Injected with Awesome

You so knew this would happen

2007-11-10T20:34:56Z

This community has been pretty bleak and/or dead ever since the news that there was no use in speculating over a HK 2 unless GTV came out with the official word. So I thought I'd spruce things up by inciting our first battle. But a mature battle. You all knew it would come up, maybe some felt it was inappropriate to post their thoughts, but as the mod I am officially opening the doors for this sensitive-for-some topic.

Which live-action Hana Kimi series, Taiwanese or Japanese, do you think is better and why?

You can either gush about one series or compare and contrast them, or focus your argument on why one of them failed while the other succeeded (or maybe you didn't like either). You can make your reasoning character centric, plot centric, even music centric, whatever element it was that made one better than the other. But before you allow your fingers to scramble over your keyboard with unbridled passion, lemme lay down a few rules. This may be a battle, but we don't want anyone reeeeally getting hurt.

1. You must have seen ALL of the episodes of both series. As in, all 15 of Hua Yang Shao Nian Shao Nu, and all 12 of Ikemen Paradise.
2. You can compare series to the manga only if you've read the manga. Describing one version's Sano as "out of character" when you've only read a couple chapters of the manga is ridiculous.
3. DO NOT SWEAR UNLESS QUOTING A CHARACTER. Swearing tends to incite people. You may use damn and hell.
4. Don't take things personally. People will disagree with you no matter what you say. Take it in stride.
5. No straight out bashing. If you don't like something, explain it. Don't just say "I hate Maki as Mizuki." or "Quan sucks.".
6. Speaking of bashing, no personal attacks on people who have a differing opinion. Respect each other!

If your opinion is longer than comment allowance, please write as much as you want in your journal and link it back. Otherwise, just post your thoughts in a comment. 1, 2, 3... GO!

Sorry, not in that camp

2007-09-25T02:41:35Z

Subtitles up! http://d-addicts.com/forum/viewtopic_50354.htm (not to toot my own horn too much but I'm amazed that I got 99% of my translation right!!! YAHOOOOOO!)

I'll post my thoughts soon enough; school got quite insane right after I translated the final episode (how lucky!)

However I wanted to open up a discussion on something I've read a lot, concerning the JP Hana Kimi:

Everyone wants a second season

My question is: Why??

The entire premise of this show, the TW show, and most importantly, the manga, was a girl who disguises herself as a boy to enter an all-guys school to see/make Sano jump again. With the finale, with everything so perfectly wrapped up, these plots have been eliminated. Sano has jumped, thanks to Mizuki's encouragement. Mizuki's gender was found out and she had to leave. Mizuki returned to America, a place without Sano or Nakatsu or any of the "tertiaries". It'd be ridiculous to suddenly have all the Ikemen go to school in California. If Mizuki were to return to Japan and go to an all girls or mixed school, the antics would not be the same-- 99% of the appeal of the dorm stuff was because it was just that-- dorm stuff. Even the other Osaka students who were not part of the dorms did not participate. I get that people were ticked that the kiss between Sano and Mizuki lacked passion. But with their feelings revealed to each other and Nakatsu rejected and backing down, there is no conflict. How do people envision a second season, as in another dozen episodes, without the key elements of the show?

That being said however, I'm not entirely against the idea of a special, a 1 or 2 hour episode where we do get to see this Californian vacation, maybe get a little more Sanozuki going on (god knows that cramming it all in in the last 2 episodes was not completely fulfilling for most of us), and best of all, the Return of Nakatsu.

THAT being said however, the goodbyes that were given to each and every individual she came in contact with would certainly be cheapened by showing the California visit. How would she say goodbye again?

I dunno, just throwing my thoughts out there. Discuss!

P.S. The series that DOES need a second season is the TW version. They ended it with the intent in mind but so far the idea's been scrapped. NOOOO!

Hanazakari no Kimitachi E: Final Episode Summary Part I

2007-09-20T03:16:24Z

It's finally up, sorry for the delay.
Please tell everyone who's interested that they can find the summary here. I put a loooot of work into it. ;) Oh and it had to be divided into two parts. The second part is here: http://pajama-lllama.livejournal.com/14613.html

Welcome to the final episode summary.

Because it IS the final episode, I’ve translated most of the dialogue in detail, kind of like subs. As a result, some scenes get more shafted. All the character-important stuff was left fully translated, but interactions between Sawatari and the principal are usually just summaries. Seriously, I can’t believe how much I translated. I’m so tiiired. Ow my brain. But you’ll totally love me. :)

After you’ve seen the episode and/or read the summary (so that you have an idea of what’s going on), I encourage you to check out my Hana Kimi Drama community at http://communities.livejournal.com/hanakimi_dramas , where I’ve posted an open discussion, asking what you thought of the series. I’ll donate my own opinion soon. :)

This is my last summary, unless they decide to do a special extra episode or something for this series (if they do please be sure to notify me ASAP). That being said, I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who came out here and read my summaries and encouraged me. This series has been a great ride; my Japanese has improved exponentially since the first episode. I really can’t believe how far I’ve come, and I really thank you for taking this journey with me.

So,
Without further ado, the most brilliant episode of the show.
Episode 12 - The final episode of Hanazakari no Kimitachi e. Enjoy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We open the episode with the usual way, with the announcer introducing the school as a hottie paradise, and saying how a new transfer student came. But this time he stops right before the usual “Seibetsu wa: onna”, instead repeating Hibari’s last lines from episode 11. “Among the students at Osaka... there’s a girl.”
“Eh? What do you mean, a girl?” Stammers Minami. They bounce around about how she might have mis-seen or misunderstood.
“No, there’s no mistake,” returns Hibari. “I have proof.” This causes the three dorm heads to perk up, and they lean forward as she sloooowly takes the passport from her pocket. But before she can properly hand it over, Nakatsu, who has been watching the whole exchange, runs up.
“Huh?” he says perkily. “Dorm heads, whatcha doing?” He maintains his upbeat attitude as he steals a glance at Hibari, who has snuck the passport back into her pocket.
“Uh, nothing..” replies Minami.
Nakatsu starts to bring up the competition and Kagurazaka and how Sano did well and stuff.
“Hey Nakatsu, look but–“ interrupts Minami, who is promptly interrupted by Nakatsu.
“We should have a party. If it’s alright with you, Hibari.”
“I accept.” she turns back to the dorm heads. “Well then. Please keep in mind what I’ve told you.” Nakatsu watches her leave with a mix of relief and worry.

In 205, Mizuki is scrambling around her room, tearing up bedsheets and pillows. “Not here... not here!” she moans.
“What isn’t?” asks Sano, putting on a shirt.
“My wallet.” he begins to head to her area but she tells him not to go up there.
Nakatsu comes in with a gloomy air.
“Hey Nakatsu, do you know where my wallet is?”
“Ah... no, I haven’t seen it...”
“Did you have money in it?” asks Sano
She rummages some more. “No, but I had important stuff in there.. My cards, my passport...”
“Passport?” echoes Sano.
Nakatsu is reminded of the passport Hibari pulled out as Sano nags Mizuki about why she would put her passport in her wallet. She reminds him that he told her not to leave it lying around, so that’s why. She moves to the shower area to look more.
Nakatsu approaches Sano. “Can we step outside a minute?” he asks.

Outside the school, Nakatsu tells Sano what’s happened. “Mizuki’s been found out.”
Sano perks up. “Who did?”
“St Blossom’s Hanayashiki Hibari. She found Mizuki’s passport and gathered the three dorm heads.”
“Did they see it?”
“No, they didn’t... but they know it’s someone in the school.” Sano looks down. “Sano,” continues Nakatsu. “We’ve got to do something.”
“Yeah.”

Dining hall, where festivites are abound. Unfortunately my kanji skills are suuuper limited, but from what I gather they’re celebrating Sano’s win and the fact that they did a great opening performance and get a prize for it. Director Sawatori comes in and says “Don’t forget,” and repeats this in English as well. I get super lazy here (this is one of the last scenes I’ve written about) and stop listening. I assume they’re talking about the Atami trip and how the dorms teamed up. Mizuki looks contemplative and the boys look at her.

Outside of the school the same night, Sano is waiting. A path of hearts flutter as Hibari runs up to him.
“When Sano-sama called me, I was so happy!” she exclaims. “What is this about?”
“The wallet and the passport,” he says. “Can you give them to me?”
The hearts fade, along with Hibari’s smile. “You know whose it is, don’t you.”
“Yeah,”
“So you also know the secret in the passport.”
“Yeah.” he states, matter-of-factly. “I know you have your reasons, but I’ll do anything to get those items back.
“In that case, bring the person who lost the wallet. Otherwise, I can’t give it back.

Classroom. Mizuki writes in kanji on the board, and although this is finally kanji I can actually READ, Sekime nicely translates: It’s time to choose the festival activity for the class. The guys argue about what they’ll do for it.

Things get out of hand amongst the boys. Mizuki slams the eraser down on the desk and tells them to shut up; nothing’s been decided yet. They pull themselves together but are still a bit rowdy.
Meanwhile, Sano is sitting on his desk reading a magazine. Nakatsu approaches him and asks about the passport. “Were you able to get it back?”
Sano explains what Hibari said about bringing the person there, and Nakatsu can’t believe it.
Soft music plays as they both look at Mizuki, who’s handing out the voting cards.

Sekime tallies the votes for the activities aloud. Maid café gets all the votes.

The bell rings. Mizuki’s late, she scrambles into the shoe area and ducks into an empty room.

Outside the school, the three dorm heads are wandering around, all spy-like. Tennouji whaps Minami with his kendo stick, asking him if he really thinks there’s a girl around here. Oscar lags behind so Tennouji bops him on the head. “That hurt!!” screeches Oscar.

Minami danger-rolls into the shoe area and continues with the spy-sneaking. Tennouji follows but movement in the small room catches his eye. He peeks in, seeing the back of a girl changing and his jaw drops into a hilarious expression. And promptly gets stuck there. Oscar joins him, his jaw also dropping and freezing his face hilariously. They pull away from the door, faces still frozen, making incoherent noises, which grabs Minami’s attention. He investigates and, of course, his face also freezes. They stick together hilariously with their jaws hanging open and wail. This is too good NOT to include a picture :

(Finale) IKENAI TAIIIYOOUUUUU.

Kanna and Tennouji literally skip along a path outside, the birds singing, the faux-glare of the sun glaring. “When I’m with Tennouji, I’m happy,” chirps Kanna.
“Kanna,” replies Tennouji cheerfully. “Me too, I–“ but he freezes, remembering having seen the mystery girl undress. When we cut back to him the sweat is literally cascading down his face (awesome!). Kanna asks if he’s ok.
“IT’S NO USE!!” he wails, and gets down on all fours in front of her. “Kanna, FORGIVE ME!! I... I saw a girl undressing– forgive me!!”
“EH? Where?”
“The gym.” he blurts out, immediately throwing his hand over his mouth. He flashes back to the period right after they saw the girl, Tennouji and Oscar hilariously still trying to unfreeze their expressions. ~”Don’t tell anyone what you saw,”~ says Minami. ~”Of course,” snorts Tennouji, snapping his mouth back in place. ~”That goes without saying.”~ Heh.

Back in present time, Kanna demands more about the situation. “The gym? OSAKA’s gym??” He tries to rectify the situation but it doesn’t work. Kanna superruns away.
“Kannaaaaaaaaaa–urk!” cries Tennouji, getting his jaw locked once more.

Kanna superruns around a corner and arrives at the Hibari Four.
“Hibari sama!!” she calls. “Emergency– one of the students at Osaka is a girl!!” The Hibari Three are shocked by the news and Hibari acts surprised. Ok, and here’s where I have to insert a huge, THANK YOU to Ayako, my Japanese friend, without whom this never would have been translated properly. There’s TONS of Japanese culture references in here so hopefully I won’t trip over my own words.
Hibari thinks she made a mistake.
“I didn’t!” protests Kanna. “Tennouji saw a girl getting changed in the gym!
In a play on words, Hibari assures her that what she actually saw was Osugi’s bald-eagle. [Osugi is a super famous movie critic]. Komari gets super excited, repeats the thing several times, and manages to convince through this that yeah, this is what Kanna saw. Komari decides to run around and tell the world about Osugi’s bald-eagle, which was seen in Osaka.

And thus begins one of the funniest scenes in the whole series (in my opinion). Komari superruns over to someone and repeats what she’s heard: “Osugi’s bald eagle was seen at Osaka Gakuen!”. The person she’s talking to? An old lady. The old lady superruns towards the camera, broom and pan still in hand. “A bald ghost was seen at Osaka Gakuen!” She tells a young policeman. “EH?” he superruns towards the camera, blowing his whistle. He goes, “Obake no Kyutaro [“Ghost of Kyutaro”, a huge manga in Japan] was seen at Osaka Gakuen!”, to a very cartoonish criminal. “Kyu-chan?” he echoes. He superruns away and the cop superchases him. He tells a little kid on a bike, “Takashi Nakao [a female athlete whose nickname is Kyu-chan] was seen at Osaka Gakuen!” . The little kid runs up to a giant bear mascot. “They’re making a girl version of Taka ando Toshi [super popular comedian group] at Osaka Gakuen!” “EH?” goes the mascot-man, and he runs up and tells the story, but he totally can’t remember it. “In Osaka high... something about a girl... why is this important?” and when we look we see he’s talking to a CAT. The cat absorbs this, and the next thing we see is Sekime walking by the Yuujiro area. We hear barking and mewling and Sekime stops in his tracks. He approaches the animals and lies down on the ground with them.
“What’s going on, Yuujiro?” he aks. Yuujiro grumbles at him. “Huh?” Says Sekime. “That’s a lie, right?” he turns to the cat for the real story. She mewls at him and he nods. His interpretation: There’s a girl at Osaka Gakuen. Now that’s what I call a great game of Telephone.

In the dining hall, Mizuki is STILL looking for her wallet. Nakao hops in and asks what she’s doing, she replies that she lost something. Sano and Nakatsu, eating at a table together, exchange concerned glances. Oscar and Minami stand together in a very misinterpretable pose, Oscar’s cape half draped over Minami’s shoulders. They lament about Hibari leaving the matter in their hands. Oscar moves his head closer to Minami’s.
“Masao?” (Chikai?)
“Hm?”
“It’s hot.” Oscar quickly steps back, taking his cape with him.
Tennouji comes up behind them, looking weary. “What’s with you?” asks Minami. “Looks like you didn’t sleep well last night.”
“The thing is–“ begins Tennouji.

