Honey and Clover - Reviews

Alt title: Hachimitsu to Clover

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OkamiHime95's avatar
Nov 7, 2020

Until recently, I've only watched bits & pieces of this anime when I was a kid, back when it was on Toonami, so it was great for me to finally watch it, after all these years of wondering what it was about. :)

Anyway, moving on to my thoughts on the Story: I'm honestly not sure how to rate it... I mean overall I thought it was good, and I'm happy that it had a pretty good ending, but without saying spoilers, I just wish some things would've turned out differently.


Animation: Some might think it's a little dated, but I thought that it still holds up well.


Sound: Ngl, the first OP used to always crack me up as a kid, and the Pasta/Ravioli lady reminded me of Lady Pasta from Annoying Orange lol. XD (Yes, I know I'm weird...) The shrimp "hand" I thought was kinda cool, but it'd always surprise me when I was a kid. Literally reminds me of that one scene in Beetlejuice, which I'm also a fan of.


Characters: Part of why I decided to watch Honey & Clover is because I read somewhere that Hagu has Autistic vibes, so as someone with Asperger's, I was excited to find out that it's true. (I'm not saying she's actually Autistic, but if you've watched the show and are familiar with Autism/Asperger's, you'll see what I mean.) I really love finding characters that I can personally relate with, so obviously she is my favorite in the series thus far. However, I do really like Shinobu even though he's extra, as well as Takumi, Leader, Yuta, and several others. :)


Overall thoughts: I pretty much summed it up in the discussion thread for this, but I'll repeat that although I really liked this season, I hope season 2 is better in certain regards, and that I'd love to read the manga at some point. If you haven't watched this yet, I strongly implore you to check it out. :D

?/10 story
8/10 animation
8/10 sound
8.5/10 characters
9/10 overall
JVAnimeReviews's avatar
Dec 11, 2016

This is a review of both seasons of Honey and Clover.

Positive

*HaC is an anime about romance and personal growth. And romance combined with coming of age is a combination that I can appreciate. And definitely when it’s done like this. I dare to say that HaC is one of the most mature anime’s that I have seen till today. Most anime’s I wouldn’t really recommend to “adults” but this one I do. First the romance is very mature and it’s even more about neglected love than actual love. So if you really like shoujo romance, HaC might not be for you. But if you like very mature romance, it definitely is. 

And on top of the romance, the arc about Takemoto at the end of the first season explodes of the coming of age in it. That arc is purely about Takemoto being at a crucial crossroad in his life and his search for what he wants to do with it. And I found that to be very well done and very relatable since everybody passes through such a period in life.

For a video review, check out my Youtube channel. Link on my profile page.

*Now HaC isn’t serious all the time, it contains a large part of comedy as well. And I found that the balance between comedy and drama was very good in this anime. Very serious scenes were alternated with very “stupid”, comical scenes. And this anime needed that otherwise it would have been too serious and depressing to be fun. Now if you will like the comedy will depend on your taste since it was pretty stupid sometimes but it was definitely needed.

*And a last positive point was the large amount of insert songs in HaC. I can’t really remember how many there were since it has been several months since I actually watched HaC. But I can remember that it had a lot of them, almost 1 per episode. And I like lots of insert songs. Anime’s like Hai to Gensou no Grimgar and ReLIFE which have lots of insert songs get that bit more appreciation from me for all the effort that the studio put into making them.

Negative

*Now my biggest problem that I had with HaC was that the different storylines seemed very separated from each other, they were too separated. I like coexistence between stories in an anime. With that I mean that the different storylines are happening all at the same time and that we get constant development on all of them throughout the anime. Here in HaC, it’s really in blocks. Than we get some episodes revolving around Takemoto and Hagumi followed by episodes focussing on Mayama and Yamada, than the arc about Takemoto’s coming of age. It was too rigid, it would have been better if the stories were more intertwined and flowed through each other.

