than an anime; It's a life experience. This review is the final result of a review team composed of members from the "Critics and Connoisseurs" club. The team members were: Katsup - Contributed to and edited the review Splitter - Wrote the review Here are their individual scorings for the show: Category - Katsup, Splitter Story - 9, 9 Art - 10, 9 Sound - 9, 8 Character - 10, 10 Enjoyment - 10, 9 Overall - 10, 9 In the club wide poll held for Honey and Clover it received an average overall rating of 9.00

kdbernie★ 3

Honestly I only came here because I have only written positive reviews so I felt like ranting about an anime that I thought sucked that apparently every other person on the planet loved. Honey to goddamn Clover...fuck. Just typing the name irritates me. This review will be short and contain LOADS OF SPOILERS, so stop reading if you do not want that. Anyway, this whole anime for me was one giant what the fuck. So I love romance anime, but I kind of only want the romance anime to go well, which may not be a great trait to have but oh well I'm a sapfor happy endings. OF WHICH THIS ANIME HAS NONE! So you got this guy Takemoto, immediately falls for this 8 year old girl who, surprise is actually like 20-something and an art prodigy attending his college. My dude Takemoto is the nicest guy in the fuckin world! And he gets NOTHING. NOTHING I TELL YOU! So he is just being his chill self, helping Hagu, or whatever tf her name is, get accustomed to life and the school and everything and she's like "oh thank you I really appreciate it." And here I am thinking "Okay my boy gettin that 8-year-old-lookin puuuussssss" But then she sees this guy Shinobu's sculpture or some shit like that and meets him for the first time and BAM, she's in love with him. Shinobu falls in love with her too like instantly and thus the love triangle is established. So what happens next? Shinobu disappears for like 2 months (pretty sure I'm being over dramatic here but it was a long time).THE WHOLE TIME, my bro Takemoto is still being the best fuckin' friend to Hagu, doin' everything for her. Helpin' her when she's down. AND SHE GIVES NO FUCKS ABOUT HIM! Then Shinbou comes back and Hagu is all about him and they kiss and it's bullshit. Then at the end Takemoto is like "I'm moving because I'm super depressed thanks to you guys, fuck all yall" and they are just like "Who tf is Takemoto again?" Seriously this dude was so poorly treated. I have never seen someone go from Goku to fuckin' Krillin so quick. Then there is this other love story between AGAIN this really supportive, amazing girl, and this dude who's in love with his terminally ill boss or something. EVEN THE BOSS IS LIKE "Dude, this chick is amazing and wants you so bad and supports you so much." And he's like eh, fuck her. I said this would be a rant and I got pretty into it by the end there. Anyway, TL:DR, The characters treat each other so fuckin shittily and in the end it's one of those "Everyone was happy because they realized how important friendship is and they all got closure" Oh bull-fucking-shit. Takemoto probably offd himself a week later, and everyone else was still probably depressed because nobody ended up with the person that they were in love with. Oh, except the chick who moved on from the dude in love with the terminally ill chick. THAT GIRL WAS THE ONLY SANE ONE! And she was the only reason I kept watching. Fuckin; hated Hagu man...hated that bitch.