Hige vs. Otaku

This was a twisted, brutal episode. The snappy J-Pop tune with its directional synch as Hagu gets eviscerated was incredibly disturbing for me. And I think the image of Yamada holding Takemoto’s arm with both their hands covered in Hagu’s blood will be one the most prominent, long-lasting memories I have of Honey & Clover.

Kaoru’s vengeance mission coming to fruition had so much painful tragedy about it, especially as he realises he couldn’t honour Papa Morita’s wish and crumples, a broken man. All this closure with the Moritas has been one of the most satisfying aspects of series two, as embittered and upsetting as it’s been. I hope Kaoru gets some kind of absolution before the show ends, though. The pathos haemorrhaging from his every orifice pretty much demands it in order to have a satisfying conclusion.

There were a few humorous moments involving Mayama and the sleazy Spaniard. It was a welcome to relief to see some characters having fun, and it was quite the shock to see Rika improving in health. Who would’ve thought we would most of our future hope from these two? 

I enjoyed this episode much in the same way I’d probably enjoy a series of fart sounds and guttural screaming if Honey & Clover produced them, because, well it’s Honey & Clover ffs. But there was definitely a weird lack of focus here. Maybe because lots of ‘big’ things happened, but I found the flow of the episode quite choppy and it undermined some of the dramatic affect. Don’t get me wrong: I bawled like fanny on many occasions. It just didn’t feel as tight as Honey & Clover usually is. An incredibly moving episode with many memorable scenes, however. What the hell is Mortia going to do when he finds out about Hagu? Bandage hentai for his web site?

CHEER UP EMO SAKURA. There, it’s been said. Let us never speak of that terrible and degrading scene again. Just when Sakura was regaining much of her awesome . . .

And in addition to this, we get just that bit too much exposure to Naruto’s bare manly chest bits; all the while with him grunting furiously over Sasuke and covered in indiscernible liquid. This entire chapter is an onslaught on the sense of Wrong.

Otherwise, there’s not much to talk about. 319 was surprisingly light on the chatter, opting for more ‘character based’ moments (which totally backfired, Kishimoto you fucker) usually involving them staring at something for prolonged periods and turning hard emo. Kurenai, sporting a very suspicious hand injury (insert preferred wank gag here), stares listlessly out the window as Asuma & co set off for battle. Naruto suddenly remembers he’s still competing with Sasuke and storms forward with his wind training (insert preferred guff pun here), causing Yamato to have a stroke. Kakashi seems to become more and more redundant . . . and that’s about it.

It’s surprising how offensive something can be in sixteen pages with very little dialogue, ain’t it?   

It’s been hard for me to avoid making impoverished fangirlish pleas for episode fifteen’s release here. Having seen the occasional episode title on Toshokan and recently discovering that the series has ended in Japan, trying to avoid spoilers has become a bit of a gauntlet. Plus, I love Ergo Proxy and having wait so long for a fix was causing numerous crack whore-like twitches in my special places. Still, we get a double whammy now and the sense of relief is palpable (especially in my pantsu). At least we can continue watching at a reasonable pace . . . assuming there’s no more text-heavy episodes in the running. If I have to deal with another delay again I am going to be so pissed. Wicked pissed, in fact.

(more…)

So, that last scene, huh. I’d be lying if I wasn’t shocked and that it didn’t undermine what came before it. The latter is what angers me the most, because the meat of this episode had so much subtly and depth – revolving around characters we knew little to nothing about, no less. It’s a shame that Honey & Clover, a show that I find so easy to love because it just doesn’t pull those kind of punches, felt it compelled to handle things that way.

However, from a plot point of view, it made sense. If this happened in the manga anyway then the director obviously wanted to give it suitable build-up, and with most shows that have these partly-disconnected flashbacks with unfamiliar characters they often dedicate the last few minutes to the normal cast. Take the two together and it was a perfect opportunity. The more I consider the ‘technical’ reasons for doing it the less that last scene annoys me. Any sane dramatist would bank on that kind of cliff-hanger, especially if it was justified.

Plus, that scene might be insinuating more than what’s actually happened. Although, secretly, I hope it is the worst-case scenario; if only to outrage the fanboys and undermine the predictions about Rika. It would certainly turn everything on its head, which, by the sounds of things, is exactly what’s going to happen.

Anyway: the other twenty minutes of this episode. Wow, one of the strongest looks at the human condition so far. It abides by the standard formula of sibling rivalry, but does it Honey & Clover style and removes every trace of triteness or cliché by simply being honest. The set-up is immediately clear, the parallels need no explanation, and it covertly plays out the underlying bitterness and insecurity with all the shades of grey that make the conclusion so disturbing and upsetting.

