Hana-Kimi, Vol. 4: Clothes Make The Man

花ざかりの君たちへ [Hanazakari no Kimitachi e] #4

by Hisaya Nakajo

The Prettiest Boy In School...Isn't A Boy! Japanese-American track-and-field star Mizuki has transferred to a high school in Japan...but not just any school! To be close to her idol, high jumper Izumi Sano, she's going to an all-guys' high school...and disguising herself as a boy! But as fate would have it, they're more than classmates...they're roommates! 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...

Genres: Manga, Romance, Graphic Novels, Shojo, Young Adult, Fiction, Comedy

200 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 19, 1998

About the author

Hisaya Nakajo (中条比紗也) was a Japanese shōjo manga artist. She also used the names Peco Fujiya and Ryou Fumizuki for doujinshi with her circle, Daisanteikoku.

Reviews

[Steph Sinclair · Rating 4 out of 5]

And now if anyone asks me where I learned the phrase "little smut monger" I can cheerfully point them to Hana Kimi Volume 4. ^_^

[Amy Gideon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun volume all about the school festival. It looks like we're slowly starting to see Ashiya and Sano admit their feelings for each other.

However the one shot, The Thirsty Moon, was a new level of messed up. Super melodramatic with a Flowers in the Attic love theme. So far I haven't particularly liked any of the one shots at the end. They all seem to have some level of incest and a whole lot of insta-love which leads to sex and then abandonment in some form or another.

[Mehsi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Time for a sports/culture festival! Also included is a short story I wasn’t a fan of.


Mizuki will be experiencing her first sport/cultural festival, though I am not sure if she is prepared for the craziness that will happen at this school. Whereas other schools may be a bit tame, this one goes all out. The wining dorm can win some amazing prizes including cash.

Sadly, people are trying to get rid of Mizuki (she is an amazing runner) and I wasn’t amused with that. The reason why is because of how they did it. Violence, throwing heavy stuff. I get you are worried about losing, but this is not the way to win.

I loved that there was a competition to crossdress (though I guess for Mizuki it would just be being a girl again. :P) and I loved seeing how some guys looked great as girls… and how some just looked like a guy with a wig on. Teehee. Nanba is definitely awesome at it… Nakatsu just looks weird.

Also for a doctor you should know how big and tiny boobs look, but apparently he doesn’t. Io definitely doesn’t have small boobs, and given that Mizuki needs a new binder to keep her boobs in she also doesn’t have small ones. I did love that Io made a new binder/vest for Mizuki so she wouldn’t faint/be in pain.

The short story included wasn’t a favourite from the start, but then it just got worse when we found out certain details about Yue… And then saw the reaction of our MC to that. EWW. No thank you. That is a hard pass for me. I don’t care that the characters are almost adults, that is just a topic that is a very hard NO. Oh yes, also a trigger warning for attempted sexual assault (it is a wonder Yue was in the neighbourhood… or else).

All in all, I can’t wait to see how the competition will end. I am definitely going to be reading. Still got a few volumes left on my shelf, after that I have to see if I can buy the rest online.

Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/

[Shayshkers · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume felt slower, but it wasn't bad. Not sure how I felt about that random short story tagged on at the end. Threw me off.

[haven ⋄ f (hiatus) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this one less than the last because it was so short! Half of it is a bonus story I didn’t even read (simply forgot to at the time and now I have no desire to).

The story is slow and mostly driven by the characters. It’s fun, just a little tedious.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is easily the weakest book in the series thus far. It's mostly just a bunch of uninteresting "school festival" crap, as is thoroughly overdone in anime and manga rather often, all on the literary level of a bad sitcom. I would have rated it two stars, but there is a shorter story in the back of the book called "The Thirsty Moon" in this translation, and it's good enough to justify the cover price all by itself (a solid four-star story). On balance, I think that makes the fourth book in this series worth about three stars.

I probably won't read any more of them; I only got this far because the first four books were all available at the same thrift store at the same time and I decided to check them out.

[Starbubbles · Rating 4 out of 5]

the bonus story always chokes me up!

[Karli · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Main story 4
Short Story 3

[ji · Rating 3 out of 5]

enjoyed the coming of age sports festival arc but then the author decided to throw in a one shot with incest in it so that was a No No

[Lori · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25*

[Piper Pringle · Rating 4 out of 5]

OMGOSH the pageant!!!!! I love all the costumes especially Sano's!!!!!! I can't wait for the next volume.

[Kat R · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cant get enough of this series.

