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!

OMIGEE!! - Hana-Kimi

OMGOMGOMGOMGOMG! If I had known this manga would be this good, I would have downloaded it way way sooner! When I initially picked up the first Hana-Kimi book in my local manga store I didn't think much of it and I put it down without even flicking through. However, when I boredly downloaded it earlier from MangaTraders, I found myself totally hooked! I was actually laughing out loud for some of it!

Sure, the premise of a girl dressing up as a boy is generally quite overdone now a days, but Hana-Kimi just seems to be so much funnier than most stuff. It's even caused me to become slightly disillusioned with Ouran! And I never thought that was possible!

For those of you who don't understand what I'm talking about, let me introduce you to the manga Hana-Kimi, which authored by Hisaya Nakajo. After watching a television programme featuring high jumper Izumi Sano, Ashiya Mizuki becomes immediately obsessed with him. Scowering the internet and various newspapers for information on the high jumper, she eventually finds out where he goes to school and determined to meet him and watch him high jump, she packs her bags and flies all the way from the US to Japan. She then transfers to the same school as him in hopes of getting the chance to meet him. Now here's the interesting part, the school is an all boys school. And not only that, but she ends up sharing a class and a room with her idol!

Now, imagine some of the most hilarious things that can happen in situations like this. Whatever you've imagined, it's probably happened. Sleep-walking into his bed? Yep, that's happened. Getting caught in the shower? Yara. Getting kissed by him when he's drunk and has turned into his other form, the kissing fiend? Tick, tick. Calling his arch-rival a short-legged fox? Oh yeah. Seeing the gay school doctor dress up as a show girl? *nods*

All this has happened and I'm still only on volume three! It's amazing! And I think I've become a total Sano fan-girl! *squeals* So far it's been really great and I'm looking forward to the various other antics that are bound to happen, though I wonder how long it's going to take Mizuki to realise that Sano knows her secret. But anyway, I'll leave you with a little glimpse of the slightly bizarre doctor who is fast becoming my favourite character (after Sano, of course).

Ja ne!