List of Honey and Clover Characters - Main Characters

Main Characters

Hagumi Hanamoto (花本 はぐみ, Hanamoto Hagumi?)

Portrayed by: Haruka Kudō (anime, Japanese), Heather Halley (anime, English), Yū Aoi (movie), Riko Narumi (Japanese TV drama)

A supremely gifted artist, Hagu's immense talents are esteemed by all who witness her works, catching the eye of numerous professional artists who insistently urge her to submit her work to exhibitions to heighten her publicity (which she seems to find daunting). She is 18 years of age at the beginning of the series and her appearance is that of a child, and she conveniently behaves as one. Raised in a largely sheltered and obscure home by her irritable grandmother, her sociability is below average. It is while living in that home that Hagu develops her skill in drawing and painting, her only pastime, though she finds nothing to sketch save for the never-changing view she has from her porch, varying only in seasons. Hagu is from Azumino city, Nagano-ken. She is introduced to Takemoto, Morita and Mayama by Shūji, her father's cousin and also a professor at the college. Upon seeing her, Morita and Takemoto fall in love with her, though both express it in different ways. Hagu knows not of their feelings towards her, but sees them as friends. However, Morita expresses his love for her in very odd ways, and Hagu is often seen trying to escape from whatever shenanigan Morita has planned for her. Though later Hagu develops feelings towards Morita, although she does not at first realize this, as Shūji points out. Hagu is very shy, and because she is so nervous when interacting with people, the other art students think that she is strange. Hagu doesn't seem to be too close with family members either, with the exception of Shūji, whom she fondly calls "Shū-chan". However, as the series progresses, Hagu is able to become closer friends with Takemoto, Mayama, Morita and Yamada. When Shūji leaves to go do a research project in Mongolia, Hagu forms a deeper bond with each of them, essentially seeing them as a sort of family. Hagu lives with Yamada (whom she calls "Ayu") when Shūji is away and they become very close friends. During parties, she is seen to be crying because of her envy of Yamada's beautiful legs and beautiful breasts. Mayama tries very hard to comfort her but failing rather miserably saying that "You'll have one of those when you're older....probably". While Hagu is crying, Morita is also crying because of her infectious tears. Later in the series, Hagu started to avoid Takemoto after he confessed his feelings for her, but at the end when he was leaving on the bullet train she gave him bread with honey and four leaf clovers, proving that she considered him a precious friend. At the end of the series, Hagu accepts Morita's confession of love and quickly realizes his intentions. Begging him not to run away and promising to always watch him, she returns to Shūji to complete her rehab. Mayama said that there are people who pursue love, and there are ones who choose passion. Hagu seems to be the second type. Moreover, Shūji is a very important person to Hagu and is "like a rain that soothes her". Hagu is often troubled by the thought that she's a burden to Shūji.

Yūta Takemoto (竹本 祐太, Takemoto Yūta?)

Portrayed by: Hiroshi Kamiya (anime, Japanese), Yuri Lowenthal (anime, English), Shō Sakurai (movie), Toma Ikuta (Japanese TV drama)

Aged 19 (at the beginning of the series), Yūta Takemoto is a second-year student at the art college. He is from Annaka city, Gunma-ken. He lives in the same apartment complex as Mayama and Morita in room 202. His floor mates are Morita and Hasegawa. Takemoto studies architecture, but has little certainty as to what he wishes to do upon graduating; his decision to attend art college was because he liked to build things with his hands, like he had with his father. Takemoto is one of the more mellow characters in the series. He falls in love with Hagu immediately after being introduced by his professor and keeps his feelings to himself throughout most of the series. His love for Hagu and his inability to act upon his feelings as freely as Morita causes some internal problems for Takemoto. For example, when Hagu received a bird brooch that was made for her as an anonymous present, Takemoto couldn't bring himself to say that Morita was the one who had made it for her. Instead of acting on his feelings, Takemoto decides to be more of a brother figure to Hagu, giving her friendly support when needed. For example, Takemoto accepts Hagu's requests to build her sophisticated dollhouses and the like. Takemoto is very close to her. His relationship with his family also contributes to his mellow mood. His father died when he was still young. Also, his mother works at a hospital as a nurse, so Takemoto would usually spend a lot of his time there, even his Christmas holidays. Furthermore, Takemoto is uncomfortable with his mother's new husband, an outspoken man whose persona seems to a polar opposite to that of his father. However, Takemoto tries to get used to his company and tries to accept the fact that his step-father is capable of looking after his mother, since Takemoto has worried about his mother's well-being ever since he left home. His mother's remarriage and her assurance that he is now free to do as he wishes instead of taking care of her all the time later influenced Takemoto's decision to attend art college. Later in the series Takemoto has to stay another year due to getting a stomach ulcer and not being able to complete his graduation thesis. Near the end of the first season, Takemoto goes on a journey across Japan on a bicycle, meeting several people on the way, including a group in Zuigan-ji in Matsushima which is involved in the renovating of ancient Japanese structures and buildings all around the country (which he wishes to join), finally reaching Cape Sōya in Wakkanai, Hokkaidō. After arriving back to Tokyo, he finally confesses his feelings for Hagu though he knew from the start that his feelings for her were unrequited. At the end of the manga, he chose to work with the renovating team he had met and left for Morioka.

