Hana-Kimi

Hana-Kimi, known in Japan as Hanazakari no Kimi-tachi e (花ざかりの君たちへ) is a shōjo manga series written by Hisaya Nakajo.

The manga is serialized in Japan in Hakusensha's Hana to Yume (Flowers and Dreams), which comes out bi-weekly (5th and 20th of every month). At the time of writing, this manga is up to volume 23.

Hana-Kimi is published in English under the name Hana-Kimi by Viz Communications.

Story

Mizuki Ashiya is a returnee that used to live in the United States. There, she saw a track and field meet on TV, and saw Izumi Sano doing the high jump. She was amazed by his jump, and wanted to become friends with him. She decides to cut her long hair short, and go all the way to Japan and enter the school Sano goes to. This school happened to be a boys' school, but Mizuki decides to go to that boarding school anyway, and got to know him. They were even put in the same room. She is happy at first, but soon, she finds out that Sano has already quit high jump, and that he was nothing like she had imagined. Nobody knows that she is a girl there, and Sano doesn't know that she came all the way from the United States because she likes him.

After spending endless days together, they start to become very close. Mizuki starts to like him more and more. Then, a classmate, Nakatsu, starts to like Mizuki. Nakatsu and Sano are best friends, so it turns into a weird love triangle. Sano finally says his true feeings towards Mizuki. Mizuki is very happy because obviously, she likes him too, but she doesn't know that he knows she's a girl. Mizuki has to tell him the truth, but she is afraid he will dislike her for lying.

Important characters

Names are in Western order, with the surname after the given name.

• Mizuki Ashiya (芦屋瑞希 Ashiya Mizuki) – Main character of this manga. She's pretending to be a boy in order to be near Sano.
• Izumi Sano (佐野泉 Sano Izumi) – The guy that Mizuki Ashiya likes. He does high jump, and is very good at it.
• Shuichi Nakatsu (中野秀一 Nakatsu Shūichi) – The guy that likes Mizuki. He got in this school with a football (soccer) scholarship, and is very good at it, of course.
• Umeda-sensei – The doctor at the school's nurse office. Knows that Mizuki is a girl, and gives her advice.
• Shin Sano – Sano's younger brother. Also does high jump.
• Nannba-senpai – The head of the building where Sano and Mizuki stay. He's a nephew of Umeda-sensei, and is a year older that Mizuki.
• Nakao – A girly guy who seriously likes Nannba-sempai.