It's just your average girl falls in love with boy, crossdresses as a boy, moves to Japan
... to be near him, and another boy falls in love with the girl not knowing she's a girl, wacky gender confusion hijinks ensue type of love story.
This is for the people on my FL who have no idea what I've been so obsessive over the past few weeks and may be interested in. Or not. It's cool.
In American terms, think Felicity meets Young Americans, only not crappy (Okay, YMMV on both accounts) and you've got Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, or as it's more well known in the States as, Hana Kimi (for you in full blossom). A popular shoujo manga in Japan, it spans 23 volumes (I got shoujo fatigue half way through, but now because of the Japanese Live Action, I'm interested in the manga again), of which 18 have been translated in English by Viz Media. A mix of romantic comedy, slapstick, crossdressing galore - the heroine not only dresses as a boy, but there are plenty of occasions where she has to dress as a boy dressing as a girl, ie, her 'normal' self, Hana Kimi is like shonen-ai only dressed up in shoujo ruffles, ie, straight boy love. Because while the developing romance between the two leads is a major plot point, it's not the only important relationship in the manga - friendships are just as important, and the relationships between all the students in the dorms are thoughtfully planned out and often serve as a hilarious foil to the more typical, angst-filled love story that is plot line A. I like to think of Hana-kimi as the slightly less crackified older cousin to another girl dressing as a boy shoujo manga: Ouran High School Host Club. Whereas Ouran is much more satirical, self-referential and lovingly skewers the typical shoujo tropes, Hana Kimi is more earnest and straightforward. Well, as straightforward as a girl dressing up as a boy in an all boys highschool and rooming with her crush object can be.
Mizuki Ashiya is the heroine/hero of the manga. A Japanese-American, her home is in Berkeley, California. She admires the talents of Izumi Sano, a skilled athlete, whose specialty is the high jump. He's the reason she decides to abandon hearth and home for Japan - and cutting off her hair and dressing up as a boy to infiltrate his all boys school. If this didn't turn into a love story, it'd just be obsessive stalking by any other name.
Mizuki is in a word: adorable. Her mother was a former dancer and so she gets her grace and athleticism (Mizuki is a very good runner, and a star of track and field), and her father is a vet, which gives her a love of animals but she also inherits her father's klutziness. When she isn't accidentally exposing her secret to Sano, running away from overzealous clubs, Mizuki can be counted on for falling down or otherwise accidentally hurting herself. So carefree she's careless, or does she have a inner ear problem? We will never know.
Because of her American upbringing, Mizuki is not as shy or reserved as usual shoujo heroines can be, and often startles the more traditionally minded Sano with her frankness and emotional openness. When confronted with her sunny suggestion that they become friends, Sano coldly shoots her down with the declaration that he's not interested in boys.
Who else on their first day in school would literally run into their idol (at this point, Mizuki's not in love with Sano, she only admires him), immediately get a reputation as being the Gay New Weird Exchange Student, and then find out that they're rooming with said idol who thinks that she's the Gay New Weird Exchange Student?
Mizuki, that's who.
Izumi Sano is the main love interest in Hana Kimi, and as such, has to have 'issues'. He's quit high jumping, cut himself off from his family in Hokkaido, is cool and aloof from most people in his class, and apparently only has the school's mascot dog as a steady companion. And he's a scholarship student. So he has daddy issues, sports related trauma, and is trying to prove himself. And he likes dogs.
He discovers Mizuki's secret very early on, and for the remainder of the series, tries to fight his inevitable attraction to her, while juggling proprierty and old fashioned teenage hormones - here's his unbelievably cute roommate (and shoujo rule of logic #1, of course everyone else automatically accepts she's a girl, despite the frequently repeated observations that she's so pretty she could be a GIRL, because this is an all boys school, it's absolutely preposterous that a girl would sneak in here) who admits that he's the reason she came to study at the school, and fannish ego stroking aside, is also genuinely a nice and positive influence on his life, and when in her girl form is incredibly pretty? Who he's living with, pretty much 24/7? Sano has nerves of steel for a 17 year old boy.
