honey & clover

Honey & Clover (Anime)

I give this anime series (a manga adaptation) 4.5 stars. For both seasons.

Watched the 1st season on Animax. The DVD is already available in places like Poh Kim.

A warning though: This is NOT an action anime. Unless you think that the constant squabbling between themselves are pretty-action packed.


This anime is about a bunch of students in a fictional art college that is based on Musashino Art University, Kodaira-shi, Tokyo.

It has drama, comedy and romance all rolled in one. There's this constant mystery that hovered in the background of season 1 and you only get the answers if you faithfully proceed to follow up on season 2.

Not to worry though. The zany characters and the interesting storyline will keep you wanting more as each episode ends. And there's always that mystery to keep you intrugued.

It helps that each character looks good and there are these occasional watercolour backgrounds that are simply eye-catching.







There are the usual love triangles, school issues (them being art students, it's usually the creative block that bug them), work issues (after they graduate), family issues (there's hardly a mention of this till I almost assumed some of them to be orphans). You see how they visit places that truly exist like this theme park with the hee-yuge ferris wheel. You see how they gather for celebrations.

Talk about celebrations, this is one anime which got away with the characters having celebrated Christmas THRICE in the 1st season alone. The 1st season alone spanned over a period of 3 years. In 24 episodes.

What drew me to this anime is how (almost) real the characters can be. You may not realise it but there's a bit of ourselves in each of them. There are happy/hilarious moments and there are (really) sad/heartbreaking ones. Sad smiles and happy tears.

Guys DO cry in here, ok.

The last episode is really, really saaaad..!

Heck, I even know of guys who watch this anime and cried too!
Quote: "...Wow this was such a powerful episode. I cried ( I am male) hahahaha.."

Problem with the one on Animax is that they show the dubbed version. Problem with the dubbed version is that they tend to edit the actual dialogue to fit the conversation. It may not always be accurate. I did not realised how much I missed until I caught the 2nd season on another medium.

The other medium played the original version - with subtitles. I realised that I've been betrayed by the spoken English voices of the characters. And the dialogue is definitely less corny/cheesy. It actually has definite depth and meaning. And best of all, they subtitled the songs too!

The songs are very happy-sounding, believe me. Very upbeat and catchy. Who would have thought that the lyrics are as depressing as they can get? I can never see this anime in the same light again. It's almost an oxymoron!



My gripe is that the 2nd season could have been longer. True, the stroyline flowed just like in the manga (comic) but they could spread the story over more episodes. 12 is a tad short for a more pleasant watch, seriously.

For more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honey_and_Clover

My fave Honey & Clover link - this guy gave part synopsis/part review for each episode (except the last... hmmpf!):
http://www.batrock.net/anime/?cat=85