Honey and Clover Ep 18

At the Mocademy Awards, the film "Space Titanic" wins the title of "Best Special Effects" where Morita goes on stage to collect the trophy. This scares the hell out of Mayama and gang who are at the hospital to visit Takemoto and they cannot believe that it is Morita whom they are seeing on TV. When it is time for Morita's speech, he takes the chance to complain about the director and is dragged off by the backstage stage when he gets more carried away and takes up a lot of airtime. This makes everyone exclaim in amazement, causing the nurse tells them to keep their voices down but to no avail. Takemoto looks at Hagu who is staring hard at the TV and realises that Morita will be back soon which will no doubt affect the three of them. Suddenly, Takemoto and his friends see a sickly guy who looks like Morita on the bed beside Takemoto. Before they can confirm whether he is indeed Morita, the matron comes to teach them a lesson for creating disturbance in the hospital so they leave hurriedly.

The next day, Hanamoto, Yamada, Mayama and Hagu are amazed at the extensive media coverage on Morita's win at the Mochademy Awards and wonder if they had indeed seen Morita. As today is the deadline for the graduation project's submission, they see Morita peeling apples for Takemoto and confirm their hunch about seeing Morita last night. It seems that Morita ate too much of the free honey roasted peanuts on the plane and ended in hospital. Mayama realises that Morita is wearing his shirt and the latter replies nonchalantly that he told his elder brother, Kaoru to get it from Mayama's room before mailing it to him without even telling Mayama about it. As Morita prepares to slip away, Hanamoto ties him up so as to escort him back to the university and complete his graduation project. As such, this leaves Mayama and Yamaada alone where they wonder how Morita will finish his project within 4 hours.

Mayama and Yamada walk together as they head to a bookstore but they keep quiet during the journey. Yamada asks Mayama on his future plans and find out that he has no intention to let another person enter Rika's company so only the two of them will work together. This makes Yamada very upset even though she was the one who brought up this topic in the first place. Unwittingly, she blurts out that Mayama seems very happy with the current situation and realises the inappriopriate manner she has made this remark. As such, Yamada gives an excuse and leaves halfway in tears where she keeps blaming herself deep down for trying to make Mayama feel worse...

Morita has 20 minutes left to complete his unfinished sculpture but he remains cool about it and brings out a trophy to his teacher, Dange-sensei as his project. However, Dange-sensei refuses to accept it as he thinks that the trophy is from the Mochademy Awards and not from Morita's own effort. Morita then explains that he carved the trophy himself from plated gold so this finally marks Morita's graduation from the university after 8 years.

During the celebration party for graduates, Morita is playing the fool again by covering Dange-sensei's face with a white cloth and Hanamoto scolds him for doing that which is meant for the dead only. Takemoto wants to bring up the issue of Morita's return in front of Hagu but decides to drop the idea in the end.

On the way home, Morita carries Dange-sensei on his back despite the latter's reluctance and reveals that he has been very happy for the past 8 years even though he was constantly scolded by Dange-sensei. This makes Hanamoto remember his earlier conversation with Dange-sensei where he remarked that no matter how much you love your students, they would leave once they graduate. It might be years before they meet their students again so this made Dange-sensei feel that teachers are just spirits residing in a school where they get left behind by the students as they graduate. Mayama tells Morita not to force himself too much if he's tired from carrying Dange-sensei and this makes Yamada misunderstand that he's making fun of her since he did carry her home once.

Spring comes and Takemoto returns to school again as a final year student when he's in the same grade as Hagu. This leads Takemoto to remark that they are the only ones left in the circle of friends who are still students but Hanamoto remnds him that he will not let Takemoto be alone with Hagu while Yamada is still around as a research student. Takemoto feels as if nothing has really changed and thinks that this is better than having to adapt to change in a flash. Suddenly, they hear Morita's voice and see him wearing a kid's school uniform. Morita explains that he has entered the Japanese painting faculty as a 3rd year student because he finds that there is a lot more to be learnt after going overseas. His friends feel that he must be nuts since he spent 8 years in the university and get the impression that Morita has the intention to stay in school until the limit is up. Takemoto looks at Hagu thoughtfully as he wonders what will happen now that Morita is remaining in the university...

Yeah! The return of Morita! It's really different whenever he's around and this is evident from the countless funny scenes in this episode like how he made fun of Dange-sensei, that grumbling speech on stage when Morita complained about the director who tortured him for 1 year and how he decided to return to school and enrol in another faculty. Of course, there are scenes where he shows his mature side like how he expresses his thanks to Dange-sensei and I really like how he looks during such scenes. And with his return, this will no doubt affect how Takemoto handles his feelings for Hagu since he knows that Hagu feels something different for Morita who also seems to like her.

As for Yamada, it must be hard on her trying to pretend that she's not affected by Mayama working with Rika alone and when he actually said that he doesn't want anyone to join the company, it's as if he's telling Yamada that he doesn't want outsiders to interrupt his time with Rika or spoil their budding relationship. Of course, such words would make her very upset but like what she said, she chose to ask Mayama about this. She's eager to know more but once she gets the answer, it proves hard for her to accept it and she gets hurt in the end. Some things are better left unsaid.