Honey and Clover ep.01

April 15, 2005 | 25 Comments

As a side note, this title is also known as Hachimitsu to Clover. So if you're looking for that series, this is the same one. Anyway, this series probably has one of the most original opening title I've ever seen. I think the opening fits very well within the series, especially if one considers the fact that this is the story about a group of struggling and hungry art students. So having an opening full of food made out of plastic not only conveys the motivation of these students to be creative but also their desire to have a decent meal on a daily basis. The song itself is actually rather good but unfortunately, the singer somehow chose to deliver this in a squeaky mouse mode, making the song sounds a bit strange at times.

The episode opens with a narration from Takemoto, the main character of the series. He says how when he was young, he always go everywhere with his blue bicycle. At one point, he considered not turning back even once, just to see how far he can go. Anyway, the episode then cuts to the eccentric opening which I mentioned above. After the opening, Takemoto continues to narrate the story of his life after he moved to Tokyo one year ago to become an art student. He admits that at first he was surprised at the horrible taste of his own cooking, at the amount that he has to pay for Sento (public bath), and the homework he received. Having said that, nowadays the whole thing seems like a normal routine.

I have to say that while Takemoto tells his story, the episode presents some of the nicest still montage I've had the plesure to see. It's really nice to see those still water-color illustrations. The mood that the series convey does remind me a lot of NieA_7, another equally simple slice of life anime. Anyway, Takemoto is then seen peeking his head out of the window of his apartment, asking his sempai, Mayama, if he's interested to eat some croquettes. Upon hearing this, all of the other students come out and ask if they can have some as well. Because of this Takemoto kindly invites everyone to come. Upon arriving at Takemoto's apartment, Mayama is surprised to see a bucketload of croquettes inside two plastic bags.

Takemoto informs Mayama that the croquettes actually came from Morita, a guy who's now seen sleeping inside the room as well. Mayama is surprised to see Morita in the room because he always go away without saying a thing to anyone. However, he always comes back looking tired but with a lot of cash in his pocket. On top of this, no one in the apartment seems to know what kind of part-time job Morita does for a living. Their conversation, however, comes to a halt when the rest of the guys come and asks for their share of their croquettes. One guy in particular mentions that since he hasn't got a part time job, he only has 70 yen. Having said that, he wonders why Morita bought croquettes instead of meats. He thinks that Morita does it on purpose so he can snicker at their poverty and misery.

Takemoto then recalls how Morita came into his apartment with the two bags of croquettes. Morita asked Takemoto to give the croquettes to the rest of the guys and to wake him up at 9am. Apparently he needs to make it to a 10am pre-requisite class. Morita failed to attend this as a first year student and other subsequent years because the class has always been in the morning and he's a sleepy-head. As a result, he has been unable to graduate for the past 6 years. If Morita failed again this time around, he will be a university student for the 7th year. Takemoto panics upon hearing this and asks everyone to help him waking Morita up tomorrow morning. Mayama, however, tells Takemoto that he shouldn't be worried since students are normally allowed to stay at the college for up to 8 years.

The next morning, a girl is seen inside a train heading towards Tokyo. Due to her clumsiness, however, the girl ends up being propelled to a chair in front of her when the train makes a sudden halt. Back to Takemoto, he wakes up only to realise that the time is already 9.30am. To make things worse, when Takemoto tries to wake up Morita, Morita simply thanks him and tells him that he'll go to sleep for another 5 minutes since he's already awakened. Mayama tries to tell Takemoto that he'd be better off leaving Morita sleeping. Takemoto, however, tells Mayama that he's afraid if he does that, he'll incur Morita's wrath. Feeling sorry for Takemoto, Mayama decides to take picture of Takemoto trying to wake up Morita and tells the guy that this way he'll be able to evade at least 30% of Morita's curse. Heee.

When Takemoto is about to leave the house, however, Morita wakes up and proceeds to take the wooden scooter that Takemoto wanted to use to go to school. Morita's trail of terror also reaches Mayama when Morita casually accuses Mayama as the one who steals the woods to make the scooter that he uses. While all of these happens, a girl with a long red hair looks on with an unhappy expression on her face. Meanwhile, a depressed Takemoto and Mayama become a bit happy when their professor introduces them to a short 18 year old girl called Hanamoto Hagumi. Takemoto seems to fall in love right away with the girl and asks her if she wants to eat the croquettes he brought together with him. Anyway, it's hard to believe that Hagumi is actually an 18 year old but if the story says so, then so be it.

Meanwhile, the girl with the long red hair is seen trying to shape a pot. Having said that, the girl becomes angry when she overhears two girls talking about Mayama and his popularity. Meanwhile, Morita finally returns to the apartment complex and is immediately surprised when he sees Hagumi eating croquettes. He immediately gets an inspiration and begins to run out of the apartment. When he comes back, he brings with him a large leaf. Morita then forces Hagumi to hold onto the leaf while he takes pictures of her holding that said leaf. Poor Hagumi has no choice but to agree even though she clearly is scared of Morita's weirdness. The episode then ends with the same narration from the beginning of the episode. But in the end, there's an additional scene of an adult Takemoto riding his bike in the middle of the rain.

Impression:

That last scene gave me the impression that the anime will take a rather non-linear approach to its story-telling. If the scene in question is the same to the one featured in either volume 5 or 6 of the manga, then I assume the anime tries to incorporate that storyline as an ending for this series. In that case, it looks like the rest of this episode was merely a flashback in Takemoto's mind, which explains why the series employs dream-like sequences. Overall, I'm very happy with this version. The character and background design for this series are fantastic. The water-colored style definitely gives the series a rather special look. The characterisation and voice acting also did not disappoint me. Of all the characters, however, Morita stands out as the most interesting one mostly because of his weird behaviour.

© memento 2003