first impression: Skip-Beat! (Taiwanese)

Also known as Extravagant Challenge
華麗的挑戰 -- Hua Li De Tiao Zhan

What Taiwan does happen to do well is take a manga story line and adapt it into live action pretty decently. The characters will always stay in character, and the setting doesn't stray far from the original manga story. It's only unfortunate that the embedded humor of Japanese manga cannot seem to be captured very well by Taiwan's adaptations. For instance, Hana Kimi, though having its own charm, was never really able to convey that subtle hilarity and cutesy sweetness that the original manga was loved for. Instead, the supposedly funny moments end up kind of awkward and tacky.

This is one of the things that Taiwanese drama rom-coms have never really been able to capture quite accurately: a sense of actually funny humor. The only series I've seen so far that has been able to do as much is Miss No Good (but only because Rainie Yang is charming and Wilber Pan has a natural sense of comedic timing in his expressions). Brown Sugar Machiatto and its sister(?) production The Legend of Brown Sugar Chivalries were both rather comedic in execution (much more so than most Taiwanese comedies), but I don't really count those two as drama series -- they're more like promotion shows for the young idol groups Lollipop and Hey Girl.

And so we end up with not so much a romantic comedy, but a romance strewn with tacky and awkward moments trying to impersonate humor. And honestly, what good is a romantic comedy if it isn't even really that funny?

When I first heard about Skip Beat! being turned into a live action adaptation by Taiwan, I was curious, only because Skip Beat had been one of my most favorite shoujo manga stories. Taiwan's drama series aren't half bad most of the time and I've already enjoyed a select few during the past year. While they all seem to be the same rom-com formulas with the same over-exaggerated acting and story pacing, there have been some rather good series.

Taiwanese Skip-Beat! doesn't stray far from the typical Taiwannese Idol drama series, show-casing beautiful people in a rom-com aimed at young teenage fangirls. People who are already familiar with Skip Beat! manga already know the details, the story and the character fairly well. For those who haven't been exposed to the original manga, though, here's a short and brief synopsis:

Basically, Mogami Kyoko is a girl who has spent her life devoted to Fuwa Sho, pretty much sacrificing her youth and her time and her energy to take care of his lazy ass so that he can focus on becoming a famous musician. Unfortunately, all Sho has ever thought of her as was just a live-in maid he can boss around regularly. When Kyoko learns of this and how Sho never really cared about her as a girlfriend, she vows vengeance, letting her Pandora's box full of demons out to play. In order to bring him down to nothing, however, Sho challenges her to enter the entertainment industry as well; it will be the only way she'd ever be able to touch him at all.

So what does Kyoko do? She accepts his challenge, but along the way towards her ultimate revenge, she slowly learns to appreciate her own life and her own individual person, finding reason for herself outside of Fuwa Sho.

There are a lot of reasons why Skip Beat! manga was one of my favorite stories. For one, Kyoko isn't your typical pushover of a female protagonist; instead of moping like a damsel, she chooses to take action. Secondly, in the case of the manga, I had loved watching Kyoko grow as a person from someone who has based all of her actions around one man, and into someone who can find her own way in life for herself.

Taiwanese Skip-Beat! is cute. So far this is the only thing I can really say about it. Much like when I watched Hana Kimi's live action adaptation, I found it cute... but that was about it.

Ivy Chen is Gong Xi (Mogami Kyoko) and while her over-the-top performance works quite well for Kyoko's enthusiastic personality it almost seems a bit too much. Still in the process of critiquing her performance, however, I haven't really found much outstanding about it save for the one moment wherein Gong Xi finally breaks down with her crying slash laughter, letting out those anticipated Xiao Xi demons (Kyoko demons). There are moments during Ivy Chen's presentation that I keep thinking about Amber Kuo's role as Wu Shan Bao in Woody Sambo. While it fits Kyoko's personality, I'm hoping that I don't keep flashing images of Wu Shan Bao during my viewing of Skip-Beat!, otherwise it could get a little old. Also, I'm interested to see how Ivy Chen will convey Kyoko's ever changing moods and personalities. Kyoko is essentially an extremely innocent young girl who never got to live her youth to its fullest before being thrust into the world in such a cruel way. Despite her anger and cynicism, there are still a lot of moments when she resembles any other young teenage girl who buries herself in Fairy Tale fantasies. And hopefully Ivy Chen can pick up on this part of Kyoko -- she's not simply a cute and bubbly girl trapped inside a vengeful, angry exterior because she's got so much more depth that slowly form in the inner workings of her mind.

Korean idol group Super Junior lends two of their famous members, Choi Siwon and Lee Dong Hae for the roles of Dun He Lien (Tsuruga Ren) and Bu Po Shang (Fuwa Sho), respectively. The one thing I'd been worried about for these two roles was the need for Mandarin dubbers to cover both men's voices so that there can be consistency. It would be rather strange if our main female lead spoke Mandarin while the two male leads spoke Korean. So far I don't have much of an impression of either Choi Siwon or Lee Dong Hae, and the dubbing doesn't really bug me too much either. The only thing I will mention, though, is that Lee Dong Hae's presentation of Bu Po Shang's strangely cute actions when he's NOT trying to maintain his cool image was actually quite adorable. While I had always found Sho to be an annoyingly irritating rat bastard of a man, I'm somehow finding Bu Po Shang not as detestable. (A salute to the beauty of Korean idols, maybe?)

Choi Siwon radiates Ren's arrogant professionalism quite well. Idol stars have always had disadvantages of being scrutinized for being nothing but a pretty vase. So I look forward to seeing how well he does with Dun He Lien's role since he's had various other acting roles in K-dramas before.

As for the rest of the cast and characters, I'm really much more interested in the appearance of Bianca Bai, who is cast as Jiang Nan Qin (Kotonami Kanae), the girl who joins Kyoko in the LME LoveMe department. Her arrogance and strangely indifferent kick-ass-ness is what I'm looking forward to seeing since I've always enjoyed Kanae's presence as Kyoko's reluctant best friend.

Jin Qin is Dun He Lian's manager, known as Yashiro Yukihito in the original manga, and has alwyas been a great source of comedic relief. Even though it's been a while since I last looked over the manga (about a year or so, methinks), I remember liking this character because he amused me immensely with the way that he easily picked up Ren's feelings and intentions before Ren could even pinpoint them himself. There's nothing more fun than an omnicient manager at hand who also plays the mother hen to an otherwise domestically incompetent superstar who can't even take care of himself properly. Jin Qin was also in the role of Manager Ke Yi Zhi in Taiwanese drama ToGetHer to main character Zhaung Jun Nan and he was a very amusing and awesome person. I think I'm going to like his role here in Skip-Beat! reprising another manager role (especially for one of my more favorable characters from the manga).

Finally, Tsai Yi Chen (better known by her stage name Wu Xiong) is cast in a character role not present in the original manga. She is a girl named Wan Zi who works at the small restaurant called Bu Dao Weng (Darumaya in the manga) with Gong Xi and also seems to be playing the part of Gong Xi's only friend at present. I'm not sure where the series is trying to go with this extra role, but I hope it's a good direction because I like Wu Xiong and I'm hoping that she gets more screen time and continues to be Gong Xi's supporting friend in the background.

