Review - Hanakimi (J-Drama)

Hanazakari no Kimitachi e: Ikemen Paradise

Introduction
Translated, it would read as "For you in full blossom: Hot Men Paradise." Alright, as weird as the title might sound it is also known as Hanakimi in short and is based on an insanely popular girl manga. I've personally never read the manga and don't intend to because the artwork is too shojo (girly) style for me so I guess I won't know how accurate the drama portrays the manga.

The Taiwanese have already made a drama out of the same manga starring the tomboyish Ella from the SHE girl group. Let's just say that I tried watching the first episode of the Taiwanese version and couldn't even get through half an hour of it because somehow something just wasn't right. Perhaps the Taiwanese version didn't do the manga justice so the Japanese got fed up and decided to make their own version. And thank goodness they did.

The Story
The show starts with the introduction of the protagonist, Ashiya Mizuki. Played by the oh-so-adorably-cute 20 year old Maki Horikita, she's obviously the only reason why I decided to watch the show in the first place. Apparently she seems to be infatuated by Sano Izumi, a record holding high jumper who sustained an injury and dropped out of the scene altogether. Unable to accept this, she literally cuts her hair short, packs her bags and flies from California to Japan to seek out her idol. Unfortunately, Sano studies and stays in an all boys school (Osaka High School) thus she disguises herself as a boy and enrolls in the school. Will she be able to make Sano jump again and make him her true love?

*Spoilers start here*

Extremely early in the show, the first person to find out Ashiya's true gender is none other than the school doctor. She sustains an injury during a marathon, passes out and is brought to his office where he finds out that she's not a boy. But after finding out her reason for being crazy enough to enroll in an all boys school he decides to keep everything a secret and let her stay.

Later on in the show we find out that Ashiya is actually the cause of Sano's injury. Apparently while Sano was doing a training stint in the US he gets his leg injured when trying to save Ashiya from a bunch of thugs. Thus, Ashiya feels that considering she's the cause of his downfall, she should be responsible in convincing him to jump again.

While at the school she meets Nakatsu, one of her classmates who starts having a crush on her. Not knowing that she's actually a female, he starts thinking that he's gay and tries to come to terms with himself. Sano on the otherhand learns about Ashiya's true gender really early in the show but keeps it to himself anyhow as he's moved by the fact that Ashiya was prepared to go through so much to get him to jump again.

The Review
Before the start of the first episode, there's a "warning" that reads, "This story is entirely fictional, please excuse the foolishness." Now the common problem when a manga is ported to live-action is that what might've been funny in a manga can come out horribly daft if re-enacted in real life. Unfortunately Hanakimi suffers from this quite badly, half of each episode is dedicated to the relationship between Ashiya, Sano and Nakatsu while the other half is dedicated to the supporting characters which consist of the 3 Dorm heads and the student extras. They are usually preparing for one school activity after another (Best Looking Student, Spring Festival, Beach Outing etc...) and try hard to make you laugh with a lot of Jim Carrie style slapstick humor. Perhaps high school girls find such humor funny but it doesn't really work for me. There were times I was tempted to fast forward to the serious parts because the humor was getting so cringe-inducing. Sometimes I think that the only sane people in the school are Sano, Ashiya and Nakatsu.

Anyhow here's more background about the school. You see, Sano's school supposedly chooses their students primarily based on looks than grades, thus the "Ikemen Paradise" in the title. As ridiculous as it sounds that's how it goes as this drama caters more so to girls than guys. So you've got a lot of bishie looking guys walking around with their shirts off, carrying weights, running on the track, doing drag (no kidding) and what not which serves as eye candy for the girls (Urgh). Thankfully all is not lost as there's a girl group from St. Blossom's High (The Sister School of Osaka High) called the Hibari 4 which consists of the leader, Hibari Hanayashiki, and 4 other girls which pop in every now and then to add some gender balance. I liked the character of the leader because she's type cast as a Britney Spears bimbo kind of girl, is shorter than her followers and is ironically worse off in getting a date than her followers which makes her a funny character to watch.

About the other supporting characters I'll just make it brief. There are 3 Dorms in Osaka High School. One is run by some martial arts nut, Sano's dorm is run by some Casanova girl magnet while the other is run by an arts freak who goes around in a cape reciting Shakespeare. Other characters include some guy who takes after Death Note's "L" by being all mysterious and creepy, a gay guy and some other guy who is some silly inventor. They all try to inject humor into the show but I didn't really find any of them very funny at all. In my opinion, it'd probably have been better if they didn't try so hard to make the audience laugh.

