Hanazakari no Kimitachi e ~Ikemen♂Paradise~
Based on the manga Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, better known as just Hana Kimi, is the Japanese drama series Hanzakari no kimitachi e ~Ikemen♂Paradise~. Quite a long title, especially considering the fact the series has just twelve episodes (compared to a manga consisting of 23 volumes). Since I’ve finished the manga, I decided to give the drama series a try as well. So don’t be surprised when I compare the series to the manga. This review also contains spoilers, so be aware of those! For those unfamiliar with the characters, I wrote a short description of every character mentioned below.
Story line
Mizuki Ashiya is a Japanese-American girl who takes an interest in Izumi Sano, a high jumper her own age. As he saves her in America from a group of gangsters, he gets injured and quits high jumping. Mizuki feels guilty and decides to go to America, to transfer into Izumi’s school and make him high jump again. The only problem is - Izumi’s school is Ousaka Gakuen, an all-boys school. And thus, Mizuki has to disguise herself as a boy to enter.
First impressions
I had to get used to Sano in the beginning, because of his hairstyle and the earring. Most other characters were easily recognizable due to the hair, but he wasn’t. My first impression overall, though, was that it was actually very loyal to the manga. Sure, some changes had been made, but I think they were mostly for the best. For instance, Mizuki going to Japan because she felt it was her fault Sano wasn’t able to high jump anymore. In the series, he saved her from some gang and got hurt in the process. In the manga, however, Mizuki never met him in real life before she went to Japan and only found out he quit high jumping as she got there. The change in her motivation to go to Japan made it more credible. It was easier to understand she wanted to make up for the fact she’d ‘taken away his smile’ because it was her fault he had to quit. Rather than ‘oh, I idolize him and I want to meet him because his words have impressed me’, I must say.
I was impressed that they managed to get so many things from the manga in the series, even though the series was only twelve episodes and the manga had a hundred and forty-five chapters. But still, they put in side stories as Nanba’s relationship with Kanako. Short, but they put it in. I really felt they had covered the entire manga.
Secondly, it struck me that they managed to give it an anime feeling without getting too ridiculous. It was in small things, such as hearts floating around Hibari’s head when she was talking about Sano or obviously accelerating the scene when someone ran out, accompanied by a cloud of dust around their feet. It was funny and added something to the series. Yes, even the ridiculously exaggerated faces of surprise when, for example, the Dorm Heads found out Mizuki was a girl. They pulled it off, so no way to think of it as too ridiculous.
Also, I adored the fact they let Yuujirou in! I mean, a dog is easy to write out of the story, mainly because he wasn’t really involved in the story line anyway. But no, they kept him, and I was very grateful for that.
Last but not least, the soundtrack. It has a great mixture of serious and downright beautiful songs, and songs that are plain funny. Osaka♂Boyz is probably the best example of the last category, and it’s the song that is used whenever something happens that deserve a headslap, like when Mizuki finds her room invaded by guys looking for shampoo…
Characters
Well, they pretty much nailed down all characters quite well. Or even better, as in the case with Hibari. She made such an impression on me in the manga that I hadn’t even remembered her name. But since she appeared quite often in the series and had a clear role, she was easier to remember.
I was a bit disappointed with Umeda-sensei and Kayashima, though. Umeda-sensei because there’s this doubt about him actually being gay in the series, caused by Akiha Hara constantly jumping around him and freaking him out by hinting a relationship between them. And wait a minute… wasn’t Akiha actually a male character in the manga? Also annoying Umeda, true, but… Well, it is pretty much suggested Umeda turned down women because of Akiha, and that she managed to make him less freaked out about women eventually. Thus, suggesting he might not actually be gay. I found that, sorry, rather weak. His background story from the manga was more interesting. Also, they went through the effort to find someone playing Umeda with a bit of western blood running through his veins (the bluish eyes), as it was only once said in the manga he had a German grandfather and therefore light eyes. But why didn’t they give him glasses? I couldn’t help but wonder. For the rest, he was a great character.
Second, Kayashima. Well, what I found annoying was how they stereotyped him as yet as the ‘freaky ghost-seeing boy’, raising his hands and going in some kind of trance every time he read auras. I liked it in the manga that he didn’t get in trances all the time – he was more like giving people a look and then remarking something about their aura just like that. Pretty down-to-earth, so to say. But eventually, the hand-raising and the trances got less and less in the series, so I was quite happy with that.
Okay, on to the characters that impressed me most! Or those who were just plain amusing.