Unfortunately, with Wan Zi's presence, it only means that Gong Xi (Kyoko)'s journey to learning how to love herself is a bit stunted. The entire basis of Kyoko's depressing life is that her one and only childhood companion has always been Fuwa Sho -- she has lived her life for Sho, losing out for herself as well as never making any true friends (most of the girls in her childhood hated her because she was close to Sho who happened to be popular among the girls). Her entire life has been devoted to one day becoming Sho's wife and helping his parents take over their inn in Kyoto. Her mother had abandoned her when she was a child and her father has always been absent and so she knows about nothing but her life as the future innkeeper for Sho's family. When Sho betrays her at the beginning of the story, Kyoko loses all faith in any kind of love. For this very reason, she doesn't understand the emotion of love: to be loved by others as well as to be able to love others.

So while I really enjoy Wu Xiong's presence in this series (she's coming off a lot more likable than anyone else in the series as far as Episode One goes) I hope it doesn't deter the personal journey that Gong Xi (Kyoko) must go through to find her way in life.

This first episode of Taiwanese Skip-Beat! had taken me about three separate sittings during the evening to finish watching. I don't know whether it's because I already know the story line really well, whether it's because the anime already did a rather good job capturing the story, or if it could really be that the drama itself isn't conveying the glory of Skip Beat! to a decent enough level. There are a lot of really wacky CG inclusions that make for the cheesiest attempts at humor which kind of bemuses me, but may also end up grating on my nerves. The pacing and editing isn't too bad since it's following the original story line quite closely (aside from Wan Zi's presence); but the acting is almost too exaggerated and may turn out to be a problem for me.

Nonetheless, I will continue to give Skip-Beat! a chance if only because I'm a fan of the original manga. Let's hope that the live action adaptation can do well.

On a side note, the opening theme and the closing theme are both quite catchy -- sung by Super Junior-M and Lee Dong Hae respectively. The insert song, I'm recognizing as A-Lin's voice, but I might be wrong, but it's very pretty and I hope to hear more of it.

intro info: Hanazakari no Kimitachi e: Ikemen Paradise (Japanese)

Horikita Maki as Ashiya Mizuki
Oguri Shun as Sano Izumi
Ikuta Toma as Nakatsu Shuichi


One of many romantic comedies depicting a girl cross dressing as a boy for her own reasons, Hanazakari no Kimitachi e: Ikemen Paradise, is a spin off of the shoujo manga of the same name (minus the Ikemen Paradise) written by Hisaya Nakajo.

The story of Hana Kimi is fairly straight forward (like any other romantic comedy). Ashiya Mizuki, while living in America, sees footage of a boy named Sano Izumi doing a high jump. Feeling inspired by how beautiful his form looks and taking to heart his words of encouragement to young people all over the world, she is determined to meet this person for herself. And so with the mindset of a crazy fangirl girl in love, she goes to Japan, enrolls in an all-boys school disguised as a boy, simply to fulfill her dream of meeting and befriending her high jumping idol.

That is the original storyline of the manga, which then continues on to detail the life of Ashiya Mizuki as she struggles through life as a boy in an all boys school, living in the dorms with boys, eating with boys, going to class with boys, and trying to avoid showering with boys.

Ikemen Paradise takes this straightforward plot and throws in a spin of it's own. While with similar concept, much is changed making the Japanese live action adaptation a stand alone series capable of shining on its own.

Ashiya Mizuki, in this version, goes to Japan for the same reasons, except this time, her goal from the beginning is convincing Sano Izumi to return to high jump. Because while in the manga, Sano's withdrawal from the sport was due to his pressure and a car accident, the reason in this version is much different. While at a competition in America, Mizuki is attacked by a gang of young men, and in order to save a complete stranger, Sano ends up getting hurt thus causing him to back out of the high jumping arena. While his injury was not enough to keep him off of the field forever, his reasons for leaving were very much on par with the reasons given in the original manga version: he felt pressured into being the best high jumper by his father of whom he already had terrible relations with.

The story takes off from there with a lot of difference from the original story, but having it's own episodic side plots on top of the ultimae base plot. Our team of boys continuously jump into dorm competitions lead by the three dorm leaders and involve themselves in strange activities courtesy of the school's planning. Other changes include a female version of photographer Hara Akiha who shows up for every event in the entire series, and a much more involving adult presence in the form of Sawatari whom I assume is just the principal's assistant who jumpstarts each and every event for the boys.

And so Ikemen Paradise, while taking from it's manga base, presents a whole different story line concerning the blossoming romance of our main couple as well as the road to discovery, both for Sano Izumi as well as Ashiya Mizuki.

The series itself is full of fun and hilarious antics surrounding the boys of Osaka Academy. With a bigger comedic tone than the original manga, the series was a laugh fest of entertainment and enjoyment. While I personally preferred the sweet love story of the original manga more, the live action version did not really pale too much in comparison. It had it's charm, filled with hilarious comedic moments, inspirationally cheesy monologues, as well as a spunky new type of Ashiya Mizuki and the acting god who is Ikuta Toma-sama as Nakatsu Shuichi.

It is unfortunate that the series did not develop the blossoming love story between Sano and Mizuki that made Hana Kimi so special; but the change in characterizations and story line really DID help to make the series a separate entity from the manga itself. In contrast from the manga, I found that I ended up loving the character of Nakatsu Shuichi so much that I instantly became a fan of Ikuta Toma. This series was made for him, allowing him to carry the show all the way until the very end despite his character being supporting to the main couple. But to my dismay I really didn't care for the love story between Sano and Mizuki as much as I had in the original manga version. Instead, I often times found myself wishing that Mizuki would turn her attention to Nakatsu; ultimately, this is taboo for a fan of the Hana Kimi love story.

But I stand by my own opinions. Ikuta Toma's big break as Nakatsu Shuichi in this series left a very deep impression.

The series itself was wonderfully fun to follow along with. Japanese humor still stands as some of the best and I wouldn't mind rewatching this series over and over again -- even if only for the Nakatsu Shuichi wonders.


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thoughts: Hanazakari no Kimitachi e: Ikemen Paradise (Japanese) - a more in depth look at the series in discussion

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intro info: Hanazakarino Kimitachie (Taiwanese)

also known as Hua Yang Xiao Nian Xiao Nu

Ella Chen as Lu Rui Xi (Ashiya Mizuki)
Wu Chun as Zuo Yi Quan (Sano Izumi)
Jiro Wang as Jin Xiu Yi (Nakatsu Shuichi)


While the Japanese version of Hana Kimi, broadcasted nearly a year after this Taiwanese version, managed to depict the wonderful story base with it's own charm and separate story line, the one thing that the Taiwanese version does is depict the story true to it's original manga story line, with few changes.

Hana Kimi is a love story, first and foremost, depicting the tale of Ashiya Mizuki and her life of living in an all boys school, disguised as a boy, as she meets and befriends her idol, the high jumper Sano Izumi, as well as learns of a whole new life outside of her own dreary one with everyone she comes in contact with.

