There's college, and then there's art school. Maybe it's the paint fumes, but art school is a fertile ground for all kinds of characters you'd never meet at your typical university. Just ask manga artist Chica Umino, who set her romantic comedy shojo / josei manga series Honey and Clover in a semi-suburban art college just outside of Tokyo.

Through the eyes of sophomore architecture student Takemoto, we meet his boarding house mates Mayama, a fourth year design major, and Morita, a gifted sculptor who's on his sixth (and counting) year of art school. We also watch two love triangles form, when we meet Hagu, a tiny and fragile painter who looks more like 8 than 18 years old, and Yamada, the tough but vulnerable ceramics major who has a crush on Mayama.

By putting the focus on the three male leads (instead of her two main female characters), Umino has bent one of the rules of shojo manga -- make the girl(s) the center of the action. The other quirky aspect of Honey and Clover? Its distinctive, sketchy art and meandering, (some would say slow) pace, as it introduces us to new tidbits about each character in non-linear, slice-of-life episodes.

Art school and angst -- they go together like peanut butter 'n jelly. There's a good deal of emo-drama here, but it's balanced out by Umino's quirky sense of humor, as she puts her characters in some eccentric situations, such as the art school version of Twister and mercenary Morita's fairy website starring petite (but definitely not a fairy) Hagu.

Check out my review of Honey and Clover Volume 1, which is available now, and my review of Honey and Clover Volume 2, which will be out in June from Shojo Beat Manga / VIZ Media and see if this art school romantic comedy makes the grade or it's just one of those things that you either get... or you don't.

Also, check out the live action feature film version of Honey and Clover, which will be out on DVD next week, on Tuesday, May 13, 2008 from VIZ Pictures.

Image credit: © 2000 Chica Umino / SHUEISHA Inc.