“BIG NEWS!!!” shouts Sekime, bounding down the steps into the dining hall. “There’s a girl among us!”
Sano and Nakatsu simultaneously spit out their drinks. AWESOME. Mizuki looks worried.
“Where’d you hear that?” asks Kayashima.
“Yuujiro,” Sekime replies joyfully.
“Morrrrron!” growls Nakao, smacking him.
Nakatsu looks worried, Sano just keeps eating. Tennouji slowwwly turns around, to the annoyed expression of Minami and the JackBlack-ish “you’re so dead” expression of Oscar. He begins to protest and deny everything, but Oscar roundhouse kicks him Tennouji-style. Tenn passes out. Oscar just moans at him, pointing at him to Minami like a 3 year old who goes, “He started it!”. Minami says that at least it means they can start openly looking for the girl. Mizuki looks sick to her stomach.

Tennouji hotline!-ish. He sits at a table with 2 lackeys, phones in front of each of them. He picks his up and speaks directly to Daikokucho. They found a girlish looking fellow, so they’re going to undress him. At a closer look, he really IS a girlish looking fellow. They strip him of his shirt to reveal– freakin’ huge abs. And no boobs. But this isn’t enough for them, so Kitahanda rolls that he’ll make the final determination. He looks down the poor guy’s boxers... and goes, “It’s black. All the other Dorm 1 guys take a look and repeat the same thing, with total inferiority expressions.
“It’s pitch black.” Daiko tells Tennouji, who looks very innocent.
“Pitch... black?” he repeats.
“Even more pitch black... than yours.”
“More pitch black than... mine?” He looks down. “I see.” He freaks out and starts whapping his lackeys back and forth. I totally don’t get it. Do Japanese guys have a complex about this?

In Dorm 3, Oscar is doing the usual chanting. He is trying to summon the forces of... whatever... to help him locate the girl. The lackeys comment on this. Oscar presses himself against the wall. “Come!” he calls out to the forces, and he gets electricuted, complete with poor CG skeleton. When he snaps out of it– he’s FRAN DRESCHER?? No, but seriously, he’s managed to accidentally turn himself into a woman. One of the lackeys asks if he figured out who the girl is. Oscar’s too busy going “Ula!” to properly answer. Lackey #5 deduces that Oscar has accidentally turned himself into a girl. Oscar licks his lipglossed lips and angles himself so as to show of his/her new curves. “Ooh la la ooh lala” he goes, and begins to chase after the dorm 3 boys. He enjoys being a girl too much. He leaps on the boys, his tongue out. Ew~!

Dorm 2 of course, is relying on NoeTech © to bring them the answer. A bunch of guys are lined up outside of a man/woman detector. Minami is on one side, Policeman Noe on the other side. Taichi passes through and the lights flicker on the guy side. He gets a badge. Nakatsu is next, he leaps through. Boy. Sano steps through, takes his badge, and stands next to the machine. Mizuki is next, she hesitates as Minami repeats “Next”. Saga asks her what the issue is and tells her to go already. Meanwhile, Kayashima is running the lie detector test. Other guys are trying out the robot for answer. Back at the boy/girl line, Mizuki moves forward. Just as she steps through, Sano kicks the power cord out of the socket, so that no lights go off.
“What’s this?” shouts Sano. Nakatsu furtively plugs it back in. “Is it broken?” He half walks through and it goes off, making it seem like it was Mizuki who set it off. She gets a badge, much to her surprise. Nakatsu and Sano exchange thumbs-up. I really really like how they did this– team up to protect the secret. The manga is way better than the series, hands down, but this is definitely one element that actually would have bettered the manga. Anyway.

After the tally from the three machines they realize that no one’s a girl. Nakatsu suggests that maybe the rumor was wrong. Sano agrees.
“But if there really was a girl, what would happen?” asks Kyobashi.
“She’d be expelled, of course.” replies Saga. The guys mutter that they wouldn’t forgive it etc, as Sano gives them death glares. Nakatsu interrupts that they don’t have to worry about it because it isn’t true, so whatever, right?
Nakatsu looks at Sano. He looks elsewhere. Mizuki looks worried.

In 205, Mizuki lies on her floor instead of on her bed.

Outside, Sano once again tries talking to Hibari.
“So... can you give it back to me ?” he asks.
“I heard that the news of a girl is causing chaos to Osaka Gakuen. Our mission is to make sure that every student there has an excellent student life. If it will help...I’ll return it.”
Sano smiles gratefully.
Hibari opens up the passport and looks at the picture of Mizuki. “Sano-sama... do you love this girl?” She looks up at him.
He meets her eyes with confidence. “Yes.”
Hibari returns the passport and wallet, a sadness in her eyes.
“Thanks,” he says, and walks away. Hibari is defeated.

In 205, Sano and Mizuki prep for school.
“Let’s go,” he says.
“Right!” She comes down the stairs and sees her wallet sitting plainly on the desk. Her eyes widen. She pulls out the passport immediately and breathes a sigh of relief. “Where did you find it?” she asks.
“There,” he says calmly.
“Where ‘there’?”
“It doesn’t matter, right?” he heads for the door.
“H-hey!” she stops him. “Did you look inside the wallet?”
“No, it’s none of my business,” he replies. “Cmon, let’s go.”
She tucks the passport safely away in her room. He watches her.

Outside the gym, Tennouji and Minami are lying in wait for the mystery girl to make her appearance. Ashiya runs by.
“It’s Ashiya?” gasps Minami in disbelief.
The ooh la la music plays as girl Oscar (henceforth known as Oscarette) prances onto the scene.
“What’s up with him?” Minami asks.
“No idea.”
They grab Oscarette and pull her into hiding as they watch– Mizuki in her gym clothes runs out. Minami wonders what he’s doing as Oscarette continues her flirty trance. She plants a big wet one on Tennouji. Minami’s eyes go wide, but not because of that– he’s just realized that Mizuki is the girl. Tennouji nods and takes off, but not before slapping Oscarette for kissing him without permission. AWESOME.

Mizuki knocks on a door with “Student Council” written on it. “I’m coming in,” she announces (Shitsurei shimasu is a polite way of saying that, literally it’s “pardon my intrusion). She’s mildly surprised to see the three dorm heads in their kaokai uniforms. Oscar (I guess Oscarette is gone) gets to the point right away, asking if she changed by the gym today. She’s startled.
“Answer the question!” shouts Tennouji. Nanba tells him to cool it, not to scare “him”.
“Please, relax,” he tells Ashiya. “We’ll listen to what you have to say.”
“Yes.” says Mizuki
“Actually...” says Nanba, standing up, “The athlete we saw changing was actually a woman. Then... we saw you leaving by that same place. We don’t think it’s a coincidence. Please answer us. Are you... a girl?”

Outside, Sano and Nakatsu are walking by the fountain.
“So, you got the passport back,” say Nakatsu.
“Yes. So things are fine... for the moment.”
“Emergency!” Sekime runs up to them. “Ashiya is being confronted by the Kaokai.”
Nakatsu and Sano exchange worried glances. Sano thanks Sekime, and they run off.

Back in the Student council room, Tennouji slams his hand down on the table. “Don’t stay quiet. Answer the question!”
“If we’re wrong then we’re wrong,” says Oscar. “Just tell us.”
Mizuki grips her pants under the table. “What you saw... was right. I’m a girl.”
At this moment, Nakatsu and Sano burst in. “Mizuki!” shouts Nakatsu. “You...”
“Sano... Nakatsu....”
“You guys... did you hear what we were talking about?” demands Tennouji.
The boys stare uncomfortably at the floor before Nakatsu finally speaks. “We.... knew about it since before this.”
“Eh?” Mizuki gawks at them.
“What’s the meaning of this?” asks Minami.
“Nakatsu and I knew even before the dorm heads did.” says Sano.
“What?” says Tennouji. “What’s the meaning of this, Nanba?”
He shakes his head. “I don’t know.” he approaches the boys... specifically, Sano. “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“The reason she’s at this school... is for my sake.” Mizuki looks up at him, hurt and confused. “Ashiya was... when I was in America, I got hu–“
“That’s not true,” she interrupts. “I came here of my own will.”
Sano takes a deep breath. “The reason I stopped... is my own self. She came to this school to make me start again.”
“In other words,” says Oscar, “She came to return you to track and field.”
“I... was able to jump again thanks to Ashiya,” Sano says with a smile.
“I see,” muses Tennouji. “So that’s how it was.”
“I understand that desire,” says Minami. “Well Ashiya, what do you want to do?”
She considers it for a moment. “I... love this school. That’s why... I’ll stop.”
Sano and Nakatsu look at her with heartbreaking expressions. “Mizuki.”
“I want to graduate with everyone, but I don’t want to be a burden. Everyone is too important to me.”
“I understand,” says Minami. “But either way we can’t leave things as they are.”
“Why?” asks Nakatsu. “The teachers don’t know so it should be fine, right? If no one says anything, there’s no problem, right?”
“What would we do if it was found out?” returns Minami, “The one who’d be hurt that time... would be Ashiya, right?”
“We won’t be able to help you after we graduate..” adds Tennouji.
“But it’s our fault as well for not noticing. I guess... for now, make a decision about what you want to do before we [the Kaokai] graduate in the Spring.”
“I can... still stay here..?” asks Mizuki. She bows and thanks them.
“Mah, this conversation is now over. For the rest of your time here– don’t lose, ok?” say Minami.
Mizuki smiles.
Our main three excuse themselves and leave the student council room quietly.
“Oi, is it alright?” asks Tennouji once the door is closed.
“The risk is pretty grand,” adds Oscar.
“Nothing we can do about it,” shrugs Minami. “Even if she is a girl, Ashiya is one of ours. Protect the students. That’s the Kaokai mandate, right?” They share a chuckle.
“Understood,” says Oscar elegantly. Tennouji nods.

Outside, Mizuki sits on a bench. Nakatsu stands behind her and to the left, and Sano is standing a few feet away. And suddenly, inexplicably, with this one shot I know exactly how everything is going to unravel and unfold.
“So you knew,” says Mizuki after a pregnant silence. Excellent closeups on the guilty faces of Sano and Nakatsu. “I don’t even know what to say,” she says mildly. Sano looks over at Nakatsu, who slowly returns the look.
“Class is going to start soon,” calls a woman’s voice. Mizuki stands as the principal comes into frame. “What’s with those depressed expressions?” The three shift weight awkwardly.
“I don’t know what happened, but... try to enjoy yourselves with all your hearts now, ok? Flowers don’t bloom forever.” With those words of wisdom she leaves them. Mizuki takes a seat again, echoing the principal’s words.
“Well,” says Sano. “For now we can take things slowly. The dorm heads took care of a lot. Don’t let your sour expression spread, ok?” He sits next to her.
“That’s right,” agrees Nakatsu with a grin, plopping himself down. “We’re going to graduate soon enough, so why don’t we enjoy the time we have left as much as possible?”
“I didn’t know you were capable of such mushy sayings,” Sano retorts.
“Shut up! Everyone tells me I’m a walking dictionary of excellent sayings.”
“No one says that, you cheating idiot.”
“You can’t call me that, you high jump moron! Who do you think helped you jump again?”
“By the way, why DID you cheat?”
The camera pulls away from the adorable bickering.

The principal enters her office, and Sawatari welcomes her with a bow.
“I’m back.” She thanks him for taking care of things while he was gone. He tells her he didn’t mind, he had fun. She asks about her luggage but Sawatari doesn’t know where it is. She reveals she was only joking.

In 205, Sano is sitting crosslegged on his bed, absentmindedly playing with a Captain Picard (Star Trek) action figure. As we pan we see that Mizuki is sitting on the steps, not doing anything except looking a little uncomfortable.
“I’m sorry... for not saying anything,” she says.
He doesn’t look up. “It’s ok. I didn’t say anything either.”
“Hey.. When did you find out?”
“You and your brother were arguing... I accidentally overheard.”
“Why didn’t you say anything at the time?” she pouts.
“.....I thought... if I were to say it.... you’d go back to America.” he glances at her sideways but keeps his head down.
“Eh?”
“I didn’t want you to leave.. Until you saw me jump.”
Soft music begins to play as she absorbs this. A small smile appears on her face.
“And...” Sano continues hesitantly. He looks up at her nervously. “About you... I...”
She listens intently and takes a deep breath. “About me...?”
He looks up at her shyly, she looks at him with hopeful expectation. “Forget it.” he says finally, getting up. She gets up too, following him. “Say it!” she says.
“I’m gonna have a shower,” he says, hastily grabbing his towel.
“Sano... tell me!” she says. He closes the door behind him and she lets out a small laugh. She picks up the action figure he’s left behind (pretty sure it’s Kirk this time) and makes him high jump. “Jump!” she says in English, like a little kid. It’s cute.

Sano and his dad stroll through the hospital, Takehito is being released. I am actually not a big fan of this storyline and I’m reeeally tired from super dialogueness, so I’ll just sum it up briefly. Sano reveals that his greatest rival was actually his own father, Takehito gets into the taxi and Shin is there too. Everyone reconciles.

In the classroom, the guys are all preparing for the Maid Café. They’re setting up decorations and arranging prices, but still acting like total doofuses (doofusi?) In the process. Nakatsu is hammering away on a decoration but pauses to look over at Mizuki who is busy hanging garlands.
“Thank goodness,” he says to himself. “Mizuki’s spirit has returned.” But Nakatsu wouldn’t be the Nakatsu we love without a classic monologue. So here we go!
“But wait a miiiinute!” he says, thrusting his arms out in a “stop” motion. “Aren’t I forgetting something? Yes, I did forget something. My and Mizuki’s ‘love story’ has not progressed at all! The timing’s bad, so I really shouldn’t talk about it, but if I wait too long, she’ll start liking Sano. This is Nakatsu Shuichi’s biggest fight of his life! No. Wait. In five seconds Mizuki is going to look over here. 5... 4... 3... 2.. 1!” Sure enough, she does. “Ah”, he says, surprised he was right. She blinks and comes over to him, avoiding his gaze at first but finally looking up at him when she’s standing right in front of him.
“Nakatsu...” she says. “I’d like to answer you properly.”
“Eh?”

