Anime Pilgrimage RTT

Honey and Clover – episode thirteen

July 28, 2005 on 10:24 am | In Honey and Clover | Comments Off on Honey and Clover – episode thirteen

“All I wanted to hear was that little thing”

I’m going to be honest: I’m not particularly sympathetic to Yamada’s unrequited love. I realised as I was watching this episode that, while I really care about everything else that’s going on in this show, I think that it’s written in such a way that Mayama’s obtuseness plays too well to Yamada’s obstinacy, making them never have to do anything.

Takemoto tries to figure out what Hagu-chan thinks of Morita’s departure, and he gets a typically ambiguous response. However, Hagu-chan starts behaving as normal and has recovered from her fever, just in time to commiserate with Yamada about preparing for the impending fireworks.

I think that Takemoto really gets ideas into his head, the idolisation of Morita, for one:

Everyone knows that Hagu-chan sees things differently, so while this is Takemoto’s imagination it is not strictly true; I think that Takemoto lacks the confidence to take his own actions. Of course, I think that this is hindered by the fact that Hagu-chan really is child sized, as the yukata picking scene showed.

Mayama’s own unrequited love storyline is on the slow boil, and it’s going to be interesting to see how that turns out. I’m not saying that Mayama should end up with Rika, as it’s not going to happen, but his own pining for such a clearly damaged soul is more tragic than the whole Yamada thing. In a way, both Rika and Mayama realise that they have someone longing for them, and choose to encourage it. Rika is far more obvious because, while he is perfectly aware, Mayama is also quite oblivious.

The OP changed, retaining the “Dramatic” song. The new sequence is far more pertinent to Honey & Clover, rather than being a collection of food that looks like things which, while great, only served to add to the quirk factor of the show. The second ED, however, is nowhere near as cool. Maybe “Mistake” will grow on me, but it’s certainly no “Waltz”.

Honey & Clover is really unleashing at the halfway point. This is good.