Title: Honey and Clover
Manga, Live-Action Adaptations, Anime: Honey and Clover was originally a manga created by Chika Umino. It began its run in Sueisha's CUTiEcomic maganize in June of 2000, and swithced over to Young YOU in July of 2001, and ran there until the magazine's demise in 2005, and finished up its run in Chorus in July 2006. The manga stands at ten collected volumes, and has been licensed Stateside by Viz's Shoujo Beat label; the first volume will be released on March 8th of this year. Honey and Clover also won the Kodansha Manga Award for best shoujo manga in 2003.
Honey and Clover also has two live-action adaptations to its name. The first is a live-action movie adaptation that was released on July 22nd, 2006 in Japanese theatres. The second is a live-action TV drama that started airing on January 8th of this year. Neither has been licensed Stateside, and neither will be covered in this review.
The anime adaptation was 24 episodes long, and was produced by JC Staff (famous for their work on Revolutionary Girl Utena and Excel Saga) and directed by Kenichi Kasai (famous for his work on Nodame Canabile). It ran on Japanese TV from April 14th to September 25th, 2005. It has yet to be licensed Stateside.
Story: Honey and Clover follows the lives and relationships of five college students -- Mayama, Takemoto, Morita, Hagu, and Ayu over a period of about five years.
It was really hard for me to get into this at first. For the first four episodes, I liked what I was watching, but I didn't really feel the pressing need to see what happened next. However, this changed in the next few episodes, mainly because everything had been more or less established, and they started developing things.
Those of you who are in college and watching this are going to be stunned at the realism of this. It feels like these characters could very well be people around you, and the situations they're in could be things you or your friends are going through at the moment.
Yeah, there's no overlying plot. However, unlike KamiChu, this isn't a problem, mainly because the characters and their relationships are developed well and are the actual center of the story, not driven by some cardboard cutouts and a crappy problem-of-the-week plot. Also, there's a lot of fairly obvious metaphors and some crazy-ass humor that make the show even better. ^^
And there are going to be some who are depressed at the rather open ending. However, there is the second season (Honey and Clover II), which I'm going to be starting shortly and will eventually review.
Art: Absofuckinglutely beautiful.
The background is done in what looks like watercolors, so it's kind of hazy and washed-out, similar to what you see in Potemayo's backgrounds. The character designs are a blend between the typical anime design and a more manga-esque look. They also have the budget to change clothes at least once every episode. SD is very common when tied in with the crazy-ass humor, which is just made of WIN.
All of this combined serves to make an absolutely beautiful series. It's up there with Gankutsuou's visuals, but not quite that extreme.
My only complaint is w/r/t Hagu's character design. Yes, I know that you want to emphasize that she's a bit sheltered and innocent, but really, she looks like my youngest sister, and you're trying to pass her off as 20? Work on that for next season, plz.
Music: Honey and Clover's background music is a little odd, but it's amazing at the same time, because they use vocals in a way that I've only heard Bobby McFerrin attempt up till now. There's also a piano version of either the OP or ED that plays a lot in the series, and is just beautiful.
Honey and Clover also uses a lot of insert songs; there's at least one every episode, and they're perfectly fitted to the moments that they're played in.
The OP is just annoying. I mean, the animation for the first version was absolutely amazing (food + claymation = AWESOME), but the vocalist is kind of shrill, and makes me cringe. The EDs didn't particularly stand out, but they were nice.
Seiyuu: Morita's seiyuu played Takeshi (Brock, for us Americans) in all the seasons of Pokemon, and Hakim in Victorian Romance Emma and Shuuji's seiyu was in Kashimashi ~Girl Meets Girl~ and in FFVII: Advent Children as Reno, which was fairly awesome.
And all the other seiyuu did an excellent job, as ever.
Length: Twenty-four episodes was a good length; the manga material does go further, and I guarantee that by the time you're finished, you will want more, but the second season should cover that.
Overall: A beautiful, realistic slice of college life with excellent music and some fairly good seiyuu.
One of my top picks. See this. NOW.
Story: 10/10
Art: 9/10
Music: 9/10
Seiyuu: 9/10
Length: 9/10
Overall: 46/50; 92% (A)