They walk together outside. She turns to face him, but finds herself unable to say the words so she turns away. Nakatsu takes the opportunity to launch into another monlogue, which makes Nakatsu so confident in his position that it only furthers my hatred for the writers who set him up for that much more of a fall. “I’m gonna talk a little more today!” he chirps hilariously. “Let’s put things in order. I already told Mizuki I liked her. Meanwhile, I tried to fight with Sano but I realized I couldn’t win against him. When I think about it actually, Mizuki was the one to call me out. Usually this is a bad thing, but there is a possibility it isn’t this time! According to her “soft spot” data, I should be the natural choice because I have more quality attributes. Sano has the type of character who’s snobby to others but a total child in front of the one he likes. I on the other hand have the ‘funny n cool’ personality– to explain, I’ve meshed the two words together. Funny.... and cool. This personality is very hot right now. Anyway, I’m going to– “
“I’m sorry,” interrupts Mizuki, finally turning around.
Nakatsu is stunned. “Eh?”
“I.... I really like you Nakatsu,.”But... what I feel for you is friendship. I’m really sorry.” We get a few long shots of Nakatsu looking crushed, and I actually feel a physical pang in my heart.
“What’s with that honest?” his expression goes to fake happiness as he tries to laugh it off as nothing. “It was a joke, I was kidding.” He turns away. “I like women with super hourglass figures!” More hesitations. “I just wanted to make fun of you because you were taking care of Sano so much.”
“You and I... are best friends!” he says, giving her a big smile and a thumbs up. “That’s all.” She watches him leave sadly, and apologizes once more.

Alone, Nakatsu slows down. “No good...” he mutters. “I’ll wait 5 more seconds... then I’ll cry. 5...4...3..2...1.” He throws his head back and falls to his knees, utterly and completely defeated. Thousands of fans weep for him. Oh Nakatsu.... :(

Back at the principal’s office. I enjoy these scenes about as much as I enjoyed going to the principal’s office when I was a kid, so to sum it up; the principal wonders what to award the dorms for teaming up, and everything she suggests has already been won (an excellent nod to just how many contests these guys have). Also in this scene we get to see that Yoshioka isn’t the only teacher in the school after all. Surprise! Anyway, the principal wonders if the Atami thing will be ok.
“That was used for the last event,”, a voice rings out. Principal hangs her head back and looks to the source of the voice. “Ara? Akiha.” she says.
“Welcome back, big sis,” exclaims Akiha, to which everyone in the world (the characters and myself included) go, “Ehhhh????” The men dart out of the room after Akiha freaks them out. Principal comments on her bad mouth (scary words), but Akiha brushes it off to show her all the good pictures she took. And they really are great pictures. One in particular of Sano and Mizuki is quite good and one we haven’t seen before (though it was taken at the major dorm shoot).

Back in the classroom, Mizuki is on a ladder, hanging a picture above the door as boys below cheer her on. A cart rolls by and knocks the ladder, and she tumbles to the floor. She’s knocked unconscious by the fall. The boys immediately freak out around her, asking if she’s ok and stuff, calling her name over and over. Tons of students gather around her. Nakao wonders if she’s still alive, and then the guys launch into a debate about what to do in this situation. CPR? Ultimately they decide that in order to help her breath, they’ll loosen her top. Nakao races to the job and little by little unbuttons her top. They encounter the Vest, and wonder what it is. Luckily, just then, Umeda comes in and tells them to get out of the way. He scoops Mizuki up and tells them all to get out of there. He carries her off.
“Um..” begins Kyobashi. “Did anyone... see?” They all nod eagerly.
“Was that...”
“No way...”
“...right?”
Sano happens upon the scene at this moment.

The next thing we see is Sano bursting into the infirmary.
“How’s Ashiya?”
“Don’t worry,” replies Umeda, sitting by her side as she lies in the bed. “She’s fine. But in any case... the class...”
Sano hangs his head.
“Keep your mouth shut, even if they ask you about it.” growls Umeda.
Mizuki wakes up.
“Are you ok?” asks Sano.
“Where am I?”
“The infirmary. You fell.”
“Ah... I see.”
Sano looks over to Umeda, who looks thoughtful.

Sano and Mizuki leave, and are walking down the hallway.
“I guess I worried you, huh?” she says perkily. When he doesn’t reply, she asks what’s wrong.
“Nothing,” he says sullenly.
“Ashiya,” calls Nakao, appearing from a side doorway. “Come with me for a sec.”
“Can’t it wait till later?” interjects Sano.
“It’ll only take a minute,” grins Nakao.
“It’s fine,” Mizuki assures Sano. She and Nakao cut through the Yuujiro area to the dining hall where everyone is waiting with stern looks on their faces. Nakao joins them. Sano comes up behind Mizuki.
“Everyone.... was worried about me, right?” Mizuki asks nervously. “But I’m better now.”
“Ashiya,” says Minami seriously. “Actually...”
Nakao comes out with it. “You’re a girl, aren’t you?”
Mizuki’s smile falters. “Eh?”
“We saw it,” reveals Noe. “The vest hidden under your uniform.”
Mizuki looks like a deer caught in the headlights. Sano hangs his head in realization and defeat. Minami looks sick.
Mizuki looks to her left, at the disappointed, hurt, and angry faces of Yodobashi. Tetsukayama. Sekime. Daikokucho. Shichido. Shojaku. Kitahanda. She looks forward. Noe. Kayashima. Minase. She looks right. Yao. Saga. Kyobashi. Ken. Takaida. And finally, Nakao. Unsure of what else to do, she runs. After a moment’s hesitation, Sano runs after her.
Akashi calls after them. “If they’re running, that means that,” begins Daikukocho.
“...I guess that’s how it is.” finishes Kyobashi.
“I can’t believe it,” comments Kitahanda.
Minami looks pained and sick.

Part II.

Hanazakari no Kimitachi e - Final episode. Part II

2007-09-20T03:15:44Z

Looking for the first part? Click here.

Mizuki sits on a bench outside in the darkness. “Why..” she wonders aloud.
Nakatsu is also sitting on a bench outside, but nowhere near her. He moans about his sitch as Kayashima approaches.
“Mizuki being a girl...she was discovered,” he says.
“Eh?”
“Ashiya fell from a ladder. Everyone went to help [him], and opened his uniform.”
“No way..” says Nakatsu, leaping to his feet. He stops suddenly.
“Were you rejected?” asks Kayashima.
“You... you’re kind of too blunt.”
“Sorry.” he moves over and takes a seat. “This time I’m not sure what to say.
So Nakatsu tells him what to say, pretending to be Kayashima and saying all these nice things to Nakatsu. “That’s what you would say.”
“Sorry to disappoint,” says Kayashima. “Shall we go back?”
“You fool.” he clutches his heart and then stands but stops when he realizes something. “Huh? ‘Mizuki being a girl... she was discovered’...” he spins back to Kayashima. “You... you knew that Mizuki was a girl?”
“Yep.” replies Kayashima very matter-of-factly. “I could tell by looking at her aura. However, when I saw that she had a good aura/good intents, I decided not to say anything.”
“You... you’re the best,” says Nakatsu seriously. Kayashima nods, and Nakatsu begins to head back.
Kayashima suddenly says something very encouraging.
“Duuuummy.” says Nakatsu. “You’re slow.” Kayashima catches up and Nakatsu slaps his bum.

Outside near Mizuki, Sano walks Yuujiro. “What is it, Yuujiro? You know, they just don’t know what to do. If you confront them, they’ll understand.”He pretends not to see Mizuki and keeps walking, stopping a few paces away. “Nothing will come of you just running here. No matter what happens, I’ll protect you. Okay, Yuujiro?” He pets him and looks over and sees Mizuki. “Wha! Were you always there?” he asks her. He gets up and starts to walk away with the puppy.
“That’s a dead end.”
“I know.” He returns to her. “Cmon. Let’s go home.”
“Right.” she says. She picks up her bags and falls into step with him.

It’s morning at Osaka. Mizuki and Sano walk down the empty hallway to the classroom. When they arrive at the door she hands him her bag and tightens her belt, a light homage to her first introduction. “YOSHI!” She enters the classroom. “Good morning!” she calls cheerfully to everyone. The guys stop their chatter for about 1.5seconds before going back to talking as though she hadn’t said anything. She’s mildly undeterred and heads to her desk, exchanging perky (yet fake-ish) hellos with Nakatsu.
“Hey. Why don’t we just forget the maid café.. We already have a girl.” says Kitahanda.
“Yeah, we oughta just scrap the idea.” says Saga.
“Hey, why are you saying such things now?” demands Nakatsu angrily.
“Ohhh...” sneers Daikokucho. “Are you possibly a girl as well?”
“Don’t screw with me,” snarls Nakatsu, getting up to fight him. Several guys, Sano and Mizuki included, gather round to prevent the fight.
“Stop it!” shouts Sekime. “I thought we all agreed. Let’s just go through with it.” He sits back down.
“Thanks, Sekime.” says Mizuki as everyone takes their seats. He doesn’t say anything, just looks away in disgust. She notices.
“Ahh, I feel so betraaayed,” remarks one of the tertiaries snidely.
“I heard that she came after Sano, what a stalker,” sneers another.
“Makes me sick,” comments another.
“You guys!!” shouts Nakatsu.
“SHUT UP!” shrieks Nakao. “You call yourselves men?? If you have something to say, just come out and say it!!” He sits back down.
“Everyone... I’m sorry for keeping it a secret.” Mizuki lets the silence hang for a moment. “I’m... a girl.”
Sano blinks and hangs his head in mild frustration, kind of like “Well, it’s out now”. He looks to Nakatsu, whose stern expression doesn’t change. “But..!” continues Mizuki. “That doesn’t change anything. You guys are still really, really important to me! So...!”
“Oi.” interrupts Kitahanda. “Don’t try to redeem yourself, Mizuki-chan.”
“Now that we know you’re a girl,” adds Daikokucho, “We can’t call you our buddy anymore.” Ouch.
“We were tricked.” adds Kyobashi. Sano and Nakatsu look frustrated, Mizuki is hurt.
“I’m truly... sorry.” whispers Mizuki, before running out of the classroom.
After a long period of silence, Nakatsu speaks. “You guys. She really wanted to be at this school. Didn’t you know that? She...”
“Nakatsu.” interrupts Sano. “I’ll say it.” But we pull away before we hear what he has to say.

“So this time has come,” comments Umeda seriously in the infirmary. He bends down and spins his chair around to reveal Mizuki, curled up. “What are you going to do now?” he asks her.
“I don’t know,” she says miserably. “But I can’t leave things like this– it’s my fault everyone’s split up.”
“It’ll be more painful.”
“Even so,” she continues. “I’ve got to sort it out.”
“I see.” He stands. “But, don’t forget– you’re not alone.”
She takes this in. “Yeah.” he pats her head.

Boy’s washroom. Mizuki is surrounded by 3 guys. They harass her about being in the boys’ washroom, and make unclean comments about it. Luckily Sekime and two classmates save the day, scaring the guys off.
“Ashiya,” says Sekime. “I’m sorry.” he bows. The other two follow suit. “We heard the whole story from Sano. We had no idea what you went through.“
“Sekime,”
They decide to maintain their friendship and keep things the way they were. :)

Basketball game in a beautiful, beautiful gym. Mizuki gets the ball but is knocked down by the opposing team. They snark about her being a girl, but Kyobashi helps her up and Nakatsu snarls at the team. Mizuki scores a basket and hi-fives Sano.

Classtime, Yoshioka babbling on about history. Nakatsu is asleep, the other boys are rowdy around him. Sano grabs Mizuki’s attention and points to Nakatsu. He whips a paper ball at him, waking him up.
“I was sleeping, you bastard!” shouts the blonde.
“Nakatsu, got it?” asks Yoshioka.
“Yup, got I–“ he falls asleep again. Everyone laughs. Sano whips more balls at him.

Everyone working outside on the festival. Mizuki is busy helping with one thing, but Daikokucho calls her over for help. She helps lift up signs as Nakatsu and Sano watch endearingly. Other people call her over to help with a banner. She eventually joins in. And at the very end, Nakatsu and Sano trail behind repeating the mantra, Nakatsu holding Sano’s hand high up in the air to get him in the right frame of mind.

“Eh?” says Sano in the dorm room, looking up at Mizuki.
“I’m going to stop going to school here.” she says decisively. He looks up at her with wide eyes, frozen. She comes down to his level. “Don’t make that face,” she says. “I’m really glad I was able to come to this school.” Sano continues to stare up at her with silent sadness. She takes a seat on the chair nearby. “Nakatsu. Nanba senpai. Kayashima, Sekime, Nakao. I’m so happy I got to go to school with everyone. And....what else...” she holds up her hand and counts down what she accomplished. “I got to meet you. I got to see you jump. I don’t think I’m forgetting anything.” she looks up at him. “Really... thank you.”
When we cut back to him his eyes are glassy. Shun often has glassy eyes in his Sano scenes so it’s easy to misinterpret it. But after a few moments it becomes obvious that it’s hints of tears in his eyes. Bravo, Shun. You nailed this scene. He stares at Mizuki for a moment before blinking rapidly, thoughtfully, and looking away.
“Can I add one more thing?” he asks, turning back to her. She waits expectantly. “Are you going back to America... with a smile?”
“Yeah,” she replies confidently.
He smiles too, but it’s more sad. “I understand.” he says. “Then... I will also smile.” but the tears in his eyes betray him.
“Sano...”
“Thank you.” he says,“For staying here until now.” He stares her in the eye with a bittersweet smile. “I’m really glad to have met you.”
She blinks as she absorbs this, looking away. He gets off the bed and stands in front of her, and awkwardly holds out his hand to her, the tears more and more threatening. She hesitates, but stands up and takes his hand. He holds onto it tightly and smiles, and for a moment I wonder eagerly if they’re going to do a Van Hitomi, but I’m let down. He smiles, really smiles, and she smiles back for a long while.

The letter of resignation is placed on the principal’s desk.
“So that’s how it is,” says the principal. “I had no idea.”
“I’m sorry for the trouble I’ve caused up till now,” says Mizuki, bowing.
They exchange a few lighthearted words about her coming to Osaka, and how she enjoyed her time.
“Thank you so much,” says Mizuki. She begins to run off but the principal stops her.
“What did you hope to take back from coming to this school?” she asks.
Mizuki tells her: “
“I see.”
Mizuki thanks her, excuses herself, and heads for the door. She bows one final time and leaves. The principal bows back and stands, a smile on her face.

