Title: Honey and Clover II
Anime: Honey and Clover II was once again produced by JC Staff (famous for their work on Revolutionary Girl Utena and Excel Saga), and directed by Tatsuyuki Nagain (famous for his work on My-HiME and iDOLM@STER XENOGLOSSIA) this time around. It aired on Japanese TV from June 29th to September 14th, 2006. It has yet to be licensed Stateside.
Story: Honey and Clover II picks up where Honey and Clover left off, and finishes up the remaining manga material.
I like this follow-up. It answers questions it left unanswered last season, and resolves all the relationships that were left hanging at the end of last season. And there are some absolutely heart-breaking scenes in here.
Something just seems to be missing here, though. I just can't really put my finger on it. I think it has something to do with the mood -- it seems less centered around the realism than it was last season. Not that it's not realistic, because it still is, but... I don't know how to explain it.
It's good and all, but it's just not the same as it was last season. Probably comes with the director change.
Art: Just as beautiful as it was last season, though it seems that they used brighter colors than they did last season than some of the more muted colors that they tended to use.
Music: There's another piano version of either the OP or ED that plays a lot and is really beautiful. Background music is about the same as last season.
The insert music is still done by the same artists, from what I can hear, and still appropriately fitting.
The OP is still done by the same wailing banshee lady, but the animation for it is pretty neat again. The ED's not all that remarkable, again, but I can live with it.
Seiyuu: All the same actors as last season, except for the twelfth and final episode, where Kenji Nojima replaces Hiroshi Kamiya as Takemoto's VA, due to an accident that the latter had that rendered him unable to record the episode; Nojima does a pretty good job of staying as close to Kamiya's performance as possible, but you can tell that it's not Kamiya. Good performances though, as always.
Length: Twelve episodes was the perfect length to take care of everything they left untouched last season, I think. Any longer, and it would've started to drag a bit.
Overall: A good follow-up to last season, but it's just not the same. If you want to find out how everything eventually resolves, then definitely watch it. Just be aware that it might not be quite the same impact as the first season made on you.
Story: 9/10
Art: 9/10
Music: 9/10
Seiyuu: 9/10
Length: 9/10
Overall: 45/50 (90%, B+)
