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This article is about Hana Kimi. For the Taiwanese television series, see Hanazakarino Kimitachihe. For the Japanese television series, see Hanazakari no Kimitachi e.
Hana-Kimi
Hana-Kimi volume 8.
花ざかりの君たちへ
(Hanazakari no Kimitachi e)
GenreRomantic comedy
Manga
Written byHisaya Nakajo
Published byJapan Hakusensha
English publisherUnited States Viz Media
MagazineJapan Hana to Yume
France Magnolia
DemographicShōjo
Original run1996 – 2004
Volumes23 (List of volumes)

Hana-Kimi (花ざかりの君たちへ, Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, Lit. "For You in Full Blossom") is a shōjo manga series written by Hisaya Nakajo. The manga was serialized in Japan in the bi-weekly Hakusensha manga magazine Hana to Yume. This manga series has ended at volume 23 in August 2004 in Japan with a special ending released December 2004, and an extra special, showing Kayashima's point of view in the story, released in 2007.

Hana-Kimi is published in English by VIZ Media, and the final volume was released in the U.S. in April 2008. The English title originated from a fan abbreviation of the original Japanese title. (The official U.S. translation ends the title with a he instead of e.) An art book was released in May 2005 in addition to a character book.

Hana-Kimi centers around Mizuki Ashiya, a Japanese girl who lives in the United States. One day, she sees a track and field competition on TV, and becomes attracted to one of the high jump competitors, Izumi Sano. She begins to idolize the young athlete and eventually transfers to Japan to attend the same school that Sano attends.

There is a catch, however: Sano attends an all-boys high school, named Osaka Gakuen, and Mizuki must disguise herself as a boy to enter. The majority of the series happens during Mizuki's second year at Osaka (from volume 4 onwards), although her first year was significant for her being able to remain in Osaka.

A Taiwanese drama based on Hana-Kimi has been produced, titled (direct translation: Hanayō Shōnen Shōjo or, in Mandarin, Hua Yang Shao Nian Shao Nu ('花樣少年少女'). This Chinese title is also the title used by the translation published by Tong Li. A Japanese drama adaptation has also been aired on Fuji TV, titled Hanazakari no Kimitachi e.

A series of three drama CDs has been released in Japanese. Nevertheless, the first CD is not available as a commercial release.

Two of Nakajo's one-shot works are included in the volumes of the series. Thirsty Moon is included in volume 4.

Plot

While living in the U.S., Mizuki Ashiya watches a program on TV featuring high jumper Izumi Sano. She becomes completely in love with his grace and skill; he inspired her to overcome her troubles with her classmates. Mizuki decides to chase Sano and enrolls in Osaka High, the all boys' school that Izumi attends in Japan. With the help of her best friend, she cuts her hair and disguises herself to remain near her idol. As she settles in, an accident reveals her identity to Hokuto Umeda, the school doctor, and Izumi Sano. Izumi hides his knowledge of Mizuki's gender and tries to help her keep her secret, though it sure isn't easy as many situations land Mizuki in compromising positions. He also develops a secret love for her which makes things more difficult for him.

School environment

Osaka High (Ohsaka Gakuen as written in the entrance gate of the school in the Japanese drama adaptation) is an all-boys school and its students are very popular with the girls of the other schools. Its sister school is St. Blossoms, an all-girls high school, where the students are the exact equivalent of those in Osaka High. St. Blossoms' main motto is "to give joy and happiness to the school life of every Osaka High student."

There are three classes for each of the three school years. These nine classes are divided into three "dormitories", as most of the students do not stay around the school area. The culture within the individual dormitories is immensely different.

Dorm 1: The students residing in Dorm 1 are all athletes. Most of them got into Osaka High on a sports scholarship. Their Dorm Head, Tennouji, quite forces them to become martial artists and often even hurts them, but in a funny and comical way. Dorm 1's crazy antics and martial arts talent contribute immensely to the humor of the story.

