Honey and Clover

How do you take a very long well-known and well-liked anime series and make it into a movie? Not Easily. "Honey and Clover" was directed by Masahiro Takata. It stars Yu Aoi as the beautiful, artisticly eccentric Hagu, and Sho Sakurai as kind-hearted Takemoto. The plot is simple....friends at an art college try to better their art while pursuing impassioned crushes at the same time. There were some aspects of the plot that confused me, and I felt that too much had to be left out(the anime lasted for seasons so I'm sure they found it hard to really do justice to the characters in a single movie). I couldn't understand for the life of me why certain characters did some of the things they did.....and yet....at the same time.....I found myself falling in love with the movie....falling in love with the idealism and romanticism embraced by this group of inspired youth. It's not all happy, and like most artististic/creative people I know, it carries a constant sadness throughout.
I haven't seen enough of the anime to really compare the two, but I can say that I was able to just let go, ride the ride and feel the emotions....it is an enjoyable movie, and when the movie was over, I wanted it to continue. I wanted to know what happened to these characters in the future, I wanted to follow them on their journey.
I don't think this movie will appeal to everyone. Some of you may think the plot is too slow, or too sentimental.
I say, however, "bring on the sequel!" I give it 8 out of 10.

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