Honey Lemon Soda

Episode 12

Despite this last episode, I maintain that Honey Lemon Soda isn't a romance, at least not this season. I don't think it could be. Most of this story has been about Uka learning to love herself before she has feelings for Kai. Those emotions may certainly have been there long before she admitted them to herself, and they definitely existed within her before she was ready to do anything about them, and that's part of the strength of the story. The rest of the show would have suffered had the plot rushed Uka and Kai into a romantic relationship too quickly.

We've spent eleven episodes watching them build up to the point this season ends on. Uka has gone from being afraid to so much as breathe in a school building to being able to ask Kai out in front of a huge group of people, and that's amazing progress. It's not that she fully trusts herself (or him, for that matter), but rather that she's learned that it's okay to have hope. While Kai has proven over and again that he's got her back, the more important piece of their story is that he's given Uka the courage to trust other people. Without his initial willingness to talk to her and take her under his wing, Uka would never have had the wherewithal to become friends with Ayumi, and she certainly would have steered as clear as she could of Serina. But instead, she found that people were willing to support her and be her friends. For someone who went through what she did in middle school, that's huge. It's a lesson I still have trouble with, decades after the bullying stopped. And yes, part of that can be chalked up to Uka's story being fiction and needing to fit inside twelve episodes, but even with those considerations, she's a triumph.

This final episode brings a lot of things into the light. Serina continues to be a true friend to Uka, something most other series wouldn't allow because of her dating history with Kai. Uka is still very much herself, crying out her feelings when she can't find another way to express them because of years of forcing herself to be still as stone. And Kai is finally really revealed to just be another kid, surprising even the other boys around him, who, like Uka, tend to see him as somehow more mature than they are. Do I wish that the subtitles had, instead of writing out the English spelling of Uka's name, actually translated what Kai said when he revealed he knew how it was written? (He notes the characters used, which of course have a meaning.) Absolutely; I also wish we hadn't gotten that unfortunate-looking episode eleven as the series rushed to get exactly where I thought the show would end. But the first part of Uka's story is complete, and I'm largely pleased with it.

Whether or not you wanted romance, there's a lot about Honey Lemon Soda that's remarkably relatable if you were bullied in school. By keeping Uka human and not artificially speeding up her emergence from her chrysalis, the series has allowed that relatability to stand. It's never going to be easy for her. Those bullies will always live in the back of her mind, voices reminding her that she's not good enough. But now her father knows and also realizes that she's growing up. And now she has friends. And, most importantly, she knows that she is enough. She didn't deserve what they did to her. She got the boy, but more importantly, she was able to ask for him. Uka is the dream.

With this finale, the story does shift more into romance territory, at least going by what's available in English in the manga. But I think that in the end, Honey Lemon Soda will always be not a romance, but a love story – one wherein Uka learns to love herself.

Rating: