Hanakimi 23
April 13, 2009
I was a bit sad to see that this series sort of fizzled out on a lame note. This volume read a lot like… well, the author wanted to end it, and then just made everything happen that needed to happen in order to resolve the series. Mizuki is found out. Rumors spread through several different levels of scary, Nakatsu finds out, things follow through exactly how you would expect them.
I was most disappointed with the fact that Nakatsu’s reaction to the whole thing was only one or two pages. There was a lot that could have been done with him, but in a way such a non-reaction is sort of in the spirit of his character. He does roll with the punches.
There’s not even really an aftermath segment. That lasts about two pages as well, and I don’t even know why it was there. I guess just to offer at least a little closure.
There are a lot of series that are better than Hana-Kimi, but there’s a lot to be said about delivering consistent entertainment for 23 volumes. Each volume is good fun, most of the plotlines are enjoyable, there’s the necessary degree of silliness and expected behavior from any long-running shoujo romance like this… in short, it’s a really good version of exactly what a shoujo romance should be. I’ll miss it a little, even if it did take a long time for me to get around to reading the ending.
April 14, 2009 at 12:16 pm
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