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Yesterday, 2:02 AM
#1
Offline
Mar 2020
5
So I just finished Honey and Clover, and boy do I have a lot of thoughts. I came into Honey and Clover completely blind, and after the first season I thought I had a pretty good idea of how everything would end and all the characters would end up. But wow, I dont think I couldve been further off. On one hand, I have to commemorate this anime for representing real life relationships and how they change with time. I appreciate that it didn't try and make a fairy-tail-like story with the characters being best of friends forever, and all the romance works out perfectly within the friend group; nope, instead it was just like "yeah...im always gonna
remember these wonderful times..." and that's honestly it. I also like the young adult setting compared to a lot of high school romances today. As a 20 year old male in uni, I could relate to a lot of the themes and what the characters were going through.

That being said...

I have a lot of problems with this anime. The biggest flaw I noticed was that it never seemed to have a direction, or even a general path. Stuff kinda just...happened. And I get that we were kinda supposed to get that feeling of aimlessness, similar to what Yuta felt, but that honestly does not justify the lack of a plot in this story, and that leads me to my next problems. I think this anime did a really poor job at fleshing out characters and/or giving us a reason to care for them or root them on. Yuta is a prime example of this; I think it can be mostly agreed that for the better part of this anime, Yuta honestly is like...devoid of any character. I mean thats literally his character! 80 percent of this show is Yuta trying to figure out what to do with his life, and do not get me wrong, everyone has to go through that, absolutely. In fact, there were a lot of times where I felt Yuta's character reflected that self-reflection aspect very well. However, to me at least, he never seems to come to a confident conclusion; he kinda just decides to do that temple job after 5 years in art school...that was hard for me to come to terms with, but again, thats how real life is; you dont always get the future you plan out. Nevertheless, his entire charatcer arc felt pretty uninspiring, not to mention his pitiful attempt at trying to get Hagu. He kinda just seemed to have no backbone or drive. The other character that I had a problem with was Shinobu oh my goodness I hated Shinobu. Maybe it was a thing of the 2000s for a guy to act like a complete jerk and creep to a girl, then somehow have that girl fall in love with him. I get that his stupid little comedic relief stuff wasnt supposed to be taken so seriously, but oh my gosh the things he did, the volume in which he did it, and the way he would constantley come in and out of the story then expect the audience to take him seriously pissed me off so bad. I really really hated Shinobu's character, like I hate how the anime wanted us to feel bad for him, or like understand his pain, like no bro, ur comedic relief and kinda weird, go back to the states. This is especially why I DESPISED him and Hagu. It truly made no sense to me, the only sense I could make of them was like they both can relate to the burden of having innate talent, but other than that, they could not be more different. I hated the scene when Shinobu kissed Hagu, freaked out, then ran away and dissapeared, like we're just gonna let this weird bs slide?? And mind you this is after Shinobu takes Hagu out to get the art supplies and for no good reason treats her like absolute shit the whole day like wtf is wrong with Shinobu?? And then in season 2 when Hagu messed up her hand he can just come back and end up sleeping with her??? Look maybe Im just bias but after all the things Shinobu did to Hagu, I just didnt expect her to still have feelings with Shinobu like she did. thats what really pissed me off, the fact that after all the stuff that happened between them, Hagu was still on him it baffles me. And to be honest, when I got to episode 11, I was extremley angry. I honestly did want to have hope that somehow Yuta could get Hagu, but oh my gosh Yuta was just so lame and undriven that he kinda just became a side character. At that point I reluctantly accepted Shinobu and Hagu would be endgame, but oh my gosh here comes old man Shugi. This was when the anime fully lost me; you see I thought Shugi and Hagu had a father daughter relationship, which they did for the better part of the anime. But then Shugi turns around and says hes fallen madly in love with Hagu?? Wtf??? Like what are we doing???? Like this is what I mean when I say there seems to be no direciton to this anime; for most of the anime Yuta is the main focus, but its like hes the most unimportant character out of the main cast its so weird. I partly applaud the anime for doing something like this, because I never saw anything like it, but still, like by the end Yuta truly had no part in anything that happened. And not to mention the creepiness that is Shugi falling in love with Hagu? The girl he basically raised as his daughter?? Like come on dude, literally anyone wouldve been better than Shugi. Oh my gosh theres honestly so much more I can talk about, but this is already way too long.

So this is why im torn. The end of this anime painted the whole thing as simply an experience of great friends in your young adult years, and thats it. And I was like dang, thats really it? Pretty sad, but thats how a lot of relationships end up in real life. So my question to yall is what did you guys get out of this? Did you all enjoy the romance dynamics? Do you think this anime is trying to say more? What do yall think about this anime? Thank you so much if you actually read all of this, and Im really excited to hear yall replies!
Yesterday, 3:33 AM
#2
Offline
Sep 2023
46
Flameisland said:
So I just finished Honey and Clover, and boy do I have a lot of thoughts. I came into Honey and Clover completely blind, and after the first season I thought I had a pretty good idea of how everything would end and all the characters would end up. But wow, I dont think I couldve been further off. On one hand, I have to commemorate this anime for representing real life relationships and how they change with time. I appreciate that it didn't try and make a fairy-tail-like story with the characters being best of friends forever, and all the romance works out perfectly within the friend group; nope, instead it was just like "yeah...im always gonna
remember these wonderful times..." and that's honestly it. I also like the young adult setting compared to a lot of high school romances today. As a 20 year old male in uni, I could relate to a lot of the themes and what the characters were going through.