Shinobu Morita (森田 忍, Morita Shinobu?)

Portrayed by: Yūji Ueda (anime, Japanese), Sam Riegel (anime, English), Yūsuke Iseya (movie), Hiroki Narimiya (Japanese TV drama)

24 years old and a 6th year student in the beginning of the series, Morita occupies room 203, his floor mates being Takemoto and Hasegawa. Morita is unable to graduate, as he can never wake up on time to go to classes. This is mainly due to the work that he does, which forces him to go missing for periods of time. What he does for work though remains a mystery. When Morita comes back from his mysterious job, he immediately falls asleep for at least 48 hours, due to the amount of work he does. He also returns with a large sum of money in his back-pocket and brings a food item to share with his flat mates. Although the flat mates believe he does it to mock them, such as when he brings a bag of croquettes instead of meat, Morita does care deeply for his friends such as Takemoto. Despite being pretty weird sometimes, Morita is extremely smart and talented, showing talent in many fields from a young age such as creating toys, sculpture, drawing, playing musical instruments, and especially CG effects (which is exploited by Peter Lucas). Though he often appears to be childish and playful, he's actually a very thoughtful person, often gives advices and consolation to his friends, mostly Yamada. He also used his crazy methods to rescue his friends from difficult or embarrassing situation (like the Yamada-Mayayma related cases). Morita is a very mysterious person. He does many random, crazy things for his personal enjoyment, such as creating a twister game with too many colors, which resulted in horrific pain for him and Takemoto. Morita is a perceptive individual, but tactless and often states the truth, such as how Mayama secretly stalks Rika outside her apartment, when nobody wants to hear it. He also expresses his love for Hagu in weird and quirky ways, such as forcing Hagu to dress up as a mouse. Morita's obsession with Hagu stems from a fondness of cute things during his childhood, such as causing a cat to become neurotic after cuddling it too much. As a result of Morita's obsession Hagu becomes afraid of him and tries to avoid him but eventually falls in love with him later on. Despite the way Morita treats Hagu he sincerely cares for Hagu, getting her a pair of expensive mules and creating a brooch with a dove on it, both of which was in her scrapbook of things she wanted. Later in the series, Morita leaves for America for work without saying anything to his friends. He eventually returns in about a year's time, and Morita's friends finally discover what he does for his work, being awarded best CGI in the Mocademy Awards (a spoof of the Academy Awards) for the movie 'Space Titanic', after studying with acclaimed director Peter Lucas. Morita's room, which no one had ever been inside, had also been discovered after his departure, and contained a lot of high tech equipment. After returning from America, Morita finally manages to graduate from his course in his 8th year handing his work in on the very last day. Despite graduating and becoming rich from his work in America, Morita applies for a Japanese Arts course believing he hasn't studied for long enough, even though he's been there for 8 years. He re-enters the art school as a 3rd grade student, having already completed half the subjects. From the last chapters of the series, we find out that Morita has been earning money all along to help his brother Kaoru get revenge on a company who ruined his father's company by foul methods. Morita doesn't want this revenge from the bottom of his heart, but did so because of his brother and the former faithful employers of his late father. Hearing Hagu's accident, he rushed back to see her. Looking to her as an escape, he said that it was absurd thinking life only means something if you leave work behind. Morita also finally confesses his love for her. Hagu reciprocated his feelings, but sees through his intentions, begging him not to run away. Promising to always watch over him, Hagu returns to Shūji and her rehab because she cannot imagine her life without drawing. Later, Morita decides to work in Peter Lucas's company.

