Hanakimi 18
Posted: April 7, 2009 Filed under: Hana-Kimi 1 Comment »Good Lord, the track meet is STILL going on. The preview promises it will end next volume though, so at least then we’ll get a bit of a change of pace.
We do get a little bit of a switchup in this volume, to be fair. I’m guessing in celebration of the 100th chapter, the main story was interrupted with a side story featuring Kayashima, the bizarre supernatural character, and a scavenger hunt for all the residents of the dormitory. Kayashima has some sort of Onmyouji rival character with spirit ferrets (or weasels, or something). The story was pretty mediocre (pretty typical competition-type story with lots of comic mishaps and a pretty predictable ending), but I’m a big fan of Kayashima, so that kept things interesting.
While the big Nakatsu moment from the end of last volume carries over a bit into this volume, though disappointingly, nothing comes of it. Nakatsu says some things that make me feel a bit better about his role in the story (how he’s not really going to be heartbroken since he knows Mizuki likes Sano, that he’s a pretty tough guy that can take lots of abuse like that, and that he’s always on Mizuki’s side, et cetera), so now I don’t feel terrible every time he does something nice for Mizuki.
The one thing about this track story is that it’s providing lots and lots and lots of opportunities for Mizuki and Sano to grow closer. I’m not all that interested in the situation with Sano’s dad since the tragic relationship with his brother was probably enough traumatic family background for one character, but seeing Mizuki run between the Sano brothers and the father and reporting everything back to an increasingly relieved Izumi was pretty nice.
The father situation is pretty much resolved by the end of this volume, which leaves… well, just the track meet for next volume. I don’t see as much romatic possibility for Sano and Mizuki in the competition between Shin, Izumi, and that rival character, so… well, let me just keep reading.
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