ハチミツとクローバー (Live Action Dorama) Ep. 09

SPOILER Summary: As Takemoto continues his journey north, Ayumi and Morita have a conversation about her wanting to stop liking Mayama and his suddenly getting out of painting. The female sensei who’s been pressuring Hagu-chan talks with Hanamoto-sensei about her and her work, which he encourages her to view as Hagu-chan is painting once again. Meanwhile, Rika-san and Mayama drop off their latest project work to Fujiwara Design, where Ayumi also stops by. Mayama and Ayumi have an awkward small talk before Nomiya drops by. When Mayama and Rika-san leave, Nomiya distracts Ayumi by writing “baka” (“idiot”) on her hand. That way when she thinks of Mayama, she can look at that and be mad at Nomiya.

Teramobori-san is excited to see Morita has given up painting but is disappointed to learn Morita’s latest piece isn’t for sale, but is his graduation work after eight-years of college. As Hanamoto-sensei has a talk with Hagu-chan on her doing what she wants and Nomiya considers taking the Tottori project, Takemoto continues traveling north through the cold rains and thinks of things. When the rain stops and the sun comes out, he decides its time to return to Tokyo, where upon returning, he immediately visits Hagu-chan (who’s nearly finished with her painting) and confesses his love for her. She smiles and welcomes him home.

At the dorm, Morita and Mayama are enjoying a large pot of oden. Morita notes how happy Mayama seems to be and wonders if Mayama has kissed Rika-san yet, which he denies. The two have a bath and upon their return, Mayama notices that Takemoto is in his room, apparently asleep. So, he and Morita decide to play a joke on Takemoto by taking what’s left of the oden and shoving it in his face. However, he startles them by suddenly sitting up, announcing he’s home, having faked being asleep. As such, Mayama and Morita shove some oden into his face just the same. Outside, Lohmeyer-senpai has cleaned Takemoto’s bicycle and gives his three favorite underlings more words of wisdom. When he leaves, he’s written Takemoto’s name on the bike, only misspelling it as “Takeyama.”

At work, Mayama gets a fax from Spain saying Rika-san is going there for a project. He sees Rika-san put plane tickets in her desk drawer when she comes in and he confronts her over this. She wants their unfinished projects to be given to other companies. He wants to know why she didn’t tell her and wonders what’s going to happen to this place. Elsewhere, Takemoto runs into Hagu-chan and the two walk and talk about his trip. He thanks her for her words before he took his trip and she thanks him for the courage he gave her and the letter he wrote her.

That night, Mayama confirms that Rika-san’s airplane ticket is indeed for Spain before he goes to consult with Hanamoto-sensei. Takemoto has acquired a number of books on temple restoration and starts to read when he’s paid a visit by Morita, where he tells Morita he learned what he wanted to do on his trip, which Morita can see based on the books Takemoto has.

The following day, Ayumi learns that Nomiya is going to Tottori from Miwako and when Nomiya drives Ayumi home, she confronts him about his not telling her. He didn’t want to tell her because he finds he really likes her. Back on campus, Shouda-sensei is amazed to find Morita finally working on a graduation piece after so many years. Shouda-sensei teases Morita, but Morita gets the last laugh when he points out that the 3-minute mark for Shouda-sensei’s Cup Noodle passed some time ago, meaning the noodles are now soggy. Elsewhere on campus, the female sensei looks at Hagu-chan’s latest piece and makes a confession to Hagu-chan about her own past with creating art and how it has affected how she treats Hagu-chan. However, she now understands Hagu-chan and wishes her well, meaning the pressure is off Hagu-chan.

Still elsewhere, Rika-san and Mayama drop off their last project work before Rika-san goes to Spain. At the train station, Mayama thinks on what Rika-san and Hanamoto-sensei have told him. Seeing an express train for Sapporo, Mayama grabs Rika-san and they board the train just before it leaves. He tells her that they should go to her deceased husband’s town of Otaru. Back on campus, Hagu-chan is feeling very happy and as she walks across the grounds, she accidentally runs into a workman carrying a large window. She stumbles and falls to the ground and the window falls on the steps above her, some small glass pieces falling onto her and somehow knocking her out.

Thoughts: I did not like how the the series handled the end of Takemoto’s journey. In the first anime series (episode 24), Takemoto goes to Sōya-misaki (宗谷岬), which is the northernmost point on mainland Japan. He can go no further north and has come to terms with things. The live action TV series, Takemoto just stops his journey (suddenly coming to terms with things) and is instantly back home what seems like moments later (though to be fair, when Takemoto decides to return home in the anime, it is equally as instantaneous seeming). I felt the anime version had a lot more meaning whereas the TV version lacked it. Plus, I wanted to see Sōya-misaki.

I hate to say this, but Hagu-chan’s accident was almost a laugher in the TV version. In the anime, you knew she was seriously injured when the window fell from an upper story of a building. Here, a few glass shards come at her after some workmen drop a window a few feet to the ground and she’s suddenly unconscious. Yeah, whatever. I guess the Japanese couldn’t figure a way to have the window actually appear to fall on her, which would make her being unconscious believable.

While there was still good stuff in this episode (Takemoto finally confessing to Hagu-chan), I also think it is the weakest of the lot to date.