First of all – Nakatsu. He was brilliant. I believe actor Toma Ikuta won an award for his performance, and it is so well-deserved. He is a hard character to pull off in the right way. He comical, but he can also be serious, and it’s hard to be believable as both. I liked him even more than in the manga, in which I sometimes found him annoying. But in the series, he totally got my sympathy and he became one of my favourite characters quite quickly. Oh, the brilliance of his quite extrovert thoughts and reasoning!
Next, Nanba-senpai. I think he looked the most like his manga counterpart, probably caused by the hair. He was perhaps a bit more like a playboy than in the actual manga, but not annoyingly much. I liked him very much as Dorm Head.
Talking about Dorm Heads – Himejima-senpai. Respect to the actor, honestly, for being able to bear with it all. They made a complete fool out of him, but it was very enjoyable to watch. I think the only moments he was serious was at times when operating as a member of the Sakura Committee.
As for the main couple, Mizuki and Sano… Maki Horikita starred as Mizuki, and she did a great job. She stayed in the middle of being a boy or a girl – not entirely convincing as either of those alone, pretty much like Mizuki from the manga. Her character was perfect and I really enjoyed her as the main character.
Next, Shun Oguri as Sano. I heard critiques saying he’s too ‘emo’ playing Sano, but I didn’t think it was that bad. Sure, he was more down than in the manga, but don’t forget that in the manga, the story takes a year and a half – in the series, it was only half a year. You can’t expect a person to change as much in half a year as in a year and a half, right? I think that together, with Mizuki, one grows to like him as the series progresses. The only thing I missed was his habit to randomly ruffle Mizuki’s hair, but he started doing that in the end. ^_^
Random notices
- What has struck me since the very first episode – why is a woman principal of an all boys’ school? Seriously, that was rather… suspicious? You’d almost say she just wants to look at pretty boys, ahem…
- I’m also still a bit stupefied by the fact they morphed Akiha Hara into a woman (I first thought she was the journalist from the beginning), but oh well, she was enjoyable.
- And wow, they certainly abused Sano’s ‘kissing monster’ form from whenever he gets alcohol into his body. Three times or so? Though I must admit I was laughing until I rolled of my chair when everyone went like ‘I was a victim once’, ‘me too’, ‘me too’, ‘me too’… And then a shot of Yuujirou.
- They also surely liked crossdressing. And was it just me, or was the activity by Nanba-senpai’s class in the festival a parody of Ouran? I mean, a ‘host club’? And is it just coincidence that both Ousaka and Ouran have the first character of the school’s name spelled with the character for ‘cherry blossom’? Or perhaps that could be the reason for the parody. The logos on their school uniforms are somewhat similar too. (Sorry about that. I got into Hana Kimi because it was recommended to me after reading Ouran High School Host Club, so yeah.)
- They kind of messed around with Kagurazaka. I couldn’t help but sometimes thinking ‘are they trying to hint him liking Sano or what?’ a couple of times…
- I couldn’t help but enjoy Nanba-senpai’s response as Nakao asked him out because he wasn’t seeing anyone anyway. ‘Oh well, this is the final episode, so I suppose that… wait, WHAT! Whoa, that was close!’
The finale
Well, the goodbye of Mizuki was rather long – saying goodbye to a lot of people personally, accompanied by flashbacks… But, it was touching, no matter how long it lasted. I’m really glad they didn’t decide on an overly happy ending, as they sometimes tend to do with drama series or anime based off a manga. Mizuki leaves Ousaka Gakuen in the end, not exactly happy as one could state. But they didn’t change that fact in the series. I’d more or less expected the principal to say something as ‘well, there might as well be two girls in this school’, but she didn’t. I was very happy about that, because that’d have totally screwed the ending in my opinion.
Sano took way too long before he took Mizuki in his arms, but other than that, I was happy with the ending, even though it was slightly different from the manga after all. The students are all coming to California rather than just Sano, as is announced in the final minute.
Conclusion
Overall, I’m very happy with the series and I have very little remarks about it. And since it’s twelve episodes, it’s not too long to watch and it doesn’t get too stretched. I sometimes felt the manga was too long at certain points, but I never had that feeling during the series. I really enjoyed watching it! It’s not really a drama as in ‘dramatic events’, actually. It’s a comedy with dramatic ingredients or the other way around, it doesn’t matter. The mix is just fine, so thumbs up!
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Characters
Mizuki Ashiya - born from Japanese parents, but lives in America. Idolizes Sano because of his high jumping and feels guilty because he got wounded saving her from a gang and because he quit high jumping and enjoying life afterwards. So she goes to Japan disguised as a guy to give him back his smile and his high jumping.
