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Once again, I find myself reveling in the freedom of Japanese art. I've been reviewing all sorts of Manga for about a year and a half now (as hard as that is to believe) and the one enduring trait that I find myself loving in all Manga is that no topic is truly taboo. While I 
didn't jump out of my seat for Hana-Kimi: For You In Full Blossom by Hisaya Nakajo, I did have to respect that aspect of the manga-It tackled topics that most American art forms would only tackle in cheesy slapstick comedies.
Hana-Kimi revolves around a young girl, Mizuki Ashiya, a Japanese-American track student who falls hard when she first sees high jumper Izumi Sano do his work. Intoxicated by her new idol, Mizuki decides that she will do anything to meet him-even if that means transferring to the all boys' school he currently attends. Constantly struggling to hide her identity and her growing feelings for Izumi who, as luck would have it, is now her dorm mate, Mizuki soon finds herself doing more harm than good. She seems to have overshadowed her idol, and Izumi may be losing his love for the sport because of it.
The risqué bits come in the form of Shoichi Nakatsu, a boy who once believes he is straight, until he starts to fall for Mizuki! Aside from Nakatsu, who gives off a certain hysterical brilliance to the story, the characters are fairly cookie-cutter. Mizuki is the typical neurotic and charming lead and Izumi is the typical brooding, angry male hero that tends to be found in most Manga.
The art in this book is okay, and it's easy to tell that Mizuki is a girl despite her boyish appearance throughout the novel. That's good, because you don't want to forget what the characters are going through when seeing her from day to day. But a negative to the art of this story is that Izumi and Nakatsu, while easy to tell apart from each other, were nearly indistinguishable from the other boys in the school. I find this to occur a great deal and it really does obscure my enjoyment of the book when I have to figure out which character is talking to which.
While the premise of this Hana-Kimi did jump out at me, the storytelling certainly didn't. What could have made for an interesting and fun story is told blandly, and despite the likeability of the characters I just can't get behind it. I found that, while the characters added a bit of fun now and then, I didn't truly care for them. And caring for the characters is the most important piece of the story.
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