Honey & Clover, through Episode 7
Jun. 30th, 2005 01:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsOne of the things I especially treasure about most anime is that it lacks the cynicism of American media. Here, we're all oh-so-cool and oh-so-ironic that even kids' shows can't help but be snarky, winking co-conspiratorially through the fourth wall with an "we all know this good versus evil stuff is bullshit, don't we?" attitude that really drives me up the wall.
It is for this reason that I have absolutely been ga-ga over Honey & Clover, beyond any doubt the best anime of the season. Having watched the episodes in order up through seven now, I'm totally committed to watching to the end. (Confessionally, I'm also committing to watching the campy Sousei no Aquarion to the end as well, but I don't think I could recommend that one in good faith.)
Honey & Clover is a slice-of-life series about three students in art college: Takemoto, Mayama, and Morita, when a small, fragile first-year girl enters their lives. Hagu is one of the school's shining lights, a student who's already showing in galleries and receiving commissions for public works, but she has rarely seen "the outside world" and does not know how to relate to other students. Take immediately falls for her, Morita sees her as an art resource, and Mayama just tries to keep their apartment from falling apart-- even as his own love life keeps falling apart, with a girl who adores him, another who can't accept his affection, and a boss who keeps trying to set him up with one or the other.
In Episode 7, Mayama immediately screws up his love life again, first by insulting Yamada and then by telling Reiko goodbye. Both of them refer to him as "that idiot," apparently because he's so thick that on the one hand he does understand that they both love him and on the other that he can't understand why and so can't accept it. We learn that Hagu's professor (and protector, to some degree, and Mayama's boss) is leaving school to do research for a year. Hagu decides to throw a party for him and in one scene is trying to find a four-leaf-clover for good luck. Somehow, the entire troop is soon suckered into spending the afternoon on hands and knees, looking for it. It's one of those beautiful, moving "still" scenes that no American director could pull off without a desperate and soul-killing bout of self-consciousness.
Through it all, Morita continues to be madcap, Takemoto introspective, the art is lush and magnificent with watercolor backgrounds unlike anything I've ever seen in anime. Emotionally satisfying and artistically valid, it's my pick of the season.
It is for this reason that I have absolutely been ga-ga over Honey & Clover, beyond any doubt the best anime of the season. Having watched the episodes in order up through seven now, I'm totally committed to watching to the end. (Confessionally, I'm also committing to watching the campy Sousei no Aquarion to the end as well, but I don't think I could recommend that one in good faith.)
Honey & Clover is a slice-of-life series about three students in art college: Takemoto, Mayama, and Morita, when a small, fragile first-year girl enters their lives. Hagu is one of the school's shining lights, a student who's already showing in galleries and receiving commissions for public works, but she has rarely seen "the outside world" and does not know how to relate to other students. Take immediately falls for her, Morita sees her as an art resource, and Mayama just tries to keep their apartment from falling apart-- even as his own love life keeps falling apart, with a girl who adores him, another who can't accept his affection, and a boss who keeps trying to set him up with one or the other.
In Episode 7, Mayama immediately screws up his love life again, first by insulting Yamada and then by telling Reiko goodbye. Both of them refer to him as "that idiot," apparently because he's so thick that on the one hand he does understand that they both love him and on the other that he can't understand why and so can't accept it. We learn that Hagu's professor (and protector, to some degree, and Mayama's boss) is leaving school to do research for a year. Hagu decides to throw a party for him and in one scene is trying to find a four-leaf-clover for good luck. Somehow, the entire troop is soon suckered into spending the afternoon on hands and knees, looking for it. It's one of those beautiful, moving "still" scenes that no American director could pull off without a desperate and soul-killing bout of self-consciousness.
Through it all, Morita continues to be madcap, Takemoto introspective, the art is lush and magnificent with watercolor backgrounds unlike anything I've ever seen in anime. Emotionally satisfying and artistically valid, it's my pick of the season.