Lu Rui Xi is a Taiwanese-American girl living in America who idolizes the high jumper Zuo Yi Quan and grows to fall for a young man she has never even met before. After seeing his elegant jump and hearing his words of encouragement for young people everywhere, Rui Xi is determined to get her act together, lose weight and become a person with more ambitions -- this is the reason that is given for Rui Xi's admirationg for Zuo Yi Quan in this Taiwanese version of Hana Kimi. Because rather than being a confused and lost child in the manga, in this series, Rui Xi had started off as a terribly obese and lazy, unambitious young girl.

The rest of the story for Taiwan's Hana Kimi pretty much follows the original manga version fairly closely with few changes here and there. Rui Xi appears at Ying Kai University as an transfer student where she meets her class of boys who would later become some of her closest friends, her idolized high jumper Zuo Yi Quan, as well as the wonderfully strange and wicked Mei Tian, the gay school doctor who helps her through her cause.

As far as story goes, if you already know the story of Hana Kimi, then there is no need to further introduce the series. Where romance is concerned, the Taiwanese version does what the Japanese version did not do: it focuses on the love story between Rui Xi and Quan, showcasing all the sweetness and care that the two present to each other as they continue on their life at Ying Kai University. Quan has more of a presence and less of an attitude as compared to the Japanese version, and his love for Rui Xi shows through that extra care he puts into protecting her and keeping her by his side.

I can't really say much about the cast of this series; Ella Chen was wonderfully exhuberant as the easily excited cross dressing girl, but she turns into a boy almost too easily. Ashiya Mizuki, after all, is described as a boy who is almost too pretty and looks more like a girl. Because Ella instantly becomes a boy, it is hard to see that cuteness that Mizuki projects all the time. It is quite unfortunate that costuming and make up didn't quite get the character design correct; Ella Chen can be a very pretty girl, but in this series, she just doesn't stand out at all aside from her personality and her chemistry with Wu Chun.

This series is carried by the love story and pretty much survives on it. Wu Chun is not a very well-rounded actor and often times comes across as monotonous or over exaggerated with no middle ground. Put into a character role who is already a monotonous guy, it does him absolutely no favors. As for Jiro Wang, while he does an excellent job of portraying the character of Jin Xiu Yi, he sadly does not bring the character to life; he is merely a vessel who becomes the character and nothing more.

The rest of the cast is rather insignificant to mention aside from Mei Tian who is actually rather ideal, played by Tang Zhi Ping. But much like the Japanese version of the gay school doctor, I feel like his flambuoyance and his unpredictability was lacking; of course, his wickedness was very much present, so it still works out rather well. Danson Tang's Liang Si Nan (Nanba Minami) seemed to have been downsized from his manga counterpart's significance. He's flirtatious and the dorm two head; but that's pretty much about it for this guy.

The series itself was a fun experience to follow through as it DID gain a rather large cult following among young girls all over Asian countries. After all, it presented two of the members from the then rising in fame boy band Fahrenheit as well as already popular member Ella Chen from girl group S.H.E.

I would watch this series again when I'm in the mood. I certainly love the story that goes with it, and it's pretty much just seeing one of my favorite manga series being brought to life by real people. But otherwise, I'm not quite sure how I'd feel about the Taiwanes Hana Kimi. It certainly isn't for everyone despite it's popularity.

Boasting all these young new talents, a subtle form of humor as well as a score of great music for the soundtrack, this series is definitely one to consider for good entertainment.

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Related articles:
thoughts: Hanazakarino Kimitachie (Taiwanese) - a more in depth look at the series in discussion

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thoughts: Hanazakarino Kimitachie (Taiwanese)

Also known as Hua Yang Xiao Nian Xiao Nu

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This article may contain spoilers. For a less detailed summary and thoughts post, please refer to: intro info: Hanazakarino Kimitachie aka Hua Yang Xiao Nian Xia Nu.

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There is no doubt in my mind that Hana Kimi is one of my favorite shoujo manga storylines. The idea of a cross-dressing girl hiding herself in a school full of hormone raging males and one gay school doctor is more fun than anyone could possibly take. But nonetheless, I never tire of the story line.

After watching the more recent Japanese version starring Ikuta Toma, Horikita Maki and Oguri Shun -- as well as subsequent television specials, behind the scenes and various interviews -- I was tempted to pick up the Taiwanese version of Hana Kimi. Of course, I hadn't officially done so until I saw a brief interview of the two main male casts, Wu Chun and Jiro Wang, introducing themselves to the cast of the Japanese live action Ikemen Paradise. Few snippets of the series piqued my interest enough for me to immediately track down the series and debate watching it. But as I was in a Japanese drama funk of all things related to Ikuta Toma-sama, it would be quite a while before I even began to watch the Taiwanese version of Hanazakarino Kimitachihe.

To backtrack, I'd always been adverse to watching Taiwanese drama in the specific genre that they like to call "Idol Drama." I've always felt that these were cheesy eye-candy series meant for young teenagers who enjoyed seeing their favorite idols on the television screen try to act. I'd been a prominent viewer of TVB dramas in which I've enjoyed the wonderful acting and storylines of since I could remember in my childhood.

Hana Kimi seems to be my cure all for anything and everything related to those pre-judgements I've made. Hana Kimi got me started in on rapidly inhaling various shoujo manga stories. Hana Kimi introduced me to the possibilities of live action Japanese Dorama. And then Hana Kimi easily hooked me to the wonderful fun that is Taiwanese Idol Dramas. While everyone else may have started their liking of Taiwanese Idol Dramas due to manga adaptation from such series as It Started with a Kiss or Meteor Garden or Devil Beside You, I chose Hana Kimi. In a separate world, while Hana Kimi didn't quite play a role, a series involving a girl disguising herself as a guy also introduced me to possibilites of Korean drama; on another note, a different series involving a girl disguising herself as a guy finally got me hooked onto Korean drama and Korean music.

Life may just become a more colorful place for me as my mind opens up to things I had never before thought to pay attention to.

But enough of my revelations...

What I have to say about the Taiwanese version of Hana Kimi could possibly expand into pages worth of praise, criticism, and fangirl kya-ing galore.

I had always enjoyed the subject of a girl cross dressing as a boy for her own reasons and the guys around her having a hard time because of it. This type of storyline has so much potential to spiral into various interesting plots within plots upon side plots. As cliched as the idea is, I'm so excited that there could be so many possibilities of a crossdressing storyline. After all, in history there has been Mulan, and in present there have been many other less popular, but equally entertaining stories. There is always the suspense of the girl doing what she can to keep her identity a secret and all the embarrassing antics that come across such as changing rooms, bathing and the like that might involve skin exposure. And then there are also the weird feelings and sensations that the boys around her get, not quite understanding why they are feeling that way because they think that she's a boy. And then there is always that first person who finds out her secret, and then the second, and then finally the built up thrill of not knowing when she'll finally be found out and how everyone will react.

Finally, there's that turmoil of our cross dressing heroine falling for one of the guys she either lives with or sees all the time. He either knows she's a girl and is keeping the secret for her without her knowledge, or he doesn't know and so we have some sexual orientation struggles to overcome. Or he knows she's a girl, she knows that he knows she's a girl, and so the two go through a lot of sweet little scenes wherein they slowly fall in love with each other. The formula is rather predictable, but the journey to play out that story line, whichever one is chosen, can be expanded in so many different ways.

