.:: Kid’s Ice-Box ::.

This review was suppose to be up last March, but I just keep on postponing it. XP

My overall review of “Honey & Clover” ! Warning, the are some spoilers for those who haven’t watch this series yet.

I don’t know what got me into watching this series. Maybe because I was too bored and got nothing to do. I was bugged by Aizat a few times to check out this anime, but somehow I wasn’t interested. Maybe because of the art doesn’t please me, and also the fact that Aizat gave me the impression that this anime is about love and romance, which I’m a bit bored already watching those type of anime.

However, one day, I happend to watch this anime, during EMiNA’s screening. Actually, I really felt like leaving the screening room when they told me that they will be screening Honey and Clover, but I just decided to stay, because later of screening I will be going to to Yam Cha as usual with the guys. The show started, and yup, I’ll be honest, I wasn’t attracted to the art of the anime at the beginning. The story start quite slow…but when Morita came into the picture…OMG, I was just speechless and laughed like hell. Slowly, I gain interest in watching this anime. Slowly, my thoughts only focus on this anime. After they screened two episodes, I want more, so I asked Aizat to give me the rest.

At the end of this show, I regreted that I didn’t watch this anime earlier. This anime totally rocks, and became one of my all time favourite. But hey, its better late than never right ?

So, what’s this anime all about ?

Yuuta Takemoto, Takumi Mayama and Shinobu Morita are three young men that live together in an apartment and are students at an art college.

One day, one of the art professors, Shuuji Hanamoto, introduces his niece, Hagumi Hanamoto. Upon introduction, Takemoto and Morita fall in love with her. Morita expresses his love for Hagu in ways that scare her, while Takemoto hides his feelings and tries to be a friend to Hagu. Hagu herself, though initially timid and afraid of company, gradually warms up to the three.

The group also includes another female: Ayumi Yamada. She is a master of pottery, and is well known by her name “Tetsujin” (Iron Lady). When not at school or hanging out with friends from the college, she helps her family run the liquor store. Although quite a popular lady by the young men in her shopping district who try to find ways to steal her heart, she is truly in love with only one man, her friend Mayama.

Unfortunately, Mayama doesn’t return her love and is chasing an older woman, Rika Harada. Rika runs her own art studio. She used to run it with her husband before he died. Rika, her husband, and Shuuji were close friends and roommates in college.

The story follows these five characters in their love triangles, graduating from college, finding jobs, and learning more about themselves.

Plot seems simple, but I just love how the director shows the character development of each character. Everyone has their own tale / story to be share with us, and its indeed interesting how their tale is shared with us. Example, you could see how Takemoto matured throughout the whole series. At the beginning, he of course was my least favourite, but as the story progress, I began to gain interest in Takemoto. It was interesting to see how he slowly developed to a mature stage. The part where he went doing his soul-searching was just touching. How he learned more about life as well himself was inspiring. I felt like going to do some soul-searching myself. XDXD Also, the comedy scenes are certainly hilarious. There are so many funny moments, and I don’t know where to begin. For instance, take the Twister game for example. ( Passion Blue !! XD ) I can watch that episode over and over again. How about where the part Morita gave his “short” speech during the award ? ( I laugh so hard that I cried XD ) Or maybe how about when Hagu and Yamada presented their “wonderful” and “delicious” cookings ? XDXD It’s just great.

The characters ? Hmmm, Morita, Hanamoto and Takemoto are my favourites. Hanomoto’s hair style reminds me of Spike from Cowboy Bebop. XP Morita is just plain funny and stupid. I bet its really hard to find a character like him in real life. Yamada and Hagu are cute too, especially when Hagu always compared he body parts with Yamada, who is more matured then her ( Her body structure I mean ) I’m just okay with Mayama, nothing more nothing less. There are other characters always, like Nomiya, Yamazaki and Miwako who work with Mayama while he was at Fujiwara Design which are quiet interesting where I wished they had more air-time.

Soundtrack ? A pure solid grade A soundtrack. I just love the soundtrack. I can listen to it over and over again, especially the opening theme “Dramatic” by Yuki as well as “Waltz” the 1st ending theme by SuneoHair. Its simply classic. The soundtrack is a mixture of happy, funny and touching moments. Also, another reason why this anime is so unique compared to others is the inserts songs, songs that are played during a paticular scene, but is not featured from the Soundtrack. My favourite insert song have to be Yoru wo Kakeru, by Spitz, played during the near end of episode 15. The song really suited the scene and it was stuck in my head all night. It has a haunting and touching feeling, and I love the lyrics.

The only thing that I can complain about H&C is that it makes you keep wanting for more, and at the end, there are so many questions un-answered. However, I’m glad that all my questions might be answered in the second season. Yup, the second season is up and running, so I guess it wasn’t so bad for me to watch this anime late. If not, I would anticipating so badly. Overall, this anime is a MUST watch for any anime fans. However, if you are the type who loves action and hate character progress / development, romance and drama types, then this anime is certainly not for you. But if you are otherwise, or don’t mind both, then watch it. You won’t regret it.