Honey and Clover – Chapter L

January 22, 2006 on 4:29 pm | In Honey and Clover | 6 Comments

“I face a legend”

I thought it would be weird to see more Honey & Clover outside of the context of the series, and damn if I wasn’t right. Chapter L is a certifiably insane story of kindness and ham that exists as episode “11.5” of Honey & Clover (judging by its placement on the DVDs).

One night, Takemoto tells Hagu-chan of Lohmeyer-sempai, a kind and benevolent man who used to live in their apartment building. Lohmeyer-sempai worked as a meat delivery man, and each night he would bring his fellow apartment dwellers free ham. For this reason, they loved him … but one day, he went away.
The second half of the episode sees Mayama tells Takemoto of Nyanzaburo, the mascot of the local theme park. For the two years that Nyanzaburo was portrayed by Lohmeyer-sempai, a man of two metres, the business at the park skyrocketed. Strangely, the biggest clientele was male students and old men …

There’s not really much I can say about this tale of juicy, exploding ham. When Honey & Clover is in super-comedy mode, it’s not overflowing with meaning. Amazingly Takemoto manages to make a fairly profound insight into the very nature of Lohmeyer-sempai, but he’s drowned out by the patently hilarious repeated use of the word “juicy” all throughought the episode.

My bittersweet memories of Honey & Clover were washed away by the gleeful yet nostalgic insanity of “Chapter L”. What a good place for a story: right before the series’ explosion.

6 Comments

  1. When you say “explosion”, is it in a good way or bad?

    Comment by Os — January 23, 2006 #

  2. A dramatic explosion – that is, this episode is a nice dose of comedy before the series takes a more serious turn.

    Comment by Alex — January 23, 2006 #

  3. Now I have seen everything!! (^_^;;)

    It’s remarkable what starvation can do to a person (and more remarkable what meat can do to counteract that)!! As much as I think this Romaiya senpai character is kind and generous, I also think that he is also a dangerous character. I mean men fall for him before women for crying out loud!! He puts idols to shame!! And that continuous laugh of his!! It’s almost evil!! It’s like everyone around him behaves like they are on crack!! Scary (^_^;;)

    Another comedy masterpiece from Honey & Clover. I had tears in my eyes when the ending song started playing because it’s been a while since I last heard it. I can’t say that I was surprised by Nyanzaburo’s replacement since I had a gut feeling it would be Morita. Wouldn’t you know it, his song was about money!! Shinobu strikes again!!

    Comment by Mohammad — January 23, 2006 #

  4. I was surprised by the new Nyanzaburo’s success, considering the lack of talent in Morita’s application.

    Comment by Alex — January 23, 2006 #

  5. Don’t forget that he was a singing phenomenon during the Sakura blooming festival in episode 12. Since this episode is before episode 12 in the timeline then it means that he was probably gauging the crowd reaction in the theme park to see if he can go pro and add yet another money making scheme to his portfolio of projects. He is a jack of all trades after all.

    Comment by Mohammad — January 23, 2006 #

  6. I suppose Mayama’s natural charisma + awesomeness of Nyanzaburo costume = victory.

    Comment by Alex — January 23, 2006 #

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

Powered by WordPress with Pool theme design by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds. Valid XHTML and CSS. ^Top^