Later it'll be revealed that he essentially ditched his younger brother (who adored him) to come to Osaka High and so there's a bit of sibling rivalry there as well, as Shin Sano comes into town to take names and settle scores.
Shuichi Nakatsu is the comic relief, the other angle to the not quite a love triangle, the clown who has a sad face, the Sydney Carton, the Hanazawa Rui of Hana Kimi. He does not, as you would expect, get the girl. Even though for most of it, he thinks the girl is a boy and bravely decides total lifestyle change is worth it for Mizuki, but Nakatsu is a darling. A born and bred Osaka boy, he's a natural comedian, fiercely loyal and protective of his friends, and just a wonderful character.
If not quite the sharpest crayon in the box. A soccer ace, Nakatsu befriends Mizuki when he sees that Sano has shunned her, and slowly their similarities (love of food for one - both of them have legendary appetites) convince Nakatsu that he's falling in love with his best friend, and because he's the first boy he's ever felt this way about, it must be The One. But what makes Nakatsu special is that because of Mizuki, he's also become best friends with Sano, his former enemy, and so he cherishes his friendship with Sano as well as his feelings for Mizuki - making the confession to both of them is a total eye-watering moment. He wants to keep both of them in his life, but he doesn't want it to change his friendships.
And oh, in volume 18, he absolutely kills ME DEAD.
This is after Sano yells at Mizuki to mind her own business and to stay out of his family issues. And Mizuki in tears, runs out of their room, and Nakatsu comforts him.
This is where I die and revive to swear, I will not go through this Hanazawa Rui business again.
OH HANAZAWA RUI. Sorry, wrong drama. Of course it's also perfect that the actor who played Hanazawa Rui is going to be playing Sano in the J-live action. It's karmic payback!
And okay, shots of the OTP too!
Really, Shoujo manga logic. You win all for sheer inconceivability!
The kicker is that they don't know or believe that the other one is in love with them, while it's so BLATANTLY obvious to everyone else on campus that they are A Couple, and that Nakatsu is Lovesick over Mizuki. I love that about Japanese teen dramas (or at least this particular one) - homosexuality is not A Red Hot Button of Controversiality, and that they're just (seemingly) two guys who just belong together.
From ice prince to helpless in love, that's what Mizuki does to Sano.
now for the really fun shenanigans: Hana Kimi has been adapted for the small screen in two versions: last year's incredibly popular Taiwanese production, starring two of the members of the Chinese idol pop group Fahrenheit, and the lead being one of the singers of chinese girl group S.H.E. (I call Ella a singer because she is, the boys in Fahrenheit....with slick production and just their charisma, are idols, but not quite singers. Yet.)
It was cheesy, broadly slapsticky, exaggerated fun. Kind of like how the OC was in its first season before Josh Schwartz thought he was writing for the new voices of a generation or whatever self aggrandizing crap and not, you know, for a prime time soap opera. Usual idol fare, where you turn off your brain, admire the ridiculously good looking antics of the two boy leads and cheer on Ella for keeping a mildly straight face throughout the proceedings, but it wasn't really Hana Kimi. The Chinese translations may have had something to do with the production, or the fact that I read the manga before watching the show - I've heard if you haven't read the manga before, then you can enjoy the show without regrets and nitpicks.
So now the Japanese are presenting Hana Kimi this July and I am basically awash in overwhelming glee, because half of the battle in creating a show/novel/whatever is casting/creating the perfect people.
And I believe this is pretty much a dream cast.
Click on the wiki links for pictures and just browse back all the "hana kimi" tags in this LJ for my squee.
I mean, there's Maki Horikita, who I pretty much have a ginormous girl crush over (like objects of art - she's so pretty and so cute and just...SO.)
and Oguri Shun who played the sublime Hanazawa Rui, and, and.....ALL THESE PRETTY BOYS. WHAT'S NOT TO LOVE?