Dorm 2: Their head, Minami Nanba, is a boy who can "get any girl pregnant just by looking at her", or so says other students. The people in Dorm 2 are quite funny and they have different personalities so it's much easier to remember them. Their dorm has a mix of athletes and scholars. They are the "main dorm" in the story mainly because the lead characters, Ashiya Mizuki, Sano Izumi, and Nakatsu Shuichi, live there. Also, there is Noe, who is often seen making cosplay uniforms for the dorm, or other stuff. (Loves anime); Nakao, the beautiful and vain school idol who loves Nanba; Kayashima, the spirit quester/aura-reader; Sekime, Sano's teammate whose name is always forgotten by his classmates and dorm mates; and many more.

Dorm 3: The dramatic guild. They consider themselves the most intelligent dorm of all. They are all artists of some sort and/or very intelligent. Their dorm head, Himejima Masao a.k.a. Oscar, believes himself to be of German heritage, and is often speaking German, even though no one understands him.

Inter-dorm rivalries are common, and would get particularly intense during the school's cultural festival. However, the three dorm heads, known as the Sakura Committee, would work together to help any student who was in any kind of trouble.

Characters

Note: Not all characters are featured in the drama CDs; these characters will not have any seiyū to voice them.

Class 2-C

Although Mizuki joined Osaka High in time to finish her first year of high school in Japan, she missed the school cultural festival. Therefore, her time in Class 2-C was the only full year she spent at Osaka, if one ignores the fact that she resigned on the day the third-year students graduated.

