Anime Pilgrimage RTT

Honey and Clover – episode twenty-three

October 3, 2005 on 1:18 am | In Honey and Clover | Comments Off on Honey and Clover – episode twenty-three

“And once again, I begin to run.”

Why do I bother writing up this program? Every episode I say “beautiful composition, I love this, the characters … blah blah blah”. Series that are so uniformly excellent as Honey & Clover has proven to be are very difficult indeed.

In this episode, Takemoto feels that he fits in with the temple maintenance team. Rakutarou, the youngest of the troupe, does not like Takemoto at all … but he is put in his place soon enough.
Rika wants to contract Yamada, yet Mayama lies about her availability. Morita offers some sage advice, yet when Shuu mention’s Hagu’s block, Morita reverts to his spiny self; why, Shuu wonders, does Morita not allow anyone to grow close to him?

Honey and Clover is about an ensemble yet in the homestretch, as in the opening gambit, the focus has switched to Takemoto. The Takemoto storyline is great because, as I have said too many times before, I identify with the fellow and can’t help but feeling for him.
The connections that he makes with the maintenance team in such a short amount of time is touching. The thing that I said in episode twenty-two about characters reflecting each other holds true here; the amount of respect that all of the troupe feels for each other is because of their common bonds: somewhere along the way you’re going to meet someone else who has taken a journey in pursuit of the self, or something like it.

Yet Takemoto says that he isn’t exactly soul searching: he’s seeing how far he can go. I find that this is representative of the emptiness that he feels inside; it’s interesting how well the fridge was used as a metaphor for this. The sound of the fridge reminded Takemoto that, while he thought he had found something, he still needs to discover his place.

Rokutarou was understandably rude about it all, but the chief’s words bring even more home: everyone has their own problems, but they should not all be vocalised as a form of “one-upmanship”. If everyone in a group tried to tell everyone else exactly what was on their mind in regards to the past, there can be no progression. While it’s not good to repress yourself, expression is not always welcome or necessary.
Still, people don’t dislike Rokutarou. Everyone has their own reasons for everything.

The way the Takemoto story worked, with the bridge … beautiful. The footage from episode 24 featured in the credits of this episode … beautiful.
The one thing that I did not understand was the “skills learned in school have no practical use in the real world” aspect of the story. Takemoto does architecture, and weird towers of youth, which use at least some construction skills.
Likewise, Morita would be able to survive with his own sculpting skills (although Morita’s greatest strength is adaptability). Mayama and Yamada are the lucky ones – they actually got jobs in their fields of expertise.

On the other story fronts, we don’t really get all that much: I want the Yamada/Mayama/Rika/Nomiya love quadrangle to conclude soon. I don’t even care how it concludes. Everyone knows that it is desperately unhealthy for everyone to continue as they are. In fact, Rika and Nomiya should pair up just to teach the others a lesson. (No, this is not my official Honey and Clover relationship stance).

I always love “Serious Morita” scenes, and this episode was excellent in the composition of said scenes. Morita has this air of tragedy about him that I’m not sure he will ever reveal. Morita is truly Takemoto’s “older brother”, so the bond between them is tender. Morita has emotions, and they are blatant … yet subtle. He’s one of my favourite characters this year.

Finally, Hagu-chan … poor Hagu-chan.

I know now (thanks to Garten and Bluwacky, who don’t need subs) that, when Honey & Clover concludes next episode, it won’t actually conclude. I don’t blame it. I just hope that it doesn’t conclude in style.
I feel for these characters, and want them to find happiness, even just the realisation that it is found in each other.