Synopsis:

As placing the events of Honey & Clover II (henceforth abbreviated as HCII) in chronological order is a difficult IMPOSSIBLE task, I think it makes sense to approach summaries with relationship based format.

Takemoto, not much to say about this guy anymore, the character who I had originally thought was the focus character of season one. He is now relegated to a side-character at best. Random scenes of his thesis project and his dream of going to work with the shrine repair gang again seem to be the only screentime Takemoto’s going to be getting from now on. Though, hope for HaguXTakemoto development still glimmers in the distance.

Hagu! For some reason I feel really sorry for this girl, she’s an amazing artist with unquestionable talent and endless inspiration, simultaneously her greatest strengths and weaknesses. Her talent leads her down a difficult life path riddled with the obstacles of pressure and criticism. Her endless stream of creativity and inspiration is also a disaster in disguise, with innumerable projects that she wants to undertake, there is no way she can address them all. Hagu visually interprets this problem as an endless field of boxes, each containing something she wants to create, which spans accross the horizon. She knows that one human lifespan is not enough to accomplish her dreams. However, if there were a special someone to help her, it might be possible. She considers asking Shuu-chan, but realizes that it’s not fair to tear him from his own life’s path.

Morita and Kaoru, the mystery of their fund gathering seems to have been solved, they wish to repurchase their father’s electrical company. Morita has a flashback in which their father is depicted as a warm and loving man who did not hesitate to drop his work at a crucial deadline to play with his sons. He shows them what he claims to be the smallest robot in the world who’s only function is to move toward a light source. A metaphor which I will address in the ‘thoughts’ section.

Mayama and Rika! With the pseudo-couple separated by miles upon miles of sea and land, troubles are bound to arise. Rika’s architectural design partner, Mac Carlos, has fallen madly (more like rabidly) in love with her. After struggling against his advances for some time Rika realizes she’s in a bind and sends an S.O.S. to Mayama, basically calling for him to be his guard dog. Mayama of course has no objections to this, he seems to think it’ll bring him closer to her…everyone together now *cracks whip*. And so Mayama begins to prepare a care package for Rika because she seems to be stressed and not eating properly. In the course of his rambling he blatantly insults Yamada’s cooking, just as she appears standing behind him…

Which brings us to Yamada, perhaps the most tragic character of this cast. Upon hearing Mayama badmouth her cooking, surprisingly, she does not run out crying. She instead cooly recommends that he use daikon seasoning and walks out after being thanked by him. Nomiya chases after her and congratulates her for saying it so well, by that I assume he means not breaking down in front of Mayama, she of course breaks into tears at this point.

Thoughts:

Every episode of this anime reminds me how supremely amazing it is. The sheer amount of emotion that is conveyed is immeasurable, and yet they manage to do it subtely, unlike other animes which use direct methods (death, reunion, love, etc) to dramatize the plot.

The Rika and Mayama relationship is maturing quickly, a nice contrast to the depressing feel it had through the first season and the first quarter of the second.

Yamada finally seems to be getting over Mayama! Though the progress is as slow as ever, made apparent by her counting him in Takemoto’s beach plan, done purposely in my opinion. But progress is progress and while I don’t expect a flourishing YamadaXNomiya relationship by the end of HCII, I do believe she’ll be able to finally let go of Mayama soon.

As I said before, my heart really goes out to Hagu. Being challenged in every aspect of art, I can’t even begin to understand what she feels under all the pressure. And yet, the sadness and helplessness she feels is being conveyed perfectly. Even though I can’t identify with her, I still feel her pain, THAT is a difficult feat to achieve.

As for the story with Morita and Kaoru, I understand why they would go to such lengths to reclaim their father’s company. The love their father had for them is so powerful that even now, they continue to pursue his dream. As for the robot, I believe it is a metaphor for the entire cast of HCII. Much like the plot of HCII, the robot is simple, continuously chasing the light. The entire cast have dreams they are pursuing, like the robot they know their paths. The world passes by as a blur as they chase their dream without a thought. However, as illustrated by the scene where the bugs being attracted by the light were being killed by that very light, these dreams can sometimes result in suffering. And if that’s not what the animators were going for, then my grade 12 English literature class is biting me in the ass again, overanalysis was the key to success in that class XD

So…he’s just always been insane. Morita, you rule!

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T_T…eeny meeny miny moe

Victories

Shall we just keep this short and say “almost everything”

Phailures

- I’m not sure if it’s intentional, but the stories seem very disjoint. As opposed to the first season where the group was very tight with each other, it seems as if I’m watching ~5 different arcs. The final scene which addressed this reminded me of how much I miss the whole gang being together.

- Takemoto getting such little screen time

~ Shirukii ~