Honey and Clover 5 cover image is courtesy of barnesandnoble.com

Rated “T+” for “Older Teen”

Three young men share an apartment while attending art college in Tokyo.  Yūta Takamoto, Shinobu Morita, and Takumi Mayama experience the ups and downs of school and friendship, while adulthood and professional careers loom on the horizon.  The eccentric waif, Hagumi Hanamoto, Ayumi Yamada (who is a queen of pottery), and architect Rika Harada are the women in their lives.

In Honey and Clover, Vol. 5, Takamoto struggles to finish his senior project, and as he nears graduation, he doesn’t have a serious job prospect.  His job interviews are a disaster, but as supportive as his friends try to be, they have their own issues.  Yamada struggles with her unrequited love for Mayama, who just had to quit a good job.  Morita returns to Japan after achieving a shocking success in America, and his return is just in time to see Takamoto’s health fail…

THE LOWDOWN:  The best word to describe how the narrative flows in Honey and Clover is “manic.”  Manga-ka Chica Umino seems to hold to the adage that life indeed never slows down.  Something is always happening in her narrative, but sometimes, it’s also a bit too much.  Moments of genuine poignancy, especially those involving love and being in love, get lost in subplots about job hunting, school projects and get-togethers.  Umino’s quirky drawing style, however, is attractive, and while it serves the story well, it’s worth seeing just for itself.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  Fans of shoujo dramas set in college will like Honey and Clover.

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