Honey and Clover (live action) – 01
Who isn’t ready for more Honey and Clover?
Summary:
Walking to school while the sakura petals fall, Takemoto Yuta sees a girl sitting by a pond. He catches her smile, before being taken away by his friends Morita Shinobu and Mayama Takumi as usual. The two want to have Takemoto pose as an incoming freshman so that they can get free curry, and although he is seemingly successful, his identity is quickly revealed by those who already know him. The three enter the school to enjoy their own curry, but they are quickly punished by Yamada Ayumi for using a bowl that she made. After the boys’ arrival at Hanamoto Shuji’s office, they are soon introduced to his niece Hagumi. This is the girl that Takemoto saw in the morning. Hagumi quickly learns of Morita’s energetic personality, and she takes the chance to return buttons that had fallen from Takemoto’s shirt earlier. The boys have trouble finding food for their starving selves throughout the day as usual, but they are saved when their acquaintance Lohmeyer brings them gifts of ham. Hagumi is meanwhile shown one of Morita’s sculptures, which gives her an instant burst of inspiration.
In the morning, Morita easily sells another one of his sculptures, making Takemoto and Mayama wonder why he will not hurry up and finish school. When the boys meet Yamada again, she presents a book to Mayama that he has been searching desperately for. Yamada offers it to him in return for him spending some time with her, but Mayama is forced to decline her invitation in favor of going to work. Takemoto and Morita travel to the art exhibit in the meantime, where they find one of Hagumi’s works on display. Morita quickly runs to Hagumi’s studio, expressing how amazing she is while embracing her. Hagumi states that she likes Morita’s sculptures as well, making Takemoto’s heart stop for a second. Mayama walks Harada Rika out of the workplace when they finish their job, as the two employees inside discuss the relationship Mayama would not be able to have with Rika.
Yamada cries inside of the pottery room, indirectly asking Morita what she should do about her unrequited love for Mayama. Of course, this causes Morita to give her extremely ridiculous advice. Takemoto meets Hagumi outside, taking the chance to praise her for her amazing work. The entire group gets together soon after, finding that Morita has prepared a large amount of pizza for everyone. He reveals that he did this because of Yamada’s crying over Mayama, but this is quickly put off as a joke. The group notices Hagumi eating an extremely large piece of pizza, and they discover that this is the first time she has had any. With the group full of laughter, Mayama claims that eating pizza is the proof of friendship.
ED: “Canvas” by Hirai Ken – A fitting song for a JDrama. The best part of this was the cast drawing their characters, while the appearances stayed true to their manga counterparts.
Preview: I hope you’re ready to shed a lot of tears during the famed Mayama and Yamada scene.
Impression:
So I’ve been extremely excited about this coming out since the news was brought to me by Scrumptious awhile back. Honey and Clover has been my all time favorite anime ever since I watched it, and it’s definitely the show that has the greatest impact on me. I’m not the biggest Jdrama fan in the world, but I’ve seen and enjoyed Hana Yori Dango 1 and 2, Densha Otaku, and Proposal Daisakusen. I stopped watching 1 Litre of Tears after finding that it was just an overdramatic emo fest, and I plan to watch the Nodame Cantabile live action at some point. So, it’s not like I have absolutely no experience with them.
As excited as I was about the live action, like Garten, I did originally fear that the live action would take too many steps towards being a pure love story. I was quite disappointed by the Honey and Clover movie when I watched it too. My fears have been lifted for the most part after watching this episode, however. The characters are developing just as well as they did in the anime, and they even kept things like Takmoto’s inner dialog. The cast did an excellent job of representing their characters, and I was already close to tears during this episode. Like I said earlier, I’m not huge into Jdrama, so I’m not really familiar with the casting. Ever so friendly hazy posted a lot more information on her blog earlier though, which helped. It seemed like Harada Natsuki fit her role as Yamada the best, but I quickly got used to the rest of the cast as well. With the guys’ usual silly antics and Hagu’s warming up to everyone, I easily felt at home with everyone by the end of the episode.
