Anime endings have a bad habit of being subpar to the rest of the series. Honey and Clover II is no exception to this, however, while the ending wasn’t as good as build up, it was not without its good points. Of which do NOT include Takemoto’s replacement seiyuu, maybe because I’m used to the onrmal Takemoto but I thought he didn’t fit the role at all.

I think the problem was that too many unresolved storylines had to converge and be tied off at the end. This led to a mashing of all storylines into a rough conclusion and vague linking. Although not poorly done it led to quick jumps in storylines and hastened conclusions, not consistent with the Honey and Clover that I’ve come to love over the past season.

*Edit* Upon rewatching the ending a few times and picking up a few missed subtleties, and having a few pointed out by others, I’ve changed my mind about this ending. It is not subpar to the rest of the series, just as my initial impression of the Hagu arc was, it’s just different. Though it was a little rushed I think everything was tied up quite nicely.

Synopsis

The episode starts off with Takemoto (blah @ replacement seiyuu) reflecting on whether an unrequieted love is worth suffering through. Fortunately this doesn’t last long and after the OP we get to Shuu-chan who is talking to Yamada about his confession. Yamada, obviously rattled by the revelation, bombards him with questions and unintentional insults in an effort to figure out how, when and why this happened. Shortly into their conversation, Mayama shows up and proceeds to grope Shuu-chan…literally, while congratulating him on his decision.

We then cut to Mayama talking to Yamada, who apologizes for being an inconvenience and doing unnecessary things. Mayama reassures her that, even without her intervention, things would have had no choice but to end up as they did. He goes on to explain that Hagu really does love Morita, but chose Shuu-chan because she wants to pursue what she feels is her purpose in life, art. Only Shuu-chan would lead her to her eventual recovery, and only her determination to recover could sway Morita to continue living his life rather than throwing everything away for her sake.

Cut to Rika! Wait…wth? Rika? Rika! *insert Leader-type happy fit* In Shuu-chan’s old room they reminisce about the past and look towards the future. Some flashbacks remind us of how close Rika, Shuu-chan and Harada were and how much Harada’s death affected the remaining two. The death of Harada was in someways the death of a part of Shuu-chan, and the only thing that seemingly kept him going was Hagu, she was breathing life back into him. And so, after being saved by this girl, it is now his turn to save her, to help her pursue her dream. We also get a flashback to a MayamaXRika lover’s quarrel about whether to return to Japan or not, I guess Rika won o.o

Cut to Kaoru! (seeing a trend here?) For some reason he goes to see the former president of the company he overtook, maybe he wanted to see him suffer? In any case, he sees that the former president is living how his family did before business got in the way. Everyone was happy, supportive and keeping each other’s hopes high in times of trouble. No longer able to stand the flood of painful memories, he leaves. He calls up his secretary and gets some much needed cheering up. Correction! Thanks to Theowne for pointing it out. Kaoru was going to visit his childhood home, not the former president, but when he got there that’s who was living there. His call to his secretary was not for cheering up, it was to confirm why his secretary (and apparently Shinobu) had set this up. Terrible mistake on my part for not noticing this >_< thanks again to Theowne for notifying me about this. Shortly after he returns home to enjoy a nostalgic curry dinner with Shinobu, curry saves all! That night the two talk about their futures, Shinobu is going to work with George Peter Lucas, inspired by his personality which is similar to their father. All this is thanks to Hagu of course, who’s reassurance and support have left him with no choice but to charge head on into life. Kaoru will continue to manage the company, the only task a man of his personality is suited for.

Flash forward a few months and it’s spring! Hagu is out of the hospital, but continuing her rehabilitation, Mayama and Rika have returned to Spain, Morita is becoming a famous CGI director and Takemoto (along with his crappy seiyuu) is off to work with the temple reconstruction team. Upon the mention that it will be their last night all together, Mayama, Yamada and Shuu-chan nearly burst into tears and send Takemoto and Hagu off to buy ice cream to avoid embarassment. Takemoto and Hagu have a heart to heart talk on the way to the store (with Takemoto doing the biking, naturally). Hagu compliments Takemoto on his dedication to his work and is happy for him and the temples that he will be repairing. Tekemoto reassures Hagu that she is not being a bother to Shuu-chan, that simply being with him is returning the favor as he continues to search for what it is he truly desires in life and that if there’s anyone who can do it, it’s him.