Mizuki enters the classroom, where all the guys are huddled in a giant circle. They stop talking when she comes in and Nakatsu ushers her into the circle. He encourages everyone to do their best, that they’re going to have the best show out of the whole festival. They end the meeting with the classic “BABY!!” and run off. Mizuki and Sano are the last two in the room. He puts his hand on her shoulder and walks off. She stays behind, deliberating about whether or not to tell the rest of the guys she’s leaving. She doesn’t.

The festival opens, complete with balloons and TONS of people. And a word from the director. And a band. And hopping. All the stands try to gather people. Nanba advertises to a bunch of girls about his drinks bar-club-lounge thing, but Nakao in a nurse uniform comes up and steals all his potential customers.
“We’ll win,” he tells Nanba. “Why don’t you give up?” adds Sekime.
Tennouji and Oscar lure customers to their Romeo and Juliet show.

Mizuki in a cute maid outfit and Kayashima in a nurse outfit welcome their guests to the Maid café. For the 100th time in this show I note the uncanny resemblance between Kayashima and Amber Benson (Tara from Buffy). The pair ushers in the girls to the classroom, where Sano in maid drag, Nakatsu in nurse drag, and other guys in drag behind them welcome them.
“How many?” asks Sano, suuuper politely.
“Three people, desu~!”
“Three people. Desu~.” repeats Sano. AWESOME.
Mizuki bops him over the head with her tray, telling him to put more spirit into his smile.
“More customers!” exclaims Kayashima.
She nudges him some more. So finally, with crazy delightfulness, he spins around. “Welc–“ he stops. “Ge.”
“S-sano.” stutters Kagurazaka. “What are you doing... here?”
“Ah!” Nakatsu comes over. “It’s the awesome guy, Kagurazaka.” He asks him which maid he’d like to serve him. Without saying anything, Kagurazaka immediately points to Sano.
“Ehhh?” Sano asks in a girl voice.

“Romeo!” shrieks Oscarette from the balcony. “Whyfore art thou, Romeo?”
“Juliet!” screams Tennouji back. He talks about their love, adding a “BABY” to the end.
“You can’t come up here,” protests Juliet.
“I will come up!” replies Romeo.
“You can’t!” repeats Juliet. “They’ll kill you!”
“JULIETTTTT!” spazzes Romeo. He arrives at the balcony and takes her hand. They embrace tightly and spin around giddily. Tennouji steals a glance at the crowd. Maidzuki points to Kanna, who’s quite upset about the hug. Tennouji freaks, thinks fast, and throws Oscarette off the balcony. Oscarette lands and it’s the force of impact that forces her back into Oscar mode (although to be fair he temporarily became Oscar when they confronted Mizuki). “Where am I, what am I doing?” he wonders. He passes out with a laugh.
Tennouji meanwhile refers to Kanna as Juliet and hugs her. The crowd claps.

Saki (the tallest of the Hibari Four) wanders the hallways, looking for the gals. She sees photos of some of the Ikemen posted, and her eyes fall upon a pic of Kayashima, his hands raised. She grins creepily and raises her hands the same way. A hand comes up one at a time from offscreen, and Kayashima stands up in front of her. They smile.

Club Pheromone (sic). Nanba’s club, of course. Inside the dark and classy atmosphere, Tennouji and Kanna share a pocky stick, Sekime hangs out with Erika, and Saki and Kayashima share a drink. Nanba and Nakao watch nearby, and Nanba laments how all the customers are already coupled, so much for hottie paradise etc. I think Nakao points out the fact that Nanba doesn’t have anyone special and when he suggests himself Nanba, says that may be a good idea”–no what am I thinking?? It was supposed to be Ikemen Paradise but I almost got into ‘Forbidden Paradise’”.
“It’s too bad I’m someone who devotes all my time to my lovers.”
He punches him.

Our favorite male maid and male nurse stand side-by-side at the urinals.
“Hey... You... about that,” stammers Nakatsu. “Is it really ok if you don’t tell Mizuki how you feel?.... You love her, don’t you?” Sano doesn’t say anything, just stares straight ahead. “Mizuki’s also waiting, you know. ” he says.
“She... even though everyone knows she’s a girl, she can’t bring herself to say ‘watashi’ instead of ‘ore’. And, as long as we’re in school, she wants us to treat her like a guy.”
Nakatsu finishes and heads for the sink. “I liked her anyway, even when I thought she was a guy,” he says. “I’m not such a good person that I can cheer for the person who broke my heart. But whatever, this isn’t a big deal.”

Hibari drops her roll, and we see that she’s bought tons of them on a total eating binge. Behind her, Oscarette (back again??) wails about Tennouji. She bites into a snack on a stick and talks to Hibari, asking her if it’s alright to eat all that. Hibari returns the comment. Somehow Oscar ends up saying that he believes in her, and when she looks at him, her Hibari vision shows him with tons of roses around him and a sign that says Merry Christmas. What? She’s smitten as the classical music plays.
“Merry Christmas,” she says.
“Merry Christmas,” he returns. In real time, he thrusts the wreath to the side. He leans down to kiss her but she knees him in the crotch.
“Who did you think I was?” she demands. His face contorts in pain. “However, I suppose it’s ok if you like me.” she says matter of factly. “Let’s go, Masao.” and for the first time, he doesn’t object to his Japanese name.
“Yes ma’am, Hibari-sama!” he shrieks, and trails after her, shouting Hibari FOUR.

Nakatsu and Sano walk down the hallway, still in their outfits. Mizuki rounds the corner and turns when she senses them behind her. She smiles at them and for a moment Nakatsu is completely struck by Mizuki pining. He winces it off, commenting on his own lingering emotions.
“Where have you been?” asks Mizuki. “Hurry up, let’s go.”
“Eh?” asks Nakatsu.
“The fashion show,” Mizuki states.

On a giant screen it reads “Hanazakari no Kimitachi e. (For you in full blossom)”. It’s the name of the fasion show, hoorah. Yoshioka announces it. The crowds cheer as PEACH plays and the boys of Osaka appear in drag in small groups. Some of them look startling hot considering they’re guys. A figure lurches onto stage and already from his walk I know who it is. Kagurazaka, in a lavender dress. “Why am *I* here?” he wonders. Also, totally kind of looks like Brenda from Six Feet Under. He runs offstage. Tennouji and Oscar appear next, though Oscar looked way better as Oscarette. Tennouji sees his lackeys making barf motions at his outfit so he appeals to the other crowds. Oscar blows kisses/hearts to Hibari, who bats them away angrily and calls him an animal. Tennouji carries the distraught Oscar offstage on his shoulder.
Minami comes out in a dress I totally want, Kayashima and Sekime at his sides. Dudes, if you don’t see Amber Benson in our aura boy now, you never will. Akiha takes photos.
Last but not least, Mizuki comes out, holding hands with Nakatsu and Sano. She looks great, but Sano also looks eerily sexy. They blow kisses to the crowd.

Yoshioka announces the winner. Everyone expects Mizuki... but it’s SANO who wins. He’s stunned, as is everyone else.
“Mizuki the girl...” begins Nakatsu.
“...lost?” finishes Minami.
“No waaay!” wails Mizuki.
Dorm 1 goes up to Yoshioka to protest, and Tennouji uses this opportunity to beat them up for making fun of him in drag. Mizuki and her boys laugh at the chaos, but her smile soon fades.

Dining hall, presumably the next day. Minami gathers everyone. They cheer about the Kouyasai, a word I had to look up which means “The night of the last day of the festival”. Ironically Mizuki then asks about it and Sekime explains.
“Ok, let’s go!!” Shouts Nakao, and they clear out. Sano and Mizuki are the last ones.
“Let’s go too,” he says, patting her head, and I want to point out how interesting I find it that he used the word “oretachi” (‘us’, guy form). He begins to walk ahead.
“Sorry,” she says. “I forgot something in my room, so you go on ahead.”
“I understand.” he says.

She was half lying, though. “Forever in my heart”, Mizuki writes on the window of her room. “Fo-eba... in mai haht” she says. She picks up her suitcase and walks out of the room, and I start to feel a little sad. She slowly enters the empty dining hall and strides slowly along the rows. She stops at one of the tables, feels it, then sits and rests her head on it.

She walks by Yuujiro’s place and stops to say goodbye to him. She crouches over, petting his head.
“Yuujiro,” she says. “I came to this boy’s school, just as I intended. You understand, right?”

She leaves the dorm area, looking back upon the gate. As she walks along, she stops to tap a flower. Yuujiro barks at her, saying goodbye once more. “Thank you, Yuujiro,” Mizuki waves. She continues to walk but something catches her eye. She looks to the left, where the entire school (or at least all the students who have names) are standing in wait. Even Kagurazaka and the Hibari Five are there.
“You are one troublesome guy,” calls Nakatsu. They laugh.
“Everyone...” She runs up to them in joy.
“Why didn’t you tell anyone you were leaving?” Nakatsu asks her seriously.
“Sorry!” she says. “I thought if I said it... it would be painful.” Minami and Tennouji, standing on either side of Nakatsu and Sano, accept this answer with a smile. Nakatsu, however...
“Don’t screw around,” he mutters under his breath.
“Nakatsu,” she says cheerfully. “Stay healthy, okay?”
He doesn’t meet her gaze, instead walking off. Sano follows. Mizuki trods forward nevertheless, into the crowd. Everyone has something to say but I’m only going to translate the ones I remembered.
“Ashiya.” says Kyobashi. He stands in a line of other Dorm 2ers.
“Guys...” says Mizuki gratefully.
Kyobashi: “When you were here, I had the best fun.”
“Don’t forget us when you’re in America.”
Kamishingo: “I’ll be sad without you here”*
“I got it,” says Mizuki.

She moves forward to more Dorm 2ers. There’s a flashback to her bra-interrogation.
Noe, with a laugh: “Sorry about the lie detector thing,”
“Wherever you go, don’t lose!”

She thanks them all.

“AUUGHossuu.” roar the Dorm 1-ites. Mizuki says “Dorm 1 guys...”
Daikokucho: “Ashiya! I’m sorry about injuring your foot in the marathon! (We flashback to it)
“Practise judo.”
Kitahanda: “You! Thank you for the fun times!”
Akashi: “Sorry for the stinky shit.”
“You were always so kind.”

Mizuki thanks them with a big grin and keeps moving. “Dorm 3 guys...” she says. We cut to all 9 of them, simultaneously blowing her a kiss.
“Sorry for putting you in that situation.” (Flashback to fighting over Mizuki between Dorm 1 and 2).
“When you stopped that teacher– you were really cool.” (Flashback: Mizuki preventing Nakatsu from signing the Kitahama guilt form)
“You were so cute in the Ikemen contest!” (Flashback: Mizuki in the dress)
“You were great on the keyboard at the live concert.” (Flashback: Mizuki on the keyboard)
“Do you know my name?”

“Katahiranotsuji, right?” she answers, and I’m totally impressed. “Stay well. Everyone... stay healthy!”
“Oui!” they say in French. Mizuki moves onward.
“Kagurazaka!” she says with surprise.
“I had some free time,” he explains simply. “It’s thanks to you... that Sano returned to the high jump. “Thank you,”
“I didn’t do anything,” she protests lightly.
“When you were with him, Sano was happy. Bye.” he says.
She moves forward. “St Blossom’s... Hanayashiki Hibari with...”
“Hibari FOUUUUR!” they finish for her.
Kanna: “I’m happy with Tennouji sama”
Erika: “I’m happy with Sekime-kun.”
Saki: “I’m happy with Kayashima san.”
Komari: “I... Nakatsu– ”
Everyone: “Odamari Komari!”
Komari (ignoring them: “– I won’t give up!”
Hibari: “You were my greatest rival after all. Of course, we’ll have to do battle sometime.”
“Okay!” agrees Mizuki. She continues, and the music dies down as Sekime approaches her. He sniffles and pretty soon he is straight up crying. ”I... have so many good memories with you, Ashiya.” Flashbacks: Him explaining the Mr Osaka contest, he and Ashiya in the dining room, singing in the live concert. “I don’t know what else to say.” he sniffles.
Mizuki smiles, but her breath falters on the inhale. And almost immediately I begin to feel my own eyes water. “The very first friend I had... was you, Sekime.” Flashback: Sekime approaching her after all the dorms had chased her. “I was so happy!” she exclaims. Sekime sniffles some more. “Thank you, eh?” Sekime wipes his eyes and moves offscreen.

Nakao is behind him, his eyes are red too.
“Nakao...” she says
“You...” he says, “it was you...” He holds back tears.
“Nakao, you have such a kind heart. I knew it.” (Flashback: the two of them sitting on the beach, talking about supporting the one you love). “Thank you so much.” Nakao breaks down and I’m officially crying. She puts her hand on his shoulder and looks past him to Kayashima, who is also upset.
“Since the day you came here... I knew.” he admits.
“I always felt good when I saw you,” she s
“Such a good aura... from now on, wherever you go, you’ll be fine.” he assures her. He holds up his hands and glows, and Mizuki holds up her own. When she brings them down she’s facing Tennouji.
“Tennouji dorm head.” she says.
“You have great strength. However, you did well.” Flashbacks: Approaching her about living in dorm 1, her stopping him from leaving the photograph. “In this school... you made a great guy!(?)” He thrusts his arms down. “BABY!!”
She sniffles and puts her own arms down, and in a broken voice shouts “BABY!” back. I bawl like a 2 year old.
“Himejima dorm head.”
I think he tells her that he feels Dorm 2 was a great fit for her. He thanks her for everything and blows her a kiss.
Nanba comes into view and Mizuki starts to lose it (she’s held up better than I have!). “Nanba.. Senpai...” she manages.
“Pull yourself together,” he orders gently. Flashbacks: Nanba looking for shampoo, Nanba with all the girls, celebrating the fireworks, the three dorm heads agreeing to perform together. “Listen,” he says. “No matter what anyone says... this is your school!!” He thrusts his hands out to indicate the school grounds around them. “No matter what anyone says... we’re your friends... no matter where you are.” She cries and says “Yes.”

