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Honey and Clover Volume 1

© Chica Umino

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Honey and Clover Manga Profile and Story Summary

Title:

Honey and Clover (English)
Hachimitsu to Kuroba (Japanese)

Creator:

Author and Artist: Chica Umino

Publishers:

• Shojo Beat Manga / VIZ Media (US)
• Shueisha (Japan)

Volumes:

10 volumes

Manga Genres:

• Shojo (Girls') Manga
• Josei (Women's) Manga
• Comedy
• College Romance
• Slice of Life

Content Rating:

OT – Older Teens, Age 16+ for some mature themes, partial nudity and drinking
More about content ratings

About the Manga:

Originally serialized in CUTiEcomic from 2000 to 2001, then Young YOU and Chorus magazine, Honey and Clover is currently featured in Shojo Beat, an American shojo manga anthology magazine published by VIZ Media. Honey and Clover won the Kondansha Manga Award for Best Shojo Manga in 2003.

The Honey and Clover live action feature film debuted in July 2006, and was released in the U.S. by VIZ Pictures in May 2008. It has also inspired an animated TV series and as a weekly television drama series.

About the Author / Artist:

Chica Umino (pen name) was born on August 30 in Adachi, Tokyo, Japan. Before she took up drawing manga professionally, Umino-sensei worked as a product designer and an illustrator.

Honey and Clover is Umino's first major published work. Her most current series, March Comes In Like a Lion (Sangatsu no Raion) is serialized in Young Animal magazine, published by Hakusensha.

Story Summary:

At an art college outside of Tokyo, five students struggle to make the grade, find love and keep themselves fed on a student budget in Chica Umino's romantic comedy, Honey and Clover. Takemoto and Mayama are architecture students. Morita is a gifted sculptor who can't seem to graduate after six years in college. Yamada is a talented potter, and child-like Hagu is an artistic savant who paints and sculpts with effortless creativity.

Under the watchful eye of Professor Hanamoto, this mismatched batch of three guys and two girls find themselves in some unlikely love triangles. Tough gal Yamada has an unrequited crush on Mayama, who loves Rika, his employer at the architecture firm. Earnest yet insecure Takemoto is fascinated by the sweet and fragile Hagu, who is also being courted (in very unusual ways) by Morita, the eccentric genius and so-called "chick magnet."

Main Characters

Hagu Hanamoto
Childlike and fragile, Hagu is 18 years old, but she looks more like 8. Shy, sensitive and small for her age, Hagu is a gifted artist who has already gotten acclaim for her sculptures and paintings. Hagu is also the niece of Professor Hanamoto, who brought her to the college to provide her with a nurturing creative environment.

Takumi Mayama
Bespectacled Mayama is a fourth-year architecture student who's working as an intern at a local firm. While he often comes across as detached and cynical, Mayama has an unrequited crush on his employer Rika, who has a tragic past. Meanwhile, Mayama is aware of his classmate Yamada's romantic yearning, but can’t find it in his heart to reciprocate.

Shinobu Morita
Eccentric and charismatic Morita is in his sixth year in art college, and it doesn't look like he make it out of here before his seventh or eighth year either. His talent as a sculptor and painter are undeniable, but his inability to finish what he starts has his professors tearing out their hair. Morita tends to disappear mysteriously for days at a time, then returns exhausted but with a pile of cash in hand. Where does he go, and why does he come back with so much money? That's a mystery for his classmates to solve in the volumes to come.

Ayumi Yamada
Yamada is a talented potter whose grace and skill has her professor (and admiring classmates) swooning. Yamada is a pretty girl who has many admirers, but she adores Mayama, who won’t give her the time of day. She’s also no shrinking violet – her nickname "Iron Man" comes from her fearsome fighting skills and her tendency to give Morita or Mayama a swift kick where it hurts when they push her buttons.