Hachimitsu to Clover (Honey and Clover)

Yuuta Takemoto, a sophomore at an arts college, shares a cheap apartment with two seniors—the eccentric Shinobu Morita, who keeps failing to graduate due to his absenteeism, and the sensible Takumi Mayama, who acts as a proper senior to Takemoto, often looking out for him.

Takemoto had not given much thought to his future until one fine spring day, when he meets the endearing Hagumi Hanamoto and falls in love at first sight. Incredibly gifted in the arts, Hagumi enrolls in Takemoto's university and soon befriends the popular pottery student Ayumi Yamada. Ayumi is already well acquainted with the three flatmates and secretly harbors deep feelings for one of them.

Hachimitsu to Clover is a heartwarming tale of youth, love, soul-searching, and self-discovery, intricately woven through the complex relationships between five dear friends.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Hachimitsu to Clover was the first anime to air on Fuji Television's noitaminA block.

Episode Videos

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Hachimitsu to Clover
Side story:	Hachimitsu to Clover Specials
Sequel:	Hachimitsu to Clover II

Aono, Takeshi
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Kasai, Kenichi

Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Aketagawa, Jin

Sound Director

Nagai, Tatsuyuki

Episode Director

Tachibana, Hideki

Episode Director, Storyboard, Animation Director, Key Animation

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Opening Theme

"Dramatic" by Yuki (eps 1-12,24)

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Ending Theme

	1: "Waltz" by Suneohair (eps 13-23)
	2: "Mistake" by THE BAND HAS NO NAME

Reviews

Apr 26, 2022

squish

Recommended

Unrequited love. Wishing the person you love felt the same way about you. Falling for someone you know you can't have. Channeling your pain into art. The uncertainty of adult life. The pain and guilt you feel when someone has feelings for you that you just can't return.

At its core, this anime is about cherishing the good times with the people you love in the here and now, because someday they will be mere memories.

Honey and Clover is one of the most realistic portrayals of relationships I have seen in an anime. The main characters are all young adults, trying to figure out ...

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May 3, 2020

katsucats

Mixed Feelings

Honey & Clover, predecessor to March Comes Like a Lion, is told in much the same way, a drab grey exterior where the excitement comes through introspection. This internal focus happens to be the best part of the show, but it also comes at a price. For one, what's initially introduced as an arch plot is really problematic: Two of the main protagonists fall in love with a girl, Hagu, who they mistake as a 7 year old (in one of her recent pictures). She's really 18 when the show starts, but consider that she talks in simplistic sentences, throws tantrums, responds to people emotively, ... plays with dolls, has a clip book of expensive brand name items in her wish list, refers to herself in the 3rd person, and her hand is half the size of Takemoto. The other protagonist, Morita, stalks, harasses, and dresses her up in cute costumes to sell photos of her on a website without her permission. He then buys her expensive gifts (i.e. grooming?), and our lovely cast just assumes that Hagu must have forgiven him because "those shoes look good on her". Our other protagonist, Mayama, is in love with a woman in her 30s, of his professor's cohort. Unfortunately, the cringey, borderline pedophile and episodes of sexual harassment acceptance is a necessary premise to enjoy the rest of the show (like Hinamatsuri).

Luckily, after the initial setup (again, like Hinamatsuri), the premise is sidelined and derailed thanks to our main character's stereotypical passivity, and our attention is shifted to drama surrounding Mayama, which is temporarily a highlight of nuanced relationships until the momentum wears out its welcome. Structurally, Honey & Clover follows one of those early 2000s melodramas where the characters are too dense and perpetually lock themselves into difficult situations most people in real life know to avoid (e.g. Kimi ga Nozomu Eien). The show seems to span about 4 years, where our cast experience academic and professional development, but their interpersonal relationship remains in relative stasis for most of the show. For the most part, the characters are well developed and seem to avoid the contemporary trappings of moe yoso (i.e. cliche character traits). We get a nuanced sense of their past and motivations leading up to this point; we could imagine them as having experienced what real people might experience, with the exception of Morita. However, who they are from here on out seem to be frozen. They do not progress.

I know this is an older show, but the jokes made me realize how played out these things are, such as when a girl cooks weird things but don't realize it's weird, or when someone can't explain anything besides with sound effects, or when a girl punches men like it's totally acceptable. They didn't take it to Love Hina heights, but still. In that sense, Honey & Clover did not age well.

But in the sense that Honey & Clover is one of the few shows in probably all of anime that not only explores complicated relationships, but how the characters involved feel, in a somewhat realistic way, it's timeless. The problem is that we must accept Hagu and the lack of progression. I submit that there are two ways I have found to contend with the structure: the straightforward and the meta-narrative theory.

