Honey and Clover Anime Review

HONEY & CLOVER SCORE: 10.0

INTRODUCTION & SYNOPSIS

Honey & Clover is a slice of life (comedy/drama/romance) anime with characters that over time unveil their inner feelings and backgrounds, peaking your interest to hear more about the next character until it all finally comes full circle to create a masterpiece. If you want to laugh, to cry, to root for something, and above all else, to feel something, Honey & Clover is the anime for you.

Our story begins in a College for the Arts in Tokyo, where a boy who is trying to find his way in life, Yuta, resides on campus with his two roommates, the zany and mysterious Shinobou and the reliable and persistent Takumi. One day, their favorite professor Shuji brings a family friend to the Art School to get her out of the countryside to explore her brilliant artistic tallent. Her name is Hagu. Instantly, Yuta and Shinobou fall for her creating a little bit of a love triangle as the story rolls out; more characters are introduced to create even more fun, drama, and romantic webs. The story follows the group of friends from freshman year to graduation as they grow together and become who they are going to be.

PROS

This anime is amazing at portraying life, and that’s its stand-out quality throughout. From start to finish, the characters share moments and make memories together in a realistic fashion that creates a genuine feel to the anime. It’s this sincerity that made me so invested in the characters dilemmas and in their hearts. Speaking of, the characters are brilliant. All of them blend together perfectly to make for a funny, smart, and earnest cast. My favorite characters were Shuji and Shinobu. Shuji is the most selfless and genuine character I have ever seen in an anime. The way he cares for Hagu, and takes her in so that she can go to school in the city and develop her talents is amazing. He cares about all of the characters, and acts as a voice of reason as they try to find their way in life.  Shinobu, in great contrast, is the most over the top, hilarious, yet mysterious characters I have ever seen in an anime. For pretty much the entire anime we have absolutely no idea what he does for a living, but he is super loaded (sort of like Barney in How I Met your Mother). He disappears for weeks at a time and comes back with tons of cash in his pockets, dead tired, and passes out. It’s truly comical to see him try and make money off of anything he can and all of his wacky antics. On the flip side, how he acts around Hagu is much different and it’s really intriguing to see that as well.

While the characters were all amazing, what carries this anime for me are the stories and how they weave together. I loved how each character’s background was fully fleshed out, so we get to understand why they are the way they are. The anime even had excellent timing; knowing the order of which stories to reveal when, building in intrigue and saving the juiciest details for last. Speaking of, the ending. The ending blew my mind, and I didn’t expect it at all. I did not see these two characters ending up together at any time throughout, but when it happened, it all became clear. It was so beautiful and well done, yet in a realistic way. I loved that Honey & Clover stayed true to its tone throughout the entire anime. Many anime of this genre will completely change the tone at the end of the series and come out of left field in a bad way, or the ending will be all too predictable. On the contrary, I never knew what was going to happen in Honey & Clover and stayed interested the whole time. The characters remained true to their core and I can’t say enough good things about it.

Additionally, the animation was welcoming and artistic as you would expect for an anime set place in an art school; they really nailed the changes in animation for dramatic and comedic moments. I also thoroughly enjoyed the musical score of this anime, it was kind of indie and that fit the tone just right. I’ve never heard that style of music in an anime, so it really stood out to me.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I didn’t have any serious or minor cons for this anime. I became enthralled in the story and it ended perfectly.  I’m sorry I couldn’t say too much about the storyline, but it would spoil the experience for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet. I would recommend anyone go watch it, especially if you are college age, I guarantee it will speak to you as it includes themes that people at this age go through of unrequited love, being lost in life, and more. Honey & Clover is a 10 out of 10; I highly recommend you check it out!

Watched on: dubs2go.net

Ouran Highschool Host Club Anime Review

OURAN HIGHSCHOOL HOST CLUB SCORE: 9.25

INTRODUCTION & SYNOPSIS

A bit of forewarning, Ouran Highschool Host Club is an anime that I absolutely loved every minute of, and it may be difficult for me to find a lot of fault in it since it is (in my opinion) one of the best rom/com anime I have ever seen. The anime made me laugh out loud, feel great bonds between characters, and just gave me this inexplainable pleasant feeling the whole way through. I was probably sitting there with a stupid smile on my face every time I was watching it because I enjoyed the characters and situations they would get into so much. 

