Recently Watched: Hana Kimi

I love watching beautiful people on television. This sounds shallow, but the abundance of eye candy is one of the reasons why I love watching Japanese shows. I’m such a sucker for cute, slim, Jap boys with amazing hair.

So it wasn’t that difficult to fall in love with Hana Kimi, a comedy about Mizuki (Horikita Maki), a cute girl who pretends to be a hot dude so she can study in an exclusive school for boys. Maki’s concerned about the fate of high jumper Sano (Oguri Shun), who was injured when he tried to save her from a bunch of muggers. How Maki tries to convince Shun to go back to the sport he once loved—and the goings-on in their school of handsome, mentally-unstable boys—forms the bulwark of the series.

What got me hooked in the series though wasn’t Shun or Maki, but Ikuta Toma, who plays the rival for Maki’s affection. Charismatic and gifted, Toma plays soccer athlete Nakatsu with so much charm that you end up rooting for him. You want him to end up with the girl—and if that doesn’t happen, you just wish he’d end up with you. And yes, I love Toma’s hair here as well.

Hana Kimi is actually more of Nakatsu’s journey. It’s about falling for somebody, giving them your best, being their friend, only for that love to remain unrequited. But unrequited love, and the drama it brings, is just so painfully addicting, that you still hold on to the hope that someday, something will happen.

My favourite scene in the entire series was when Nakatsu fell to his knees when he learned that the girl he wants will never love him back. There will be somebody else, his roommate assures him. But Nakatsu knew, like we do, that in spite of that, it won’t make rejection any less painful. The best thing to do is to wallow in your misery and in your heartbreak—then be grateful that somebody has at least made your journey through adulthood a little more colourful.  

Ikuta Toma is the cutest bowler I've ever seen!!! Hahahaha!