ハチミツとクローバー (Live Action Dorama) Ep. 01

SPOILER Summary: Its spring and 3rd-year college student TAKEMOTO Yuuta is wandering on the campus grounds as students are busy with the various club activities to start the new school year. He sees a beautiful girl, who looks at him and smiles. However, before anything can happen, Takemoto finds himself whisked away on a cart, pulled by MAYAMA Takumi and also carrying MORITA Shinobu. This causes Takemoto to lose a button, which the girl picks up. Morita and Mayama have a plan to get some legendary Sangaku Curry. However, since the Sangaku Club will only serve said curry to 1st-year students, they’ve enlisted Takemoto to get in line since he looks like a 1st-year student. He works his way up to the front (reluctantly) but gets accepted by the club members as being a 1st-year student. However, when he gets to the place where the Indian students are, they someone figure him out as 3rd-year student just by looking at him. Game over.

A man with a cigarette in his mouth rides his bike through the school grounds before coming to a stop to admire the falling sakura. Unfortunately, the cart that Mayama had rolls down hill into his bike and breaks it. Meanwhile, Mayama, Takemoto, and Morita go for Plan B, where they pretend to be members of the Sangaku Club there to relieve their fellow members who are working on preparing the curry. Having pots of the stuff for themselves, they lack only a plate, which Morita provides via a ceramic bowl. It is here that a female student, YAMADA Ayumi, enters and is not happy that the ceramic bowl she made is being used for eating curry. She throws a flying kick at Morita, but he and Mayama duck it so that Takemoto catches the blow. Then, she hollers down to the club members below about how their curry is being stolen, forcing the guys to flee.

The four gather in a large room (residence) belonging to the cigarette man, HANAMOTO Shuuji-sensei. Because the other guys had carefully forged Takemoto’s name to the cart, Takemoto gets the punishment for destroying Sensei’s bike. A noise from an adjoining room causes everyone to enter where Takemoto sees the girl from earlier. She’s HANAMOTO Hagumi, the daughter of Hanamoto-sensei’s cousin. She doesn’t say much and returns Takemoto’s button to him. The others introduce themselves (save for Takemoto, who’s denied by Hanamoto-sensei), with Morita not happy to learn that she got to eat the legendary curry. Hanamoto-sensei has Takemoto clean up the mess Hagumi made as his final punishment.

The guys discusses Morita’s seven years of college and how he always wins the yearly school art exhibit with its prize of Koshinhikari rice. Elsewhere, Yamada and Hagumi are cleaning her clothes when another teacher enters with her ceramic bowl. She thinks he’s going to be angry because it is stained with curry, but he finds the coloring to be perfect and feels this was just what she needs to possibly win the exhibit. Later, she, Morita, and Mayama are in the cafeteria where she eats and they watch hungrily. They talk about various things, including a book Mayama has been looking for to complete his thesis work as well as his working in architecture.

Knowing Mayama wants this book, Yamada makes it her quest to find it for him and win favor. So she begins her research that evening. Back at the “dorm” of Takemoto, Morita, and Mayama, a very hungry Takemoto gets a package from home. He’s hoping for food, but instead gets a number of other things like a wooden rice spoon and udon sauce. Morita and Mayama excitedly get him to come to their room where they have some food there for him. Takemoto digs in, only to discover it is elaborately painted erasers and not food.

Back at school, Hanamoto-sensei is showing Hagumi around. She sees a sculpture by Morita and is inspired enough to start painting her own entry for the exhibit. Meanwhile, the three hungry guys are paid a visit by Lohmeyer-senpai, who has the gift of ham with him and lots of it. Thus the starving students eat as Lohmeyer-senpai waxes eloquently about 2-character names such as “ha-mu,” “sa-ke,” “ni-ku” (meat), and so forth. The three gush over his poetic nature and the ham he provided. After eating to their fill, Mayama and Takemoto talk about Hagumi with Mayama figuring out that Takemoto likes her.

Yamada comes home to where her father is waiting outside the store he runs, drinking sake. He’s not happy about her coming home late and wonders if she has a man. She assures him that if she did have a man, she wouldn’t come back. The following day, she finds the old book that Mayama was looking for. Elsewhere, “Morita-sensei” is being asked by the flamboiant Teramobori-san to sign a contract with them as Mayama and Takemoto watch. Morita sells one of his sculptures to the man for a lot of money. The three then run into Yamada, who has the book for Mayama, on the condition that he treat her to Italian. He agrees but then gets a phone call from his female boss and cancels the date with Mayama. He then runs out into the rain to go to his job.

Morita and Takemoto discuss this as they head to find out who won they exhibit. They find that Hagumi’s giant abstract painting won. Takemoto is touched by it as is Morita, who races off to find Hagumi, closely followed by Takemoto. When Morita finds Hagumi, he embraces her and tells her how much he was moved, which makes Takemoto feel uncomfortable. Hanamoto-sensei has to break it up and Hagumi speaks for the first time, saying that she liked Morita’s sculpture.

While Hanamoto-sensei and Takemoto discuss Hagumi’s work, Morita then pays a visit to the depressed Yamada in the pottery lab. Yamada has a riddle for Morita concerning a broken-hearted girl, referring to herself and Mayama. Mayama is with his boss Rika-san at Fujiwara Design company having completed their work. The folks there noticed how much he doted on her, but as one lady (Miwako I’m guessing) also noted that this would be an unrequited love on the part of Mayama. As Mayama and Rika-san walk, she informs him that she’s going to have to let him go as a working the following week but that she’ll try to get him to better places than hers.

Morita works on a piece of clay and when he’s finished, it looks like a pile of crap, which he names “Mayama no Unko” — Mayama’s Sh*t. She throws it out the window. He decides that the heroine needs food and calls Takemoto, who in turn calls the depressed Mayama. Takemoto takes off and as he crosses the school grounds, he runs into Hagumi-chan working on new pieces. She seems happy to see him and they talk about her art. The two of them make their way to the ceramics lab where they also meet Mayama, who’s got some food-stuff. Morita opens the kiln to reveal his masterpieces — several homemade pizzas. They take them and the drinks outside to eat, where Hagumi reveals this is the first pizza she’s eaten. Morita says that eating pizza with them means they are all friends. As Takemoto observes, he doesn’t seem that happy with how well Morita and Hagumi seem to be getting along.

Thoughts: First, thanks to JSM for reminding me this was airing. I’d completely forgotten about it. ^_^;;;

Actor-wise, everyone got into their roles well. While Yamada’s “kick your arse” stuff is there, Mayama doesn’t get the beating, nor does Morita; Takemoto has to take it for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Its supposed to be funny, but I didn’t laugh. Don’t get me wrong; there is humor in this episode just not with the slapstick stuff. Mayama isn’t the stalker he was in the live-action movie, which is a big plus.

Still, while I’ve never read the original manga for this, based on the anime and the live-action movie, this dorama (drama) works for me as someone who enjoyed those other two works. It does prove that the Japanese can do a good live-action title when they want (unlike the You’re Under Arrest and Negima! live-action titles, which were b-a-d).

Now, will people who’ve not read the manga or anime get into this? I don’t know. This is a josei-based title that moves slowly, has some angst (but humor as well), and that’s not going to be for everyone. However, for someone who liked the original manga or anime, I think they’ll like this (though I don’t know how closely they are following the manga story).