The series then comes full circle to its finale, reminiscent of the beginning episodes of the first series, Takemoto describes the dorm that they have lived in for the past few years of their lives and how sad it is to leave it. At the train station Takemoto enters the completely empty train that will carry him to his new life when all of a sudden he sees Hagu on the platform. Hagu gives Takemoto a parting gift and the two share a final embrace before the train doors close and tear them apart. Takemoto opens Hagu’s package which contains some rather dodgy looking but homemade sandwiches, inside he finds them filled with honey and four-leaf clovers. Sparking memories of the time when the whole gang was looking for that single four-leaf clover, he comes to the realization that everyone has finally parted ways and things will never be the same between them. Eventually their time at Hamabi will fade deep into their memories. Asking himself again if there’s any meaning to an unrequieted love and events that will disappear the same as if they never existed in the first place, he believes they do and casts off all lingering regret for falling in love with Hagu.

As the credits roll there are some minor loose ends tied up. Quick flashes of NomiyaXYamada, MayamaXRika…Xrandom spanish guy, Kaoru working, Shinobu working and Takemoto working, all to the tune of Split made for a very nice ending scene. The final line is delivered by Takemoto, basically that despite everyone going their separate ways, the bittersweet memories will remain as life continues revolving.

Thoughts

Not exactly a contender with episode 9 for the best ep of the season, but all in all I was pleased with the ending. Though not exceptionally done, I think it was fitting. The episode managed to cram in loads of conclusions and tie up all loose ends while still maintaining a sort of anti-climactic feeling. Although the rapid and fragmented torrent of information seemed too fast paced for H&C’s normally slow pacing, it managed to not completely ruin it. The sheer amount of drama that occured in these past three seasons needed to be resolved within a fairly short amount of time, and I think they pulled it off decently.

I still feel weird about the Hagu love square, it wasn’t truly resolved…Shuu-chan has the upper hand seeing as he is the one who will help her achieve her dreams, but Hagu threw her support and love behind Morita, while stringing along Takemoto in a pseudo-friendship type relationship. It’s just weird and I would have liked to see a definite resolution instead. I still say Morita-san FTW! XD

As for Hagu’s recovery, I still don’t think she’ll recover fully, but unfortunately we’ll never know the true resolution to that…though she does seem to be on her way to a comparable condition *shrugs* Your guess is as good as mine on this, but unless we get another season, it will forever remain a mystery.

Honey and Clover has evolved immensely from its slice-of-life, pseudo school life comedy roots. I never could have anticipated that depth that this anime reached on several levels. And although its content is just a little overhyped in terms of complexity and deepness, it will forever remain one of the bests in my mind. It’s really sad to see such a wonderful anime end, but I think that additional seasons would only serve to ruin the series. Maybe some more OVAs XD!

Victories

- Fitting ending, all loose ends tied up nicely
- Animation, consistent with the rest of the anime, which is fairly high quality
- Insert song, I loved this week’s song
- Yamada’s freak out XD
- Hagu, though she’s stringing everyone along, she’s still my fav char in all other aspects
- Full circle ending, I love that technique
- Rika!!!

Phailures

- Getting everything resolved cause a pacing a little too fast for my liking
- Takemoto’s replacement seiyuu
- Open ended Hagu relationships
- No NomiyaXYamada closure
- Worst of all, no more Honey and Clover to look forward to

It’s been a hell of a ride, this show really gripped my attention for the past few months and while it’s sad to see it go, it’ll have a spot in my heart and on my top anime list for some time to come. It’s been fun blogging, thanks to all the readers and thanks to Solar&Ideology for subbing this! I look forward to the ep 12 remake with Takemoto’s REAL seiyuu and possibly the movie/OVAs!

~ Shirukii ~