Hana-Kimi, Vol. 8, 8

Chapters 37 - 42: The story arc involving Julia comes to an end during this volume but there is still plenty of drama going on. Sano's younger brother makes a brief appearance as well as a photographer interested in having Minami, Sano, & Nakatsu model for him. I look forward to reading more of this series.

Hana-Kimi is about a spunky girl named Mizuki Ashiya. An American-Japanese track-and-field star who transfers to a japanese school from the U.S for one reason only... to see her idol, Izumi Sano, jump in the high jump. Sano, during a big tournament, gets tramatized about high jumping because of the pressure. Oh yeah did I mention that Mizuki is pretending to be a boy? She tries to get Sano to go back to high-jumping by encouraging him and, well, bugging him about it. Naturally Sano thinks that Mizuki is really weird because "she" always follows him around and can't really hide the fact completely that "she" likes him. This series really hooks you and it has really interesting plots all throughout. There are times when they have a school festival and one of the activities is sort of like a "miss japan" for the school. The school has all boys, so the boys have to dress like girls and everyone else votes for the prettiest "girl"! Mizuki is a girl dressed up as a boy dressing up as a girl! The only part is something unexpected happened... *not telling*. Mizuki is always trying to hide the fact that she's a girl, but wouldn't she be surprised if she knew a few people already know her secret, Sano included! One time "she" went to a beach house to work as a "waiter" during summer vacation. Imagine her surprise when Sano desides to go as well! One of the other waiters finds out that Mizuki is a girl and tries to get her away from Sano. That ending didn't turn out the way he expected...

Hana-Kimi is one of my favorite manga, because when true love called, our heroine Mizuki answered the call. She's strong and determined, and also very intelligent. It's refreshing to see a love story in which the characters are well defined, and you won't be asking "Who's he again?" or "Where did he come from?" I bought this book by accident, on a manga-buying-spree, and thought I might as well read it before giving it to a friend. However, after the first chapter, I decided to keep it. I highly recommend this to any reader.

I was never much into manga a few months ago. One fateful afternoon, though, I was bored in class and lo and behold, a casual friend of mine let me read one of his mangas. It happened to be the one I'm reviewing. And the addiction begins. Right after school I rushed and picked up a copy of this. I used to be one of the people who'd kind of look down on manga - the expressions were funny, the dialogue was kind of hokey. My entire perspective of it changed once I started reading "Hana Kimi." The plotline is gold - a girl tries to hide her sex while attending an all boys school and swooning over her high jumping hero. The characters are eclectic and their personalities are strong, making you soon love and hate certain characters right at their introduction. The art is brilliant too; in a later volume, Mizuki's expression when she discovers accidently crawling into bed with Sano is CLASSIC. This is a great beginning to a great series. There are currently only 4 volumes out in English, so you can catch up quickly. The plotlines don't weaken, I promise. It only gets better as the story continues!

This is a tale of a girl's fantasy to get close to a star athelete named "Sano." Sano is a high jumper that has recently retired from jumping and Mizuki is determined to start him up again. Mizuki cuts off all her hair and transfers herself to an all boy's school. To her luck, her roomate just so happens to be Sano! Though it makes it more difficult to keep her disguise, she is easily tempted to put hints onto Sano to go back to jumping. What Mizuki doesn't know is that her secret is out, but Sano goes a long with her little fiasco. Mizuki, already caught as a huge fan, falls in love with Sano but can't say anything about her being a girl. To Sano's suprise, he ends up developing a crush on Mizuki but doesn't want it to look like he has feelings for a guy. This manga is a great series! I've been reading manga for years and would have to give mad props to Hisaya-san for creating such an interesting comedy. This book is great for beginners and regular manga readers. It's a page turner that will definitly catch your attention. Great buy!

I'm just starting out with reading manga, but I can tell I've found a gem in this one (only the 4th manga I'd ever read). After being sort of bored and uninspired with Kare Kano after reading two good drama/action mangas, I wasn't too trusting of the shoujo genre. Then I saw a review for Hana Kimi online. It sounded promising, and lo- Viz was putting out an english version! So, I bought it and started reading. It was very interesting from the first page on, (although Mizuki's brief bout of fangirling was a bit offputting in the first few pages). Then Nakatsu appeared, and I was lost in laughing. The whole manga was just one long string of HILARIOUS occurences. I liked it so much I bought the second volume soon as I could!All the characters are very likeable. My favorite would be Nakatsu cause he's sooo funny and sincere at the same time. Even Sano, for all his annoying angsty behavior, gets a more agreeable personality as the volume goes on. Mizuki is a good character too, and though a bit naive, turns out to be quite strong. And of course, who could forget doctor Umeda? ^_^The one minor beef I have is that the artist, Hisaya Nakajo, tends to draw her characters with very similar faces, so that hair color/clothing is the only way to distinguish some characters. A few times, I wasn't sure if it was Mizuki or Nakatsu I was looking at! But that's a minor thing, and does not detract too much from the story at all.So, if you're looking for instant and constant humor, can take some moderate angst and don't mind occasional references to homosexuality and gender confusion, or just like looking at pretty boys like Sano and Nanba, this manga's for you!