Honey and Clover DVD Vol 5 SP

There is a special episode titled Chapter L included in Vol 5 of the Hachikuro DVD which focuses on Lohmeyer-senpai, one of the students who stay in the same apartment with Takemoto, Mayama and Morita. Apparently, Lohmeyer-senpai has taken a break from school because his father is sick and he is helping out at home. He returns to the apartment one day just when Takemoto and gang are moaning about the lack of meat in their diet because they are tight on finances. Lohemeyer-senpai becomes their saviour since he brought back lots of ham and sausages along with fresh vegetables from home. Well, the meat was nearing the expiry date though but to the guys who are craving for meat, this is definitely better than nothing. Initially, Takemoto didn't understand why Mayama and Morita were behaving like smitten school girls when the subject of Lohmeyer-senpai was brought up (Takemoto has never met him before) but when he got a taste of Lohmeyer-senpai's treatment towards them, I guess it's easy to see why these people are going gaga over this saviour. During the period while Lohmeyer-senpai is around, everyone is practically bursting with energy. When he has to return home again at short notice, these guys are so devastated by this that they really look like deflated balloons to me. I wonder if the brand of the ham has anything to do with Lohmeyer-senpai's name since the names happen to be the same. A coincidence?

The second part of this episode talks about a desolated theme park, Arakawa Land which used to be very popular among men in the past. There was a mascot called Nyanzaburou which was so huge and could carry even men. Apparently, Lohmeyer-senpai was the one playing Nyanzaburou since the original owner was too old and weak to continue playing this role. As such, even though Lohmeyer-senpai's height of over 190cm was much more than his 160-plus cm, the owner gave him the job. Subsequently, he became the legendary hero of Arakawa Land who would help to resolve problems and give men the well-needed hug even though most people would think that men don't need one. Although this was really funny, Takemoto brings out a point which is worth considering. Lohmeyer-senpai brings joy and laughter to the people around him but when he's in trouble or feeling down, who will be by his side to support him? I get the feeling that Lohmeyer-senpai wants to be of assistance to others and doesn't ask for anything in return. Maybe he derives joy from seeing how these people are happy as a result of his actions. And since he's someone who should bring happiness to them, I think that's why he wouldn't have showed his troubles to them. He should be working very hard for his family since he even had to take a break from school for an extended period of time before dropping out but he still puts on that cheerful face. I think Lohmeyer-senpai deserves a hug too. ^__^

Given that this episode has so many comical moments, I guess they couldn't fit this into the main series since it's meant for laughs and doesn't have a direct linkage to the plot's development. That's probably why there's another episode on Fujiwara Design to be included in Vol 7 released during Feb 06. Actually, I ordered both Vol 5 and 7 together so I'll have to wait until Feb before I can receive both items. As I was too anxious to see what the Lohmeyer-senpai episode was all about, I downloaded the raw just to satisfy my curiousity. There's also a chat session between Kudo Haruka (Hagu) and Ueda Yuji (Morita) in the SP section of this DVD which I can only see when I receive both DVDs in Feb. At long last, I can see how Ueda Yuji looks like...