Honey and Clover - the clover is no ordinary clover, but four-leaf clovers. Eating honey with bread is already unusual, again together with a clover leaf in the middle, wow, that's something you can really expect from girls with creativity like Hagumi. Not that it is inedible, rather it is weird, just like the dinner earlier in the first season of Honey & Clover where mint ice-cream with pumpkin were served (you can eat it yes, but will you?). Bread symbolizes food, honey symbolizes their relationship while the clover symbolizes good luck - to put it simply, the sandwich which Hagumi had prepared for Takemoto as his farewell present was really meaningful, even more meaningful compared to a normal letter. Takemoto was going to work as a restoration worker together with the others that he had met during his trip on a bicycle to Wakkanai, the tip of Japan. Finally, he had graduated from the art college. It was Takemoto's dream to work as a shrine restoration worker after having the experience. He had even used up his allowance to apply for a driving license as it was the only requirement to work as a shrine restoration worker (did Rokutarou got his? I doubt so) and had to live on with cheap toasts for a whole month. And as he was boarding the bullet train out of town to Morioka to start his new job, Hagumi reached the station on time before the train took off and managed to hand Takemoto a big bentou box wrapped with a cloth neatly. Right, so it was a stack of bread with honey and clover. How romantic. So what had Hagumi planned for herself after graduation? I guess you could say anything. It wasn't clear whether she'll be going back to Nagano, or whether her right arm will fully get well and be able to continue drawing, or whether she'll marry Hanamoto-sensei whom had admitted that he liked her. The school festival was a drastic day after all where even the strong wind can break a glass! Honey and Clover II had only 12 episodes but with no definite ending yet - in other words, there is the possibility where a third season might come out. Many questions remains unsolved, and one of them is the relationship between Mayama, Rika, Ayu and Nomiya. Perhaps it was intentionally left like that. Mayama was never a romantic type, and neither were any of the others. The story is intentionally left without a definite ending to let the audience have their own favorable pairing instead of being forced to accept a pair. I personally like Mayama being with Rika, taking care of her after she became a widow where her husband, the legendary Harada, had died in the same car crash which left scars on her body. Mayama even dragged Rika, who had suicidal thoughts, back to reality and even followed her to Hokkaido, her hometown, and later on to Spain. However, I also couldn't help but pity Ayu who has been behind Mayama all the while. It is not like Mayama didn't cared about Ayu, it is just that he only had his mind on Rika. However, it turned out that he also felt uncomfortable with Nomiya, one of his colleagues at Fujiwara Designs attracting Ayu's attention. Again perhaps this is the nature of a josei genred anime, where most of the female characters are strong-in-the-outside-but-horribly-weak-in-the-inside, just like Ayu whose nickname is "Iron Lady". Not to mention that Ayu's quite popular among the fourth generation in the shopping district as well!In this second season, Morita's err... should I say, love, or crave, towards money is finally explained, rather detailed as well. Morita is a really creative young man and he has many ways to earn big money and never use them! His elder brother, Kaoru, found him many weird jobs. Sometimes he even had to travel all the way across an ocean in order to do the job. But to him, he had only one motive, and that is to assist Kaoru to buy back a company which used to be their father's. The story goes back a long time ago when they were still kids when their father was betrayed and had his company sold to an electrical company. Their father had told the two not to take revenge for what was done, but a determined Kaoru still went on and carry grudges, until he finally bought back the company. Even after they bought over the company they didn't feel happy at all. So, Morita decided to leave the company to Kaoru and followed Peter (George, lol) Lucas where he can continue to expand his creativity. That was what he did after graduation.Seriously, I was surprised that they managed to re-tell the stories of all 24 episodes of the first season in just a single episode (the first episode)! However, this also means that Honey & Clover is actually too elongated, if you get what I mean - if you skip unnecessary emotional thoughts and repeated gags you can actually tell the whole story in just few hours!The OP song, Fugainaiya, is nice but the video is full of sweatness (not a typo of sweetness). A fork suddenly striking a pancake with honey on it... ahh. I still like the second OP video of the first season better. Meanwhile, the ED song was... plain normal and I don't like it or hate it either. Nevertheless Honey & Clover is good stuff. I'd recommend you to watch it if you had not. Try to find the original ones with Japanese dub and English subs as the English dub will definitely kill the atmosphere.
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