1st Drama of 2008 – Honey and Clover
My encounter with the show Honey and Clover is such a big coincedence that I’m not really sure how it happenned. I was going through crunchyroll, one of my favorite drama viewing site, when I came across an anime called Honey and Clover. Being a person drawn to interesting title (like 9 Ends 2 Outs), I decided to check it out. The show revolves around a group of art students name Takemoto, Hagumi / Hagu, Yamada, Morita, Mayama, and their art teacher Hanamoto / Shuu-chan. The minute I figured out that the show is about art and art students, I knew this was the show for me. Why? For I am an art student myself!
(from the left) Morita, Takemoto, Hagumi, Yamada, and Mayama
The anime is very well done and I encourage everyone to see it. However, those who are used to the usual drama-storylines like cancer, car accident, loss of memory, or cross-dressing will find the show a little bland or hard to adjust to. The pace of the show is very relax and fluid. Everything moves at its own pace and you’ll get to know each character personally. Overall, it’s a simple tale of friendship, and how strong it can be even when you are far from one another. A few love-triangles are also prevalent, but it actually makes the story more interesting not complicated.
However, let me now explain the “coincedence” part regarding this show. While watching the anime, I thought that if it were a drama the character Morita should be played by Ikuta Toma. After watching the anime, I found out that a drama version of the show is indeed coming out this year and Ikuta Toma is part of the cast! Unfortunately, he plays Takemoto Yuuta, the main narrator of the show. Takemoto’s character is very…normal. He’s a regular guy who help others, somewhat shy, and easy to get along with. I’m looking forward to how Toma will play such a character given his enthusiastic performance as Nakatsu in Hana Kimi.
Movie Version
(from the left) Morita, Hagumi, Takemoto, Mayama, and Yamada
Overall, I can’t wait to see how the drama will compare to the anime. There’s also a movie version, but I didn’t feel any closeness between the characters. The pacing is also incredibly fast. By the middle of the movie, 6 months already past, yet I didn’t feel like they’ve become close friends at all. I’m hoping the drama will redeem this story for live-action fans. Here is a comprehensive list of the cast from Wikipedia:
- Hagumi Hanamoto: Riko Narumi
- Yūta Takemoto: Toma Ikuta (Johnny’s Jr.)
- Ayumi Yamada: Natsuki Harada
- Takumi Mayama: Osamu Mukai
- Shinobu Morita: Hiroki Narimiya
- Miwako Teshigawara: Saori Takizawa
- Lohmeyer-senpai: Yūichi Kimura
- Professor Shōda: Yutaka Matsushige
- Harada: Yasuyuki Maekawa
- Takumi Nomiya: Takashi Kashiwabara
- Daigorō Yamada: Shigeru Izumiya (cameo appearance)
- Shūji Hanamoto: Jun Murakami
- Rika Harada: Asaka Seto
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