[Heather D-G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh. This was fine, but it felt like more of the same with very little character or story development. It concerns the school culture/sports festival and has the dorms competing against each other. The rivalry is fierce and does lead to some high jinks, but I feel like I’ve seen it all before.
Hoping things pick up in volume 5.

[daph pink ♡ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Volume 4 delivers peak “comedy of errors” energy. There’s romantic build-up, but it’s constantly interrupted by absurd school antics—think obstacle courses of misunderstandings. Nakatsu is still in emotional denial, and the side characters are running their own chaotic subplots. Four stars for being both sweet and absolutely ridiculous in the best way.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a fun story, I'm having trouble not tearing through all these at once!

[Ashira (Savannah) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was quite a funny read. I find it hilarous that the guys even have a cross-dressing competition! But there was one problem with this book...What's up with that end story?

At first, I thought "Oh, neat, an extra little story to read" and began reading through. Then I started, as usual, getting really into my book. It was all broken by one little line however...

"I am your father."

WHUUUT? Ok, so for those who read this little end story, you'll know what I mean by "soap opera". For those who haven't, don't waste your time unless you'd like a good laugh. At first, you'll wonder why I'd even say to laugh at that - it's a pretty sad story. But why I say that is because it's too sad. Seriously? If that ever happened to someone for real, I'd go into hysterics. That's way too much depressiveness (not a word...lolz is now) for one story to make it a good story.

If you don't wanna spoil the fun, I suggest you stop reading...this is where I get spoilerific... Here's a list of everything that went wrong with this story:

First, the girl, Miho, nearly gets raped. That's close enough for me. Problem number 1: Near-rape experience.

Then the guy, Yue, saves her and leaves. They introduce themselves loudly as he walks away and then it skips to day 2. With all the frames of Miho thinking of this Yue guy (he's Chinese, by the way - just throwing that out there), you know she loves him. But problem number 2: She's engaged - the "lucky" guy's name is Naoto.

So her fiance gives her a lift after school, but she practically leaps out of the car so that she can chase after Yue, who coincidentally was walking by. They exchange cheesy lines, saying "I was hoping to see you again" and then go for a walk and stop in the park. Miho notes his earrings are the same as yesterday (cuz when you're worried about being possibly raped, you obviously pay attention to the little things like this guy's earrings), which brings up problem number 3: Yue's little sister, Ling-Phoa, died of lung cancer on New Years when she was 8 years old. The earrings are a gift from her to Yue, and he's worn them since.

Then Miho goes on to narrate the stuff that he decided to tell her about his other life problems (seeing as they know eacher so well on only the first "date"). Problem number 4: His mother, Mei-shin, died 6 years before from overwork.

Problem number 5: He's a bastard child, never meeting his Japanese father, who left Mei-shin before Yue was born.

Problem number 6: He lives alone as an orphan and works all day. This leads to the secret meetings between Yue and Miho every night. They have to meet at night because Yue works in the day and Miho's fiance could possibly catch them otherwise.

Then Naoto calls to see how Miho is doing since he can't reach her in the night. She lies, saying that she has been hanging out with friends til late, and he pretends he believes her. They hang up and Miho's dad walks in with problem number 7: He really wants Miho to get married to Naoto so that he can take on her father's business (which is a doctor) when he retires. Miho goes to see Yue again the next night, troubled by the fact that she feels now that she's being forced into this marriage. This leads to even more problems:

Problem number 8: Yue fakes like something was seriously wrong, and falls to the floor pretending to be passed out. Miho becomes worried, and when Yue laughs and says he's just kidding, Miho slaps him. She mentions that her mother died that way - she fell over and just never woke up again.

Problem number 9: When Yue comforts Miho, the next panel shows - guess who? - Miho's fiance in the bushes watching them.

Problem number 10: Miho's fiance continues to spy until it ends up raining. Yue offers for Miho to come over to his house, and so she does. They get dry and warm and Miho notices a plant, which I find odd to be important to the story. It's a cactus that Yue's mother apparently used to like. So he kept it. This is where the story gets its name - the Thirsty Moon (Yue means moon and he didn't water the plant cuz he's a stupid head). Then they randomly get in the mood, so they have sex while stalker-fiance dude watches...creeper...

Problem number 11: Miho's fiance picks her up the next day from school. He officially proposes, and when she says she "can't accept it" he brings up that he knows about Yue and pulls the car over. He attempts to rape Miho saying, "Oh, so you want him and not me?" This again makes me think CREEPER !