“Ashiya-kun,” calls Akiha, approaching. I manage to calm down enough to write this part.
“Akiha-san.”
Akiha presents her with a book– a photo book to be more precise, of all the events that took place while she was at Osaka. “When you feel sad or you’re crying, just look at the idiots in these pictures and you’ll smile.”
A tear rolls down Mizuki’s cheek. “Thank you.”
Sawatori and the principal appear upon the scene. The principal asks Sawatori for a scroll and he pulls it out. She reads it– it’s a graduation rite. She finishes up with “2nd year-student: Ashiya Mizuki. Congratulations on your graduation.”
“Thank you... so very much,” Mizuki says between sniffles and tears. The guys behind her clap.

Mizuki begins to set out when a familiar voice calls her name. The crowds behind her part as Nakatsu runs through.
“Nakatsu...” she breathes.
“Not yet,” he says. “I haven’t said anything yet.”
She looks at him, holding back tears. His own eyes begin to water. And then he delivers the most touching speech on the whole show.
“Even if I get really old... to the point where I forget everything and can’t even remember my own name... I will never, ever forget the time we spent together.” Flashbacks: the photoshoot on the couch, him about to kiss her on the bench, him spitting out his water when she tells him that it was thanks to him that she was staying, the photoshoot with EVERYONE, him hugging her from behind, the cheerleading finale.
Mizuki tries so hard not to cry but ultimately can’t help it, and the tears roll down Nakatsu’s cheeks and I’m a complete mess again.
“To me, you are... you’re my best friend.” He gives her a thumbs up and she cries. “Dammit!” he yells. “I wasn’t supposed to cry.”
“Thank you,” says Mizuki, sobbing.
He stares at her for a moment before running up and hugging her close, cradling her head. “This isn’t goodbye forever,” he tells her. “America and Japan are on the same hemisphere.” he begins to cry again, “We can still see each other whenever we want.” He eventually pulls away, putting his hand down on her head. “See you later.” he says.
“Right.” she says, managing to smile. Sawatori gives her her graduation certificate. She moves on. She looks to the gate, where Sano is waiting. He slowly tilts his head up at her. Mizuki cries harder. He watches her intently but doesn’t move.
Umeda shakes his keys at her from a distance, ruining the moment. “The airport awaits.” He yawns. “Sano... you come too.”
The rest of the boys rush out to say bye. Umeda has rented a bus, even if it’s just for two people.
“I’m so glad... that I was able to be a student here,” says Mizuki. We pan slowly through the nodding crowd. Sawatori grabs a kleenex from the principal. Sano loads her suitcase as Mizuki says her final goodbyes. Nakatsu gives her one last thumbs up. “I’m off!” she announces.
On the bus, Sano has taken a seat in the middle but Mizuki goes straight to the back so that she can wave goodbye to everyone. The crowd of Osaka students doesn’t stop waving, even as the bus rounds the corner.

The bus rolls down the highway. Umeda looks up into the rearview mirror and sees the stiff atmosphere and distance between Sano and Mizuki. Sano gets up though, and moves back to plop himself down next to Mizuki. Umeda smiles.
Sano stares out the window. “The sky is as blue as it was on that day...” Flashbacks: ~~Mizuki meeting Sano for the first time, him calling her “kid”, Mizuki asking why Sano stopped jumping and him saying it’s none of her business. Mizuki asking Sano if she wins the marathon, will he jump again? Mizuki carried on Sano’s back. Sano saying he won’t jump again, Mizuki insisting he will. Mizuki telling her brother she wants Sano to jump again, she wants to see his smile again as Sano listens in. Sano finally practising, Nakatsu saying it was because of her. Sano jumping and failing, and bowing to the other members of the track team. Sano hugging Mizuki, v/oing that he wants her to see him jump, REALLY jump. Mizuki realizing she loves Sano. ~~ Mizuki stares straight ahead, and Sano continues to stare out the window. ~~Mizuki saying that she has no more reason to stay because technically Sano already jumped, she leaving and Sano stopping her by saying she hasn’t seen him jump for real so she should stay. Sano pulling Mizuki close during the Nakatsu/teacher issue, and Mizuki vo’ing that when Sano’s happy, she wants to be happy with him, when he’s sad she wants to cry with him, etc. ~~ Sano still hasn’t looked at Mizuki, but he’s obviously remembering the same things. ~~Sano grabbing Mizuki’s hand, asking her to stay. Sano saying he’ll jump for her, Sano jumping and throwing his arm up in the air in victory. “Thank you.. For staying here until now. I’m really glad to have met you.”~~ She looks over at him, sadness overtaking her.

And then PEACH plays, totally crushing the atmosphere. The scenes continue anyway.

Narita airport (or so someone told me). Mizuki talks to Umeda as Sano waits up ahead, his back to them. Mizuki thanks Umeda for helping her out so many times.
“Yeah, you owe me bigtime.” he says with a smile. “Pay me back sometime.” He nods to Sano, and she catches up with him. Umeda watches her go with a smile on her face. “Or maybe with that smile– I’ll call it even.”
“It’s so heartbreaking” wails a female voice, and we know who it is by Umeda’s disgusted reaction.
“Where did you come from?” he hisses.
“The trunk.”
“Somehow I just can’t be surprised.”
“Brings back memories of the old days.” She hooks her arm under his and she struggles under it, telling her not to make stuff up. “Huh?” she looks down at his hands. “You’re not shaking... or reacting! Could it be... you don’t hate girls anymore?” He casts a glance at Mizuki’s retreating form. “Maybe,” he says.
“I could be your girlfriend again,” suggest Akiha playfully.
“I’ll think about it.” he walks away, leaving Akiha in her surprise. She catches up to him , but this time when she grabs his arm he swats her away dramatically. Peach ends and no music plays.

Mizuki and Sano stand side-by-side, looking up at the arrival/departure boards.
“It’s about time to go,” Mizuki says.
“Yeah.” Then, after a pause, he says, “You’re no longer an Osaka Gakuen Student, huh.”
“Eh?” She looks down at her graduation scroll. “Yeah.”
“So... you don’t need to be a guy anymore.” He continues to stare straight ahead.
“Eh?” repeats Mizuki.
Sano looks to the left a little before suddenly looking right. “Ah!” he exclaims, and when Mizuki turns to follow his gaze, he quickly pulls her into a tight hug. After a moment he pulls away slightly, hands still on her shoulders. And then, without skipping a beat he tilts his head to the side and moves back in, gently pressing his lips to hers. She’s rendered completely still, save for a few startled blinks. He pulls away and she looks up at him, eyes wide with questions. He looks down at her lovingly and says “This time, I’ll be the one to go to you.” He breaks into a grin. “See you... Mizuki.”
A smile breaks across her own face and she looks down. “Yeah.” she says.
He drops his hands from her shoulders as she turns and begins to walk away. She halts in her steps, and after a little deliberation, turns back to him. “Sano!” He returns her gaze expectantly. “I love you.” she says, and Sano breaks into a grin. She breaks into one as well. Their grins fade into something deeper and more meaningful, and she continues on her way.

We cut to a shot of an ENORMOUS mansion, the mailbox reading “Ashiya”. Sorry to interject, but what happened to the modest home they lived in when Mizuki left for Japan? A little American Flag-title reads, “1 month later– California”.
“Papa, Mama, I’m off!” shouts Mizuki, coming out the front door. As she dashes down the front path, an arrow just like the one that flew around in episode 6 lands right next to her feet. It too has a note attached. More than a note– it’s an Osaka newspaper article. The major picture on it is the one Akiha took of everyone when Mizuki was still a student. The article reads that the school’s next trip will be to California. “No way!!!”

And thus ends Hanazakari no Kimitachi e.
Thanks for watching, and thanks for reading. :)

Quick update on Episode 12

2007-09-19T01:54:53Z

Hey guys, I know there were promises of the summary being up tonight (it's currently 10pm tuesday night where I am), but because of some major internet fritzes on my end, it'll be up tomorrow instead. So sorry for the delay, I hope you will forgive me. It's going to be a long summary, that's for sure, so remember to bring snacks, and most importantly some tissues for those heartbreaking or heartbreakingly sweet moments. Thanks for your support! See you soon! ^_~

pajama_lllama @ 2007-09-12T16:19:00

2007-09-12T20:23:59Z

Episode 11 is here!

Sorry this is a bit later than the last one. I got so excited while I was downloading the torrent that I gulped down an entire can of Diet Coke in about 30 seconds. Aspartame in uneven doses does rotten things to my stomach, and the shock of caffeine makes me shaky, so needless to say I ended up pretty sick all night and well into this morning. Despite this, with the 2 hour special coming up next week, I will do everything in my mortal power to ensure it’s as early as possible.

EDIT: I am sick of the stuff that goes on at the Ikemen Paradise community. Week after week I keep trying to post summaries for people, only to find myself repeatedly blocked and any indication of my existence deleted (such as my summaries). I will not be posting there anymore-- for summary purposes, please update your bookmarks to http://pajama_lllama.livejournal.com. That is where I will post the summary and translation for the final episode, available the morning of Sept 18.

Thanks.

First of all, the usual Peej housekeeping

1) I wanted to apologize for the mixup translation I did for ep 10, the conversation between Kayashima and Nakatsu was wrong. I misinterpretted an “invisible pronoun” and then misunderstood what Kayashima said. He didn’t hint about Mizuki’s secret, and I should have properly looked up the words I didn’t get (barairo was what he used, which means roses/rosy, I interpretted it as the verb barairu, which is reveal). Sorry! But before you lose faith in me, everything else was fine.

2) Kudos to Kai for the subbing job on 10. After I finished it I was eager to see how he’d translate the whole “Mizuki ga on... on...” and it was brilliant. Highly worth a looksee. :)

3) I started a new community dedicated to both dramas. There’s a lot of people who hate the Taiwanese version, and a lot of people who hate the Japanese version, and then there are people who enjoy both. You don’t have to be a fan of both to join, I just wanted to create a place where both fans could come together and discuss either or both. http://community.livejournal.com/hanakimi_dramas.

4) On the note of the dramaS though, on September 5th it was announced by the producer that there would not be a Hua Yang Shao Nian Shao Nu 2 (Hana Kimi 2, TW). I don’t know how many people who visit these translations enjoy the TW series (I noticed that the angst towards the TW among JP fans is particularly strong) but I for one am totally devastated by the news. However TW fans, don’t give up hope just yet. Rumors are circulating that this could be a faux-announcement in order to hype Wu Zun (Sano)’s new drama, Romantic Princess. Wu Zun, ELLA, and Jiro Wang (the main trio) all expressed great interest in pursuing a second season, so we’ll see what happens. Here’s hoping.

5) This special edition contains next-episode spoiler specs. They’re in white text at the bottom.

6) Just an apology for my writing style; I’m an animator and 4 years of animation school has led me to lose my vocabulary skills almost entirely. Animators tend to speak almost exclusively in sound effects, facial expressions, and cartoon references, so once it falls outside of that realm I grasp at straws to find THE perfect word. Where the average edumacated fellow might say “bad”, I would struggle to find the word and ultimately end up saying “not good” instead.

As usual I’d like to remind everyone that I am not fluent in Japanese, so please point out any mistakes, ok? I’ve had a pretty decent track record so far but

EPISODE 11

We return to where we started, with Nakatsu hugging Mizuki across the shoulders and telling her he’s in love with her. She looks up at him with surprised eyes and he opens his, staring straight ahead.
“You love Sano, right?” he asks her, and she looks down. “I understand that.” He turns her around to face him, his hands still on her shoulders. “When you smile, I feel happy. But... whenever you’re sad, it always seems to be because of Sano.” She looks down and he pulls her into a tight hug. “I will never ever make you sad,” he promises.

Sano is sitting on a bench outside the track, remembering the fight he had with Mizuki. He leans his head back and stares at the sky.

Similarly, we cut to a shot of Nakatsu who is staring up at the ceiling of the dining hall. “I said it,” he bemoans. Kayashima’s face appears above him, startling into a normal seating position. Nakatsu says to Kayashima, “Something happened, I don’t want to talk about it” and says that he can check out his aura, to which Kayashima replies that he can tell what happened without reading it. (I think) Nakatsu says he can’t go back, to which Kayashima says that that’s not necessarily something to regret.

Cut to Mizuki, looking alone and scared and confused in her room.

CG DOVE ATTACK! It flies through the underpass and conveniently lands in Kyoto sensei’s offices. He gently takes it in his hands and unties the note around its leg. He sets it free. Yoshioka sensei is also in the room. I’m too lazy/sick to properly translate this and look up the words I don’t know (especially with the way he’s muttering) but it seems as though there’s going to be a great big fantastic meet and Olympic representatives are going to be there? They chose Osaka Gakuen as the stage ground? Something like that.

So naturally the next shot is Kyoto sensei telling the boys about it. He wants them to do an opening ceremony (I suppose to properly welcome the reps and also give them a good impression of the school). There’s a beat before Nanba says that sounds bothersome, and Tennouji says that “even if Koujou sensei said it” they won’t do it. The other dorms agree. “I understand!” shouts Kyoto sensei, to stop them from leaving, “then let’s do this. The dorm that agrees to it... gets a trip to Hawaii!!”
“I’lldoit!” says Nanba quickly, and Tennouji and Oscar quickly leap in to second that motion. Kyoto sensei also presents Atami (a lovely resort plaze in Japan, so Wiki tells me) as another option. This riles the guys up even more and they decide to have a competition for it. Kayashima pops up and says what we’re totally all thinking: “Another division?” (As in, yet another way for the dorms to split up and compete against each other).

Training camp. In the background, Takehito (Sano’s dad) is giving Shin advice about his leg. Sano watches and remembers Mizuki’s words “You should talk to your dad.”. Kagurazaka comes up to him and asks if he and his dad are still fighting. Sano says it’s none of his business but Kagurazaka counters that it is, because if it interferes with Sano making it to the championship, he won’t forgive him. Sano gives him The Glare © and walks off.

Mizuki sits down on the bed in the infirmary, and Umeda says “so that’s what happened”, referring to Nakatsu. Mizuki suddenly wonders if Nakatsu found out about her and Umeda looks up from his paperwork with a kind of “uhhhh....” look and tells her not to worry about it. The thing is, boy or girl, Nakatsu still has feelings for her. He tells her she should answer Nakatsu’s feelings properly (as in be upfront with her answer and not beat around the bush about it). She nods. He takes a seat next to her on the bed and promptly brings up Sano. He asks about their fight (he can tell something happened) and I think he pretends to be an onlooker that comments on the bad air between them. She asks if it’s that obvious to an outsider and says not to worry, keep her chin up. I think.