Our story begins with Haruhi Fujioka, a poor and tom-boyish girl who tests her way into an extravagant high school for only the wealthiest students - Ouran Academy. Amazed by its size and grandeur, Haruhi looks for a quiet place to study. She opens up the door to an abandoned music room, shortly thereafter she knocks over an extremely expensive vase. At that, six handsomely dressed boys appear to introduce themselves as the "Ouran Highschool Host Club." Because Haruhi has knocked over their vase, she must join the Host Club to repay her debts. In case you didn't know, a host club is a place in Japan that young women go to be served tea and food by handsome men, and to receive personal attention such as being smiled at, listened to, and talked to. So, herein lies the issue, Haruhi has been mistaken for a boy! Shortly after, the boys all find out that Haruhi is a girl, but have her continue to dress as a boy and work at the host club - comedic situations ensue.

Many episodes open with a great description that will set the scene for you:

"Only those with excellent social standing, and those from filthy rich families, are lucky enough to spend their time here, at the elite, private school, Ouran Academy. The Ouran Host Club is where the schools handsomest boys with too much time on their hands, entertain young ladies who also have way too much time on their hands. Just think of it as Ouran Academy's elegant playground for the super rich and beautiful."

PROS

Stand out best part about the anime: The characters. Every character was lovable and intersting, and they all had unique back stories that brought them to the host club. First, there's the twins Hikaru and Kaoru. They are both energetic and fun characters with an emotional backstory involving the fact that no one can tell them a part. Then we have Mori and Honey Senpai. Honey Senpai is one of my favorite characters; he plays the "lolly" type, and I love the fact that he gave up being a badass to eat cake and sugar all day. Mori Senpai is his best friend who carries him around all the time. Then we have our main male character Tamaki. Tamaki is the French ladies man of the group who can't seem to put the charms on Haruhi. I love how we get to see the depth in his character in the later episodes and how he banded together the Host Club. Lastly, as the narrator of the show and the manager of the Host Club, we have Kyoya. He's the cool type that cares deep down, and is always looking out for the club. All of the boys have episodes and moments with our main girl Haruhi, like in any reverse harem, but this one does it in such an enjoyable and comedic way that is not too often seen. I love that they didn't take the stereotypical route of a happy, sweet, girlish lead with no personality, but instead made her a hard-to-get tom-boy who isn't charmed by anyone's appearance. It contrasted really well with all of the guys personalities.

Another big pro for this anime was its comedy. Most of the comedic elements just worked brilliantly in my opinion. I was always laughing and enjoying myself from episode to episode. I think one of the funniest situations was when all of the boys met Haruhi's dad; I won't ruin the surprise, but it was a crack up. I also found Haruhi and Tamaki's relationship to be really enjoyable and fun; when they were interacting with each other, I was always laughing.

Something else that I didn't expect, but really enjoyed was the setting and atmosphere. The extravagant academy is somewhere I think everyone would dream of going and it lets you live vicariously through Haruhi; seeing her get the chance to be surrounded by all these amazing things and experiences.

Finally, The animation had a welcoming and light-hearted Shojou feel that I loved. It was simple, yet detailed, and at the same time completely natural. The voice acting for the English Dub really added to this anime, Funimation did a superb job with the casting. To go along with that, the sound tracks all complimented the anime well, and the opening theme song really grew on me!

CONS

I do not have many negative things to say about this anime because I think it did it's job really well. I will say that the ending was slightly over dramatized and didn't match the tone of the rest of the anime; however, I was still satisfied enough with the ending. I know it's difficult to pull off a perfect ending to a light hearted comedy, so I can't knock it down too much. My last gripe is that it kind of creeped me out when the twins were pretending to be romantic partners for the girls at the Host Club, but I found it a little quirky and funny as time went on. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

I really enjoyed Ouran Highschool Host Club; it was easy to watch, I didn't have to think too much, I was consistently laughing, and it had a welcoming vibe that I loved. Flaws were few and far between, leaving me with an overall score of 9.25 out of 10. I would recommend you watch Ouran Highschool Host Club!

