honey | clover
SETTING: Tokyo

Honey and Clover starts off by introducing Takemoto. He serves as the narrator as well as the MAIN main character. He calls Mayama from his window; since they're practically neighbors, and invites him (and everyone else in their apartment) to join him for some food.

Who brought the food? Morita ♥

For a few seconds, Takemoto and Mayama talk about Morita and what he does. Mayama says that Morita suddenly disappears for two whole weeks to do some odd jobs and comes home tired and wrecked and sleeps like a rock, ranging from three days to a week. This causes him to miss a lot of his classes, which made him repeat his year for around twice. Aside from coming home like some pile of garbage, he also comes with a wad of cash.

Skipping some events, Hanamoto Shuuji, an instructor at the art school they study in, brings home his cousin's daughter, Hanamoto Hagumi, or... just Hagu. Her little entrance to the series also introduces the love triangle of no return. That is to say, Takemoto and Morita fall in-love with Hagu at the same time. Of course, Morita has weird ways of showing it like teasing Hagu and dressing her up in random shit. Takemoto; on the other hand, shows his affection by being nice to Hagu and supporting her through everything.

Aside from that love triangle though, there's also Mayama's. Ayu Yamada, a pretty girl who seems to also be liked by Morita likes Mayama. Unfortunately for her, Mayama likes someone else-- Rika Harada. Rika though, does not like Mayama since she's still grieving over the loss of her husband.

Whenever Ayu gets depressed and cries all by herself, Morita seems to show up every time to calm her down and make her feel better. Honestly, they're so cute together oh god *__*♥

Anyway, moving on. Crazy stuff happens, and Takemoto goes on a self-searching journey, which causes everyone to panic and worry over him. When he comes back, they go to a festival which ends Season One of Honey and Clover.

Season Two of Honey and Clover is FULL of angst. I hardly cry in shows I watch, but Honey and Clover 2 has made me cry in every episode.

It starts off with the Ayu-Mayama-Rika triangle again, with Morita not having any much importance yet. But I'll be skipping those parts and heading off to those things with Morita.

With Kaoru, Morita's older brother, they try to overthrow an electric company run by some Americans. This company isn't just some random company that killed their parents though. Oh no. This company USED to be owned by their father. What they need to do is do some jobs, mostly illegal jobs, because that's how it seemed like from the look of Morita (Shinobu)'s face when Kaoru told him to do the last job which could get them around $1M. The more they get money, the closer they get to buying the company back and leaving the Americans jobless and homeless.

Aside from just buying the company back, however, Kaoru's motive was to get revenge. Their father was betrayed by one of his employees before, and the Americans were successful in gaining the company. Sure, their father could still keep the job, but he didn't like it, because he wouldn't have fun. Due to this, he quit. The traitor though (what'shisname) suddenly fell unconscious and they all learned that he was dying due to a sickness. Morita and Kaoru's father tells the two of them to never get angry at their uncle nor seek revenge, since the sadness was his to bear, and his alone. Morita whole-heartedly agreed, but Kaoru refused to, saying that he'll never forgive their uncle for doing such a treacherous act. The Moritas moved elsewhere, but it wasn't explained what happened to their father after that. Assuming that he died, Kaoru and Morita lived off by the remaining money they had, and roamed around the streets for a while during their childhood.

So, once they finally got the company back, guilt attacked Kaoru. He went to the US for a while all alone and found himself looking at the family of the old owner of the company. They were so happy, and well, Kaoru finally found out that it wasn't the company that could make him happy, that revenge wasn't the best thing ever. That Morita was right after all.

Plot change: Hagu gets injured. Her right hand becomes numb. Shuuji gets another job offer to another place.

Since Morita was nowhere to be seen, they couldn't contact him with Hagu's current state (since lol their feelings are mutual *A*). Ayu though, emailed Mayama and apparently, Mayama knows Morita's contact details and emails Morita. Morita comes rushing in like a ninja, looking all worried and goes to where Hagu is.

Once the two of them meet again, Morita kidnaps Hagu from the hospital room. He brings her to the little apartment that he and Kaoru resides in and the two of them slept there for the night. Morita tries to persuade Hagu to just come with him and leave her dreams of being an artist behind; that he will supply Hagu with whatever she needs, just as long as they're together. Hagu refused, but it was all good. Morita sent Hagu back to the hospital and received a rightful beating from Shuuji.

... yes he got beat up.

Later on, he meets Takemoto and they start beating each other up. Morita says that he's happy that Hagu liked him more than the other, but Takemoto says that it's okay, because she didn't choose him either. They start fighting and kicking each other and all that, but right after it, Morita finds himself thinking again. Maybe it wasn't really the right thing to do?

The next day, Morita gives his little contribution to Hagu's welfare-- a box full of cash, literally. Shuuji yells from the second floor that he doesn't need his money (only a few wtf) and throws the box back to Morita... who's outside! He asks Shuuji if he LOVE loves Hagu, and Shuuji just goes all "YES I LOVE HAGU", screaming it out loud. This ends the HAPPY part of the series.

Wrapping everything up, Mayama came back from Spain for a visit, Morita went to the US to work as a CG producer and at the same time a director, Takemoto went to this little architect group he met while on his self-searching journey, Ayu, Shuuji and Hagu just stayed at the apartment.

Before Takemoto could leave though, Hagu gave him a big sandwich, with a lot of honey and four-leaved clovers in each slice of bread.

Honey and Clover, end ♥