The Taiwanese version of Hana Kimi definitely does well to follow the plot of the original manga very well. While some things are out of sequence and certain scenes and details may have been changed to the liking of Taiwanese idol drama producers, there is no way any fan of Hana Kimi couldn't enjoy or even fall in love with this series.

I remember a long time ago when I first heard of this particular series, I wasn't exactly a fan of manga yet and hadn't heard of Hana Kimi. I was a fan of wuxia and watched everything Jin Yong as well as crunched TVB series with an unhealthy bias. But the series was rather popular and talked about by netizens of the Asian drama viewing world and even mentioned in Hong Kong entertainment news. Sadly, the story never appealed to me enough to watch it at the time of it's release. The main male cast were simply "no talent" pretty boys and the girl didn't seem to look right. Also, the idea that the main girl disguised herself as a boy to enter an all boy's school for the sake of seeing the guy of her dreams because he'd given her the motivation to lose a lot of weight seemed overly superficial.

I had absolutely NOT been interested in the storyline at all.

To top off my bias, I was never really that interested in watching anything in a language that I couldn't understand; I especially hate dubbed shows because I feel like it takes out a lot of the intended emotion and acting that the original actor's voice could convey. Dubbers, in my opinion, sometimes tend to go a little overboard.

But my love for Hana Kimi overruled a lot of things. It also helped that I presently have a soft spot in my heart for all things romantic comedy that leaves you feeling all warm and fuzzy inside. Picking up the Taiwanese version was one of the best things I could have ever done to expand my options as far as television series go for great entertainment. It also helped me improve my conversational Mandarin (which shouldn't have been hard in the first place, but I'd never tried before).

Moving back to the series itself, as I had mentioned already, this particular series, unlike the Japanese version, follows the original manga storyline quite strictly. I especially would love to point out the sweet and cute, sugary relationship between our two favorite main protagonists, Ashiya Mizuki and Sano Izumi, or rather, in a close rough translation to Chinese, Lu Rui Xi and Zuo Yi Quan. Where the Japanese version had been lacking in all of the sweet, romantic moments that made manga readers all over fall in love with the Mizuki/Sano love story, the Taiwanese version does not disappoint at all.

As far as the storyline goes, following so strictly with the original manga storyline would never disappoint me. A few scenes are changed, but are still incorporated rather neatly, although it would have been nice if they had been kept the same as the manga. For instance, parts of the school festival are changed, some of which I would have liked if they kept the original and some that I thought worked out rather well. During the last race of the festival, I liked the change in that Quan was part of the race passing the baton to Rui Xi who had painfully twisted her ankle but proceeded to finish the race despite the pain-- it feels a little more meaningful than having Nakatsu be the one who sprained his ankle and couldn't race, thus forcing Nanba to join.

The last few episodes of the series also leaves the storyline open-ended for a sequel rather than finalizing the series in the same fashion as the original manga storyline. There is much left to be desired about the ending as far as the relationship between Rui Xi and Quan; although this version seems to attempt an incorporation as to why the series ended the way it did. The series, towards the end, promotes the ideal that "the journey" is much more desirable than an anticipated ending. While I am a strong supporter of "the journey" being more attractive than the final destination, it was hard for me not to feel slightly disappointed at the open ending since I already knew the ending of Hana Kimi and had read it over many many times already.

But as far as the rest of the series is concerned, character portrayals were really good; and probably the only complaint I have outside of the series' ending would be Wu Chun's lack of roundness as both an actor and a character. As I will begin talking about the casting and portrayals, I will leave this statement untouched for a while.

The casting of Ella Chen of popular Taiwanese idol pop group S.H.E. was a rather ideal pick for the role of Ashiya Mizuki. My only complaint about her is that somehow, this series does not do Ella any justice concerning her beauty or her cuteness. She completely transforms into a boy and I had a little trouble getting into the series because I kept feeling that Ella didn't really fit the description of Ashiya Mizuki-- then again, I was also comparing her to Horikita Maki who is absolutely adorable, although bordering more on the girly side than was required.

Ashiya Mizuki is a girl pretending to be a boy, but had also been classified as "a boy pretty enough to be a girl" by her fellow classmates. She also acted the part as well, being the right amount of cute and the right amount of effeminate to make all the guys around her ask questions. Ella Chen, unfortunately, sometimes gets a little too manly for her own good, and her hair style pretty much transforms her into a boy altogether.

But after a couple of episodes, I totally accepted Ella Chen and decided that her portrayal of Lu Rui Xi was very great. It is unfortunate, however, that I still don't quite feel that she is the only one out there who could portray this character as I've often imagined others who might be up for the position. But Ella does great in her scenes as she has many emotional and many comedic ones. While not the most memorable character, I still very much enjoyed her presence.

As of present, I'm almost hoping that maybe Korea will do a remake of this series; there have been two so far that I've seen where a girl crossdresses as a boy. And both of these girls actually do rather well, giving off the right amount of cute and the right amount of tomboyish-ness, and the right amount of girly. In fact, Park Shin Hye who portrayed a cross dressing girl in You're Beautiful actually would fit this role pretty well as she doesn't completely turn into a guy for her character, but she also pulls off being a boy pretty well.

Nonetheless, Ella Chen still did a great job becoming Lu Rui Xi and making the character her very own.

Coming back to Wu Chun, the first thing I need to say about him, is that while not in this series in particular, Wu Chun is easily the most handsome, attractive man I have ever laid eyes on. Seeming more boyish than handsome in this series, it was almost a little hard for me to get passed that flower vase role and give him a fighting chance as an actor portraying one of the most monotonous characters in the manga world. It isn't really that hard to pull Sano Izumi out and become him-- Sano is an all-around nice guy who just wants to protect the girl he loves while struggling with family issues and his renewed high jumping career. Sano Izumi is carbon-copy material for all "nice guy" actors in the world. Sano Izumi is every girl's favorite "Prince Charming" character. Wu Chun has no challenge portraying Sano Izumi, but his monotony as well as the character's own monotony does not help his performance stand out or leave an impression.

But don't get me wrong, I love both Wu Chun and Sano Izumi. Once again, Sano Izumi is my dream prince character-- every girl should have someone like him in their lives, even if just as a friend. And Wu Chun is definitely the most handsome, most attractive man I have ever seen (and I repeat myself again and again.) I just wish that there was a way that Wu Chun could have made Sano stand out a little more. In a sense, I think I almost preferred Oguri Shun's portrayal of Sano just because he brought out a more characteristic side of Sano outside of "nice guy". The Japanese version focused a lot more on the bitterness that Sano Izumi felt due to his inability to continue high jump as well as the brewing hostilities between himself and his father. The Taiwanese version merely brought Sano/Quan out to be the "Prince" character with a few faults and a charming sense of anger-- just like in the manga. But in the manga, it worked; in live action, it seemed to dull in comparison.