Mizuki Ashiya (芦屋 瑞稀, Ashiya Mizuki)
She is the protagonist of this manga. She admired Izumi Sano the moment she saw him high jump on TV. She pretends to be a boy in order to enroll into Sano's school, thereby allowing her to get closer with Sano. She loves sweet food and she is a very fast runner, initially causing all the three dorms in Osaka High to desperately recruit her. Mizuki falls in love with Sano, but is unable to tell him because she thinks that he doesn't know that she's a girl, though unbeknownst to her Sano knows her true gender and feels the same way about her. She amusingly wants to be a dog trainer and is very close to Sano's dog, Yūjirō.
In the Japanese live-action series, Mizuki enrolls in Sano's school because of guilt (he had saved her from a gang and gotten injured in the process). In the Taiwanese drama, Sano inspired her to lose weight (she had been overweight) and she had fallen in love with his jumping. In the original manga by Hisaya Nakajo, she is inspired by Sano's high jumping after she sees him on TV during a time when she is having trouble making friends, and she uses his perseverance as an example and a reason to keep trying herself. (This results in her friendship with Julia).
Izumi Sano (佐野 泉, Sano Izumi)
The guy that Mizuki Ashiya likes and an excellent high jumper. He finds out that Mizuki is a girl early in the series, but does not tell anyone else and actually becomes very protective of her secret. Before Mizuki came to Japan, Sano had been injured in an accident when he saved his team captain from being hit by a car, causing him to quit high jumping for a while because he thought that he couldn't handle the pressure. But thanks to Mizuki's deal with her brother (Sano had to jump while her brother was in Japan, or Mizuki would have to come home), he was able to try again and was given a second chance to high jump. Sano falls in love with Mizuki, but cannot tell her because Sano thinks that if Mizuki found out that he knows her secret, she would have to leave. In the last chapter, he followed Mizuki to California, pursuing both his college and high jump career at UC Berkeley. He eventually is able to confess his feelings for her. Sano also originally never got along with his father or younger brother, Shin; with Mizuki's help, however, he eventually reconciles with them. He proposes to Mizuki at the end of the series.
In the Japanese live-action of Hana Kimi, Mizuki enrolls in Sano's school in order to get him to high jump again because of the guilt she feels (he had gotten injured saving her from a gang when he was in America for a competition. He did not realize that she is the girl he had saved). In the Taiwanese drama, Sano got injured saving a friend from being hit by a car, not his coach and Mizuki decided to join the same school as him because he inspired her to lose weight.
Shuichi Nakatsu (中津 秀一, Nakatsu Shūichi)
He likes Mizuki, but doesn't know that she is really a girl, and some of his classmates believe that he is gay due to that fact. Nakatsu also seems to have come to terms with that fact. As Umeda says,"...he's only attracted to her feminine side," meaning that Nakatsu is responding as any teenage male would to being around a female, although it would appear he is a bit more excitable than his classmates as none of them seem to be affected by Mizuki-- or they simply hide it better. At times, he is very jealous of Sano because of how close he is to Mizuki. He entered the school with a football (soccer) scholarship, and is very good at it. Originally from Ōsaka (the city, which is different from the school and spelled with different kanji), he has a thick Kansai accent and frequently uses the Kansai dialect. He has bleached blonde hair.
In the Japanese drama, he is often seen defending his roommate, Kayashima, when he gets bullied about seeing ghosts. In the Taiwanese drama however, he often -along with others- is seen telling his roommate to stop talking about ghosts.
His name is taken from Nakatsu Station, a railway station located in Kita-ku, Osaka.
Taiki Kayashima (萱島 大樹, Kayashima Taiki)
Taiki is Nakatsu's roommate, and has the ability to see ghosts and detect auras. He is always doing Nakatsu's aura report. He's also into yoga. When he first comes to Osaka High, he was teased by others due to his ESP skills. However, Nakatsu sees him as a good friend. His dream is to meditate on Mount Fuji though he really plans on going to college to study folklore after he graduates from Osaka High. He does not want to become a ghost catcher (despite Kyogo's efforts to convince him not to waste his "special talents") because the uniform does not appeal to him.
In volume 4, Nakajo noted that Kayashima took his name from the "Kayashima Station", a railway station on the Keihan Main Line, located in Neyagawa-shi. He also claimed that many workers were injured during the construction of the station, as a large tree was considered to be cut down. The tree was later preserved, and the station was built around it. Incidentally, "Taiki" means "large tree".
Shinji Noe (野江 伸二, Noe Shinji)
Part of Mizuki's group of friends, he's often seen together with his bi-spectacled friend, Kyogo Sekime. Unlike most of their friends, the duo are locals. He is the first of the group to get a girlfriend, Elicia from Saint Blossom, which shocks all of his friends especially Sekime. He also has an extreme fear of ghost and scary creatures, mainly is scared when Kayashima talks about these things. In the special chapter, he's said to have found a job in an anime production company. Like Kayashima, Noe is a station on the Keihan Main Line.
Kyogo Sekime (関目 京悟, Sekime Kyogo)
Part of Mizuki's group of friends, he's often seen together with Shinji Noe. Unlike most of their friends, they're locals. He is the captain of the track team. in the future he marries his high school sweetheart, Rie, and they have a child together. Sekime is also a name of a station on the Keihan Main Line.
Senri Nakao (中央 千里, Nakaō Senri)
A somewhat effeminate boy who harbours a serious crush on Nanba. He was upset for losing the beauty pageant because he helped Mizuki when she was kidnapped. Initially, he was secretive about being in love with Nanba, but eventually became less subtle. Towards the end of the series, he confesses his feelings to Nanba, but he was rejected. He would even attack the girls that tried to flirt with Nanba. Nakao is the school idol (or he was before Mizuki came) and he considers himself to be very beautiful. He hates mushrooms, although he ate them when Nanba asked him to. He's also a former winner of the Miss Osaka pageant during his first year at Osaka.
His name is taken from Senri-Chūō Station（千里中央駅）, a railway station of Kita-Osaka Kyūkō Line and Osaka Monorail, located in Toyonaka, Osaka.

Second dormitory

Classes that belong to this dormitory are 1-B, 2-C and 3-A.