And, perhaps most importantly: chibi Moritas. I swear, anime is making me emo. Or an annoying gushing fangirl. I was never this easily cuted-out before. Gomennasai ^___^;;;;;;~~~

The colours used for the evening scenes pretty much melted my corneas into oblivion with their gorgeousness. Otherwise, I felt the animation this episode was underwhelming. The story hardly required anything fancy, but it seemed like more talking heads than usual.

So apart from the cheap shot at the end (which could be easily justified – I’d like to know how the manga did it), this was a top quality episode. The ‘for the fans’ feel of this second series might be isolating for some, but I’m loving every moment of it.

Thank the myriad of kami-sama for that. NHK pulled itself back from the brink and we get a solidly entertaining episode. I even watched it all in one sitting.

(more…)

I’m not joking when I say the pile of TO READ manga is intimidating
large. So much so in fact I’m going to do a trilogy of these posts to
catch up. Let’s do it.

(more…)

If it weren’t for Senpai’s appearance at the end of this episode I would have dropped the crap out of NHK after this disaster.

Satou and Yamazaki’s pilgrimage into Japanese otaku culture had little to no merit. It wasn’t particularly funny (satire or otherwise); it gave no insight beyond the obvious depravity and it did nothing to increase the pathos for these two characters. And most importantly, it was boring. As with episode three, I watched this in two parts after realising I could be wasting my time more productively. I genuinely hope this whole ero-game plot thread concludes very soon and NHK delivers on its potential as something beyond cultural self-analysis. It’s the characters that carry the show for me, not the bland explanations of otaku culture. The Internet is more than capable of doing that.

Visually, the animation was peculiar. Not terrible, just inconsistent and gauche. The background work still had a lot of the vibrancy and detail I’ve enjoyed; just the character design was lazy and had an unnatural fluency to it. It reminded me of some scenes in FLCL, in fact. Maybe it was the same animation director? It certainly felt more like an artistic decision than budget issues. Still, the preview of next week’s episode suggests things will be back to normal, so detractors won’t have to suffer it again.

Conclusion
Much of what I enjoyed about NHK didn’t exist in this episode, except for one or two moments. The quality of the animation was bizarre and awkward (although not as horrendous as some people think). Music was its usual standard – good to decent. Otherwise, dull as fuck. The prospect of Hitomi next episode really felt like its saving grace. She’s always been a mysterious factor of Satou’s past and one of the few things about NHK that genuinely intrigues me. The show is on probation from this point onwards, however. GONZO needs to try harder.

No summary this week because revision is taking up most of my brain meats and I’m far too late with this as it is. There’s also the issue of abject laziness, but now we’re tight I’d hope you expect nothing less.

So. Naruto can now split leaves. Nice going, Nar. I’m sure the satisfaction when you ‘merge’ (so unhygienic) with your clones is a thousand-fold. After, of course, you stop blacking out like a big narcoleptic wuss. Still, it means plot progression and in Naruto that shan’t be sniffed at. Yamato informs us that the next stage of training involves splitting a handy waterfall with wind nature alteration; after which Naruto will have his first fully-fledged technique. How long this will take chapter-wise remains a mystery. My guess is probably another two, mingled up with further Akatsuki shenanigans and a possible 20th Legion battle.

And, it is revealed this chapter, that the 20th Legion is similar to Love Roma’s SCD omake in that it gathers most of the maligned (but well-loved) characters into one place and provides a platform for awesomeness. Only in Naruto it’s serious. Ninja task-force serious. I was disappointed by it not amounting to much more than all the high-ranking ninja collected in one place with a fairly uninspired ‘wreck their shit’ debriefing from Tsunade, but it goes a long way in underpinning the seriousness of the Akatsuki threat. And we get to see a lot of our favourite minor characters with genuine potential for a decent scrap.

We get a couple of interesting scenes from current favoured Akatsuki pairings of Deidara x Tobi and later Hiden x Kazuku. Both scenes suggest an interesting tension between the Akatsuki members, leading to questions over the benefits of their involvement with the organisation, seeing as they all kinda hate each other. There’s a general air of evil about them all, of course, but individually it’s harder to identify why they’re there. Kuzuku seems to be a money-grubbing capitalist; Hiden’s ‘religion’ encourages carnage on a scale that the Akatsuki accommodates quite nicely; Deidara seeing it as a platform for shameless gender-bending androgyny; Itachi’s thirst for power has been quite documented . . . and the rest are still pretty enigmatic. Naruto II seems to taking a greater emphasis on the Akatsuki than their previous implied menace of Naruto I, so more explanation of each of their motivations should be forthcoming. Their capable handling of the Bijū suggests a worrying strength when working collectively, though. It doesn’t bode well for the Legion, and I hope there aren’t any needless Asuma-related deaths coming soon.