Problem number 12: Yue saves Miho, giving a well-deserved glare to Naoto. Naoto gets angry and thinks to himself "I've seen those eyes before..." Then it skips to the scene where Miho is staying in Yue's bedroom, waiting for him (why isn't he watching her? What if Naoto comes back? Stupid...). She randomly decides that she's gonna clean the perfectly nice and tidy room (in other words, snoop) and gets into Yue's dresser drawer. She finds some papers...and what are these? Files about her. Yue comes in and doesn't seem surprised. She gets angry, of course, and says "You knew who I was all along!?" What? There can't be two creepers in one story?

Problem numbers 13 and 14: If that wasn't bad enough, the whole reason that Yue did this was to avenge his little sister. He says that Miho's father was the one who diagnosed her with "cold" and later that night, she ended up dying of Lung Cancer - DUH DUH DUUUUH! So in order to get back at her father for killing someone important to him, he planned and getting to Miho - someone important to his enemy. But he kinda fell in love in the process - whoops. Oh, and by the way, this is all being told to Dr. Shinoda (Miho's dad) by her ex-fiance as she's figuring it all out for herself.

Problem number 15: It shows a few panels of Yue and Miho being depressed. Miho is in her room, thinking "Was it all a lie?" when she hears something at her window. OhmigoshitsYue! He says, "I tried to hate you but the more I tried, the more I loved you"...corny...but yeah, so they hug it out and she says she loves him too and then right before the romantic, magical, wonderful, joyous-but-kinda-sad, heartfelt make-up kiss stuffz, her dad and Naoto storm in. They say that she can't be with him and she yells "Why can't I choose!?" Then comes the part where I literally laughed out loud... Dr. Shinoda looks at Yue and says, "I knew your mother. I had a lovely wife, but something powerful drew me to Mei-shin. But she suddenly disappeared... I never imagined that she could have been pregnant." FLIP PAGE!!! "Until today. When Nao brought the documents with Mei-shin's name on them. Yue... I am your father." Dude! THREE CREEPERS!?

Problem number 16: So Miho's birthday roles around (because it realizes you gotta catch your breath from that last bit of insanity) and it shows her and Yue together. Yue asks if she regrets anything...she says no.......can I get an "incest" up in here? Holy guacamole! Moving right along: He gives her an engagement ring. Aw...how special...he put the stone from his little sister's earring on it... He's still a creeper, but at least he's a sweet one... So after all that, the stalker dude (Mr. ex-fiance) is still stalking Yue (he just can't get over the fact that his chick is gone, can he?) and notices that Yue gets beat up - does nothing - is having some sort of other problems - does nothing - is bleeding both outside, and probably has some internal bleeding too - still does nothing - and is desperately trying to get to Miho - this one I understand but the rest? Really? Anyway, so then Yue brings Miho up to the top of this hill to share his last moments with her watching the sunrise. He does, and then Miho feels him fall on her shoulder. She thinks he's fallen asleep but he's pretty much dead...

Problem numbers 17, 18, and 19 - final issues: Finally the end of this rediculous tale... Miho is going through some things in the Cactus when she finds a note from Yue. It says that the last time she saw him really was the last, and how much he truly loved her. He goes on to mention that he had a heart problem and realized that he hardly had any more time left to live. The final things he says are how he's sorry, but glad that he didn't get his revenge, that she was his "one salvation", blah blah blah...and how he is now a cactus ^-^....wait...what? O.o

And that's the end... Yup. A cactus, 3 creepers, and 19 huge life problems...makes me wonder where the writer+editors got the ideas for these things. Did they just decide to come up with a bunch of depressing crap and mash it all into one story? I bet they did...aw well. It was funny while it lasted ^-^

[Luan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story itself was fun, though I'm annoyed Mizuki is still as stupid and clueless as ever.

As for the short story all I have to say is: Dafuq? What is it with incest making an appearance in these short stories??? Like, Miho (the protagonist) finds out she's in love w/ her half-brother and she's like "BUT I LOVE HIM AND WE'RE GOING TO HAVE LE SEX! DON'T BE MAD, DAD!"

Also, for some reason the author has a thing for older women w/ younger male partners. Not that there's anything wrong w/ that, but when you pair up a 17 year old and a 14 year old (like in the first one) it's sort of weird.

Ms. Nakajo's short stories for some reason end up pissing me off. They're just so random and sudden. Like, in "The Thirsty Moon" the male character Yue, out of fucking nowhere tries to have sex with Miho, even though she recently went through a would-be-rape/assault. Like, WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU TRY TO FUCK HER WHEN SHE WAS ALMOST RAPED?? Like, HE FREAKING STRADDLED HER AND HELD HER DOWN! WTF!?