But as I had always believed, and lacking a better, much more professional way of saying this, the story of Hana Kimi fluorishes on the love story surrounding Mizuki and Sano more than anything else. This is the typical romantic comedy of a love story where the main focus is romance and everything else simply happens to occur around the love story. What the Taiwanese version of Hana Kimi does is exactly that-- it gives the fans what they want out of Hana Kimi. Without the excellent chemistry between Wu Chun and Ella, the relationship between Lu Rui Xi and Zuo Yi Quan could have been hollow and disappointing. But while the two as individuals were no fun to follow, the two as a couple made watching the entire series to the end so worthwhile. And as the original storyline fluorishes with the love story, the Taiwanese adaptation survives on it.

Sadly, even as the love story was what kept me going for the original manga, the side characters and other plot devices were just as enjoyable and added onto the fun that was Hana Kimi in all it's glory. But the Taiwanese drama would not have been such a success had it not been for everyone's favorite main couple, Wu Chun and Ella Chen, presenting such great chemistry that up to this day they are still being rumored to be a couple hiding a big secret from their audience. I almost wish that the side characters and some of the side plots could have been given a bit of focus, enough to convey the life of Hana Kimi throughout the original manga storyline. Because after reading the manga, even the reader begins to relate, not only to our main couple, but also to the rest of the characters.

While Takashima Daiki had been one of my utmost favorite side characters, his Taiwanese live-action counter part, Da Shu, just did not appeal to me at all, and instead seemed more or less annoying and flat. While I thought that the little first-year Shotaro Kadoma was the cutest and most adorable thing to ever try to enter a karate club, the Taiwanese live-action counter part Men Zhen did not give me that same feel.

On a side note, having seen a lot more young Taiwanese male celebrities in their rising and development phase, it made me wonder why some of these boys were not cast as Men Zhen instead. After all, the role is very "flower-vase" and doesn't really require skilled acting; the boy really only needs to look cute both as a young boy as well as in female attire and act like his own cute self, which is not hard to do. Men Zhen doesn't even really get that much screen time anyway and so it wasn't like there would be too much focus on him. Even so, the person who ended up cast as him really made me feel a little squeamish (no offense to him, of course.) In contrast, another lesser role, Quan's little brother, Shin, was portrayed by a young boy who is both cute and small and could be pretty; he had come from the ever so popular Mo Fan Bang Bang Tang that had captured young teenage girls' hearts all over Taiwan because the program boasted some of Taiwan's most handsome young boys as they developed into entertainers in the industry. Why then, I kept asking myself, weren't any of these boys chosen to be in a series where apparently all the boys in the school are oozing with good-looks, beauty, hotness, or the like?

I digress.

And as stated before, my beloved Umeda Hokuto-sensei who oozes with sexy hotness in the manga just doesn't seem to be able to be recreated in real life. With both versions, Japanese and Taiwanese, neither of the two cast as the lovely homosexual school doctor seems to stand a chance against the beautiful 2D version who sports a pair of glasses and the most mesmerizing gaze anyone has ever seen from a fictional caricature. It really could just be the exaggerated and unpredictable and extreme personality that Umeda-sensei blows up the storyline with that made him as sexy as he is. Maybe the actors couldn't quite grasp that spirit or maybe the actors couldn't quite let themselves fully become Umeda-sensei. After all, Asian drama is rather conservative and a flambuoyantly homosexual school doctor isn't really that easy to make yourself get into character with.

Whatever it was, I will definitely pledge undying loyalty to any man out there who will one day be able to bring out the life and sexiness that makes Umeda Hokuto the 2D homesexual manga man I love so much.

Anyway, the adaptation left much to be desired. Comedic antics, of course, did not quite match up to those of the Japanese version. But the chemistry between the entirety of the cast did not lose short from the Japanese version. Interaction between the actors as their character brings life to any story and the Taiwanese version succeeds in this aspect. I also was more accepting of the character of Julia in this version than the Japanese version, even IF Julia didn't have the blonde hair that was what made her stand out the most. But the storyline changed her background so that she ended up being a part-Asian part-American who spoke sporadic mandarin and english. I kind of liked that.

On yet another side note, the Taiwan entertainment industry seems very adept at finding actors who are able to let rip perfect English when required of them for a particular character. Very impressive, as it goes to show that not all Asian people speak broken English-- I personally don't have a problem with broken English as Chinese and English are two very, very different languages after all. But I know that lots of people out there are always criticizing the way that Asians speak "fluent" English in television series and movies. I admit that I wince whenever I hear broken English spoken by an actor who is supposed to be portraying a character with excellent English who supposedly came home from America after a long time. I also wince at the proposed cultural behavior that these people give off, claiming that they do stuff like that in America all the time.

As an example, hugging, kissing, and just simply being all over each other. We claim in Asian culture that this is rather untraditional and people don't like to see it. But they claim that in America, everyone is like that. Now between girls, maybe that's the case, but I don't necessarily see it all the time. Between guys, good luck getting two to even touch each other, nonetheless give each other hugs. And then there's dressing all skimpy and flashy-- yea, that's not every girl and if it is, then you're probably in some sort of dance club at night when all the girls are drunk to the point of no return. In contrast, you're more likely to see friendly hugs between men in Asian culture than you'd ever see in American culture. Of course, you WOULD be less likely to see friendly hugs between a man and a woman despite their level of friendship, in Asian culture than in American culture. Maybe that's where it comes from... Who knows?

But I digress... again; while it bugs me a little bit about cultural portrayals and broken English, it's not like it kills me. Give it a break people, they're trying their best. You try speaking Chinese without a foreign accent and we'll talk. And yes, you DO sound funny when you're trying to speak Chinese; don't claim that you're saying it the same way I am cause it really isn't true.

A lot of Taiwanese actors and actresses seem rather fluent in English. A lot of them had been born and raised in America and returned to Taiwan to join the entertainment industry. This is something that I always felt that TVB lacked in their own celebrities-- a little bit of multicultural backgrounds. Thus, the annoying broken English and the odd personality traits that they say they picked up while living in America.

But anyway, back to the subject at hand, I was not a hundred percent pre-judging when I decided that Taiwanese Idol Dramas were merely what they were called: drama series with everyone's favorite idols thrown into situations appealing to a young audience. There is definitely more eye candy in the Taiwanese community than I'd ever seen in the Hong Kong entertainment industry. Korean entertainment boasts the same amount of eye-candy as well-- Japanese is a little different and I haven't quite gotten the grasp of their eye candy yet. Despite having watched Hong Kong series my entire life, I still have to admit that the number of good looking Taiwanese idols are so much more. Wu Chun is a prime example of one of the most handsome men in the world. Danson Tang who plays the Taiwanese counterpart of Nanba is also very pretty for male standards.

Other Taiwanese actresses who aren't in this series, such as Rainie Yang, Ariel Lin and more are very pretty and very cute women.

While this is probably not the best way to see it, the biggest impression that Wu Chun had made on me throughout the series was when his character was about to make his high jump in the only competition we see him in in the entire series, and he is wearing a tank top rather than just another t-shirt with short sleeves. The muscles on this man made me catch my breath as you would have never paired off his angelic, boyish, beautiful looking face to a set of man muscles as attractive as his. As superficial as this detail seems, I cannot keep from admitting that I was immediately drawn to him.

