hana-kimi aka for you in full blossom

This is the first manga series I've ever read (not the first volumes of manga, I'll explain this later). It is by Hisaya Nakajo. Now I warn you I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to manga because I have only been introduced to this recently. So I will merely include a brief intro into what this manga is about and if possible try and put into words what I love about it.

Ashiya Mizuki is a Japanese American high school girl living in America who wants to be closer to Izumi Sano, a high school boy back in Japan. He became Mizuki's idol after she saw him on TV one day competing in the high jump. Ever since then she has collected all the magazines that included him and followed his progress as a very popular and talented high jumper. Now in the first volume Mizuki makes the decision to go to Japan as a transfer student so that she may become friends with him. The only thing is that he goes to an all-boys' school. Well, she does the most rational thing and with the help of her best friend Julia cuts her hair and attends this school. Ofcourse her parents believe it's a co-ed school and Julia is the only one back in America that knows what she is doing. Well, Mizuki discovers she even has the luck of being Sano's roommate. "Now Mizuki must keep her secret in the classroom, the locker room, and her own bedroom. And her classmates-and the school nurse-must cope with a new transfer student who may make them question their own orientation..." This last quote was taken from the blurb on the back of Volume 1.

Now what do I love about this manga... everything. The characters are hilarious. The story is great and there are so many funny situations that arise, which has to be expected when the story is about a cross-dressing girl living with guys. I have to give this 5 stars! I may be biased because it is one of the very first manga series that I've ever read and there are people out there who have read more manga. But I think it is safe to say that in such a short time I have read quite a lot. I've been living off of scanlations. Oh I should explain that I've managed to finish the 20-something volumes thanks to scanlations. I think the bookshops only have up to volume 9, but because people overseas have scanned the images of the rest of the volumes and translated them I've been able to finish reading the entire series.

A special shout out goes to Yunita for introducing manga and especially Hana-Kimi to me. And extra thanks for staying signed in on msn for days and sending me all the files for the volumes of Hana-Kimi. You were very wise not to send me any files during stuvac as study is impossible when you are hooked on Hana-Kimi.