Hana-Kimi - Two Thumbs Up

Okay, so I finished reading Hana-Kimi. And I was so relieved when I finally turned the last page. It seriously wore me out. I'm not saying it was bad, but it really had somee hair-tearing-out-worthy moments and I was so relieved with the final outcome.

Now being a shojo anime/manga fan I loved HK. As far as character developement is concerned, it really reminded me of Kare Kano in how detailed it was. The characters were very well thought out and all the mains had their own back history and personalities which really helped you understand why some of them act the way they do, as well as help you get fully familiarized with each character. Out of all the characters, I think my favourite is still Sano. Why, you ask? Because that boy knew all along about Mizuki's gender and despite the various precarious situations the two of them got into he showed amazing self-restraint. He cared for her that much. If only there were guys like that in real life... *sighs*

For some reason, I found that many of the characters in HK reminded me of so many other characters in the other mangas and anime's I've read and watched. For instance, I couldn't help but think of Himejima as being the long lost brother of Ayame from Fruits Basket, and I found that Sano's possessive/jealous personality really reminded me of Arima from Kare Kano (though Sano > Arima. He is the 'Super God of Sexiness' after all).

As far as the plot goes, it was pretty much what I was expecting from this gender-bender manga. Most of the twists were focused on whether Mizuki had been found out or not and it wasn't anything spectacularly original, yet it was done in such a way that it always had you gripped and eager to find out what happens. This can also be said of the more romantic pages. Whenever Sano and Mizuki had an encounter, I always found myself reading it so avidly that when they somehow manage to get out of the situation I end up wanting to pull my hair out at how frustrating it is. The two characters remained so oblivious to the other's feelings that I was tempted to actually shout at my laptop, though I restrained myself so that I wouldn't get carted off to the funny farm.

This manga is generally one of those books that you should at least try to read. It has some absolutely hilarious parts to it whilst there are a shedload of cutesy 'squee' moments as well. So, if you like angsty, must-turn-the-page sort of romance mangas then this is great.


Right, onto my next project... Midori no Hibi!

Ja ne!