And Miho was just like "It's totally okay you just did that even though I should be traumatized even a little..."

I hated all the characters in the one-shot and the one-shot itself. Miho, you're stupid and totally bland. Why do you need a male love interest to define you and rescue you from everything?? Yue, you're a snake, you're creepy af, and you're a forceful asshole. You can't go around pouncing girls and you can't sneak into their rooms at night. Seriously, he sneaks into Miho's room even though she's mad at him after she found out he was planning on, quote, "destroying her" and instantly forgets that he was planning to probably literally fuck her over and was like "I FORGIVE YOUUUUUU 'CAUSE THE POWER OF INSTA-LOVE IS STRONG!" And Nao, you're a fucking rapist and a wuss who can't fight his own battles.

I'm glad Yue fucking died. If you're realistic about it, the whole Miho/Yue would've been toxic. He was so pushy and forceful. Screw him.

[Harumichi Mizuki · Rating 4 out of 5]

Festival Ohsaka diselenggarakan setelah liburan musim panas. Dalam festival ini, ketiga asrama bersaing untuk mendapatkan nilai tertinggi. Pemenangnya akan mendapatkan peningkatan kualitas seperti menu makanan yang lebih enak dan juga hadiah uang.

Ketua Asrama 1 yang juga ketua klub karate, Megumi Tennouji sesumbar dia akan mengalahkan semua asrama dan memotong rambut panjang Nanba-senpai. Berkali-kali Asrama 2 terjepit dengan mendapatkan posisi terakhir. Harapan mereka kini hanya pada dua event yang tersisa: Kontes Kecantikan Miss Ohsaka dan Lomba Relay 2000 meter.

Namun, ada sekelompok orang dari asrama lain yang tidak ingin Mizuki mengikuti lomba. Maka di berbagai event dia pun disabotase. Bahkan sebuah pot sempat dijatuhkan ke arahnya. Mizuki curiga kalau pelakunya adalah Kujou, sahabat Megumi Tennouji.

[Vivian Lu · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love that this volume humanizes our womanizer dorm two RA. Plus, the playfulness of the school festival is a great plus even with the looming threat against Ashiya. I love seeing the different students and their interaction, but there's a bit too much going on. Moreover, I don't know how I feel about the extra one shot. It's romantic, but it's also too soap opera-like and the ending was too perfect. Overall, this was solid even if I don't get why it has to be Ashiya who is the target, but of course at the same time. I am still enjoying my reread and will get to volume five soon.

[Sophie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Perhaps because I have seen so many mangas and animes cover school festivals, this volume was not that interesting to me, as it trod a lot of the same paths that other mangas/animes have trod before. However, it was great to have Tennoji and Masao introduced! They were such a big part of the drama series (2007) which I loved so much, so I hope they turn up more!

[Madison Kozeny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Out of all the volumes, this one has always been my least favorite. While the art style and storytelling has consistently improved and become a lot smoother, this volume just seemed like filler. I would say to skip it, but you meet some important characters and the short story in the back is worth a read.

[Mariána K · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume is rather short, it has a larger amount of filler at the end that is unrelated to the story. The big bonus chapter at the end is a short story...

Anywho, this is the school festival arc covering days one and two. Not a lot of interesting things happen in this particular volume other than boys being jerks lol.

[Lorena · Rating 3 out of 5]

La autora empieza a profundizar en el pasado de ciertos personajes, y eso me gusta. Además, muestra a chicos que no están avergonzados de tener como hobby coser/maquillar, sin que esto tenga que ver con su orientación sexual o sea visto como algo malo por sus compañeros.

[Venus Star · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sano, Sano. I see you. You’re all jealous, don’t forget that Ashiya is a boy, well pretending to be a boy. So, you have to be careful in showing what you feel or how you feel about her, at least with Nakatsu he thought that he’s gay hehe so cute.

[Theo · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a nostalgia read (I loved it in high school), and while I'm still enjoying the cross-dressing hijinks and the "she doesn't know I know" will-they-won't-they, the bonus story in this volume is TERRIBLE. 🤮

[Ananya Singh · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's funny, they are funny.

[Hayley · Rating 5 out of 5]

First read: October 2013
Second read: October 2019

[Kristin · Rating 2 out of 5]

The school festival story line was eh. The bonus one shot story at the end was actually more interesting.

[annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

sports day

[Kristin Katsuye · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bonus story in this one