Takumi Mayama (真山 巧, Mayama Takumi?)

Portrayed by: Tomokazu Sugita (anime, Japanese), Cam Clarke (anime, English), Ryō Kase (movie), Osamu Mukai (Japanese TV drama)

22 years old and a 4th year student at the start of the series, Mayama is from Kanazawa, Ishikawa-ken and an architecture student at the art institute. He lives in the same complex as Takemoto and Morita. He occupies room 101, sharing the floor with an unknown individual and formerly Lohmeyer-senpai. He acts as a senior to Takemoto and tries to help Morita get up for early morning classes. At one point, Takemoto and Morita are seen sleeping alongside him in his futon. Morita also borrows Mayama's shirts from time to time because it's more comfortable. Mayama also used to help Rika out with various errands while Rika was disabled due to the accident that left her husband dead. It is during that time that Mayama develops feelings for Rika. It is unknown whether Rika fully reciprocates the feelings that Mayama has for her, but various flashbacks imply that Mayama and Rika have 'fooled around', or Mayama took advantage of Rika's disability to fulfill his desires, although this is cleared up later as not being the case. Rika suggested that Mayama find another job so that she wouldn't have to continue hurting him, as she realizes how much he cares for her, and is unable (and perhaps unwilling at that point) to allow him to enter into her life. Mayama eventually landed a job at Fujiwara Design. He has to deal with coworkers that are also very interested in his love life, and make comments whenever they can. Mayama also has to keep watch of his boss, Nomiya, whom he considers to be a playboy, when Nomiya begins to take an interest in Yamada. Mayama doesn't return the feelings that Yamada has for him, but he sees Yamada as his close friend. Yamada's innocence is one thing that Mayama has to constantly guard from Nomiya, who has developed an interest with her. When Fujiwara Design later broke up, people had to either stay in the Tokyo branch or transfer to the Tottori branch. Nomiya arranged for Mayama to be transfer to the Tottori branch, but as soon as this was announced Mayama quit. He now works again with Rika at her company, Harada Design, after forcing himself into the position in his own way. Mayama's character design is based upon Suga Shikao.

Ayumi Yamada (山田 あゆみ, Yamada Ayumi?)

Portrayed by: Mikako Takahashi (anime, Japanese), Julie Ann Taylor (anime, English), Megumi Seki (movie), Natsuki Harada (Japanese TV drama)

21 years old at the beginning, Yamada is well known by her peers at the art college. First, she is good at pottery, and second, she is nicknamed Tetsujin (lit. Iron-lady) for running 6km to school every morning with her dog during freshman year in order to help the dog lose weight. Due to her good looks, she also catches the attention of her male friends/coworkers at the shopping district she works with. She and Hagu seem to be very close, like siblings. While Hagu addresses the three young men by their last names, she calls Yamada by her first name. Yamada really cares for Hagu like a younger sister. She offers to stay with her while Shuji is gone and they get along extremely well, especially as they share an equally unique taste in cooking that is inedible to anyone else but themselves. Although not shown as much as her relationship with Hagu, she is close friends with Takemoto and Morita. Nomiya once said that though Yamada has the look of a fully matured girl, she's actually a "baby" inside. Yamada is innocent, and cares deeply for her friends. She's also very good at martial arts. Yamada and Hagu often create together many bizarre dishes (like curry with chocolate and so on), and Mayama, Takemoto, Morita and Shūji are the victims of these dishes in most of the cases. Yamada is deeply in love with one of her friends, Mayama. Mayama, however, doesn't return her feelings, asking her why she is in love with him and encouraging her to go find someone else. Even though Yamada recognizes that her love will bear no fruit, she continues to love him. She can't manage to move on and find another man. While Mayama doesn't love her in that sense, Mayama sees Yamada as an important friend, a feeling that Yamada recognizes later on when she cannot return the love of her coworkers, but still thought of them as her precious friends. Mayama's over protectiveness of her causes Yamada to get angry at him whenever he tries to protect her from his former boss, Nomiya. Later in the series, Yamada decides to continue as a graduate student at the art college. Furthermore, she also makes pottery for Fujiwara and Harada Design.