Honey and Clover: Moon River, Takemoto

I can't really say Moon River itself is nostalgic for me considering the fact that I only listened to it for the first time just yesterday, but I can say it feels very... old. It's very the strange the multitude of emotions I've felt throughout Honey and Clover.

I am currently in the process of becoming a working part of society, not really sure how I am gonna do what I want to do for a living, but I am sure I want to be happy and play music. I am a sucker for a good heart-wrenching story, which is why I really pulled away from a lot of Shonen mainstream, and hit the Shoujo, and the much less action-y Shonen. Honey and Clover has been one of my favorites from the first time I saw it. Everything about it seems to be great, Chica Umino's artstyle is very distinctive and pulls away from a lot of the normal standard looks for big published manga. The feel of the whole story is very different too.

Takemoto, my favorite character, seems to be the big focus of the story. Takemoto is a boy who I would say is a lot like me, scared to move, but yet very sure when he does move. We see him fall in love with Hagu-chan, and adorable girl, who is beautiful, cute, and painfully innocent. Takemoto is madly in love with her, but for fear that he could destroy the friendship he refrains from moving forward for too long. Turns out, later that Morita who is also in love with Hagu, has Hagu's heart.

This is really what I wanna talk about. Am I the only person who felt my insides fold as I found out Hagu liked Morita. Morita was my second favorite, it felt almost like a betrayal for me. Takemoto is so cool, it was hard for me to handle the fact that he wouldn't end up with Hagu.

Chica Umino did a great job of portraying heart-wrenching loss, each character having his/her own fault, and setting up Takemoto and Hagu as the only two who were completely innocent really. To have these two characters, who most would root for not end up together was a very bold decision, an unconventional thing, because even at the end they only remained friends, no tag-on where they finally realize their love for each, a tag-on I expected until the last minute of the show, and when I get the last books, probably the last of the last book.

If you guys agree, disagree, let's start a little discourse here, cause I'd really like to know how other people felt about the development of this amazing story, and ultimately what you got from it. For me, this show actually helped me put things in perspective and realize even, no especially, good things come to an end. Ironic that I watched this a lot in my last months of high school.