Honey Lemon Soda

Honey Lemon Soda (ハニーレモンソーダ) is a 12 episode romance based on the manga of the same name by Murata Mayu.  It originally aired during the Winter of 2025.

    Ishimori Uka is a first year high school student who struggle with self esteem.  She was isolated and bullied in middle school and struggles to become more confident.  Things begin to change however when the most popular boy in her grade intervenes in a round of abuse by her old tormentors.  Miura Kai is stern and aloof but when he intervenes for Ishimori he does so in the hopes that she will begin to stand up for herself and build some confidence.  Unknown to him, she chose to enroll in this high school instead of a more prestigious one, because of a chance encounter with Miura during exams.  He came upon her on the street when she was having a bit of a difficult moment and offered a helping hand.  She figured out what school he was applying for due to this and switched her enrollment request.  She was drawn to him for his kindness and his appearance.

    A group of classmates who hang around Miura begin to take interest in he girl who previously had been as innocuous as a statue.  One outgoing girl, Ayumi, takes charge and doesn't stop encouraging her to join them and relax.  Through both of their efforts, Ishimori gains a group of people she can spend time with and slowly the class includes her, bringing her a sense of belonging.  Though she may be growing like she wanted, her thoughts are clouded by doubt and self hatred.  Mirua is not exactly forthright with his mannerisms and causes her more doubt.  He wants her to stand up for herself but does so in a stern manner.  Its hard for her to understand if hes annoyed with her or not.  She questions every action and ever time he chides her for continuing her deeply ingrained habits.  The more time she spends with him, the more feelings for him grow.  However she doesn't know if he has any interest in her and is just being a guardian for her, willing to abandon her once either she or he is done with the arrangement.  She wants more than that but is afraid to seek it.  He's too hard to truly read, guarded as he is, she struggles to understand if there's any chance for her desires to come true.

    I went into this series with a negative attitude, which persisted through its run.  There were some moments near the end of it that were worth while but over all i still have a problem with this story.  This presents its self as a tale of hope for girl who struggle to find their voice in their peer group.  Instead its a story of a girl who is awkward and self hating who needs a strong boy to show her how to succeed.  Its a bit infuriating with how  reliant she is on Miura.  It doesn't help that hes rather obtuse in what he tells her and how he reacts to the things she does.  She created her own narrative about what hes thinking which sends her into a deeper spiral.  This stories ability to instill hope in individuals looking to pull themselves out of a similar situation isn't the best.  The message of only needing to find a strong confident man to protect you as you grow isn't the most forward thinking.

     The artwork is ok, though it has this weird fetish with making everyone's eyes urine yellow.  Otherwise, the artwork wasn't the worst.  There were tender moments where the animation team really put their effort in creating a strong impact.  Though the last few episodes felt like the series got a different director.  There was a stylistic change that took place that reminded me of His and Her Circumstance.  It was nice, but strayed from the tone of the story telling up until that point.  Regardless, it was a big of a slough for me to work through this series.  i am sure a lot of that is my own distaste before even starting episode one.  But I persisted because i wanted to see how it resolved.  t was OK...mostly stuck in the bounds of realism, but a lot of it seemed shortcut, perhaps laving out some finer details.  However, ,I'm not interested enough to see if anything was omitted from the original source material.

The series was simulcast on Crunchyroll.