Mizuki saunters over to the training camp, arriving just in time to see Takehito being wheeled away onto an ambulance. She runs home and is greeted with the sight of Sano’s naked torso, and as an art student I’m reminded of just how STRANGE his chest is. It’s like his pecs are too small or something. And also inside out. *shakes it off* anyway. Mizuki tells him that his dad collapsed, and was taken to the hospital. He has no reaction save for a couple of blinks, and continues to put on his shirt. “What are you doing? Hurry up and go!” Mizuki tells him. When he still doesn’t say anything, she goes on about how she can’t understand why Sano and his dad can’t understand each other etc... “But, your dad is your dad! He’s your only dad in the whole world!” He thinks about it but doesn’t move. “Fine!” she snaps. “If you’re not going to go, then *I* will.”. And with that she runs out the door, leaving Sano confused. He thinks about it for a few seconds, and then we get a shot of him running outside. Mizuki is waiting by a taxi and runs up to him, saying he’s late. She grabs his hand, shoves him into the taxi, and closes the door behind him. The taxi drives off to the hospital.

Ikenai Taiyou!

Shin is already at the hospital when Sano comes in. Sano asks after his old man, and Shin says he’s recovering. I’m not entirely sure, but I think Shin berates him for leaving him behind (ie when he left when he was 12). Sorry guys, I’m just not with it here. Shin walks away. Sano stares at the door to his father’s hospital room and goes in. His father slowly opens his eyes and looks at him. Sano nervously averts his gaze and asks if he’s alright. “Yeah,” rasps his dad. “I’m sorry,” he says after a long pause. “For not seeing your mother.” Sano swallows and absorbs this. He says that’s not all, and apologizes for something else as well (I think for not crying for her? I’m not sure). Sano absorbs this too and takes a seat next to his father’s bed.
“It’s not that...” and reveals why he’s upset. Until the end, his mom called out for his dad. “She believed in you.” Oguri Shun does an excellent job of borderline tears here. He says that at the time he didn’t understand, but now he does, a little. He wants to believe in his dad from now on. His dad looks touched and Sano looks a little nervous.

Outside the hospital, Shin is back on the bench, and Sano asks if he was listening in. Shin says he wasn’t, why would he care about “anikin”(older brother). Sano points out that he called him “anikin” and Shin leaps to his feet to protest. “Shin,” interrupts Sano. “Take care of dad.”

Mizuki and Nakatsu run into each other by the dining hall and pause awkwardly.
“Yo,” Nakatsu finally says, and Mizuki returns the greeting. They exchange awkward stares.
Mizuki breaks the silence. “Why do you... about me... er, I mean to say...”
“Were you surprised?” asks Nakatsu hesitantly. She doesn’t answer. “It’s still weird, right?” and after a pause, brings up the competition between the three dorms. “I’ll do my best in the competition.”
“Eh?”
“I absolutely won’t lose.” He walks by her, putting his hand on her head as he passes. He pauses momentarily and half turns as though he has more to say, but keeps walking instead.

Neat long shot of Nakatsu sitting directly in the middle of the track field, and Sano approaching from behind. “What is it?” he asks, and then sits himself down a noticeable distance away from the blonde.
“You knew, right?” Nakatsu states rather than asks. “About Mizuki.”
Sano looks at him, but doesn’t say anything.
“So you did know. I thought so,” says Nakatsu.
Sano shifts uncomfortably but still doesn’t say anything.
“It doesn’t matter, anyway, I won’t lose Mizuki to anyone. Not even you. I’ll compete against you (for her).” He’s quite serious.

Mizuki spins slowly in her chair, awaiting Sano’s return. She manages to nicely end up with her back to him just as he comes back. She turns to face them and after a quick moment of staring at each other nervously, they bow and apologize in unison for yesterday. They stand slowly and smile. “Welcome back,” says Mizuki. “I’m home” replies Sano. He seats himself down on the bed and tells her that he went to see his dad. They talked, properly. He looks up at Mizuki and tells her if not for her, he may never have gone. “So, thank you.” She nods and smiles.
Night falls. Mizuki lies asleep in a very girlish way. Sano stares up at her from his own bed and announces that he won’t “hand her over” either.

Competition time! Hibari thanks everyone for waiting and announces the battle. It’ll be out of 90 points, the one with the most points win. The dorm heads argue about who’s going to win for a bit before we cut to the three leads, standing in wait. “I don’t care about the dorm stuff,” Nakatsu growls to Sano. “This is yours and my fight,” “Yeah,” agrees Sano, tying a towel around his head.
Round 1! Jump rope. One by one the guys drop out, leaving Tennouji, Sano, and Nakatsu. Tennouji passes out, tripping on the rope. The Dorm 1 lackeys gather around and carry him out Kenneth Branagh Hamlet style.
Hibari announces that this round was won by Dorm 2. Sano and Nakatsu keep jumping, and Nakatsu turns around to face Sano mid-jump. They exchange glares as the Dorm 2 tertiaries remind them that the round is over. I know they’re fighting and all, but they’re tremendously cute like this.
Round 2! Holding breath contest. All the contestants dunk their heads underwater and hold their breath for as long as possible. Thus we are treated to excellent funny faces courtesy of Shun and Toma.
Round 3! Situps. Yup, it’s that straightforward. Although I should note something I missed on the first viewing– Sekime is a contestant and Erika makes a point of standing near him to watch. Hee. Sano and Nakatsu exchange glares. Mizuki notices and cocks her head in curiosity.
Round 4! Toilet paper... unravelling...contest? Dooookay. Sano is the most fervent in this one.
Round 5!... I don’t get it. Hibari’s dressed up half-tween half-skank, and she twirls her hair as she speaks in a slang I don’t even want to begin to try to translate. Which, much to my delight, turns out to be the whole purpose of the contest. Sano buzzes in and graciously translates but even he’s talking too fast for me. He gets it right and Mizuki wonders how he got that. Nakatsu gets ticked and Mizuki cocks her head again. After all, they ARE supposed to be on the same side.
Round 6! Fire starting contest, the old fasioned way of rolling a stick. None of them can do it, but Mizuki gets it. Sano and Nakatsu silently moan at her, and she asks what’s up with Nakatsu’s expression, poking him with the hot poker. He recoils and without changing expression, Sano hilariously presses his own poker to Nakatsu’s cheek. Nakatsu recoils again and Sano asks if it’s really hot. Mizuki laughs with him.

Outside they break for lunch. Sano and Nakatsu are sitting away from the group, backs to each other. Nanba, Nakao, and Sekime all comment on how weird they’re acting, like they’re not on the same side at all. “Definitely” says Mizuki. Nakao comments that it’s like they don’t care about the dorm thing, they just care about battlting each other. “Definitely” repeats Mizuki.

Infirmary Akiha/Umeda moment, of course. Akiha comes in and plops herself down on Umeda’s chair, talking about the interdorm competition and how there’s a weird atmosphere between Sano and Nakatsu– like they’re competing. Umeda nods and says he gets it, as he puts on some gloves. Akiha demands to know what it is, but Umeda chalks it up to a guy thing as he shoves her and the chair out the door. She begs him to tell her what he means, but he doesn’t tell her.

Round 7 - Log sawing competition. Amazing effort on the guys parts. Mizuki continues to ponder over why they’re acting so strangely.

Round 8 - Okay I REALLY don’t get it and this time Sano isn’t translating.The guys are rolling up tissues and stuffing them up their noses. Nakatsu sneezes and wins, so I guess that... was... the... game...?

Round 9 - “Mustard-filled pastry Russian Roulette”. EWWW! Most of the guys pass out at once, leaving Dorm 2 as the winners. With hilarious faces full of Mustard pastry, Sano and Nakatsu glare at each other.

Round 10 - Japanese version of Red Light Green Light. Hibari says the phrase and when she turns around they all stop. Nakatsu looks like he’s closest, but falters on a poorly chosen frozen position. “I can’t!” he exclaims as he falls. “Goddamu”. Hibari calls him out, but Sano and Mizuki are still in the game.

Round 11 - Baloon popping. Excellent surprised expression on Shun.

Round 12 - Pushups. Nakatsu and Sano both fall at 87.

But thankfully that’s it for these difficult trials as Hibari tallies the scores. Dorm 1: 30. Dorm 2: 30. Dorm 3: 30. In other words, a DRAW! Nanba and Oscar are naturally quite upset.
Tennouji comes in with Kanna, and Oscar yells that wait, didn’t they break up last time? Dorm 1 lackeys grumble as well before Tennouji knocks them out. Nanba asks what they’ll do and Nakao hops about and points out that they should all do this. The dorm heads concede and shake hands on it. Kayashima says this is the first time he’s seen them working together so willingly. Nanba says they’ll do an awesome performance.

Sano leaves his room and as he turns the corner, Nakatsu is there waiting. He stops.
“Going to practice?” Nakatsu asks. “Yep.” I don’t want to mistranslate this part, but it seems as though they talk about Mizuki and how the competition didn’t determine anything. Nakatsu asks if he’s going to withdraw.
“I don’t want to run away anymore. Not from you... and not from myself.”
“I understand,”
“Huh?”
“I thought, ‘I don’t want to lose her to anyone!’. But really, I just don’t want to lose her to you.”
Sano’s brows furrow, and Nakatsu manages a half-smile.

Outside at night, Sano is practising, half running, half almost high jumping.
Mizuki is looking at a book on relieving muscle pain/relaxing muscles. She tries it on herself as Sano comes in. “Welcome ba–“ she says, knocking over one of her boxes in the process. A bunch of things fall out, including her passport which she doesn’t notice. She rushes down to pick stuff up and Sano helps. He notices her passport open facedown on the floor and carefully picks it up so as to conveniently not see its contents. He hands it to her, closed. “Something this important, you shouldn’t just leave lying around your room,” he advises. She looks startled for a second but quickly snatches it away and tucks it into her wallet.
“That was clooose” she whispers.
Sano is unpacking his knapsack. Mizuki comes over and excitedly urges him to lie down on the bed. He complies after a little force from her part, lying face down on his bed. She immediately sets to work massaging the muscles behind his knee. When Sano asks why she’s doing that, she says something along the lines of how he doesn’t have a specialist to do it, so she’ll take care of it. He teases her about whether or not she can do it and she goes, “What? I’m just trying to help. Is it useless?”

“You say it’s useless but you do it anyway,” he muses.
“I guess so eh?” she and Sano share a light laugh. “I’m happy.”
“Hm?”
“You returned to the Sano from before. (T/N: I think:) It’s like old times again.”
“I haven’t returned.” replies Sano. “I like how I am now more.”
Mizuki freezes. “Sano...”
“This time... I’ll jump for you.”
“Ok.” she says, and continues her ministrations.
He turns his head slightly towards her, a little perplexed by her calm answer. “You don’t what I meant, do you?”
“I get it!” she retorts. “You’ll jump for me at the competition.” Dennnnse.
“Just as I thought, you really don’t get it!” he says.
“Don’t get what? Tell me!” says Mizuki, but when she goes to look at him he’s already conveniently asleep. :P

Olympic meet thing. TONS of people there. Kyoto sensei looks nervous in his seat.

On the stands, Akiha approaches Umeda saying how excited she is about the dorms working together. She touches him though, so naturally Umeda gracefully leaps over the fence onto a lower platform to avoid her.
“Listen!” he hisses. “Don’t talk to me. Don’t touch me. Don’t even come CLOSE to me!!”
“What’s that?” Akiha says, unaffected and pulls out her camera, super excited.

Opening performance time, one of my favorite parts of the whole episode. Under the bleachers, Tennouji gives a prep talk in a giant circle huddle. Mizuki and Nakatsu are on either side of him, and Mizuki has an adorable tiny ponytail. Just as I’m thinking this is a really stupid and revealing idea on her part, we cut to the other side of the huddle where Oscar and a few tertiaries are sporting identical ponytails. Oh. More encouraging speeches from Oscar and Nanba, then everyone puts their hands out and shouts the classic “BAYBAY!!” which has become a great staple exclamation for this show. :) Sekime and Sano watch with smiles as our favorite cheerleaders head out onto the field for their performance. The crowd goes nuts!

And then we step into the trailer for Bratz ~ Ikemen Paradise. No, seriously, Avril Lavigne’s “Girlfriend” song begins to play and I can’t help but giggle at yet another strange English song selection by the music editors. Having a bunch of cute straight guys dance around while Avril belts out “I could be your girlfriend!” is strange. It totally works for Mizuki’s story though, and I must say it is catchy. This is an excellent, fun, energetic and well-choreographed scene that I won’t recap because it wouldn’t do justice; all you need to know is that Mizuki, Nakatsu and Nanba are the three front people (Mizuki in the very middle) and everyone looks like they’re having the time of their lives. It is AWESOME. They even incorporate a “baybay!!” into it. All romantic developments aside, this is totally one of the best scenes in the whole darn series.

They get standing ovation for it (rightly so!), Sano and Sekime clapping with big grins on their faces, Kyoto sensei saying “Wonderful!” and the crowd going nuts. The cheerleaders bow, exchange high fives. Akiha and Umeda exchange words on how cool it was, and the feelings behind it. Various sports events are shown.

In the locker room, Mizuki is massaging Sano’s legs again. “Sano!” she shouts at him. “You can do it!!”
“Yeah!” he replies seriously.
“You can do it!” she repeats
“I can do it!” he echoes back. They bounce this back and forth a few more times. We finally cut away and see that Shin is in the locker room as well. He comments that it looks like Sano is taking care of his body. “Yes!” Mizuki and Sano reply in unison, and Shin kind of smirks at this. He tells Sano to beat Kagurazaka and leaves.
Sano realizes that he’s forgotten his lucky charm, he always jumps with it. Mizuki says she’ll go get it for him, where did he leave it? He says in the drawer of his desk, so she immediately leaps up and sets out.
“Mizuki,” he calls to her, freezing her in her tracks, and for some reason in this exact moment I fall in love with Jpdoramaverse SanoxMizuki for the first time. “Can you hold onto it for me?”
She turns around slowly. “This moment... you just called me Mizuki.”
He smiles gently at her. “That was my intent from the beginning.”
She grins widely, “Ok,”. And runs off. He smiles after her.

