Cinejapan 2: Searching for Clovers

It is no secret that one of my most favorite anime of last year was Honey and Clover. Upon learning that there would be a live-action adaptation I was a bit excited, but worried at the same time, because there would inevitably be expectations coming consciously or unconsciously from myself regarding the film and how well it translated from the manga/anime.

Takemoto (Sho Sakurai, from the boys’ group Arashi) is a timid student of an arts school. He specializes in woodworking and creating sculptures. He lives in a little dorm house with fellow art students, including the eccentric Morita (Yusuke Iseya, Yomigaeri,) the hopelessly infatuated (to the point of being stalker-ish) Mayama (Ryo Kase, Cutie Honey) and the equally hopelessly infatuated Yamada (newcomer Megumi Seki) who is in love with Mayama, even if he is already much in love with another woman. When a new, talented student, Hagumi Hanamoto (Yu Aoi, All About Lily Chou-Chou) comes into the school, the relationships between these five individuals get even more complicated.

The movie depicts the lives, trials and tribulations of the four as they get through school, relationships, and life in general, a slice-of life thing if you will. The music of the film is enriched by legendary game/anime composer Yoko Kanno who gives a light-hearted yet apropos soundtrack, in addition to something I really liked in the anime adaptation: the insert songs! In addition to the customary Arashi song (since there was an Arashi member in the cast) there are a few other songs in the movie that accompany the film.

The character portrayals of the different characters are slightly different from what they were in the anime: Mayama is even creepier than he was before (or maybe there was a lot of implied stuff in the anime that I didn’t get) and his relationship with Yamada isn’t that pronounced here either. Yamada is spot on but she lacks scenes with Morita, and the interaction between the two was one of the nice things about the anime. Morita is less mysterious, not as eccentric (thus making the character a little more serious) and more open to selling off his works for money, which seems to have become one of the plot elements that the movie tackles. As for Takemoto, I can’t say one way or the other. He was okay in the movie, but I felt a bit different regarding him. Hagu in the movie was pretty good, still cute but as interesting a character as she was in the anime.

The movie covers everything it can from the first season of the anime, which is 26 episodes. Now, the trouble with having a movie adaptation of a manga series/anime is that despite all attempts to do so, you simply can’t squeeze all of 40 manga chapters/26 episodes of anime into a 2 hour movie without doing serious overtime. That means cutting out interesting side stories or integrating them (Lohmeyer, Mayama’s officemates) cutting out or reshaping entire main plot elements (the ferris wheel and an interesting take on the searching for clovers scene) inventing new ones to fill in the gaps (the car, the sea, the inn) and shortening others (Takemoto’s trip.) While others are fun (Hagu and Morita working together on a painting, Mayama snooping around, the soy sauce painting) the rest are not as fun.

I think Takemoto’s trip of self discovery was a bit too downplayed in this version (although, given that that particular arc lasted a few episodes, it’s a bit understandable.) It was a grand trip to discover himself, a trek to the northernmost part of Japan. Here the trip is a lot shorter and the experiences he had less important in my view. His meeting with the temple repairmen was also downplayed, which is a shame since that was one of the factors that built up to the emotional climax of the first anime season.

Also, one great moment with Mayama and Yamada in the movie doesn’t have as strong an effect as in the anime, because honestly certain things don’t film that well (like tears!) It’s still a nice scene though, even if the buildup to the scene wasn’t as fleshed out as in the anime. Even so, the movie is painted in lush, soft colors.

In any case, the movie adaptation of Honey and Clover is nice, but not must-see. For fans of the series it may serve as an interesting supplement to an already fantastic series, but otherwise, as a standalone romance, it isn’t that bad, but not that great either as viewers may not see the total meaning of some of the scenes if they haven’t seen the anime or manga.