As I've said in several reviews before, I'm a sucker for slice of life. I love it. Heart it, in fact. And that's why I loved Honey and Clover, as it is one of the greatest slices of life I've ever seen. It caught the nuances of art college life near perfectly: tiptoeing around the edges of sanity.
And now there's a second season and conclusion at long last.
Summary
Several students and ex-students at an art college, a clique of friends, replete with love triangle, quadrangles, and the occasional tesseract, play out a rather intricate drama. The heart-rending interaction between Mayama and Yamada, the slow burn between Mayama and Rika, the decision that Hagu-chan eventually has to make, the fire of revenge, the chill of rejection. H&C2 is life writ large.
Animation
Character Design: A good jump in quality from the first season. Where the first season seemed to have fuzzy and blurry people and features, this season gives much needed detail to their looks. The level of detail is superb. Check out Hagu's hair in several scenes - detailed down to the strand.
It's not all rosy though, as there are some minor nitpicks. Again, stick-limb syndrome strikes. If your leg was about a half-inch in diameter, you would probably not be able to stand up. Another thing I dislike is that all of the characters seemed to have permanent blush-marks on their cheeks. Thankfully, the artists avoided the "I have one set of clothes" syndrome.
Op/Ed: As with the first season, the op/ed is a weird artsy "thing". You have to see it to understand. It's not bad, but I don't think it's anything worth watching repeatedly.
Artwork: The setting for H&C is an art school, so a fair amount of detail is put into the backgrounds and setting. The apartment where Takemoto, Morita, and Mayama live is run down to the point of making me recoil from the screen. Cityscapes are details and lit. There are beautiful scenes with sunsets and flowers. Even someone like me without a bit of artistic taste will be mildly impressed.
Sound
Op/Ed: Hmm. I can't stand the singer's voice. Whiny and pitched to annoy. It fits the style of the series, but it's just not...pleasant to listen to. Combined with the weird-ass opening, I found myself skipping it more often than not.
Voices: All of the voices from the first season are back and equally pleasing. Again, Mayama and Yamada are my favorites, though Hagu actually speaks more in these 12 episodes than in the 24 preceding, I think.
Music: And again, in an excellent gesture of continuity, there are different vocal tracks that pop up during nearly every episode. Each one of them is meant to set the mood. They are mostly successful. Major credit here for not re-hashing the op/ed fifteen times.
Story
Plot: Well, the comedy/drama of the first season has been shifted to lots of drama and only touches of comedy here and there. While there are several laugh-out-loud moments, most of the story is spent working out several plots.
The style used is very interesting. Plots are resolved almost sequentially. First, they work on the Yamada-Mayama-Rika setup. Then they take a break and see what Morita and his brother were actually up to. Finally, they go take care of Hagu, Takemoto, Morita, and Shuu. None of the plots overlap greatly, which is a little disappointing. Why can't we have something a little more convoluted? Everything's resolved one way or another by the end, and it feels just a little too neat.
Writing/Scripting: Excellent. No complaints here. People act normally (well, as normally as artists can be expected to) and react appropriately. There is real emotion running here, and the ending...well, the ending hit me like a ton of bricks, personally.
Character
Interest: I actually liked all of the characters even more this time out. They were all further developed and even more multi-dimensional than before. If you want to watch a series with deep characters, H&C is one to watch.
Growth: This is it. This series is all about the growth and maturity of each of the characters. Each and every one of them changes and grows up over the course of the series. They still retain their old traits, but it's easy to tell that they've just...grown up. It's difficult to get this across in words, but it's something we've all seen. You meet an old friend, it's been years, they're more than who they were, but it's not like they're someone entirely different. If that doesn't make sense, that's your problem.
Value & Enjoyment
Sadly, I can't say as I thought this second season was as enjoyable as the first season. The story seemed a little too organized and set up, the focus shifted a little too dramatic, and it was all too short and a little rushed. For all these minor failings, I have to say that this is one of those series that has impacted me in a deep way, and that makes it entirely worthwhile.
Conclusion: If you liked the first season, you will like this season. Get both seasons and watch them together. It's entirely worth the time.
