Hey folks,
I missed a week again... I'm pretty sure no one cares, but I'm mad at myself because I'm supposed to follow through with my commitments, right? Anyway, I don't have much time to rant today, so onwards.
This week I want to review 'Hana-Kimi' (aka 'Hanazakari no Kimitachi') by Hisaya Nakajo. Hana-Kimi is one of the most popular shoujo manga series in both the United States and Japan. It's about Mizuki Ashiya, a transfer student from the United States who admires a Japanese high jumper named Izumi Sano who goes to a high school in Osaka, Japan. When Ashiya gets the chance, she transfers to the school in Japan as an exchange student, except there's one flaw. Sano's school is an all boys school, thus begins Ashiya's cross dressing to disguise herself as a boy in order to be near Sano, the boys she idolized for athletics, but later falls in love with. The story continues with Ashiya's risky experiences being a girl in a boy's school and the love that forms between Sano and Ashiya, who ironically end up sharing a dorm together. From the beginning, Sano knows Ashiya is a girl, but throughout the story he helps her protect the identity without her realizing it, because he knows that once the secret is out he'll no longer be able to protect her.
Hana-Kimi is a typical cutesy shoujo series with themes on gender bender and sports. I'm not usually a fan of sports themed manga, so this is one of the first times I actually wanted to recommend one like it. I really enjoyed the art in this manga too, finding myself taking numerous screen shots of the amazing character designs. Overall, I definitely recommend it for a shoujo fan, wants their first taste of a sports themed manga. My only qualm with the series is that it's ridiculously long. I definitely spent a good two months finishing this one.
Read it here:
http://www.mangareader.net/279/hana-kimi.htmlWell, I can't write much today.
Best,
Pseudo-Jayne
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