In 205, Mizuki opens the desk drawer and finds Sano’s charm. Just as she’s about to leave his cellphone rings. She deliberates for a moment before answering. Seeing it’s the hospital, she picks it up.

Back at the meet, various track events. Sano leaves the locker room and sees Nakatsu, leaning against the wall like how he was when they talked about Mizuki. Thinking it’ll be another challenge chat, he keeps walking, but Nakatsu steps out and stops him, putting his hand on his shoulder. “You’ll definitely jump,” he says with a grin. Sano keeps walking with a smile and waves his hand in thanks.

Sekime wins his race and hi-fives Sano, who makes his way out onto the track.

Racing outside the school, Mizuki bumps into Hibari and they both fall. She apologizes and Hibari is surprised to see her. Mizuki says she’s in a hurry and takes off. Hibari realizes that Mizuki dropped her wallet and tries to call her back, but the crossdresser is too far ahead. She looks inside and notices the passport.

Track meet. A couple of jumpers make the bar. Nakatsu calls Mizuki over to sit next to him on the bleachers and there’s a momentary awkwardness. “Sano hasn’t jumped yet” Nakatsu tells her, and we’re given a shot of Sano stretching while wearing headphones (hee, just like his bro). “He passed on jumping that height.”. We see an evaluator ask Sano if he’ll jump this time, he shakes his head no. “He just passed on his best height!” exclaims Kayashima.
“What is he thinking?” wonders Nanba. Nakao asks a question about the pass system so Sekime launches into an explanation.
“Why...” Mizuki wonders.
“For you,” Nakatsu tells her. “Because you’re watching, nothing can stop him.”

They raise the bar and a jumper fails and the crowd almost seems to... laugh? Someone (I think Noe) comments that this failed jump means Sano and Kagurazaka are the final two.

They raise the bar to 2 m 21 and Sano gets up. It’s Kagurazaka’s record. Mizuki clutches Sano’s charm in her hand. Sano makes his first attempts and fails. The crowd groans, cheers, and almost seems to laugh again. Kagurazaka clears the bar. Sano tries again, in slow motion, but even that doesn’t help him. He gets ticked. He has one last shot. He stares at the bar and readies himself.
Meanwhile, Mizuki flashbacks to when she went to the hospital to see Takehito. He apologizes for himself, and tells her, if it seems like Izuki can’t jump...
In present time, she leaps from her seats and calls out to Sano what I can only translate as “step back two paces”. He looks confused and hesitant, but then she thrusts out the charm she told him he’d keep. Seeing that, he’s inspired, but he moves his mark FORWARD two spaces so I’m confused. Anyway. I think he’s following her advice. He looks back at the bar. Nakatsu leaps to his feet and begins to clap for him. Everyone joins in and Sano is touched as he looks over at his friends. He smiles. And then he jumps. He clears the bar elegantly, touching it ever so slightly– but it doesn’t fall. He’s ecstatic. Nakatsu is just as excited as he and Mizuki holds back tears. Shin smiles, Kagurazaka muses (does his lips look blueish on anyone else’s screen?) And Kyoto sensei exclaims “Excellent!!” chumming around with the guy next to him. Sano gets off the mat and looks in the direction of Mizuki and Nakatsu.

Akiha comments that it’s been a year since she’s seen this, actually it’s even better this time. “Of course,” says Umeda. “He’s got Mizuki for a lucky charm,”. He nods at her. More shots of Mizuki sniffling and Sano grinning, and we’re even treated to him making the “BAYBAY!” pose. Some of the Osaka guys do it back. :) Nakatsu notices Mizuki crying for Sano and looks saddened.

Kayashima, Sekime and Kyobashi walk on school grounds holding hands. Kayashima congratulates Sekime and releases his hands, but Sekime’s and Kyobashi’s fingers remain tightly entwined as they walk. I guess things REALLY didn’t pan out with Erika, huh?
Behind them, Sano and Mizuki walk side by side. “So you jumped, huh?” she says proudly.
“Yup,” he says.
“All because of me, riiight?” she says, throwing her arm around him.
He shakes it off. “Not you,” he corrects. “My old man.”
“Whatt? You found out?”
“Of course, you wouldn’t know stuff like that.”
“But,” protests Mizuki, “If I didn’t go and hadn’t passed along that info, you wouldn’t have jumped, so it really was because of me after all!” she grins.
“No, you had nothing to do with it,”
“L-i-a-r,” she says. She teases him about him being nervous about home?, knocking into him lightly.
“I didn’t,” he protests.
“You did,”
“I didn’t!”
As they walk offscreen we see Hibari eying them with envy, clutching Mizuki’s passport in her hands. She opens it and we read the most important thing on the passport: Sex: F. Hibari looks up with glaring eyes at the playful couple.

Nakatsu walks through the Shakespeare area of the dorm. Nearby, the three dorm heads are arguing about something but stop when Hibari arrives. Nanba asks why she summoned the three of them here, and Oscar thinks it’s because she’s finally going to confess her feelings to him. Hibari looks up with deep anger, she’s in no mood to play around. The smiles from the dorm heads fade.

Mizuki and Sano continue to walk along and continue to playfully banter. Mizuki is convinced it’s all thanks to her and takes a swing at him, which he ducks nicely.

Back to Hibari. She says she this is the first time something so important has come up. Nakatsu stops and notices the three dorm heads plus Hibari, so decides to eavesdrop. After a pregnant silence, Hibari reveals, “One of the students at Osaka... is actually a girl.” Shots of surprised and startled reactions from the dorm heads. Nakatsu realizes who they’re talking about and gets anxious.

Mizuki and Sano continue to mess around, Mizuki messing up his hair and he doing the same before they walk off with arms around each other in a buddy-buddy way.

Peach.

Preview: Mizuki looking sad, Sano looking at her with a pained expression. “About you... I”, says Sano in a voice over. “You love Sano-sama, don’t you?” voice overs Hibari. Nakatsu looking rejected. “Please answer... you’re a girl, aren’t you?” voice overs Nanba as we get shots of the Kaokai exchanging serious looks. Nakao tears up. Sekime looks at Mizuki in pained surprise. “What did you hope to take back from coming here?” Koujou sensei voice overs, smiling, Kayashima looking at an aura and smiling, Nanba saying (I have no idea what the last word is), “No matter what anyone says, this is your bokuogai!” Mizuki holding back tears. Festivities in the dining hall. Umeda walking through a girl-detecting machine and getting ticked with a policeman I’ve never seen before, Kagurazaka mouthing “Arigatou,” the Hibari Five saying “Hibari Four”, Nurse Nakatsu and Maid Sano peeing side by side in the washroom and looking depressed, everyone from the series standing together, Mizuki smiling sadly and saying she loves this school.

I’m going to cry.
_____________________________
Peej’s thoughts

Most of what I said I said mid-summary. I’m officially rooting for SanoxMizuki from this point on but I don’t think that if I rewatched older episodes I would root for them then as well. They finally displayed affection and a chemistry that should have been present ages ago, and because of this, the next turns of events won’t hit as hard as they did in the manga. The manga had a constant, obvious, and lengthy affectionate, romantic air and, to a much lesser extent, sexual tension between them until it all came together and so it’s pretty much impossible to match that feel when it seems that it’s only recently we’ve seen these traits. But they will try and hopefully come close.

This is a comment on the preview though, I’ve just gotta say this. I’ll be honest, I have never really enjoyed this version of Sano. Until very recently he’s been very different from his manga and Taiwanese counterparts, two characters I absolutely adored. He was meaner, colder, less affectionate, less friendly. It’s only recently that I’ve begun to appreciate and perhaps even like him, but one thing I must say is that he ROCKS the vulnerability scene. The look he gives Mizuki in the preview is heartbreaking.

On that note, spoiler specs for the next episode. This is the second warning, and it's in white and stuff so don't be upset with me if you can't resist reading them. Highlight to read.

What I’m 99.9% sure about (based on manga knowledge, the revealing aspects of the preview, and what I’ve taken back from story class.

-The dorm heads confront Mizuki within the first few minutes of the next episode– if they let it fester the “pace” of the situation will be lost. I think they will actually approach her while she’s walking with Sano, and either take her to the student council room with him, or ask to speak with her privately. If they ask to speak to her privately, Sano will sneakily follow them and eavesdrop.
-It’s during the dorm heads’ interrogation that Sano reveals to Mizuki that he always knew she was a girl. The shot in the preview where he looks at her, pained? Is during the interrogation, and he’s just told her or she’s just found out that he knows and has for a while.
-Mizuki picks Sano. (Like that’s a surprise)
-Sano tells her he’s in love with her.
-Sano and Mizuki kiss, and with any luck it will be as awesome as the one in the manga.
-Nakatsu steps down from the Mizuki competition like a total gentleman.
-EVERYONE finds out that Mizuki is a girl, but accept her anyway
-Mizuki and Sano most likely sleep together again(innocently I mean)
-They are doing a cosplay café for a school festival. That’s why the guys are dressed up, and with any luck they won’t be the only ones. Nakao, Noe, and Sekime dressed up in the manga and TW, and Kayashima also gussied up for the Taiwanese one.
-I’d almost bet my entire Hana Kimi manga collection that the urinal scene, judging from what will happen, is post-Sano and Mizuki hooking up.
-Mizuki leaves Osaka and returns home. The last shot in the preview is indeed them waving goodbye. There are two endings to the manga, one where she leaves and that’s the end, and then a second one where the author added a couple extra scenes just before she leaves and one right after, where Sano surprises her in America. I don’t know which one they’ll go with.
-There will not be a second season. Deal with it. :P It has a HAPPY ending, but you’ll cry anyway.

We have the added plot of Nakatsu already knowing she’s a girl, so it’ll be interesting to see how that’s handled. :) I wonder if he’ll try to warn her that the three dorm heads know the truth?

Trust me, I will be hovering around my computer waiting for the torrent on Tuesday evening EST, so with any luck, the summary and MANY translations (it IS the last episode after all) will be up by the wee hours of the morning on Wednesday Eastern time.

Episode 10 Summary/Translation

2007-09-05T08:26:05Z

It's a bit long because I translated a few scenes fully and there were a LOT of scenes in this one.

Edit After reviewing the subtitles version, I'd like to correct a couple of mistakes I made. I'm very sorry, this is where my "I'm not perfect" thing comes in and embarrasses me, hahaha.
1) The conversation with Kayashima I screwed up by misinterpretting the invisible particle. Kayashima doesn't say anything about seeing the world's secrets after all... he says that things will come up roses. Because there's no "I" said in this conversation, I got lost about who was talking about who.
2) I don't really consider this a mistake but I think it's good to point out-- the way that I translate things and the way the usual subber translates things is a little different... I'm very bad at coming up with "just the right word" so often times I'll say it a different way. How to explain... it's kind of like if I said "not good" and the subber just said "bad". (and then I go "DUH! How the heck did I forget that word??"). There were a few instances of this in this episode.

That's about it. Sorry for the Kayashima thing. If it's any consolation, he totally knows Mizuki is a girl anyway.

Hana Kimi 10

Just a couple notes:

Because this happens a couple times this ep too, I finally asked my roommate what was up with everyone mis-saying Sekime’s name. She said that last names that begin with Seki are suuuper common in Japan, so it’s not uncommon for people to get it mixed up. It’s really hard to equate this situation in English, but essentially it be like if you had tons of classmates whose name began with “Sa”, you might get confused too. Ironically, my roommates last name is SEKIguchi.

New term found in my summaries: “Tertiaries”. It’s used for those token dorm members who you honestly have no idea what their name is.

But on that note, in a giving mood because it IS the 3rd last episode, I went ahead and Wiki’d most of their names, so I use them here.

Next, I'd like to apologize for my lack of translation for 9 (I had to move) Speaking of translations, Sano's father makes an appearance in this episode and I can't place his accent; maybe it's just a lazy drawl but some of his lines were more difficult to translate so bear with me ok? Towards the end I get noticeably lazier in my descrips too. Sorry. ;)

Anyway, without further ado, I present to you the 3rd-last episode of Hana Kimi. As always, if I make a mistake please let me know!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~@~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~@~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We start the episode with a shot of Nakatsu, sitting in a bathroom stall staring off into space. He flashbacks to the latest development, where while reaching for the shampoo he snuck a peek at Mizuki in the shower and realized she's a girl. Back in present time he looks at the toilet paper and gets an idea. The next thing we see is a very neurotic Nakatsu writing the kanji for "woman" over and over again on the toilet paper. He gets into such a crazy fury with the toilet paper writing that he literally starts to smoke. Dorm 1's Akashi comes in, spouts something in his ridiculous accent about the smoke, and locates Nakatsu, who has completely fizzled and passed out. He gets very upset when he’s unable to revive him.

Out in the dining hall, Mizuki walks by a sign that reads “Ohsaka & Blossom Edward J Harrison Dance”. The Hibari Five (because I hate calling them Four when there are really 5) are dancing with 5 guys from Ohsaka. Tennouji with Kanna, Kayashima with Komari, Yao with Saki, Noe with Erika, and last but not least Oscar with Hibari. The remaining tertiaries watch from the sidelines, and Sekime laments the fact that Noe was paired up with Erika. At this moment a screen appears, and the VP says that it couldn’t be helped, the dance pairs were chosen by the computer. The VP blah blahs about how the best couple will get the Best Couple award. I think there’s a joke in here about whether or not this tape was prerecorded, but to be honest I got lazy about this ep and didn’t recheck.

Oscar suddenly appears, clutching his cheek following the sound of a slap. Hibari looks ticked and shouts at him how they’re supposed to win Best Couple if he’s still so bad. He runs away but she follows him, yelling. Komari makes a comment about Hibari and gets the usual Odamari Komari but just takes it. Hibari yells at Oscar that they’re going to keep practising, dragging him away by the ear. Akashi comes in and interrupts that Emergency! Nakatsu’s sick! Mizuki immediately leaps to her feet with concern. The boys gather round as Nakatsu is brought out on a stretcher. Mizuki shakes his shoulders, asking if he’s ok. He wakes up and says he’s “fi–Mi-mi-! He interrupts himself when he sees Mizuki. With one last “Mi–!” he passes out and all the guys spaz, thinking he’s died. They continue to carry him onward as the tertiaries make a fuss, but Mizuki flatly says that he’s not dead.