Coming to a point where this thoughts post should probably roll to an end, I realize that I should probably mention other aspects of the series such as the minor characters, the music, and our infamous third member of the main cast, Jiro Wang.

Portraying Jin Xiu Yi (Nakatsu Shuichi), Jiro was lively and energetic and cheery just as Nakatsu is supposed to be. He shows his undying love for Rui Xi just as he should, and he exerts his passion for friends and soccer just as Nakatsu Shuichi should do as per the original manga. He shows very well the conflict that Xiu Yi has as he realizes that he is falling in love with Rui Xi, who is still very much a boy to him. The idea that he could be homosexual drives the poor soccer boy crazy, and his comedic antics flair to the utmost best because of all of this. But that's about it for him. While Jiro Wang portrays great skills as compared to Wu Chun's monotony, the character of Jin Xiu Yi also does not quite leave an impression. He brings the original manga version of Nakatsu into the live action arena, but unlike Ikuta Toma, Jiro does not breath life into the character of Nakatsu. While Ikuta Toma made the character of Nakatsu his own, Jiro Wang merely turned into Jin Xiu Yi as he needed to.

The minor characters of Hanazakarino Kimitachihe are rather one-dimensional and flat. Even the school's idol, Nakao or Yang Yang, does not bring forth his touching storyline of admiring and loving Nanba. Liang Si Nan (Nanba Minami) doesn't quite shoot off his playing, flirting, pretty boy personality as necessary.

However, Ethan Ruan as Shen Le (Kagurazaka) actually does quite well being the all around antagonistic asshole versus Sano in the high jump arena; I enjoyed his presence very much, what little there was of it.

As for technique, direction, and music, the series does excellently. The soundtrack boasts music by S.H.E., Fahrenheit and Tank. The opening was very catchy and the ending theme was very moving. Insert songs were enjoyable as well.

Hanazakarino Kimitachie isn't exactly the best series there is to offer in the Asian television drama arena. But as far as the storyline goes concerning it's faithfulness and it's circling around the love relationship between Rui Xi and Quan, the series is a definite lovely watch. I wouldn't mind rewatching this series at all. For the most part, it is extremely enjoyable and the fact that the series has the eye-candy of all eye-candy in the Taiwanese world makes the series so much more enjoyable.

Take it or leave it: these series aren't for everyone, but they are defintely a new match up for myself.

thoughts: Hanazakari no Kimitachi e: Ikemen Paradise (Japanese)

Also known as Ikemen Paradise or Ike-para

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This article may contain spoilers. For a less detailed summary and thoughts post, please refer to: intro info: Hanazakari no Kimitachi e: Ikemen Paradise

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This review had been written nearly two years ago, sometime after I finally gave up interest in manga and anime. I think that the fact that I even started watching live-action drama series played a part in my lost interest in anime and manga.

But here it is, a nice little review, or rather, my subjective opinions about Japan's version of Hana Kimi. Few changes have been made since writing this, and a lot of editing usually happens from the point where I start writing, all the way up to the point that the article finally gets posted (and then after that, out of professionalism, I leave it alone; or at least I try to).

I picked up a live action Japanese drama for the first time and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. It's not like I didn't think I'd enjoy it, but I'd always been under the impression that Japanese drama were fairly tragic or always depressing. My parents had watched few in the past and they were always so full of drama that I was hesitant to watch anything of the live action drama from Japan. I don't quite like things that are depressing or tragic and so I avoided...

Then again, now that I think about it, it may have been Korean drama that my parents were watching that ended tragically. I recently picked up Korean drama as well and read somewhere that tragedies used to be the trend in Korean drama series. Only recently have the writers been letting their stories have happy endings -- I'm totally okay with that.

Before I had only been watching Hong Kong's drama series where they always have a happy ending, or at least a justifiable one. But recently, Hong Kong seems to have picked up the tragic ending trend as well as the "make your readers cry their eyes out or scream obscenities at injustices" trend. Unfortunately, they don't do it as tastefully as others do it.

Anyway, of course, I had decided to start with this particular series which is based off of one of my favorite shoujo manga of all time.

To be completely honest, I have always believed that bishounen really only exist in anime or manga. For those of you not familiar with the term, bishounen literally means "beautiful man". It had been a long time coming for me to even encounter a real live male who is so beautiful or so handsome that he makes "roses come up," as the saying goes. This concept seemed to have taken form temporarily in the U.S. a la the Twilight series, wherein the vampire men are described as being able to have a nice rosy background, preferably in a soft light, or such similarities. A nice little teenage-vampire romance genre that I personally cannot make myself look into -- though I'm told I should watch the movies and read the books first before I completely cast it aside.

Anyway, the concept of beautiful men doesn't seem to work very well with American males. I'm not being racist or anything, but truth be told, American men are typically more manly and rough than Asian men. I have read comments about Asian men being small and petite, almost like a girl -- not all of them are like that, but a good majority are so skinny and sometimes have such great skin that they trump a lot of girls. The "pretty boy" concept doesn't quite occur too often in American male celebrities unless they're sixteen and haven't developed muscle or facial hair yet; they probably don't like being referred to as "pretty" anyway. Some Asian celebrities are a little more open to those kinds of descriptions and images: pretty boy, cute, adorable, gorgeous, baby-faced... the like.

Nonetheless, bishounen rarely exist outside of manga or anime. There have always been those guys who are extremely hot, extremely handsome, or even extremely cute. But I'd never come across any who can be defined as bishounen.

Or so I had thought nearly two years ago.

My arena had always been Hong Kong films and drama series. The men in these series or movies can be defined as very handsome or very charming. Some are really cute, but still contain an obvious manly composure. None of them ever seemed like they would fit the description of being so pretty that girls are threatened by his beauty, but still handsome enough to make those same girls swoon. Apparently, if you put them in drag, they're supposed to look exactly like a girl too, sometimes more beautiful.

It's tragic, yea, I know.

I encountered my first bishounen in the Taiwanese Idol arena. At first, he didn't seem like a bishounen; Aaron Yan was more cute and adorable than pretty. But after his first image change from young boy to a more mature look, I could finally see the small face, the lush lips, and the smooth skin and outline of his face that almost made me think, "Oh my god, he would really make a very pretty girl." Because I saw a certain scene in one of his MVs wherein it only shows his neck and chin and lips... and to be totally honest, that picture could totally pass for a girl's neck. He probably wouldn't like that description as most men don't like being compared to a girl, but the truth was there.

After that, I started seeing little bishounen all over the place in the Taiwanese Idol industry. Younger boys, freshly starting their career as entertainers seemed to pop up with the capabilities of being extraordinarily pretty drag queens. And even as young men, one look at them seemed to make you think that they had such pretty facial features and the like.

Though few, I have finally found my proof that bishounen can exist.

Korean drama was where I found my next set of bishounen. The rock band, C.N. Blue are composed of four very good looking young men. At first I just thought they were good looking. But after seeing them in better form, I realized how pretty all four of them were, especially the drummer who oozes of young, pretty cuteness.

But enough about pretty boys.

Now back onto the subject, I had always wondered how certain shoujo manga adaptations into live action could possibly account for the bishounen. Of course, instead of finding guys who could come across as both beautiful and handsome, the series seems to lean more towards handsome.

