Sometimes, when one has found something that works, it's just a good idea to stick to it. Hiding one's gender to get hold of something is certainly no exception; all the way back from the Twelfth Night to present. Ladies and gentleman, Hana-Kimi. Mizuki is just your average Japanese-heritage American school girl...except for passing herself off as a boy at an all-boy Japanese high school so that she can meet her idol--high jumper Izumi Sano. Of course it isn't long before someone discovers her secret. Luckily for Mizuki, one Dr. Umeda is lax enough in morals (and rather amusingly unsympathetic for a school doctor) to keep his mouth shut and act as a sort of sarcastic sage for the poor girl. Of course this is a romantic comic, and that means everything that goes with the territory; jealousy, awkward situations (Sano as a roommate-yikes), and that agonizing feeling of "Dear-God-when-are-they-going-to-get-together". For it's own sake Hana Kimi has a cast of likeable supporting characters to keep the reader interested when romantic tension seems rather ho-hum, and that's the genius of it, though one always ends up wistfully imagining a little more screen time for the worthy secondaries.
A worthwhile read for the romantic at heart, the fan of the amusing, and the manga reader, and most certainly worth the numerous volumes it spans.
Final Verdict: 4Q, 4P
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