Minami Nanba (難波 南, Nanba Minami)
The R.A. of Sano and Mizuki's dorm. He's a nephew of Umeda-sensei, and is one school-year older than Mizuki. He's a "ladies man" although very sensible. He was once in love with his tutor, Kanako Tanabe, but she left him. Umeda claims that this was what caused Nanba to become the "ladies man" he is today. In the future, it is said that he became a model. He, along with the other R.A.s finds out that Mizuki is a girl, but helps keep her secret (although it wasn't a secret for very long). Among Mizuki's group of friends, he seems to frequently butt heads with Nakatsu.
He's also a former winner of the Miss Osaka pageant, during his first year at Osaka, a fact which he isn't terribly proud of.
His name is taken from Namba Station, located in Minami, a region in Chuo-ku, Osaka.

First dormitory

Classes that belong to this dormitory are 1-A, 2-B and 3-C.

Megumi Tennōji (天王寺 恵, Tennōji Megumi)
The leader of the First Dormitory and the Karate Club, Megumi has a fierce exterior, but also has a heart of gold. He discovers that Mizuki's a girl towards the end of the series; along with him, the other two dorm heads learn of the secret, although Minami claims that he had his suspicions for a long time. He is also Kanna's fiancé.
Itsuki Kujo (九条 威月, Kujo Itsuki)
  • Voiced by: Ryōtarō Okiayu
Megumi's deputy in the Karate Club, Itsuki has a friendly exterior, but when angered, is feared by almost everyone. Initially, Mizuki has a poor impression of him, but he really is a nice guy. He seems to be really close to Shoutaro Kadoma to go as far as romance. At one point when Kodoma's underwear is stolen he gets disturbingly angry, hinting at possibly more romantic feelings for Kodoma. At the school dance between Osaka High and Saint Blossom, Kujo appears as Kadoma's date, and during the previous rehearsals had acted as Kadoma's dance partner. When the pipes burst in Dorm 1, he stays with Nakatsu and Kayashima, an event that proves rather scarring for Nakatsu especially as Dorm 1 has a tradition of washing their roommate's back. The first time this happens, Nakatsu flees, screaming in pain and asking if the skin was still there. However, when he later mentions it, Kadoma says that whenever Kujo washes his back, it is done extremely gently with a soft, soapy towel. This shocks the rest of Dorm 1, and shows again how Kujo treats Kadoma very differently from anyone else, since he uses a scrubbing brush on everyone else.
Shōtarō Kadoma (門真 将太郎, Kadoma Shōtarō)
  • Voiced by: Yuka Imai
A young student in the Karate Club, who at one point shares a room with Sano and Ashiya. Earlier in the story, he was also responsible for luring Mizuki to a secluded area in the school, so that rogue members of the Karate Club could imprison her and keep her out of the 2,000 meter relay, however he felt extremely guilty about this and told Kujo and Sano where she was. He idolizes Kujo just like how Mizuki idolizes Sano. He desperately wants to be more manly, and joined the karate club to become so; but he also admits to Mizuki that he really became attracted to karate because he saw Kujo practicing and thought he looked so beautiful. He always does whatever Kujo asks of him and their interesting relationship borders close to romance.

Third dormitory

Classes that belong to this dormitory are 1-C, 2-A and 3-B.

Masao Himejima (姫島 正夫, Himejima Masao)
  • Voiced by: Takehito Koyasu
AKA. Oscar M. Himejima, he is the leader of the Third Dormitory, Masao is a total narcissist. He's also a "Germanphile", calling himself Oscar and spouting random German phrases. He dyed his hair and wears blue contacts. However, he has his serious side, as can be seen when the dorm heads realised that Mizuki's a girl. He has two younger brothers who are twins, Shion and Anri.
His name is taken from Himejima Station, a railway station of Hanshin Line, located in Nishiyodogawa-ku, Ōsaka.