Izumi Sano -Hates his father for going to work while his mother was dying and ran away from home because of that. Hated by his brother because of it. Both his father and his brother do high jumping, so he runs into them when he gets back into it. Mizuki slowly changes him and pushes him into the right direction. He knows she’s a girl, but he never says something about it. They’re room mates.
Shuichi Nakatsu - classmate of Mizuki and Izumi and an easy-going, playful character, rather much the comic relief of the series. Gets very worried about his sexual orientation when he notices he starts liking Mizuki.
Taiki Kayashima - Nakatsu’s room mate and classmate who can see auras and ghosts. Has known Mizuki is a girl since the very beginning because a girl’s aura is different from a boy’s, but he’s quiet about it.
Minami Nanba - one of the three dorm heads. Students at Ousaka Gakuen can choose their dormitory, and Nanba’s dorm is for sports. He’s quite a playboy. Still, he’s the most normal one of the dorm heads. Had a relationship with his home teacher Kanako in junior high.
Oscar M. Himejima - actual name Masao, head of the third dorm. He adores drama and himself. He also gets randomly possessed by all sorts of ghosts and spirits throughout the series for whatever reason.
Hibari Hanayashiki - told ya, long last name. Popular girl from Ousaka’s sister school St. Blossoms, who sees it as her mission to make sure the boys from Ousaka - especially Sano - are happy. She’s mostly accompanied by the Hibari four, basically four friends a.k.a. fangirls of her.
Yuujirou - an abandoned dog picked up by Sano. He stays at the second dorm and hates all men, except for Sano and Nanba. And of course he gets along with Mizuki, since she’s a girl.
Hokuto Umeda - the school’s doctor. Mostly seen as almost as sadist, but once he learns Mizuki’s secret, he keeps it because he wants to see how things turn out. It seems he had a traumatic experience with Akiha in the past and has hated women ever since.
Akiha Hara - photographer who used to be very popular with pictures of Sano jumping. She also hangs around with Umeda a lot (even though he throws up the moment he sees her).
Makoto Kagurazaka - Sano’s main concurrent in high jumping, but they seem to get along anyway. Kagurazaka wanted him to get back into high jumping so that he could compete with him at the same stage.
Senri Nakao - quite girlish classmate of Mizuki, who has a crush on Nanba.
Izumi Sano -Hates his father for going to work while his mother was dying and ran away from home because of that. Hated by his brother because of it. Both his father and his brother do high jumping, so he runs into them when he gets back into it. Mizuki slowly changes him and pushes him into the right direction. He knows she’s a girl, but he never says something about it. They’re room mates.
Shuichi Nakatsu - classmate of Mizuki and Izumi and an easy-going, playful character, rather much the comic relief of the series. Gets very worried about his sexual orientation when he notices he starts liking Mizuki.
Taiki Kayashima - Nakatsu’s room mate and classmate who can see auras and ghosts. Has known Mizuki is a girl since the very beginning because a girl’s aura is different from a boy’s, but he’s quiet about it.
Minami Nanba - one of the three dorm heads. Students at Ousaka Gakuen can choose their dormitory, and Nanba’s dorm is for sports. He’s quite a playboy. Still, he’s the most normal one of the dorm heads. Had a relationship with his home teacher Kanako in junior high.
Oscar M. Himejima - actual name Masao, head of the third dorm. He adores drama and himself. He also gets randomly possessed by all sorts of ghosts and spirits throughout the series for whatever reason.
Hibari Hanayashiki - told ya, long last name. Popular girl from Ousaka’s sister school St. Blossoms, who sees it as her mission to make sure the boys from Ousaka - especially Sano - are happy. She’s mostly accompanied by the Hibari four, basically four friends a.k.a. fangirls of her.
Yuujirou - an abandoned dog picked up by Sano. He stays at the second dorm and hates all men, except for Sano and Nanba. And of course he gets along with Mizuki, since she’s a girl.
Hokuto Umeda - the school’s doctor. Mostly seen as almost as sadist, but once he learns Mizuki’s secret, he keeps it because he wants to see how things turn out. It seems he had a traumatic experience with Akiha in the past and has hated women ever since.
Akiha Hara - photographer who used to be very popular with pictures of Sano jumping. She also hangs around with Umeda a lot (even though he throws up the moment he sees her).
Makoto Kagurazaka - Sano’s main concurrent in high jumping, but they seem to get along anyway. Kagurazaka wanted him to get back into high jumping so that he could compete with him at the same stage.
Senri Nakao - quite girlish classmate of Mizuki, who has a crush on Nanba.
