Summary:
Etsu recalls a time in 4th grade when he couldn’t swim 25 m and fled to a neighboring town; fast forward to today and he’s running away from Kei after she sadly apologizes to him. Our 3 emo boys get together and from the circle-jerk of pity comes a plan to take a journey of rebirth. Although they’re already in the Land of the Rising Sun, the boys head east and end up tired and hungry in wild boar country. Leave it to Hiroyuki to only bring 24 candy bars for food, and between the 3 of them they only have ¥2,000.
Meanwhile, the girls are on their way to visit Mamoru (whom they think is sick) when Misao discovers Mamoru’s note and the girls realize the boys have run away. At first Kei is in an emo funk, but Misao reminds her that she still has something to tell Etsu. This fires Kei up and she joins Koyoi, Nao, and Ayumi on the train in an attempt to cut the boys off. As the girls happen to pass the boys furiously pedaling to escape a pack of wild boar, the 3 older brothers decide to chase after their younger siblings.
Reaction:
Man, taking a journey of self discovery was never this complicated in Honey and Clover! The way everyone is rushing to the same location, I think we could get an overly-neat resolution to the love tangle next episode. Although things are a big too convenient for my taste, there were some fun moments in this episode. I liked how Koyoi joined in on the chase even though she had no reason to, and I also liked when Misaki mentioned to Yoshihiko that Yuuji didn’t seem to like her. It felt like Misaki understood what Yoshihiko had been going through, although I’m sure that didn’t make him feel any better.
There were a few holes as well. Etsu mentioned running to the next town when he was in 4th grade, but now he can’t even run halfway down the hall without getting tired. The Kei x Etsu tsundere plot has been going on a bit long now, but since it is the main resolvable love conflict, it’s to be expected. We got some Kei ponytail action for our trouble, and there was also that bizarre rainbow sequence where the girls declare their resolve and flash some pantsu for no reason whatsoever. I’m really wondering if the staff can cram the entire resolution into a single episode, and I figure we’ll be forced to infer most of the endings from short scenes during the ED.
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This post was written by...
Kabitzin – who has written 1935 posts on Sea Slugs! Anime Blog.
One of the founders of Sea Slugs, I handle most of the blog admin tasks while wearing my I AM BOSS shirt. I like my action series well choreographed, and my romance series extra trashy. I also have a soft spot for puns.
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This show started well, but now I think it’s too bad that it won’t deliver a different ending to that of the manga, which I think was disappointing
Hmm, this is the rare show that I hope they don’t resolve all the love triangles and leave them forever tangled.
Is it just me or do Zaitsu and Koyoi’s brother look identical? I can’t tell them apart. And they both like Misaki making it that much more difficult.
I had a similar thought about Mamoru and Yoshihiko when I saw them both in this episode. I guess they both have that generic dark hair, and the faces are mostly the same for all the characters. One day we will find out that Mamoru is the younger version of Yoshihiko, FSN-style.
haven’t read the manga, but yeah it seems a little too convenient how everybody is going at the same place working things out. On the other hand, no everything is going to be resolved so at least it won’t be an artificial “picture-perfect” ending.
Yeah, every single character is going there except:
Nanoka: Too loli, not important enough
Yuu: Surprisingly unimportant to the story =(
Sumire: Not important enough
Meguru: Has already secured Gengorou with her big boobs and swimming skills
Rika: Has already secured Haruto with her tan skin and tennis skills
So basically every single single person is going to the same place except people who’ve already hooked up or been established as unimportant. I’m not sure if Misaki will end up going, but I bet she won’t because she’ll secure Yuuji with her lollipop love and skull pasty skills.
At the expense of stating the obvious (or at least for the less
corruptedenlightened visiting SS!AB), the pantsu flash is a sign of steely bishoujo determination, often accompanied with a boob jiggle if the super-saiyan pose is adopted. A corresponding movie scene would be Armageddon where Harry’s team marches onto the shuttle, bearing the fate of all mankind. The rainbow is not canonical though.On HL, honestly I’m not so keen that Kei-Kusuda should soak up so much of the concluding eps. I don’t mind predictable but I still can’t find enough reasons for Kei to like Kusuda given her maturity and that’s already taking in account many things go in hatsukoi.
I’ve been blogging anime for years, and yet I still learn something new every day.
I can accept this point of view. I guess he helped her sew one uniform and bought her some gloves and lingerie. I dunno, maybe Kei is really into textiles (like how Misaki is really into lollipops).
If only. Given that this series covered such a wide spectrum of rom-com cliches, where was the requisite yuri fan girl who manages to turn up even in series like Azumanga??