In this Japanese live action version of Hana Kimi, I found it interesting that they had to leave out the particulars of guys cross-dressing and actually looking beautiful like a girl. Of course, the cross-dressing was incorporated, but being as beautiful as a girl was just out of the question. And so not only did the series go for good looking, but it also went for comical as well. As a side not, while I haven't seen enough Japanese dorama to pass judgment, given this particular series being about a school full of good looking young boys, I can honestly say that, to me, they weren't really all that good looking. And from the posters and pictures of other Japanese dorama series I've browsed, I haven't really seen too many good looking men in the Japanese arena. Then again, maybe I've got my "Nakatsu-only" vision on and everyone else just pales in comparison.

Back to the series itself, it was 12 episodes long and I found that I really enjoyed it a lot. Unfortunately, while the plot devices were the same and the basis and characters were the same, a lot of the storyline was changed immensely. The main plot incorporated different features and a lot of the finer details were altered from the original manga itself. Nonetheless, I found that it was a rather amusing experience and I had a lot of fun watching it.

Call me simple-minded, but some of the comedic antics that others may have found kind of silly... I laughed my head off at. I think that this is the typical Japanese humor that everyone's always talking about -- something that's pretty hard to replicate with other countries. Kind of like British humor that, try as they may, Americans cannot grasp the same concept and so should make do with their own style of trashy humor.

Now, probably no one needs me to say anything about the main plot of Hana Kimi -- it's a very well known manga after all -- but for those who don't know, Hana Kimi is about a girl who, when in America, idolizes a high jumper from Japan and decides to go find him by disguising herself as a boy and enrolling into the all boys academy that he attends. The rest of the story takes off from there, incorporating a lot of things to do with romance, inspirational ideals, teamwork, believing in yourself, and a little bit of homosexuality and questioning of sexual orientation.

Hana Kimi has always been a work of art, in my opinion. As a manga, it's artwork is beautiful and its storyline is wonderful. I agree with others, however, that the original manga itself has parts that could have been left out and ended up dragging as fillers, but even those, I found lovely.

The Japanese live action drama, in comparison, wasn't as good as the manga itself, but it also had its charm. It was hilarious at all the right points, it was a bit of a tear-jerker at times, and I really enjoyed the ensemble of the series' cast members. Of course, there were also a lot of cheesy moments and a lot of dialogue that people in real life wouldn't really say. On a side note, this series leaves out a lot of the romantic and sweet moments between Sano and Mizuki that made Hana Kimi such a lovely story. Of course, they also seemed to change Sano's character a little, making him much more bitter than in the manga, and harder to like in the beginning than in the manga.

The character of Sano Izumi was played by Oguri Shun wherein the majority of his dialect involves grunting. This is a little more superficial than the true character of Sano Izumi that is portrayed in the manga that fangirls fell in love with. But I'm not saying that this is the fault of the actor because he did a very good job of portraying a bitter, introverted, stoic character. He had his silly moments too, but I had to ignore those since it didn't seem to fit Sano's image very well. Sadly, the manga has made me place Sano Izumi on a pedestal and, truth be told, it's hard to turn him into a real person and still see the same guy. Because turned into a real live person, I'm not sure there is anyone who'd be able to convey the charm of a dull and monotonous prince charming that seemed to show very well in the manga.

So I'm kind of glad that the live action drama doesn't completely follow the manga itself, allowing fans to follow it as a separate entity. Of course, maybe a live action version just does a better job of portraying all the emotions that simply reading a manga cannot get across; because then you can hear the anger, frustration and feelings behind words rather than trying to imagine them based on exclamation points and written in sound effects and drawn facial expressions.

To my dismay, I actually didn't really like Sano Izumi in the first half of the live action series; in the manga, he was a rather one-dimensional character in the beginning, but I didn't particularly harbor any hostility towards him. In the live action series, it took me until nearing the middle of the series to finally decide that I liked him; after he got friendlier, he also seemed to get cuter and that was a plus. Before, he was just some bitter, arrogant jerk who didn't really give a damn about anyone or anything and just wanted to be left alone. He seemed irritated with everything, which is NOT the Sano Izumi that we fell in love with in the manga. While in the manga, Sano was rather indifferent about a lot of things, he still showed a level of caring and some forms of interest in his own little way. Oguri Shun's Sano Izumi just seemed to be an emo character with lots of inner turmoil and the penchant for being an asshole.

The character of Ashiya Mizuki, played by Horikita Maki, however, really DID shine in comparison to her romantic counterpart. I really couldn't help but to think that she was extremely cute throughout with her expressions, her exclamations and the way that she spoke. Horikita Maki did an excellent job of portraying the character of Ashiya Mizuki; and then there's a new type of spunk that the manga doesn't give to Mizuki. I liked that spunk, and instead of just being a noisy kid, Mizuki ended up being a very loveable girl instead. The one fault of Horikita Maki is that, no matter how hard she tried, she just seemed extremely too girly for the part of Mizuki. The character calls for a girly personality anyway, but I had my doubts that people actually didn't know she was a girl in disguise instead of just another one of those boys who look pretty enough to be a girl.

Nonetheless, I liked her version of Ashiya Mizuki, but I didn't care for her one-tracked, Sano Izumi-only train of thought. She was too relentlessly in love with Sano and didn't convey the amount of caring towards her other friends that the manga version shows. Granted, with few episodes to go off of, maybe there wasn't time for her to show too much care for other people. But at the least, she could have been friendlier to Nakatsu instead of treating him like a nuisance and an outsider at times.

Speaking of which, kudos goes to Ikuta Toma who played the part of Nakatsu Shuichi.

To be totally honest, the manga version of Nakatsu meant nothing to me except an unfortunate third wheel to an already blossoming love story. His appearance that was supposedly part of a love triangle between Sano and Mizuki was pretty much nonexistent because of all the significant scenes between our two main protagonists. Nakatsu, in the manga version, to me was just there as a means for Mizuki to have a boy who loves her so much that he would do anything for her. He also made a rather good form of comic relief among the seriousness of a romance developing. While I know that Sano's feelings do not lose out to Nakatsu's in the aspect of who loves Mizuki more, Nakatsu's trials and tribulations of overcoming that social barrier in order to admit that he was in love with Mizuki while still a boy was very admirable. After all, Sano found out that Mizuki was a girl well in advance and slowly fell in love with her; Nakatsu only knew Mizuki as a fellow male friend and began to find himself attracted to her despite that fact. Unfortunately, the manga version of Nakatsu, besides serving as comic relief, really didn't leave an impression on me.

Instead, in this live action drama of Hana Kimi, the part of Nakatsu was done so excellently by Ikuta Toma that there is a definite lasting impression. There was a moment in the series where I began to worry, because for once, I wasn't rooting for the main couple. Ikuta Toma-sama's protrayal of conflict, love, and joy and humor really made me feel for him. His way of making Nakatsu an always cheery, self-sacrificing friend made me really reach out to him; for a while, I almost wanted him to be the one that Mizuki chose, not mattering that in both manga and live action, Mizuki's actions never show her heart going anywhere but to Sano.

