Honey and Clover

The problem with the "slice of life" genre is that it’s not for everyone, and that even if you liked it once, that doesn't mean you'll like it again. And unfortunately, that's what happened with Honey and Clover. Despite the magnificent cast, my high expectations were not met at all. Unfortunately I didn't care for the characters; Hagumi was the hardest to tolerate, I hate those types, not to mention the name! Probably the ugliest Japanese name I've ever heard. It all felt so formulaic, the twists that came, the decisions that were made, and I just thought: "Oh well, that's the josei genre exactly, just throw in another bad cliché so I can grumble and be even more dissatisfied." And they did! Now it's gonna be slightly spoilery. Ikuta left to find himself, Naruma's art was threatened, Mukai finally made it into those pants, I mean to Spain... End of spoiler Their senpai was like a deus ex machina there, and in the end, the most sympathetic characters to me were the ones played by Murakami Jun and Kashiwabara Takashi. I was so excited, then so disappointed. I couldn't sympathize with either character so it was boring. Ah well, such great actors, and such a disappointment. A sad 2 stars. (27/03/2014)