*Another problem that I had, I could still remember that from the first time that I watched HaC, were the intros of both seasons. What were they smoking when they made those, it’s just so weird. I fail to see what these openings have to do with the actual anime.

*And a final negative point came at the end of the anime. Now I’m not going to tell what happens of course but boy are there discussions about it. When I finished HaC, also I had big questions about what happened in those final episodes. After reading this article on altairandvega.net, I looked at the end with different eyes. I’m still not completely comfortable with it and its pretty sad but now I understand what the writhers wanted to show us with that ending.

Conclusion

So as a conclusion, HaC had its good points with its perfect drama/comedy balance and very mature coming of age. But unfortunately the absence of coexistence between the different stories and the unusual ending made that some of the good points weren’t exploited to their fullest potential. And that’s why I’m going to rate Honey and Clover at 3,5 stars. I recommend this anime if you’re really into josei anime, for me this was a first. But this is an anime that even adults and non anime fans would enjoy because of the concept of the story.

8/10 story
6.5/10 animation
7/10 sound
8.5/10 characters
7.5/10 overall
sarwor248's avatar
Oct 7, 2009

A great series if you are looking for a complicated love story. Don't be afraid of how young Hagu looks; she is a young adult who is underdeveloped, and the characters romantically interested in her are not Lolicons. It's a great mix between wacky comedy and tender romance, and will keep you on the edge of your seat. It's also a great coming-of-age story, and I know many people can identify with that :) I will warn you, the end feels incomplete because it is; you have to watch the sequel to get the whole story and to feel satisfied. 

9/10 story
8/10 animation
8/10 sound
9/10 characters
9/10 overall
sonju's avatar
Apr 3, 2022

 art style of anime and mangas, female characters (including adults) are drawn with infantile/childish features, and have a tendency to be sexualized. This is because of their “cute” focused culture, known as Kawaii culture. Pedophilia and child pornography isn’t as taboo in Japan as it is in Western cultures.

Many Japanese after they finish school, cut themselves off from society to focus on working. This is because of their work culture, which makes it not uncommon for 80 hour work weeks. Because of this, they fondly look back at their time of youth, which includes their young romance and dating.

Historically Japanese have always been attracted to young-looking people. Over their history, they’ve sexually selected people with the youngest appearance, causing them to look more childish and infantile. They have physical traits similar to young children and infants such as larger heads, flatter faces, smaller physical size, and reduced chin size. Japanese girls look and act very childish to be cute.

Pedophilia and child pornography is common in Japan, and is popular even with people who have PhD’s and are in government positions. It’s not uncommon for average people in Japan to have pornography of children, as it is not illegal or condemned. This of course, makes its way into anime and manga. There are intentionally sexualized children in anime and manga, which have categories of pornography for them. The age of consent in Japan is 13 years old, so imagine sexualized characters even younger than that.

3/10 story
4/10 animation
4/10 sound
2/10 characters
1/10 overall
TLDR's avatar
Jan 5, 2022

Satisfying Conclusion? ✔️
Emotional? ✔️ (at certain times)
Actual Romance? ✔️ (Not a love story. Is one of the driving forces though)
Actual Comedy?✔️ (not usually the lol kind though)
Fanservice/Nudity? ❌
Recommend? ✔️

What is this anime?
Group of friends living life at an art college. That's pretty much it. yep. Some light drama here and there. MC is in love with the new girl and we see as he pursues life and grows as a person.

Did I enjoy this?
From how I described it, it may sound boring and slow. And it is. (I even dropped it once). But due to the high rating, I thought I must be missing something. And, well, its very nice. Although its an anime, and of course have some things that would not happen in real life, it is quite realistic. The characters make decisions normal humans would make. The romances play out like they would in real life. We really are just joining the characters on their journey through their college years. Yet, strangely enough it is entertaining, and has a soothing, calming vibe surrounding the series as a whole. There's a few chuckles to be had along the way as well.

?/10 story
?/10 animation
?/10 sound
?/10 characters
8.4/10 overall