This is for the people on my FL who have no idea what I've been so obsessive over the past few weeks and may be interested in. Or not. It's cool.
In American terms, think Felicity meets Young Americans, only not crappy (Okay, YMMV on both accounts) and you've got Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, or as it's more well known in the States as, Hana Kimi (for you in full blossom). A popular shoujo manga in Japan, it spans 23 volumes (I got shoujo fatigue half way through, but now because of the Japanese Live Action, I'm interested in the manga again), of which 18 have been translated in English by Viz Media. A mix of romantic comedy, slapstick, crossdressing galore - the heroine not only dresses as a boy, but there are plenty of occasions where she has to dress as a boy dressing as a girl, ie, her 'normal' self, Hana Kimi is like shonen-ai only dressed up in shoujo ruffles, ie, straight boy love. Because while the developing romance between the two leads is a major plot point, it's not the only important relationship in the manga - friendships are just as important, and the relationships between all the students in the dorms are thoughtfully planned out and often serve as a hilarious foil to the more typical, angst-filled love story that is plot line A. I like to think of Hana-kimi as the slightly less crackified older cousin to another girl dressing as a boy shoujo manga: Ouran High School Host Club. Whereas Ouran is much more satirical, self-referential and lovingly skewers the typical shoujo tropes, Hana Kimi is more earnest and straightforward. Well, as straightforward as a girl dressing up as a boy in an all boys highschool and rooming with her crush object can be.
Mizuki Ashiya is the heroine/hero of the manga. A Japanese-American, her home is in Berkeley, California. She admires the talents of Izumi Sano, a skilled athlete, whose specialty is the high jump. He's the reason she decides to abandon hearth and home for Japan - and cutting off her hair and dressing up as a boy to infiltrate his all boys school. If this didn't turn into a love story, it'd just be obsessive stalking by any other name.
Mizuki is in a word: adorable. Her mother was a former dancer and so she gets her grace and athleticism (Mizuki is a very good runner, and a star of track and field), and her father is a vet, which gives her a love of animals but she also inherits her father's klutziness. When she isn't accidentally exposing her secret to Sano, running away from overzealous clubs, Mizuki can be counted on for falling down or otherwise accidentally hurting herself. So carefree she's careless, or does she have a inner ear problem? We will never know.
Because of her American upbringing, Mizuki is not as shy or reserved as usual shoujo heroines can be, and often startles the more traditionally minded Sano with her frankness and emotional openness. When confronted with her sunny suggestion that they become friends, Sano coldly shoots her down with the declaration that he's not interested in boys.
Who else on their first day in school would literally run into their idol (at this point, Mizuki's not in love with Sano, she only admires him), immediately get a reputation as being the Gay New Weird Exchange Student, and then find out that they're rooming with said idol who thinks that she's the Gay New Weird Exchange Student?
Mizuki, that's who.
Izumi Sano is the main love interest in Hana Kimi, and as such, has to have 'issues'. He's quit high jumping, cut himself off from his family in Hokkaido, is cool and aloof from most people in his class, and apparently only has the school's mascot dog as a steady companion. And he's a scholarship student. So he has daddy issues, sports related trauma, and is trying to prove himself. And he likes dogs.
He discovers Mizuki's secret very early on, and for the remainder of the series, tries to fight his inevitable attraction to her, while juggling proprierty and old fashioned teenage hormones - here's his unbelievably cute roommate (and shoujo rule of logic #1, of course everyone else automatically accepts she's a girl, despite the frequently repeated observations that she's so pretty she could be a GIRL, because this is an all boys school, it's absolutely preposterous that a girl would sneak in here) who admits that he's the reason she came to study at the school, and fannish ego stroking aside, is also genuinely a nice and positive influence on his life, and when in her girl form is incredibly pretty? Who he's living with, pretty much 24/7? Sano has nerves of steel for a 17 year old boy.