About 3/4 through the season, a meta-narrative emerges. Initially spawned as a joke, Takemoto builds a tower that becomes known as The Tower of Adolescence. This spindly tower reaches up in a random way with no foundation and seemingly no goal. And in a way that's a perfect metaphor for this show in its entirety. And in the sense that we do not take the events literally, they might be a representation of the mental journey Takemoto takes, perhaps going through a depressive breakdown before picking himself back up. We could justify the slow progression through this meta-narrative, but we must put the actual events in context. Whereas there was never any doubt when Tatami Galaxy approached the same themes, Honey & Clover seems to hijack a rather tedious story to use as an analogy, with obscure symbolism in the backdrop. The difference between Honey & Clover and all other shows of this genre is that it took steps to metaphorically relate this genre quirk to the human condition.

The way I see it, there's a sliver of a masterpiece somewhere in Honey & Clover. There's a lot to think about when we set aside the flaws. The problem is that we shouldn't set aside the flaws. The finest silk could create a dull tapestry depending on how its sewn, and in this case, one gets the sense that it was done so on purpose, perhaps, to reflect the noise that clouds an inspiration moment. Takemoto says, in a rare moment of clarity, "there was no quote" or conclusion. So if we want a concise allegory on finding light in the madness of adolescence, Tatami Galaxy serves as fine example. But adolescence itself wouldn't be so concise. And considering Chica Umino then went on to write March Comes Like a Lion, it's not entirely unfounded to assume that finding oneself by confronting an introspective desperation in a depressive episode is one of the themes of this work. While every character is perpetually locked in their struggles, the solution is there all along. It just takes a new perspective, or acknowledging one's insecurities.

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Mar 25, 2023

lastnameEver

Not Recommended

Watching, force-feeding, succumbing to Honey and Clover has been the most boring experiences I’ve had watching anime. The show is more thoughtful, more sensitive, more real than anything seen in mainstream anime, and at the same time is the least enjoyable, most dull, most tedious anime I have ever watched through all the way. Only after several attempts was I capable of finishing, the end result leaving much to be desired. It has flashes of brilliance, genuine warmth at times, and an insane amount of baggage and neurosis. It's like sitting in on someone’s therapy session.

The start’s very good, the first episode is a treat ... to enjoy, perfectly sets up the college setting, the artistic characters, and the world they live in. It has a great music montage. One of the best first episodes in anime. Provides the best possible launchpad for the story to take off into the stratosphere. Instead it goes downhill.

I don’t like the subject matter. There’s so much bitching and moaning. All anyone ever does is in Honey and Clover is bitch and moan! “Oh, I’m so uncool, woe is me, I have no talent, I love this guy but he loves this girl, I love this girl but this other guy loves this girl and this girl probably loves this guy more than me” – Holy shit! Shut up!

And don’t even get me started on the ending, do not even get me started. Ain’t no way a show ends like that and gets called a classic nowadays, ain’t no way – but do not even get me started.

But back to the start. After the first episode, nothing else happens. There is no overarching narrative driving the story. Stories instead are told on a semi-episodic basis. Episodic shows only work if every single episode is enjoyable in itself. Needless to say, that isn’t the case with Honey and Clover. We get introduced to far too many irrelevant characters, like the silver-haired guy’s step-dad, and countless other nobodies, and as a result there’s not enough time for the main cast to spend time together.

Another issue with Honey and Clover is that the show ends before it even begins. The messy-haired guy with glasses already leaves college before we have a chance to get to know him, Hagu’s cigarette-smoking guardian goes off on some trip to Africa, and Morita is hardly ever around – and yet immediately, the story thrusts itself into these sad feelings without even having laid the necessary groundwork for the viewer to become attached to these characters. The end result – I don’t care! Silver-haired guy’s feeling sad about not having enough talent? Don’t care! Pottery girl’s still hung up about her crush, messy-haired guy with glasses who loves the depressed office woman? Don’t care! Pottery girl’s crying? What? Again? Already? Time sure does fly when you’re not having fun!

Staring at the washed-out watercolour palette isn’t doing anything for me either. The artwork not having defined outlines, and the generally lacklustre animation made for a soporific viewing experience, I had a hard time focusing on the screen. It hasn’t aged that badly, but it’s not pretty, outside of a couple spots.

Obviously, there are parts, little snippets, that I like. Silver-haired guy’s bicycle trip, and his eventual return capping off the first season, where he finally gets the better of Morita, is a satisfying moment. The scene at the very, very end where Takemoto opens up the good-luck charm Hagu gave him is inspired. In general I appreciate the maturity of the writing and its attempts at realism. All the characters are very likeable so long as they aren’t whining. Morita, by himself, possesses the type of magnetic personality that makes viewers want to keep watch just so you can see more scenes with him. He alone serves as sufficient proof that this is the same author who would later make 3-gatsu no Lion.

But this is no 3-gatsu no Lion. It may have the same comedy style and unique artwork, but Honey and Clover’s subject matter is joyless, and watching it was an exercise in tedium. The phrase ‘watching paint dry’ could not be more apt. If you can stomach boredom and have a high tolerance for bullshit, there is plenty to appreciate, but I’d rather fall asleep.

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Poll: Hachimitsu to Clover Episode 24 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Fentastic - Oct 5, 2008	124 replies	by anti0taku »» Sep 14, 4:50 PM
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Hachimitsu to Clover

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