HANA-KIMI

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MANGA ComedyHana-Kimi: For You in Full Blossom
ONA ComedyHana-Kimi Season 2

REVIEWS

• 

  Giovanna2

  65/100
  Older Shoujo that's has some fun in 'em

  I'm not an avid consumer of Shoujo media, but I do dabble on the most popular ones, and even some of the subpar ones, from time to time. I can't place the show and the freshness of the ideas on a timeline to compare it to others in the genre. I'm writing this review to mainly crystalize my opinions on the show I've watched.

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  This 30 year old story still had some interesting dynamics that I didn't expect from it. The MC's foreign quality allows her character to answer male friendships and platonic/romantic gestures with aloofness. From modern day shows, the outsider quality would be assigned to one note side characters to highlight the differences and create whacky hijinks. But this story is able to utilized that into different aspects of their interactions, which I really enjoyed.

  The gender swapping allows the MC to push beyond the call of duty to create scenarios from ordinary situations. Like her expectation of what a man should do makes her act what would normally be her character. Example being acting like a stoic manly man in the face of bullying would allow her to get closer to her idol.

  Another dynamic I enjoyed was how 1 love interest fully knows and the other does not know, while the female MC is in the complete dark about it all. At first I thought it was a poor decision, due to my bias for pure love, where love isn't hindered by fraught dynamics often seen in BL. This dynamic felt like an earnest attempt to allowed the viewer to have two serious ships that offer two different things. I often find in these harem shows that the best ship is obvious. The same love is being offered, but slightly different hair colors and personality quirks. In this show, however, one type of love is that of earnest growth from distant admiration to romantic, and the other being pure love. I can definitely see myself at different stages of my life rooting for either or.

  In terms of the production, this adaptation felt really floaty (?). I felt a lot of dead air, emptiness, and odd segments connections. I know that it was most likely on a tight budget, but it felt phoned in for most of the time. Which leads me to my assumptions as to why is because the adaptation of the story into a modern setting and adding smartphones. There were scenes where characters would be touching their phones without really doing anything.

  There are some definite dated sensibilities in the show. Going abroad to study/holiday was definitely romanticized and unique back in the 1990s, but less so now that travel became so easy and the experience being so widely available through video and other mediums.

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  It's a hard recommendation to anyone looking for a great Shoujo anime, but an hesitant recommendation for someone looking for Shoujo anime this season.

  TLDR; story rips but adaptation subpar.

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COMMENTS

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