Probably the only major thing missing from the live action that made the anime so powerful was its use of visual symbolism. This is understandable though, because there’s only so much a live action can do when compared to its anime or manga counterpart. The story is also moving quite a bit faster, but this is to be expected as well. I watched the 20 minute preview for the show today too, but it wasn’t much special. They just did the usual stuff like introduce the story and manga H&C is based on, along with interviewing the cast. I’m sure to continue watching this, but I have yet to be the kind of person to blog dramas. I mean, I didn’t even write a detailed summary for this episode! Maybe one day I’ll learn what kind of magic Hinano uses, but for now, I’ll be enjoying this one on my own time.
PS: The two Mac appearances in this episode made me giddy.
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I knew you were a big fan, but I didn’t expect you to actually blog it… I’m so glad you did! ^^ I’ve been eagerly waiting for some summary since the subs won’t come out anytime soon. Yay! *throws sakura petals all around* I can’t wait to actually watch it!
It won’t be H&C without the Takemoto inner dialogue, I think. It would be nice if everybody’s inner dialogue would also be done. I love hearing their insights. Ah, just thinking about that Yamada x Mayama scene makes me get all emo. *sigh*
I’ve only seen about 4 J-Dramas (Densha, Detective Conan, YUA, and Nodame) The Nodame live-action rocks! I saw the anime before that though, and even though they changed a few things I still found the similarities so enjoyably hilarious. xD I think you might like it too. =)
OMGOMG! It’s that dude from Hana Kimi! Nakatsu~~ oo I really wanna watch this drama, it looks good. I never got round to watching the anime though, but hopefully I’ll be able to watch this one soon.
Heh, thanks for covering this, I wouldn’t have known when this aired otherwise. Curious about one thing, though. How much did you cry at the anime?
As for the drama itself, it seems like a very solid adaptation that doesn’t skimp on the characters like the movie did, so I guess this looks waaay more promising, even if it lacks the epic Suga Shikao insert songs of the anime (Spitz was boring
) or the equally epic Yoko Kanno soundtrack of the movie.
The Nodame Cantabile live drama is a worthwhile watch as I watched it before the anime aired and absolutely loved it. You have to watch it!
I’d also like to watch the HnC live drama, but I’m not a big fan of watching dramas raw compared to anime. I don’t know why, just do. Hope one of the jdrama sub groups will sub it.
H&C Drama! It sucks being in the office and not being able to watch it =__=
Hope I can get to watch this later~~
Aw dude… I think just got the name of your blog. Nice. Never thought about it, really.
Is this something JCstaffy I’m supposed to be watchy? >_>
Good cast, I like it. May have to put this on the list
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hazy: I dunno, JDramas get more love than you’d think. There are circles that do fairly quick subs for dramas, and this IS Honey and Clover… And yea, I just haven’t found the time to check out Nodame. The anime might just be too fresh on my mind atm.
ShadowFang: I have no idea what you’re referring to XD. The H&C anime was excellent, but it’s definitely material that could make a good live action drama.
Owen S: How much did I cry? Are you really asking that question? I can definitely say that the drama will be taking a better direction than the movie. Being better than the anime or manga probably isn’t possible though (for obvious reasons).
Adun: I know what you mean….even though it’s weird and doesn’t make much sense, there’s just some stuff that I preferred subbed xD. I’ve heard many good things about Nodame, so yea…I’ll try to get to it asap. ;P
usagijen: Poor usa-nee lol. But yea, I knew you would be one to watch this….hurry! :O
Rentington: lol not really hard to figure out….but yea. I wasn’t even sure why I decided on it in the first place.
Di Gi Kazune: lol….no silly, but JCStaff did make the anime
.
Ryan A: Another H&C fan coming out of the woods? xD
After much exhaustive googling, I’ve found out that SARS-Fansubs is subbing this, according to the FansubWiki. They subbed Nodame Cantabile to completion, too. Now, for the inevitable wait…
Looks like you guys are in for a treat then. SARS has a great track record, and they do a very good job with their subs. They’re definitely a lot better than a lot of these anime fansubbers, that’s for sure xD.
OMG TOTALI YOU ARE TOTALLY AWESOME.
And. BEST ANIME EVER, REPRESENT.
Sars have it,the translated dramas, its bittorent though.
hello. do you know of a site where i can watch this series? (honey and clover) if u do know please tell me… thanks
awww…. i just watched the series. morita’s story is not included