Of all the boys in the entire series, Nakatsu ended up being my ultimate favorite. And I attribute most of this to how well Ikuta Toma managed to bring a simple side character to life. To his benefit, the series seemed to favor Nakatsu much more than it did Sano. There was more interaction between Nakatsu and Mizuki; even if it was really one-sided on Nakatsu's part. The moments in which Nakatsu is there for Mizuki are more significant in the live action than they are in the manga; in contrast, Sano's significance seemed to have paled and instead had Mizuki jumping through hoops to make sure that Sano was happy while Sano barely had to lift a finger. Nakatsu, on the other hand, continuously thought of Mizuki's happiness and welfare first and foremost, protecting her and loving her despite his confusion of sexual orientation and Mizuki's undying devotion to Sano Izumi. Placing both his best friend and the person he loved before his own feelings, this Nakatsu Shuichi was portrayed to perfection.

Nakatsu Shuichi was center stage for all I could see. This series was made to promote Ikuta Toma, not mattering that Nakatsu is merely a side character.

It almost made me grimace to realize that the way Mizuki treated Nakatsu was not very much like the "best friend" that she claimed him to be, but as someone she would easily take for granted. No matter what he offered to do for her, Mizuki could easily brush it aside and run back to her Sano without even any consideration for what Nakatsu must be feeling. In a sense, this is exactly what the Mizuki in the manga was like from beginning until the very end, except she was a little nicer to Nakatsu, Nakatsu's presence was really just for comedic relief, and Sano was not an asshole. Nonetheless, in the manga, Mizuki at least conveyed a better level of loyalty than she did in this live action series.

Ikuta Toma's portrayal of Nakatsu Shuichi has left such a deep impression with me that I've unhesitatingly become a fan. Whenever I find something new about him on the internet now, I'm "kya-ing!" like a crazy fangirl. As I am drawn to men with exceedingly beautiful smiles, it doesn't surprise me that I would so easily fall into the entrancing presence that is Ikuta Toma-sama. As it is, Ikuta Toma easily steals the spotlight of a storyline wherein others are supposed to be the main characters.

Aside from being part of the comic relief, being a consistent support for Mizuki, Nakatsu also came out as a voice of reason and was also the guy who pointed out details that the viewer is questioning as well, turning the scene into quite the hilarious one. Example in point, whenever multiple people somehow enter a room from nowhere and suddenly the place is filled with rambunctious high school boys, Nakatsu was the one who screamed "What are all of you doing here?" or something of the like. This is probably a form of Japanese humor that doesn't get put into series that often unless the show is strictly comedic with fourth wall conversations. Nakatsu was a strong presence in the series, being able to lead a scattered group of Dorm 2 kids if the lovable flirt, Nanba Minami happened to be absent (as shown in the Hana Kimi special).

Speaking to the forth wall seems to be one of his specialties and I love him very much for that. Especially when he goes into monologue.

In conclusion, of the three main characters of Hana Kimi, for the live action drama, I fell in love with Nakatsu Shuichi. Mizuki can have Sano; I want Nakatsu to myself now. Ikuta Toma's style was excellent with perfect comedic timing and wonderful facial expressions to each scene and moment. To top it off, after the first few episodes, I began to find Ikuta Toma to be an irresistably cute, good looking "ikemen", as the Japanese would say; I enjoyed his presence more so than I did Sano's.

The rest of the cast was a little less than agreeable to me.

My all time favorite Umeda Hokuto sensei, unfortunately, cannot be recreated as a live action portrayal. Only in the manga version is he my glasses wearing, homosexual, hotter than hot Umeda-sama. Sadly, because there are so few true bishounen in the real world, its hard to find a good man suited to completely portray Umeda sensei's ooze of sex appeal merely stepping into a scene. While Kamikawa Takaya is a good looking man, he seriously pales in comparison to the sexy god who is Umeda Hokuto-sama. I'm being unfair and extremely biased about this, I know, but of all the bishounen in the manga world, only Umeda sensei has been able to make me want to jump through the pages and do unspeakables to him.

I'm a sad, disgusting, and lame fangirl, but that's the ultimate truth. I don't care if he's gay. Although I think that the fact that he has such wild and unpredictable actions and ideals is what makes him so hot -- it's not so much just his physical appearance, but his flambuoyant personality. It's like that forbidden fruit you're not supposed to have, because I am personally a very conservative person and will most likely die as a prude -- so his character was a breath of fresh air and a dream come true for me. Something that I cannot be and someone that I cannot have -- it's a rather ideal dream, don't you think?

This series was fun; I repeat myself. And I enjoyed watching certain parts of it. Of course, the ending left me a bit unsatisfied; as I had mentioned before, the few sweet, romantic moments shared between Sano and Mizuki paled in comparison to the ones incorporated from the original manga.

The basis of their relationship, while I hate to admit it, is that Mizuki spends her time thinking of ways to make Sano smile while Sano protects her and takes care of her. In other words, it's a princess and prince relationship where Mizuki is the shining, lovely princess and Sano is her prince, always there to save her and whisk her off of her feet. It's simple, but it's hard to feel from the series that this was what the live action version based the relationship on. It was what made their love so sweet in the original manga. In the live action, our two main characters merely present a struggling relationship between two people connected to each other by one incident in their past leading to a rash decision by Mizuki to find Sano and support his return to the high jump.

Maybe I shouldn't really compare too much. The live action should be a separate entity after all since the storyline isn't even the same. But one always finds it hard not to compare two versions of the same story and decide which was the better of the two.

In my personal opinion, I prefer to keep certain things the way that they are. While there are a lot of aspects I prefer from the original manga, such as the relationship between Sano and Mizuki, and the uber presence of Umeda sensei, and even the more detailed characterizations of some minor people; I think that I do prefer Ikuta Toma's portrayal of Nakatsu much more. He has more depth, he's better looking, and his presence seems much more significant; he oozes of cute cuddliness, sunshine, and I just wanna hug him to death. I also kind of liked Mizuki's more spunky personality; however, the one-tracked mind she had toward Sano seemed two-fold and almost selfish to the point that I didn't like it every time she ignored Nakatsu just to run off to find Sano. It didn't matter that Nakatsu had both of their well-beings in mind, Mizuki acted quite unfair towards Nakatsu even as just friends.

I'm groveling in shame for forgiveness, because while Sano and Mizuki are the main couple I love from the manga, I really, really feel that Nakatsu should have been treated better by Mizuki in the live action drama. I'm not asking for too much, right?

However, if in the original manga, I had felt the same way, then it would have been conflicting for me to fully enjoy watching the destined couple get together without obstacles. Because for the live action, I almost thought that Sano would have equal competition in the form of the Nakatsu Shuichi played by Ikuta Toma.

Live action Hana Kimi... give it a try, I would recommend it very much. The cast is exceptional, the story is good and the comedic antics are worth sitting through. The romance is a little bland, however, but Nakatsu's feelings make up for a lot of the missing sweetness. Ahhh... Nakatsu...

For Ikuta Toma fans all over, watch an excellent performance and Toma-sama at his best. Fall in love with Nakatsu Shuichi like you never would have before and enjoy watching his lovely, extra adorable smile.