Conclusion
Another fun chapter. Naruto’s training isn’t getting any less dull, but the inclusion of the Akatsuki movements and 20th Legion’s proper introduction mixes things up enough to keep it fresh. Art-wise things are maintained at the usual quality and the Reservoir Dogs moment at the end of the chapter was a rather nifty touch. Let’s hope for some legit action next week (or tomorrow, I should say. SO LATE, SORRY).

(Amendment: I called the three-tales a Jinchūrki in my summary last week and I have since learnt the difference between Bijū and Jinchūrki. Anyone would think I don’t know what I’m talking about . . .)

(Second amendment: fixed that painfully repeated mistake. It never happened, okay?)

Batezi recently wrote an excellent summary of the tone and intention of Honey & Clover’s second series. It briefly but concisely captures much of what people seem to be thinking as they write about each individual episode and it’s something I’d eagerly recommend as a companion to most of your blog reading on the subject. Definitely a great piece of analysis and a good example of what anime blogging should be all about.

This episode we get a kind of retrospective of Yamada and a bittersweet assessment of her current prospects. Miwako notices her sadness over Mayama’s recent triumph with Rika, Mistress Ice Queen, and takes her on an R&R break to Health Land, a local ping-pong spa (I have no idea). Dressed in muumuus (that really don’t make them look like Homer Simpson when he gains 300 pounds) the pair enjoy the opportunity for relaxation. Mayama is never far from Yamada’s thoughts, however, and her eyes are filled with tears throughout the visit. A brief phone call from Miwako to Nomiya with an update only frustrates him. He storms off in anger at Yamada – an act that we as the audience note as further demonstrating his deeply growing affection for her.

The level of progression we’re getting from Yamada as she comes to understand the futility of holding on to her love for Mayama is going at a snails pace. But, as with every other slow moving plot thread in Honey & Clover, it feels perfectly executed. I’ve never found myself comparing the situations of an anime to the real world so much as I have with Honey & Clover, and I think this is where it finds its eerily strong resonance with the audience. By placing ourselves in any of these characters shoes it becomes simple to empathise with the way they behave. Of course, we may do things differently in our own real lives, but for these characters it never feels inappropriate.

And yet again I felt myself chant ‘Yamada Yamada Yamada’ (ala early season one) throughout this episode. The girl is subtly becoming my favourite character against all odds and it speaks a lot of her ability to tap into base sympathies of the audience.

There’s also a brief bit of Takemoto advancement here wrapped up with Mayama expressing his cheesy love for Rika and diminishing his cool factor at a rate of knots. It’s really endearing stuff, though, and does a clever job of uniting the two characters over their similar intentions with their womenfolk. They both have the desire to take care of their objects of affection, both of whom have a degree of frailty and helplessness about them. It’s quite archaic stuff when you let the feminism lobe of your brain take over, but the Honey & Clover Factor means the charm and charisma of the situation remains in tact.

None of the core female characters seem to have much desire to be ‘empowered’ in the militant grr sense, but they never conform to muted princesses-in-need stereotype either. In fact, every female character in Honey & Clover is successful and has a bright future. Emotionally they may seem especially damaged or insecure, but no more than any normal person may be despite their gender. If anything, the male characters in Honey & Clover are more emotionally stunned and confused. Someone should have Warren Farrel write a letter.

We edged a wee bit towards the Morita mystery here too and I’m convinced it’s not as dark as this episode wants to suggest. I bet it’s some kind of child-manipulating franchise of Pokemon-like proportions, or something as ethically barren as that. I still want to know what Morita is saving his bucks for, though. Mysteries, mysteries.

I loved the animation of the first portion of this episode. Both Miwako and Yamada had really fluid expressiveness to their movement and it suited the hazy drunkenness/relaxation they were feeling. The quality of Honey & Clover’s animation is a mute point, I know, but it’s fun when you notice the minor quirks from episode to episode. It’s definitely a sign of a top quality anime.

Conclusion
There’s always so much I want to note as simply ‘awesome’ in Honey & Clover. Shuuji’s intimidating head massage, for instance. Nomiya’s role-reversal as knight in shining armour. Miwako’s supreme coolness and winner of Best Senpai Ever. Mayama’s road to likeability via minor scenes of humiliation. YAMADA’S SMOKING ROUNDHOUSE ATTACK. I could go on forever. There’s not much discussion over Honey & Clover’s position as a seminal anime; its consistent quality in everything speaks for itself. I’m still reeling from the fact they’ve managed to keep it up for this long. The prospect of some actual conclusions is scary in the best, most exciting way possible.