Now for a detailed review of the main characters

Ashiya Mizuki (Played by Maki Horikita)
First up, it's not easy playing Ashiya, you gotta act like a boy and you're basically the character that all the girls want to be. Though she has to act as a boy in this drama, she still looks very feminine even in a male school uniform and her actions are still very female like (not that I mind). Also, she's rather short so almost everybody towers over here which makes things rather comedic. In reality she definitely can't pass off as a boy but it's a drama anyway so it's alright. (If she did look so much like a boy I won't be watching the show in the first place.)

Otherwise she portrays Ashiya as a very happy, positive, lovable character whom everybody would wanna make friends with. Her chemistry between Sano and Nakatsu are very natural and she doesn't seem to be holding back in her acting. She looks very natural when she's fooling around with Nakatsu or having a serious talk with Sano and her heart really looks like she is all for Sano.

As I watched the show I felt that I was on a journey with Ashiya, a journey that would sadly have to end when Ashiya finally manages to convince Sano to jump again. The last episode of the show is perhaps the most moving as Ashiya, having completed what she has to do, bids farewell to everyone and returns to the US. Certainly a very good performance by Maki during the last episode as you can't help but shed a few tears at that scene unless you're heartless.

Definitely two thumbs up for Maki and I'm not suprized that she snagged the Best Actress award for the 54th Television Academy Awards for her role in Hanakimi.

Sano Izumi (Played by Shun Oguri)
Sano comes to me as a very aloof, brooding character who doesn't really say much most of the time. After being injured in the US he drops out of the high jump scene as he thinks that he'll never reach his personal best again. And later on we learn that he's also not on talking terms with his brother and father and is pretty much an angsty, depressed kid. Think of him as the emo character of the show.

As Ashiya works at trying to make him jump again you somehow don't seem to connect with him because he doesn't really say much and when he does it is just a few lines here and there. Later on when he declares to Ashiya that he's willing to train again to beat his high jump record just for her you just don't seem to know whether he likes Ashiya as much as she likes him. Even at the last episode he doesn't openly declare that he likes her but says that he will go visit her in the US soon. He seems too controlled as a character and plays hard-to-get and you just don't feel that he has any feelings towards Ashiya. As a main character he doesn't make a very big impact in my opinion.

Nakatsu Shuichi (Played by Ikuta Toma)
As a soccer player, Nakatsu seems to be a girl's dream boyfriend, possessing a positive personality has cool dyed hair and a sense of humour, Nakatsu always tries to be jolly even when he's hurting inside. Unlike Sano who finds out that Ashiya is actually a girl early in the show, he only finds out about Ashiya's true gender much much later so it's funny seeing him getting attracted to Ashiya while trying to stop himself at the same time. It's just hilarious when he tries to sneak close to Ashiya all the time and he gets reminded that he's "too close" and has to back away.

According to wikipedia, in real life he and Maki are actually very good friends so it shows very well on screen when they're together fooling around or what not. You can just feel real chemistry between the two characters and everything comes out very naturally. For the final episode of the drama when everybody is wishing Ashiya farewell he makes a very moving, emotion filled speech to Ashiya which will bring tears to your eyes.

Not surprisingly he won the best supporting actor award for his role in Hanakimi. He certainly comes out as the better actor as compared to Shun and I think he did a good job.

Conclusion

The Good
- It's something different from the normal, run-of-the-mill romance dramas
- Maki is cute and lovable and does a good job in acting as Ashiya. Gotta love her in the uniform
- The comedy between Ashiya and Nakatsu is hilarious
- The Hibari 4 is funny
- A very good final episode. I'm a sucker for happy endings.
- Drama doesn't drag unnecessarily
- Nice BGM, opening & ending themes.
- Nice scenery and filming locations

The Bad
- Slapstick humor is lame
- Some lesser characters seem redundant
- For guys, if you don't like Maki then there's no reason to watch this drama at all

Overall conclusion
If you're able to ignore the lame slapstick humor and purely focus on the relationship between Ashiya, Sano and Nakatsu, Hanakimi makes a nice romance drama with a twist. Oh yes, did I mention that Maki is cute?

Rating: 8/10