Umeda family

Io Nanba (Nanba Io)
Io is the elder sister of Rio and Hokuto Umeda and is the mother of Minami Nanba. She is introduced in the third volume of Hana-Kimi, when she requests that Hokuto work at her inn. Her brother instead offers Mizuki, Sano, and Nakatsu in his place and Hokuto leaves before she has a chance to object. She discovers Mizuki's secret while she's changing out of her clothes and later provides Mizuki with more comfortable vests to cover up her developing body.
Hokuto Umeda (Umeda Hokuto)
The doctor at the school's nurse office. He knows that Mizuki is a girl, gives her advice, and pretty much acts like an older brother or uncle to her. Umeda is gay. He is the uncle of Minami Nanba and brother to both Io (Minami's mother) and Rio. He is also in love with one of his old friends, another character from a different one of Hisaya Nakajo's stories (Ryoichi Kijima from Yumemiru Happa). The story between them is featured in 3 special chapters in Hana-Kimi, depicting of their high school days together[1]. Karasuma (the reporter hounding Sano) is very terrified of him, but he just explains that he "shut her up" since she was "all freaked out about something and wouldn't shut up" while he was in a bad mood, so he choked her. He has a tendency to kick people in the head and call them stupid.
Rio Umeda (Umeda Rio)
Rio is Hokuto's younger sister and is about the same age as Mizuki. She goes to Osaka High's sister school, Saint Blossom. She doesn't like to admit the fact that she's Minami's niece considering he is two years older than her, so she asks Mizuki to keep their relation a secret. Mizuki comically asks her whether it must be hard to grow up with very handsome men, and she replies that it is. She is quite picky about the men she wants to be with as she has grown up with a handsome father, brother and uncle. Rio was a friend of Julia's while she attended Saint Blossom as an exchange student.
Azuma and Seira Umeda (Umeda Seira and Umeda Azuma)
Azuma and Seira may not be their real names, but those are the names the Umeda Couple request to be called by (Their favorite book being A Little Princess). Azuma and Seira are the parents of Io, Hokuto, and Rio, and are the grandparents of Minami, though they don't wish to be called "Grandma and Grandpa" in public. They both look considerably young despite the fact that Seira is fifty-one and Azuma is fifty-four. Mizuki notes upon first meeting them that they look no older than Umeda. Umeda says that both of them went to Osaka and Saint Blossom respectively and they won the best couple award during the Osaka and Saint Blossom High Christmas Dance party. It is inferred that Io and Seira used to clash when Io was younger, making Seira cry on more than one occasion. Their friction subsided during the delivery of Minami Nanba when Seira demanded that Io not give into the pain of childbirth and their relationship improved.

