Hanakimi 12
Posted: December 23, 2006 Filed under: Hana-Kimi 2 Comments »So we get the end of the dance story arc here, which is an amazing and cute thing if you like Mizuki/Sano. It was a very cute wrapup. It actually tapers off with an ice skating side story where Nakatsu is again made to be the bitch. Oh well. I guess that’s his lot in life.
This starts the beginning of the America storyline, which I liked a lot less. Nakatsu and Sano are enough of a romantic interest for Mizuki without throwing Gil into the mix. I also thought that having everyone show up in America was too much of a stretch for this series… the fact that noone mentioned it, AND it happened to be in Mizuki’s hometown? Pfft. I was totally underwhelmed, and I think the only thing that saved the volume was the inevitable Japanese-English jokes that went on the entire time. The fact I didn’t like Mizuki’s school friends there doesn’t mean I don’t like the fact that they don’t speak English, or disliking Gil doesn’t mean that I don’t like that he hates it when people speak Japanese around him.
Everything wraps up at the end, but of course Gil throws one last barb that has far-reaching consequences.
Well, the American story gets big points from me because … I was born in Berkeley, I visit Berkeley all the time, and I buy a lot of my manga in Berkeley. And bigger coincidences have happened in my life, so I was able to buy that they all ran into each other there. Especially in Berkeley – Berkeley is not that big, and a lot of people pass through there. It’s not that unusual to have a “Hey, what are you doing here” moment(I run into people I never expect to run into in Berkeley all the time).
Haha, I guess I just didn’t know the power of Berkeley. I very rarely run into people I know here in Chicago when I’m out, I think it’s only happened once or twice in the seven years I’ve lived here. It did used to happen with much more frequency when I lived elsewhere though, I always ran into someone I knew when I was out elsewhere in the state. I still have a hard time believing she ran into her friends from Japan in an entirely different country, but I’ve also never lived in a city that was a real international destination, either.