Life Goes On… with Honey and Clover
August 10th, 2009
Props to otou-san for writing this awesome H&C post. Eternal, too, though that’s one monster of a post I vowed not to read until I’ve actually rewatched H&C and truly appreciate it for what it’s worth.
The first time I watched Honey and Clover was August 2006, as I remember it, basking in 2-3 eps a day in my hotel room in Cebu after work during my first business trip, glued to the screen of my laptop whilst my roommates are busy playing DoTA; not exactly understanding what was going on through the lives of Takemoto, Morita, Mayama, Yamada, Hagu, Morita, Shuu, and Rika, but knowing enough to realize that there’s so much more to the show than how I was seeing it back then.
On September 2006 came H&C II, but I knew well I wasn’t ready for it, so I stopped halfway through my viewing. Now it’s August 2009, exactly 3 years after my first H&C encounter, and suffice so say, a lot has happened since then — from meeting Seleria and starting out blogging, growing in and out of it, both within the confines of the blog and beyond it, as an anime fan, as a woman, as a person; juggling with work and life, not knowing who I am and what I really want, then eventually, discovering how vast this world is, realizing how one little emotion can bring the best and worst in you, make you feel you’re on top of the world at one point, devastated on the other. Err– apologies for my emo rambling.
The main reason why otou-san’s post resonated with me so much is because it dealt about ‘letting go’, something that hits really close to home considering what I’ve been through and what I’m still going through at this point. There’s a chapter in my life that I thought was over, like THE HELL I’M OVER AND DONE WITH THIS, but no… it’s a slow and steady process, the healing. It’s not something that would happen overnight, no matter how much conviction you put into that decision. Time and again you’d look back, and for sure, beyond the bitter memories are those of fond ones that you’d cherish for the rest of your life, and as much as you’d hate to admit it, shaped you as you are now.
One reason why it’s so hard to let go is because of our selfish ego-centric nature; we can be so used to having things our way, we want things to happen the way we want, then go Q_Q BAWWW when it doesn’t. We want to hold on to “What Ifs” — What If I’m THE ONE, What If he’s THE ONE, What If THIS is the Best Route for me, etc. But life doesn’t work that way. You can’t be selfish and narrow-minded and expect to get the Best Ending to life. “[The characters'] ability to ‘let go’ is directly proportional to how much they grow as people”, as otou-san has keenly observed. In letting go, we realize that it’s in this act of ’selflessness’ that we grow and become fulfilled as people, realizing that love is not about how much a person receives but by how much one gives, and most of all, realizing that it’s in letting go that we come to discover how vast the world is, compared to that puny little thing we’ve been holding on to. “It’s in dying that we learn how to live” kind of thing. A sweet surrender, letting go of things beyond your control.
We used to believe in fairy tales and happily-ever-after stories back when we were little, but once we grow up and experience stumbling blocks, we come to realize just how seemingly impossible a “happy ending” is, and we become jaded. And at times, even “hell” becomes a “viable” option — we become short-sighted, we hold on to things despite despite knowing how much it’s going to hurt us, we hold on to “temporal” things. But the thing is, there is that heaven at the end of the road, and we’ll only come to see it once we learn how to “let go”.
At the end of his post, otou-san asks, “might H&C help you move on from something?”. There’s only one way to found out, isn’t it? 
Shall we say, let a ‘new generation’ of Honey and Clover circle-jerk begin?
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