+ Story +

Takemoto, Mayama, and Morita live a poor but pleasant life in their run down apartment Takemoto is known to irritate those around him with his profound awkwardness while Morita confounds his friends with absurdly complex approaches to mundane problems.. One day their teacher Hanamoto introduces the threesome to his cousin's daughter, a small and beautiful young girl by the name of Hagumi, and Takemoto and Morita fall instantly in love. Through polarly opposite approaches Takemoto and Morita attempt to woo Hagumi, but in the end time just passes while Morita, Takemoto, and Hagumi fail to understand their each other's feelings.

On the other hand, Mayama is after an architectural designer named Rika who's still chasing the memory of her late husband. He's also conscious of a a classmate named Yamada who never fails to make her taste for Mayama known. Mayama wants to fill the whole left in Rika's heart, Rika can only feel the weight of Mayama's love, and Yamada can't turn her back on her dear Mayama.

Two love triangles, six characters, and a whole lot of love, dreams, and worrying.. Kindness, cruelty, irritation, and a little silliness and nostalgia come together to make a glowing tale of glacially slow one-sided love.

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When "Honey & Clover" debuted on Fuji TV's "Noitamina" it gathered 3.8% of the viewing audience - an unprecedented viewing rate for a late-night animation series. This surpassed the record set by "Samurai Champloo" which had stood for the last five years. Though popular anime programs (including "Samurai Champloo") have been pulled in mid-series, this time they've reworked the evening line up so "Honey & Clover" should be broadcast until the very end. Or, I should say I want to watch it until the very end . . . please!

+ A Word or Two or Three from the CDJapan Staff +

"Honey & Clover," aka "Hachikuro," is based on the popular manga by master Chika Umino. Each character is unique, cute (<-all of them?), and trying so hard at love and life. You want to love each of them!

When I first heard that they we're making an animation series out of the comic I thought, "How!? Are they going to be OK with how laid back the original was?" It turns out I didn't need to worry at all! Hagu-chan and Takemoto, Mayama and Ayu-chan, and finally Morita - all Hachikuro's loveable characters were moving on the screen just like they appeared in the book. The atmosphere of the show managed to recreate that found in the book without tarnishing my image of the original work, and each episode follows faithfully to the original plot. Even the theme song "Dramatic" by Yuki and follow-up tracks from Spitz and Shikao Suga (who was the model for Mayama) fit my image of the manga perfectly.

I think people who haven't read the manga before will enjoy the show the most, maybe!?
Every week I'd prep for the next episode by reading the manga, making sure to get in front of the TV on time for roll call (laughs). Even if you haven't seen the animation series yet, or if you're a fan of the original manga, I definitely suggest you check it out. And, uh, of course . . . buy the DVD!
(By Yamazaki. Translation by Szkoropad.)