That being said...

I have a lot of problems with this anime. The biggest flaw I noticed was that it never seemed to have a direction, or even a general path. Stuff kinda just...happened. And I get that we were kinda supposed to get that feeling of aimlessness, similar to what Yuta felt, but that honestly does not justify the lack of a plot in this story, and that leads me to my next problems. I think this anime did a really poor job at fleshing out characters and/or giving us a reason to care for them or root them on. Yuta is a prime example of this; I think it can be mostly agreed that for the better part of this anime, Yuta honestly is like...devoid of any character. I mean thats literally his character! 80 percent of this show is Yuta trying to figure out what to do with his life, and do not get me wrong, everyone has to go through that, absolutely. In fact, there were a lot of times where I felt Yuta's character reflected that self-reflection aspect very well. However, to me at least, he never seems to come to a confident conclusion; he kinda just decides to do that temple job after 5 years in art school...that was hard for me to come to terms with, but again, thats how real life is; you dont always get the future you plan out. Nevertheless, his entire charatcer arc felt pretty uninspiring, not to mention his pitiful attempt at trying to get Hagu. He kinda just seemed to have no backbone or drive. The other character that I had a problem with was Shinobu oh my goodness I hated Shinobu. Maybe it was a thing of the 2000s for a guy to act like a complete jerk and creep to a girl, then somehow have that girl fall in love with him. I get that his stupid little comedic relief stuff wasnt supposed to be taken so seriously, but oh my gosh the things he did, the volume in which he did it, and the way he would constantley come in and out of the story then expect the audience to take him seriously pissed me off so bad. I really really hated Shinobu's character, like I hate how the anime wanted us to feel bad for him, or like understand his pain, like no bro, ur comedic relief and kinda weird, go back to the states. This is especially why I DESPISED him and Hagu. It truly made no sense to me, the only sense I could make of them was like they both can relate to the burden of having innate talent, but other than that, they could not be more different. I hated the scene when Shinobu kissed Hagu, freaked out, then ran away and dissapeared, like we're just gonna let this weird bs slide?? And mind you this is after Shinobu takes Hagu out to get the art supplies and for no good reason treats her like absolute shit the whole day like wtf is wrong with Shinobu?? And then in season 2 when Hagu messed up her hand he can just come back and end up sleeping with her??? Look maybe Im just bias but after all the things Shinobu did to Hagu, I just didnt expect her to still have feelings with Shinobu like she did. thats what really pissed me off, the fact that after all the stuff that happened between them, Hagu was still on him it baffles me. And to be honest, when I got to episode 11, I was extremley angry. I honestly did want to have hope that somehow Yuta could get Hagu, but oh my gosh Yuta was just so lame and undriven that he kinda just became a side character. At that point I reluctantly accepted Shinobu and Hagu would be endgame, but oh my gosh here comes old man Shugi. This was when the anime fully lost me; you see I thought Shugi and Hagu had a father daughter relationship, which they did for the better part of the anime. But then Shugi turns around and says hes fallen madly in love with Hagu?? Wtf??? Like what are we doing???? Like this is what I mean when I say there seems to be no direciton to this anime; for most of the anime Yuta is the main focus, but its like hes the most unimportant character out of the main cast its so weird. I partly applaud the anime for doing something like this, because I never saw anything like it, but still, like by the end Yuta truly had no part in anything that happened. And not to mention the creepiness that is Shugi falling in love with Hagu? The girl he basically raised as his daughter?? Like come on dude, literally anyone wouldve been better than Shugi. Oh my gosh theres honestly so much more I can talk about, but this is already way too long.

So this is why im torn. The end of this anime painted the whole thing as simply an experience of great friends in your young adult years, and thats it. And I was like dang, thats really it? Pretty sad, but thats how a lot of relationships end up in real life. So my question to yall is what did you guys get out of this? Did you all enjoy the romance dynamics? Do you think this anime is trying to say more? What do yall think about this anime? Thank you so much if you actually read all of this, and Im really excited to hear yall replies!

you went way off the mark and shame on you for hating shinobu... rewatch the show later, maybe you will understand it?
Yesterday, 5:53 AM
#3

Offline
Jan 2021
212
Yeah, I had a lot of the same issues you did. Shinobu spends the entire anime being a horrible friend, and while I could accept Mayumu's creepy stalker tendencies due to the particularities of that relationship, the show seemed completely unaware of how codependent and creepy the Hagu/Shu relationship was.

If you haven't seen it already, I highly recommend March Comes in Like a Lion. Same author, but it fixes basically all of the issues that I had with Honey and Clover. It's got more of a point, the characters aren't unintentionally creepy, every side character is well-developed, and it's ultimately a much more emotionally satisfying story, especially in the manga. It also looks way better, because it's studio Shaft in the mid-2010s and not J.C. Staff in early digital.
johneastonYesterday, 5:59 AM
Yesterday, 8:10 AM
#4
Offline
Sep 2023
46
btw y'all can just look up the meaning on the net, well rather than dissing my fav series here
wiederherrYesterday, 8:20 AM

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