Later it'll be revealed that he essentially ditched his younger brother (who adored him) to come to Osaka High and so there's a bit of sibling rivalry there as well, as Shin Sano comes into town to take names and settle scores.
Shuichi Nakatsu is the comic relief, the other angle to the not quite a love triangle, the clown who has a sad face, the Sydney Carton, the Hanazawa Rui of Hana Kimi. He does not, as you would expect, get the girl. Even though for most of it, he thinks the girl is a boy and bravely decides total lifestyle change is worth it for Mizuki, but Nakatsu is a darling. A born and bred Osaka boy, he's a natural comedian, fiercely loyal and protective of his friends, and just a wonderful character.
If not quite the sharpest crayon in the box. A soccer ace, Nakatsu befriends Mizuki when he sees that Sano has shunned her, and slowly their similarities (love of food for one - both of them have legendary appetites) convince Nakatsu that he's falling in love with his best friend, and because he's the first boy he's ever felt this way about, it must be The One. But what makes Nakatsu special is that because of Mizuki, he's also become best friends with Sano, his former enemy, and so he cherishes his friendship with Sano as well as his feelings for Mizuki - making the confession to both of them is a total eye-watering moment. He wants to keep both of them in his life, but he doesn't want it to change his friendships.
And oh, in volume 18, he absolutely kills ME DEAD.
This is after Sano yells at Mizuki to mind her own business and to stay out of his family issues. And Mizuki in tears, runs out of their room, and Nakatsu comforts him.
This is where I die and revive to swear, I will not go through this Hanazawa Rui business again.
OH HANAZAWA RUI. Sorry, wrong drama. Of course it's also perfect that the actor who played Hanazawa Rui is going to be playing Sano in the J-live action. It's karmic payback!
And okay, shots of the OTP too!
Really, Shoujo manga logic. You win all for sheer inconceivability!
The kicker is that they don't know or believe that the other one is in love with them, while it's so BLATANTLY obvious to everyone else on campus that they are A Couple, and that Nakatsu is Lovesick over Mizuki. I love that about Japanese teen dramas (or at least this particular one) - homosexuality is not A Red Hot Button of Controversiality, and that they're just (seemingly) two guys who just belong together.
From ice prince to helpless in love, that's what Mizuki does to Sano.
now for the really fun shenanigans: Hana Kimi has been adapted for the small screen in two versions: last year's incredibly popular Taiwanese production, starring two of the members of the Chinese idol pop group Fahrenheit, and the lead being one of the singers of chinese girl group S.H.E. (I call Ella a singer because she is, the boys in Fahrenheit....with slick production and just their charisma, are idols, but not quite singers. Yet.)
It was cheesy, broadly slapsticky, exaggerated fun. Kind of like how the OC was in its first season before Josh Schwartz thought he was writing for the new voices of a generation or whatever self aggrandizing crap and not, you know, for a prime time soap opera. Usual idol fare, where you turn off your brain, admire the ridiculously good looking antics of the two boy leads and cheer on Ella for keeping a mildly straight face throughout the proceedings, but it wasn't really Hana Kimi. The Chinese translations may have had something to do with the production, or the fact that I read the manga before watching the show - I've heard if you haven't read the manga before, then you can enjoy the show without regrets and nitpicks.
So now the Japanese are presenting Hana Kimi this July and I am basically awash in overwhelming glee, because half of the battle in creating a show/novel/whatever is casting/creating the perfect people.
And I believe this is pretty much a dream cast.
Click on the wiki links for pictures and just browse back all the "hana kimi" tags in this LJ for my squee.
I mean, there's Maki Horikita, who I pretty much have a ginormous girl crush over (like objects of art - she's so pretty and so cute and just...SO.)
and Oguri Shun who played the sublime Hanazawa Rui, and, and.....ALL THESE PRETTY BOYS. WHAT'S NOT TO LOVE?