Hana Kimi (Hanazakari no Kimitachi e in Japan [translated... For You in Full Blossom]) is a manga about a Japanese-American girl, Mizuki Ashiya, who goes back to Japan to meet her favorite athlete, Izumi Sano. The only problem is that Sano attends an all boys school, Osaka High. In order to attend Osaka (which is not in Osaka, Japan, by the way), Mizuki must pretend to be a boy.
Two of the first friends that Mizuki makes are Shoichi Nakatsu and Dorm 2's Resident Advisor, Minami Nanba. Amazingly, Mizuki is Sano's new roommate, and, after correcting the misunderstanding they had earlier in the day, she finds that Sano has quit the high jump.
Mizuki herself starts to become a rising track star when she beats all the times of the boys. Immediately each team head wants her on their team, and she runs away from them to find that Sano has fallen asleep again on the school grounds. She’s almost caught then, but Sano wakes up and tells her pursuers she had gone into a nearby building. Their pursuit doesn't last for long, though, because they take a different view on the matter; one of embarassment that a skinny freshman beat them at their own sport.
Nakatsu becomes very close to Mizuki and soon comes to view her as his best friend. In fact, before he even realizes it, he’s fallen in love with her thinking she’s actually a boy. This causes some great internal conflict with himself because he doesn’t view himself as gay. It takes him a long time to admit to himself that he actually loves her and in the meantime, makes a complete fool of himself through some of his reactions to people around her.
While playing a game of soccer with Nakatsu, Mizuki has the wind knocked out of her, and Sano carries her to Dr. Umeda's office. As soon as he picks her up, he realises she's a girl, but chooses to play along with her acting. Umeda also realises this as soon as he sees her. Mizuki fears that the doctor actually undressed her, but he reveals to her that "being gay" he "just knows these things."
After Umeda finds out Mizuki’s situation, she fears that he will have her expelled. However, Umeda can relate to her and only agrees to let her stay because she told him that no matter what, she wouldn’t quit the school. Having him as an ally actually helps Mizuki greatly because he can get her out of many functions which would otherwise reveal her true gender (such as swimming).
One of Mizuki’s favorite things about Osaka high is Yujiro, a dog that Sano had rescued from the pound. Yujiro is a golden retriever who only likes women (with the exception of Sano himself). At first meeting, Yujiro pounced on Mizuki and nearly scared her half to death when Nakatsu told her that he normally only does that to girls. She becomes extremely attached to the dog, and he becomes one of her confidants as well as an excuse to get closer to Sano.
Later on, Mizuki sees Sano talking to a girl on the school grounds. He eventually tells her that Rika was his manager in junior high and was trying to get him to jump again. He had originally quit because he was hit by a car and sustained injuries to his legs. Later he never started again because he just couldn’t take the pressure.
The next day, Sano talks with Rika again but still refuses to do the high jump. Rika didn’t like that so the following day she goes back to Osaka; this time to tell Mizuki to stay away from Sano because she embarrasses him. Their conversations results in an explosion on both parts; Rika saying that this Sano isn’t the real Sano and Mizuki asking her if being a champion is the only thing that matters. Sano shows up just in time to save Mizuki from being hit and to tell off Rika by saying why he doesn’t jump anymore.
While Sano and Mizuki are taking Yujiro for a walk, Sano mentions to Mizuki that he’s thinking about jumping again. She’s really surprised, but he explains to her that he’s tired of running away and that he knows she’s a fan of his.
Along with all of that, Mizuki must hide the fact that she’s a girl (not and easy task considering she lives among boys and the only one from back home who knows exactly what she’s doing is her best friend Julia), deal with her sometimes insane friends, and pass her classes on top of it all. The whole situation of it makes for some comical interactions as well as some serious ones.
That’s a general overview of the first volume. Believe me; it’s definitely worth reading. The little scenes like Sano accidentally walking in on Mizuki in the shower and Umeda mock-stripping are hilarious. Also in Volume 1 is an extra mini-story, “The Cage of Summer”. Not as good as the main story, but all the artwork is superb.
All in all, I think it's a pretty good storyline. There are 23 volumes in all with a special chapter at the very end and two versions of the final chapter (144). This series was originally published in the Japanese Hana to Yume magazine, and so far six volumes have been translated to English for publication. Even so, there are copies of all the chapters floating around the internet that are translated to English (except for the special chapter... that one only has a Word Document explaining what is going on). I'm one of the lucky ones to have in my possession a copy of all of these as well as the first three volumes in paperback (I'm still trying to find the 4th, 5th and 6th volumes, but I even had to special order the first three through my local bookstore... these books are kinda hard to find!).