Others

Akiha Hara (原 秋葉, Hara Akiha)
  • Voiced by: Shigeru Nakahara
He is a photographer and Hokuto's junior back during his days at Osaka High. Akiha likes to be around Hokuto, something even the gay doctor doesn't appreciate. He is bisexual, once claiming that he loves all beautiful people regardless of gender. He was married to Ebi, his model and eventual make up artist, but they divorced because he kept her at arms length, never letting her in and he had a "void" inside of him that, try as she might, she just couldn't fill. Ebi says that this may have been because he was abandoned by his mother when he was little, giving him severe trust issues. However she does state that they still love each other and are like brother and sister. This is proved later when instead of jumping to her defense, as Mizuki wanted to, when she is verbally abused by a model for accidentally sending off the outfits for the next shoot, Akiha trusts her and lets her handle it herself. he later says he did that because sometimes it's better to respect people and believe in them rather than trying to solve their problems for them. He loves sweet things, even eating nothing but sweet red beans for breakfast on one of his shoots.
his name is taken from Akihabara (秋葉原) , the region in Chiyoda, Tokyo, famous for Otakus.
Shin Sano (佐野 森, Sano Shin)
Izumi's younger brother and a high jumper. He and Izumi were close when they were young. Izumi never contacted Shin after leaving the family. Thus, Shin felt forgotten and began to resent Izumi. He also used to be a trouble maker for a while because of Izumi leaving, but they are able to get onto friendly terms once again later in the story, slightly thanks to Mizuki. His actions toward Mizuki imply that he may have feelings for her, but he never openly confesses them.
It is implied that one reason for his hate for Sano was the added pressure put on him by their father after Sano had left home.
Julia
She is Mizuki's best friend from America in Hana Kimi. She comes to Japan to study for a month and finds out that Sano knows that Mizuki's a girl. Julia tricks Mizuki's classmates into thinking that she and Mizuki are lovers to gauge Sano's feelings for Mizuki. Nakatsu, jealous that Julia is close to Mizuki in a way that he can't be, takes a strong dislike in her, as does she, calling him 'Monkey Boy'.
Gilbert (Gil)
He is Mizuki's friend from when she ran away from home and Mizuki's first love. Mizuki fainted from hunger so he took her home and gave her a place to stay. He was her first love and they almost kissed. Sadly he was born with a hole in his lungs and cannot do strenuous exercise or go to high altitudes. The operation is very risky, but he does choose to do the surgery after meeting Mizuki. After the surgery, he climbs the mountains he loves. He later appears in Berkeley while Mizuki is visiting her family, and shows that he might have feelings for Mizuki. He is modeled after Leonardo DiCaprio.
Yoshio and Mitsuo Himejima (佐野 森, Himejima Mitsuo and Yoshio)
Their names are Yoshio and Mitsuo. (but they introduce themselves as Shion and Anri). They are obsessed with Kayashima. They also stole food from people of Osaka High, thus, they replaced the foods with a pretty flower for them not to feel anxious.
Makoto Kagurasaka (城田優)
  • Voiced by: Yuu Shirota
One of Sano's "Friends." he oftens make Sano feel guilty for his fails and shows off that he can do TWICE as better as he can. He was very mean in the 1st episodes but later changes his attitude twards Sano as seen in episode 7 were Sano steals Kagurasaka's 1st kiss. He picks him as his waitress, he bought the magazine he stars in and in the special recalls him for what had happened, Sano not remembering because he was drunk says he doesn't know what he's talking about causing Kagurasaka to flee of in disapointment.

Adaptations

  • Hua Yang Shao Nian Shao Nu (November 2006) - the Taiwanese drama series based on Hana-Kimi.
  • Hanazakari no Kimitachi e - A Japanese live drama adaptation (aired from July 3 2007 on Fuji TV) starring Oguri Shun as Sano Izumi, Horikita Maki as Mizuki Ashiya, Ikuta Toma as Shuichi Nakatsu and Shirota Yuu as Kagurazaka Makoto . This adaptation has some significant changes from the original manga, such as Sano's injury resulting from saving Mizuki when they were both in America. It has won Best Drama in the 54th Television Drama Awards, as well as Best Actress and Supporting Actor, by Horikita Maki and Ikuta Toma respectively.

Differences

There are many differences in the Japanese drama and the manga. One example is that in the manga series Sano injured himself helping his friend, while in the Japanese drama he injured himself helping Mizuki. Another example is that how Nakatsu met Mizuki in a different way. Even though in both he was jealous of Mizuki's speed but in the Japanese drama he didn't like Mizuki at all in the beginning. Another thing is that Akiha Hara is a girl who likes Umeda Hokuto in the Japanese drama while he is gay in the manga. The story is basically different from the manga. However the Taiwanese drama adaption was more accurate towards the manga's story. There are also many differences with the Taiwanese drama as well. Such as Nakatsu going with Julia in the end in the Taiwanese drama while in the manga even when she leaves they still hate each other. Another difference is that Sano's brother Shin is rarely mentioned in the Taiwanese adaption. Also Sekime and Noe don't have much of a significant role in the Taiwanese adaption.

References

  1. ^ Nakajo, Hisaya (February 19 2001). "77-78". 花ざかりの君たちへ, Vol. 14 (in Japanese). Hakusensha. ISBN 4-592-17664-2. {{cite book}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) Volume 14. Chapter 77-79.
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