Hanazakari no Kimitachi e © Hisaya Nakajo 1996/HAKUSENSHA, Inc.
I spent most of the day cleaning, but I spent last night catching up on a favorite, Hana-Kimi: For You in Full Blossom by Hisaya Nakajo.
While the premise of a girl masquerading as a guy and sneaking into an all-boys school has been done multiple times (and not just in manga), Nakajo manages to avoid stretching the gag too thin.
Mizuki has key allies, the school doctor and his sister, who don’t blow the whistle and even help her with her subterfuge.
Sano, her roommate and the object of her affection, isn’t made to be the dumb bunny: He has known Mizuki is a girl for quite some time, but she doesn’t know he knows. It’s a plot twist that adds complications to the story but still makes sense. He has romantic feelings toward her, but he also knows the public discovery of her secret may force her out of his life.
And characters’ unrequited feelings toward each other are handled sensitively, whether it’s Nakatsu still believing Mizuki is a boy and wrestling with what that may mean about him, or Nakao revealing his feelings to ladies’ man Minami Nanba and Nanba’s very thoughtful and considerate response.
Rather than the story being moved forward by plot devices, at this point, it’s driven by its characters. When it is hard for readers to pick one or two favorites — because all of the characters have their good points and their flaws and remain likable — the manga-ka is doing something very right