Watched on: Dubs2go.net (free source)

Golden Time Anime Review

GOLDEN TIME SCORE: 8.75

INTRODUCTION & SYNOPSIS

Golden Time is a highly enjoyable romance anime with comedic elements set on a college campus in Tokyo. Tada Banri is the main protagonist who moves to Tokyo after dealing with an accident that caused him to lose all of his memories from that point prior. On his first day he meets another male freshman student, Mitsuo, who he seems to have a lot of common interest with; however, as they start to bond and become friends a limo pulls up on the side of the street – out pops Kaga Koko with a bouquet of roses. She struts up to Tada’s new-found friend, repeatedly slaps him with the roses, and walks away. Leaving Mitsuo on the floor crying out in angst, and our lead character, Tada, love-stuck and in awe of the beautiful Koko. &So our story begins…

Throughout the series Tada and his group of friends go on different misadventures and form/break/grow relationships with one another. As this goes on, our main character Tada consistently struggles with the resurfacing of old memories as he tries to live a new life free of the restraints of the past. This is the overlying plot-point that is focused on; he has an internal battle – should he take this chance of losing his memories to invent a new person, or try to become who he used to be once more? This turmoil is manifested into his two love interests for the series Koko (representing the present) and Linda (representing the past), which are surprisingly both quite likable. The first time I watched the series I wanted him to be with Linda and didn’t really like Koko, and the second time I actually much preferred Koko - she is now one of my top favorite female anime characters. 

PROS

What Golden Time handles most excellently throughout the series is character development. Many a time have I seen a decent slice-of-life series that just fails massively in character development; each character is the same from beginning to end. That is not the case here, in Golden Time most every character (even side characters) are different people from episode 1 to episode 24 which speaks volumes for how well they developed. 

Another pro is that all of the characters are really enjoyable. They brought the show to life and made for an entertaining story. The side characters were also a lot more involved than in other romance animes. Some of my favorites were Nana, Tada’s rock star neighbor, and 2-D-Kun the nice bring-everyone-together kind of guy. I really loved seeing them grow and have the “college experience.” It’s actually kind of rare to see an anime set in college (normally being high school/middle school), so seeing them try to pick a club to join, survive nights with crazy college partiers, and live on their own was just plain fun to watch! 

Golden Time cracked the mold of standard romance animes and took some risks which I appreciated. The one that stood out to me was that there were two female characters that weren’t interested in our male lead Tada, yet still get good screen time and date other guys in the group. Other guys in the show can actually get girlfriends, and don’t just serve as comic-relief props, which was a nice change of pace. While they did follow some stereo-typical romance anime tropes such as the classic “beach vacation” episode, it kept things pretty original and was a breath of fresh air for me. 

Lastly, the ending theme for the first season was on-point! I really enjoyed it, and wish it was longer than 1.5 minutes. Character designs were all very good in my opinion as well. 

CONS

I really did enjoy this show, but it still has a couple of cons and annoyances in my book. First off, Tada and Mitsuo ("Yana") didn’t seem to be that close to me and they didn’t have enough friendship-building scenes for me to feel like they were authentic friends. This in turn made most scenes they did have together seem a little forced. Mitsuo doesn't really develop much either. 2-D-Kun on the other hand seemed to be the more natural friend and I wish he would have gotten a little more screen time. It interested me right away when we found out that he has given up on 3-D girls and wants to be known as 2-D-Kun; what is the backstory to that? 

Additionally, the show can get unnecessarily dramatic at times. I think the anime could have benefited from a more lighthearted tone in certain scenes. In particular, Kaga gets into a car accident at one point, and the way her father reacts is too over the top for the situation. Also, one of the characters cuts her hair short towards the end of the series, and she has her own kind of drama surrounding that, which I felt was really unnecessary.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Golden Time is an anime I would definitely recommend to a friend – guy or girl and all ages can enjoy. Even though it’s light and fun a lot of times, it still has weight and depth that you remember. This lead me to give Golden Time the score of 8.75 – an anime definitely worth watching!

Watched on: www.dubs2go.net (free source)