Shinobu Morita
A sixth-year art student, age 24 at the start of the series, in the same apartment complex as Takemoto and Mayama. Morita is depicted as a perpetual student, unable to graduate because of persistent absenteeism. This is mainly due to his work, which forces him to go missing for several days, after which he sleeps for at least 48 hours. Morita is considered mysterious by the other students, prone to bizarre behavior such as creating a version of Twister with too many colors. He is a perceptive person who cares for his friends Takemoto and Mayama but often expressing himself tactlessly, and who is not generous with his money and food. He also expresses his desire for Hagu in quirky ways, such as forcing her to dress up as a mouse because he likes cute things. Later in the series, he departs for a year in America, and eventually the others learn he has been moonlighting as an award-winning CGI artist.
Morita is highly talented and also highly mobile – despite the fact that he is much more of a “soulmate” for her, he can’t be the the dependable support that she needs. Neither can Takemoto. Like most other Honey and Clovers, I do think that Morita is one of the most well-conceived characters in manga/anime. In the beginning, the viewer may be led to believe that he is not much more than comic relief, yet throughout the series we get a glimpse of a truly interesting and complex character. What adds to this is the fact that we aren’t allowed into Morita’s mind with the same frequency that we are with Takemoto or Yamada. Morita remains a mystery to the viewers a lot of the time because we, like the on-screen characters, can’t truly understand what he’s thinking. In the beginning he seems like a shallow character, throwing away his education and schooling to earn money, yet we discover later that he did those things only to help Kaoru. It’s the fact that Morita so often hides behind his comedic exterior that makes his serious scenes all the more dramatic. I’m sure we can all think of people we’ve known who so consistently have an air of humor to them that it’s hard to imagine them acting serious. Observe the scenes between Morita and Yamada, for example, which many people say are highlights to them because you get to see a completely different side of Morita. The climactic scene between him and Hagu near the finale of the second season is another example – both the viewers and Hagu have never seen Morita in a state as he is now, completely devoid of any humor, his comedic wall completely shattered. That is why it was so obvious to Hagu that something was deeply wrong
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