Hisaya Nakajo’s romance manga, Hana-Kimi, which ran between 1996 and 2004, sold over 17 million copies in Japan. This explosive popularity also extended to its North America debut, allowing Hana-Kimi to emerge as a classic entry in the shōjo category. Nakajo’s manga series is beloved for a plethora of reasons, but it primarily popularized a romance trope that can be traced back to William Shakespeare’s As You Like It and Twelfth Night: female-to-male gender swap via cross-dressing.
Admittedly, these Shakespearean plays use this trope to achieve various ends — Rosalind disguises herself as Ganymede to protect herself from harm in As You Like It, while Viola assumes the identity of a man to enter the service of a Duke in Twelfth Night. In Hana-Kimi, teenager Mizuki Ashiya pretends to be a guy for a much simpler reason. Mizuki enrolls in a Japanese all-boys school because she wants to get closer to her crush, Izumi Sano, who is oblivious to her intentions.
Hana-Kimi might not stand out today, but it set a monumental precedent with its central premise, which has been extensively explored in widely-loved titles such as Ouran High School Host Club and Uwasa no Midori-kun!! When Nakajo’s manga arrived at the cusp of the millennium, it represented something new and exciting, breaking traditional conventions within the romance genre, which often contrasts passive femininity against traditional masculinity. More importantly, Hana-Kimi features an unconventional protagonist in Mizuki, who proactively chases her male love interest by transgressing gender norms and societal expectations. The tone is breezy, intimate, and fun, as Nakajo fleshes out the highs and lows of adolescence against Mizuki’s silly hijinks at Ohsaka Academy.
Such an evocative story seems perfect for an anime adaptation, which is why Hana-Kimi fans have patiently waited for one since 1996. Nakajo’s manga has been brought to life on the small screen thrice before, but all of these are live-action. Aniplex (the Sony-owned studio involved with the production of Black Butler and Naruto) announced a Hana-Kimi anime in 2024, and this highly anticipated title premiered on Jan. 4, carrying the promise to bring Nakajo’s gorgeous manga panels to life. Unfortunately, the Hana-Kimi anime features a disappointingly drab artstyle and loses steam after its dual introductory episodes. Four episodes in, the story hasn’t managed to intrigue, despite the potential inherent in its rom-com setup.
It is also worth considering that Nakajo’s artstyle is in keeping with shōjo of the times, sporting exaggerated, angled faces for the characters whose proportions look a tad off, with stylistic charm making up for it. The background shots are also extravagant, populated with delicate flowers and embroidered borders to underscore the romantic aspects of the tale. This understated beauty doesn’t translate to the anime at all, which uses sterile backdrops without any distinctive flair. The toned-down character models of Mizuki, Sano, and their school friends certainly don’t help either, especially when combined with the story’s concerningly dated early 2000s setting. To that end, Nakajo’s manga doesn’t feature cellphones or CCTV cameras at all, making it easier for Mizuki to pull off the gender swap, which would be pretty challenging in a contemporary setting.
If Hana-Kimi wishes to grab mainstream attention the way The Fragrant Flower Blooms with Dignity or Kowloon Generic Romance did last year, it needs to reinvent itself while staying true to its thematic roots. For example, the manga makes it clear that Mizuki’s cross-dressing comes with a complete breakdown of gender roles and expectations. She is a young girl pretending to be a guy to get closer to Sano, but any romance within this gender-swapped context inevitably challenges heteronormativity. She also needs to simulate traditional masculinity in order to blend in, which is why she becomes a jock and outperforms her male classmates. What does that look like in 2026? The anime needs to break out of its dated timeframe to find out.
At the moment, nostalgia and charm have prevented Hana-Kimi from getting lost in the sea of romance anime titles, but the story must evolve. While serviceable, the ongoing anime is a middling escapist fantasy at best, but fans of the manga know Hana-Kimi could be so much more with a bit of eccentric charm and visual exuberance.
New episodes of Hana-Kimi drop every Sunday on Crunchyroll.
