Another of my favorites that finished its run this year, Honey and Clover is also one of my all-time favorite manga. Perhaps it’s because the characters aren’t teenagers, but students closing in their twenties at an art college. Perhaps it’s because the romance is woven skillfully into the story rather than being the chief focus. Perhaps it’s the potato croquettes.
Honey and Clover (ハチミツとクローバー) is about five art school students who become close friends for one reason or another. The three guys – Morita, Takemoto and Mayama – all live together in a crumbling apartment, while Yamada lives with her parents on the local shopping street and Hagu – the shy, tiny art prodigy – lives with her cousin, a teacher at the school.
It wouldn’t be a group of young folks without a few love triangles, but the relationships of the students and their interests are realistic and very easy to relate to, even for those of us who have long since become jaded adults. But Honey and Clover is much more than that. It’s about discovering who you are and what you’re meant to do, even if the path is painful and the result is last thing you want to hear. Not everyone in the story got a happy ending and some of the stories didn’t seem to “end” at all, but everything was tied up in some way or another and I cried through most of the final chapter at how wonderful and beautifully written it was.
While I’m terribly sad that Honey and Clover is no more, it will always be one of those stories I can pick up and read in its entirety like it was the first time, and one that I will suggest immediately to anyone who asks for a recommendation.
Filed under: manga, Manga recommendations Tagged: | chica umino, endings, hachimitsu to clover, honey and clover, manga, shōjo
i love honey and cover veryyyyy