Anime Pilgrimage RTT

Honey & Clover II – episode 2

July 26, 2006 on 12:16 am | In Honey and Clover | 2 Comments

“I want to tell you, but I can’t”

Everyone cries.

Takemoto reflects on the fact that Hagu has been avoiding him since his confession.
Yamada, who has been working for Harada Design, discovers that the more that Rika likes a person, the less she’ll talk to them. Yamada applies this theory to Mayama and cries about it.
The common thread that links the stories is hiccups.

I’m not entirely certain how well equipped I am to cover this season of Honey and Clover because it is remarkably subtle. It’s easy to say “Hagu-chan cries” and “Yamada cries”, but generally there are reasons underlying these tears.

Naturally it was a surprise to see Yamada working with Rika, as that is one of the ultimate forms of masochism. The inclusion of a scene of Morita and Yamada discussing the necessity of exposing oneself to this reality so that all of the tears can be cried away is a great help.

In these scenes Morita is able to demonstrate and vocalise his serious side, because he has always been perfectly capable of helping Yamada in matters of some importance. His personal life is still something of a mystery, that may be opened wider by the early surprise appearance of Kaoru. The two of them are working for their father, it seems, but to what end?
I personally prefer Takemoto and Hagu to Morita and Hagu, but that does not mean I do not want Morita’s melancholy to lift.

Yamada seems to think that Mayama worries about the lack of conversation that he enters into with Rika, but I think that it is entirely possible that he had not really thought about it until she asked. If Shuu-chan (or Hanamoto-sensei, if you will) was wise enough to notice this aspect of Rika, and if Mayama has been working with her for four years, he might be a little bit more perceptive than Yamada thinks.
Then again, Yamada might be right: Mayama could be an idiot. At any rate she deliberately preyed on his insecurities and that was definitely not a nice thing for her to do.

What this series is doing now is making Rika something more than an unattainable goal: she is becoming a genuine character who may even get focus outside the limited scope of Yamada, Shuu-chan and Mayama. Her feelings may not even be doomed after all of this, as she appears to be seeing more and more of Harada in Mayama. I don’t particularly mind where the three in that triangle end up; all I know is that happiness is dependent on at least one party moving on.

Nicely separated from the main body of the Yamada/Mayama/Rika triangle was a clothesline from Takemoto, proving that he has retained his independent and fun streak that he earned from his time on the road. He is beginning to live a life without regrets and I am glad of it, despite not knowing what he was doing out in the middle of the university with a glass and some chopsticks.

The emotional strains that run through Honey & Clover are ripe for mining. With several characters aiming to make themselves stronger, to cry now so that they won’t have to cry later, I think we’re in for some growth.