Honey and Clover, Volume 1

The series was very bittersweet, and perhaps if you don't want a lingering unfinished romance set during college years, among artists, it's probably not for you. But I really enjoyed the soul-searching of a young architect who finds solace in temple restoration, and a petite sculptor who wants nothing more than to paint gigantic landscapes and flowers instead. There are others, and they all have their own journeys. It's slice-of-life, and there are some meandering romances, but I don't think any of them is ever really resolved. There's also a fairly bizarre parody of Peter Jackson/George Lucas that transported the series into Sci-Fi territory just to give a breath of air... I think.

A slice of life comedy romance manga published in Japanese from 2001 to 2006, and in English by Shoujo Beat in 2008, this series is ten volumes and is completed. It's a Josei, a comedy with M/F romantic elements. and is focused on a group of art college students. It's pretty cute, and I plan to read the three volumes I have, which were a gift from a friend when I was first reading manga back in the day. I never got around to them because of some things happening in my life, and during three moves the volumes got packed away and I just found them. So here I am, reading them belatedly. Who knows if I will feel motivated to track Volumes 4 to 10 down...

I give this 3.5 stars. It does a decent job of introducing the cast of characters and show more starting to lay out the relationship dramas. TBH, I am not that into josei (traditional romance), so I think I am not the target audience. I liked the plots so far, and I will read the other books I have. I like the slice of life elements the most, and the author does a good job of explaining the Japanese cultural references, so I rounded up to 4 stars.

About the Author:

Chica Umino is one of the most decorated and best-selling authors in modern day Japan. She is the first comic artist to win the manga grand slam, having taken the Tezuka Prize, the Manga Gran Prix, the Kodansha Award and the Japan Media Arts Award. She broke through with her hit series Honey & Clover (Viz Media). Outside of her comic work, she has provided character designs for the Eden of the East television series and the Fate/Grand Order video game franchise show less

Are you maybe a bit tired of reading about High School romances? Or worse -- Middle School? Well, welcome Honey and Clover -- a cute struggle of love, life, and school... in college!

The setting: An art school (in Japan).

The characters:
Takemoto, he likes to build things, but has little self-confidence and no idea what to do with his life. He instantly falls in love with...
Hagu, the art student who looks like a kid. By the end of the series she looks more grown up, but the art style of the series really does make her look tiny. (But then they all look young.) She's a cute character, devoted to painting and to her caretaker, Hanamoto-sensei. At first she is very shy, and a prime target for...
Morita, the eccentric one. He is a hilarious show more character, and he picks on Hagu relentlessly (he thinks she looks like a fairy-tale creature). Of course, he also fell automatically in love with her. Morita has a problem with taking jobs that last a few days, or a few months, and leave him puzzlingly wealthy but often sleeping through his graduation class. Will he ever graduate? Unlike...
Mayama, sharing an apartment building with Takemoto and Morita, he often defends Takemoto from Morita. (But not often enough. Morita will do things like give Takemoto a terrible haircut then charge him outrageously.) Mayama is the one of the group who has graduated and has a job. During festivals, as the students are carefully allotting the money they can spend, he sits with Hanamoto-sensei lavishing the freedom of having money. Mayama is in love with a woman he works with who was involved in a tragic accident and has no love for life except in her work, but he in turn is loved obsessively by...
Yamada, in the ceramics department, who is beautiful and fierce and the object of affection of all the young men around her parent's liquor store. (She gets drunk too often...)

Although the story is about all the characters, and deals with their life and love problems, the main character is Takemoto. He is the one who grows the most and gets the most out of the entire experience (I think the series takes place over 4 years?). He takes a random bicycle trip to 'find himself' (no, says Mayama, don't say that, it's embarrassing!)... and he really does.

The series is 10 volumes long, the art is lovely, the story is sweet, there's a lot of humor, a lot of sad stuff (everyone has a tragic past or present or whatever), each panel is full of information. So it's not a whip-through series, it takes some time, and you can learn a lot about Japan culture through the series and the translation notes.

If I were trying to compare it to another manga series I would probably say Fruits Basket, or Kare Kano, but I honestly like Honey and Clover better, and it is more innocent.

The one thing that was surprising, and not perfect perhaps, was the ending regarding Hagu. A little strange. But I loved Takemoto's ending, so that's ok.

Fun fact: the name of the series comes from music the author likes, and those bands (Spitz and Suga Shikao) actually did music for the anime. show less

It looked like a sweet manga from the cover. It had a cute picture of a little girl. Even though the back of the book said it was "Older teen", I grabbed it anyway thinking that it couldn't be that bad... Well, that little girl on the cover is the main love of the two boys inside. The little girl is drawn to look like she's 8 but they claim she's 18. I was totally shocked. I'd heard of the pedophilia/lolita craze going on in Japan but I didn't think they'd bring anything like that to America. I've read the first volume and can tell you so far it's sexually clean. But just watching two college students chase after after a girl that only comes up to their waists just was too much. Away this book goes!

This manga is about art students in college in Japan. It's mainly the story of the guys (at least for now) and their life in their tiny apartment with starvation wages.

This wasn't bad. At first I wasn't sure if I could get into this but I started getting more interested in the characters as the story progressed. It was weird seeing Haguchan portrayed as a little girl. She's 18, she's in college, but she is very, very small and seems immature. Some of the boys are crazy about her.

I may read more of this series.