Nakatsu awakens in his own bed, going “Mi!” Then, realizing where he is, quietly says “Mizuki’s a girl.” He sits up suddenly, “Then that means that...” and we get a series of flashbacks : Mizuki wiping Nakatsu’s drool away, “that that time she was a girl...”, Mizuki and Nakatsu walking into class with their arms around each other, Nakatsu passing Mizuki at the urinal, “and that time...”, Nakatsu almost kissing Mizuki in one of the early episodes, “and THAT time....”, the incident where Mizuki snatched her bra back from Erika, and finally, where he pressed his hands against her chest. He spazzes, wondering why he didn’t realize before.
“What are you doing?” Kayashima suddenly appears above startling his roommate. “You seem troubled.”
“Of course I am!” retorts Nakatsu. “I’m in love with a girl!”
“That’s not normal?”
“It is normal!” Nakatsu shouts and whines that he doesn’t understand.
“I wonder about that,” replies Kayashima, and tells Nakatsu that he sees hundreds of things a day, so he “sees the world’s secrets” and “no one has an interesting story that I don’t know about.” He’s speaking kind of in circles, but Nakatsu seems to get the point.
In the dining-turned-dance hall, Tennouji is beating down some lackeys while the other couples twirl about. Sekime watches morosely as Noe and Erika dance cutely, and Erika calls him by the wrong name. Sano comes in and says he wants to help out, which provokes a huge “EHHH??” from everyone. Sekime points out that he’s kind of strange lately, and Nakao says it’s like he’s kind of come out of his shell. Sano accepts this, drawing another surprised reaction from the crowd. He changes the subject, asking what he can do. Mizuki watches him with a sweet smile on her face and flashes back to when he called her Mizuki. She grins so widely she has to cover her mouth with her hand. Sano interrupts her reveries to ask for the hammer. Like a total girl she pretends she didn’t hear him, so he repeats himself. She turns away and quietly begs him to call her Mizuki again.
“Ashiya,” he says instead, and she turns around disappointed. “H-A-M-M-E-R.”
Ticked, she picked it up and roughly plops it in his hand. He acts hurt, and when she rushes to his side apologizing, he grins and says not to worry. They share a sweet moment of her asking him if he’s alright etc, as the tertiaries look on with beaming smiles and Nakao points out that there’s a certain “like” between them (they don’t hear).

Sano and Mizuki go for a walk with Yuujiro, Sano noticing that there’s something suspicious up. He realizes her ulterior motive has to do with the big meet, and that Sekime must have told her. A bus comes up and the passengers get out, among them Kagurazaka and Shin, who notice Sano. Then out steps a middle-aged guy. “Old man...(Father)” says Sano, looking ticked.

Ikenai Taiyouuuu!

The Hibari Four are in the dining hall with the whole gang plus the VP. They’re upset about the boy-girl ratio, and Kyoto sensei has decided to even the odds by having 3 Ohsaka guys dress up as girls to create 3 more couples. Noe finds this weird but Sekime rushes into to say it isn’t. Nakao immediately volunteers to be Nanba’s “girl” and the VP allows it, despite Minami’s protests. Dorm 1's Daikokucho and Kitahanda share a really weird moment and decide to volunteer to be a couple as well. Kyoto says it’s time to find Nakatsu a partner (I don’t know why he suddenly pulled Nakatsu’s name out, maybe I missed something). Kyoto spots Mizuki playing with Yuujiro, and when Mizuki looks up he’s right there, also with Yuujiro and smiling plotfully.

Nakatsu strolls into the dining hall, wondering what to do about the Mizuki situation, thinking about what Kayashima said. He stops himself at the scene before him. Mizuki is in a dress and a wig amongst the tertiaries, and she turns to look at him. He gasps as his FlowerVision shows Mizuki blowing him a kiss, and seeing how she’s in a dress he momentarily thinks about the “revealing” part of Kayashima’s speech. He launches into a fantastic inner monologue as he strolls towards her, ultimately deciding that Mizuki is Mizuki, boy or girl it doesn’t matter (aww) and nothing can stop them from winning best couple. He gets down on one knee, raises his palm to her and in English says, “Shall we dance?”. The boys behind her echo with oohs and ahhs as Mizuki looks a little perplexed. She takes his hand as “Shall we dance” plays in the background. It’s a very sweet moment.

In the locker room at the meet, Sano approaches Shin, who is listening to headphones, and asks what the old man is doing here. He’s one of the head... coaches? Evaluators? At the meet, and Shin snarks that Sano will probably run away again. Kagurazaka is skeptical about Sano’s hatred for his dad.

The jumpers enter the field and Sano a nd his dad stare at each other. His dad smiles and calls his name but Sano just glares at him and keeps walking.

Outside the school, Kayashima and Komari are practising, but it keeps getting interrupted by bad spirits. Komari sees Nakatsu practising with Mizuki nearby, grinning ear to ear, and gets sad. Kayashima follows her gaze but turns back to her, suggesting they try again (to dance).

Nakatsu and Mizuki are practising and he’s positively beaming. Mizuki interrupts their routine when she notices Sano, and runs over to him to ask how practice was. He says it was nothing much, and Nakatsu watches them chatter together with a frown. The more we zoom in on Sano though, the more Nakatsu’s brows furrow as he figures something out.

Mizuki is mulling over the news that Kagurazaka has gotten better, as a freshly showered Sano chats with her. He realizes that she’s staring at him and when he prompts her she turns away, flushed. After a little deliberation she turns back to him and asks what happened with his dad at the meet. Sano replies that nothing did, he was at the meet but they didn’t talk. Mizuki looks relieved. Sano tells her not to worry about his dad. She stands up and agrees, and when he turns around to tell her to go take a shower he accidentally puts his hand against her chest. He pulls away immediately, stammering, and Mizuki stutters that she’s going to go have a shower. She slams the door behind her and says, “He.. touched it.”
Outside, Sano says, “I touched it...” but then realizes... “it was like a flat tire.”
Nakatsu comes in at this moment, catching Sano offguard completely, and asks where Mizuki is. “Shower. What is it?”
**Ack this part is hard to translate well, it’ll be neat to see what the subbers do with it... anyway here I go:
Nakatsu asks if he can ask him something. “Did you know that Mizuki is a g....g...” [Mizuki ga on...on...] he struggles with the word as Sano perks up. “–that Mizuki likes byonsei music?” [onganku no byonsei]
“Yeah.” replies Sano.
“Me too!”
“So?”
“NO!” shouts Nakatsu, and tries again. “That Mizuki’s a g...” Sano looks bored as Nakatsu struggles. He ends up faltering again, saying something about vegetables that doesn’t even begin with “on” but he just kind of makes it blend into it. [onyasai, yasai is vegetable]. Sano asks if they’re done. Nakatsu says they are but quickly changes his mind and asks him for one more chance to say it properly. “He’s a g....” but changes his mind once again, which is fortunate because Mizuki appears at that very moment. Nakatsu comments that Mizuki’s always in the bath. And she accuses him of always thinking of her in the bath.

In the infirmary, Nakatsu is the one sitting with Umeda this time. He asks Umeda a what if question, what if there was an all-girls school in say, Madagascar (again with the Madagascar), and a transfer student appeared but... it was a guy. What should be done? Umeda says that that situation would be a borderline disaster. He explains that it would be sad for his friends, if he was found out, because they’d send him back to Madagascar and never let him come back. “Never?” echoes Nakatsu. I have to admit I’m a little unsure about this, but I think Nakatsu asks Umeda what he’d do in the situation , and Umeda replies something along the lines of “I’d keep my mouth shut about it.” in a really intimidating fasion. Nakatsu grins, thanks him, and darts out.

Meet time! Jumper after jumper after jumper clears the bar as Akira photographs everything and comments that Sano’s dad was there after all. Kagurazaka taunts Sano, saying that it looks like everyone can clear that height. Sano makes a go for it, but the bar ultimately falls. His dad and Kagurazaka look disappointed. Shin clears it without effort and Kagurazaka asks for the bar to be raised (pretty high up). He clears it perfectly.

In the dining hall, Nakao is sleeping against Nanba’s shoulder and Nanba freaks out about getting partnered up with him. Tennouji comments that he always knew Nakao and Nanba were ... he gestures with his hands.

Their homeroom teacher comes in, asking if they need further incentive. Nanba whines that he does. A cute girl (where did she come from?) rolls in a tray with a cloth draped over it. She pulls it back to reveal GOLD BRICKS. Nanba fantasizes about swimming in a pool with money with girls surrounding him. Nakatsu comes in as well. Back in reality, Nanba laughs wickedly and agrees that this is excellent incentive. He turns to Nakao and says they’ll do their best to win, right? They hug.

Away from the crowd sits Kayashima, who detects something. He holds up his hands. “Bad aura.” he says. Sekime is sitting right in front of him, forging a ticket/ad for a Gundam event. He turns to Kayashima, all creepy-like. “Bad face.” says Kayashima.

In Dorm 1, Daikokucho is dressed in a blue dress and wig and looks ridiculous. The other D1 lackeys are in lines on either side of them. They decide that since Tennouji’s gotten all soft because of Kana, they don’t need him anymore. Outside, Oscar is taking a beating from Hibari once again. He’s cheered on by his lackeys and gets up and hustles around, somehow managing to look eerily like Jack Black. In subtitles Hibari tells him to bring it and they fight, Hibari getting the upper hand.

Coach Sano dismisses the jumpers, but calls Izumi (Sano) back. I think he starts off by telling him to try and get back to his old height but I have to be honest, at my level and this guy’s accent I’m having trouble translating properly. What I do get is that he’s accusing Sano of running away again, and Sano replies that he;s not running away from his dad’s training.

Back at Ohsaka, Mizuki is practising her dance moves alone. Akira is taking pictures from the bushes, and comes out. She tells Mizuki that she visited the meet earlier and Sano’s family was there. Mizuki asks what the overall feeling was and Akira replies that it was disastrous. Akira asks Mizuki if she’d like to know what happened. They sit down to talk and my video delightfully chops in and out a couple times during this sequence but from what I understand, Sano’s mom was in an accident, Sano’s dad was a jerk about it (if I recall correctly from the manga, he forced her to drive during bad conditions in order to get to a meet or... something... and then I think he felt so guilty he didn’t visit her? Sorry, if anyone could fill in this gap for the show that’d be great. ) And she died in the hospital, so ever since then Sano blamed his dad for it.

Nakatsu comes bounding along, asking if they can dance. Akira rolls her eyes at the intrusion and Nakatsu looks confused.

In 205, Sano comes home and he and Mizuki exchange greetings. He notices the dress and makes small talk about it, saying it’ll look good, for a guy wearing a girl’s outfit he means. She’s not interested in small talk though, and gets straight to the point. What happened? She tells him that when he’s happy, she laughs. When he has fun, she wants to have fun with him. When he’s sad or in pain, she wants to cry with him. That’s what being friends is... isn’t it?
Sano deduces that she’s leading up to asking about his dad, and with a small smile he tells her, it’s like he told her: nothing happened. He then essentially tells her that after (like, when he comes back from practice), as long as she’s waiting for him, he’ll be happy. He pats her head, says thank you for her feelings. They sit down on his bed and he asks about the Best Couple award, and she chatters on about that for a bit.

Dance hall! The tertiaries are lined up against the walls. The couples are out in hall, Nakatsu sporting a new hairstyle (that really suits him and is kind of cute), impatiently waiting for Mizuki. The VP introduces the judges, Yoshioka sensei (homeroom) and Akira, who will be taking pics. VP calls in the first couples: Tennouji and Kanna in cute outfits, the two dorm 1 guys in Saturday Night Fever outfits, and Nakao and Minami, Nakao looking like a swan princess and Minami looking like jester without a hat. “Let’s dancing!”

The couples dance to “Rock around the house”. Mizuki arrives on the scene and Nakatsu begins to scold her for being late but bites his tongue when she sees how cute she looks. Back on the dancefloor, the two guys ruin Kanna and Tennouji’s routine. He manages to fight them while still remaining somewhat elegant. However, in knocking the two guys over he accidentally causes Kanna’s skirt to fall, and she slaps him for it. He spins over, landing on Minami, causing Minami to literally fall onto Nakao’s lips. Nakao pulls away from the kiss grinning and says “HA-PPY!” in english. “UN-Happy...” wails Nanba.

Kanna runs off, Tennouji gets laughed up by his lackeys, so he beats them up, laughing as he piles them up by Yuujiro’s home and places a grave marker on them. His laugh soon turns into a “Kannaaaa” wail as he walks offscreen.

Next couples time! Ashiya and Nakatsu, Himejima and Hibari, and Erika, who whisper-calls out for Noe. Sekime appears instead, saying Noe couldn’t make it, and asks if it’s alright if he takes his place. She agrees and the couples take their place. Nakatsu and Mizuki are prepped to win, but Hibari says they won’t. And then we finally get a good look at Oscar, and oh. My. Lord. I... I can’t even properly put into words how greasy he looks, so be sure to check it out for yourself if you haven’t already.

The music begins with some harmonious strings that eventually turn into.... Amazing.. Grace? Say Whaaaa?? I’m sorry, that’s just a bit strange for me. Anyway. The best of the three couples on the floor is quite obviously Mizuki and Nakatsu, and Akira repeatedly tries to get pictures of them but Hibari and Oscar keep blocking her view. Oscar and Hibari think about what they’re feeling and determine it’s the feel of the Best Couple.

Sano is running outside, and pauses at the Ohsaka gate. He looks over at a bench, where we see a silhouette of a figure. It’s Sano’s dad. Sano glares at him.

Inside, Nakatsu and Mizuki are dancing beautifully, gently, and perfectly and suddenly for the first time I fully realize that this series WANTS you to be torn between Nakatsu and Sano. There are some really sweet, endearing shots in this part. The song ends, the couples bow, and as they head back to the hall Mizuki thanks Nakatsu. Mizuki says she’s really glad to have met him, but her smile fades as she sees Sano and his father outside. Nakatsu gets serious and says, “Actually the truth is... I like...” but she runs off to find Sano before he can finish. Nakatsu looks out the window and sees the back of Sano’s head. He casts his eyes down in understanding.

The VP announces the final pairs and Nakatsu sits back down to contemplate Mizuki’s feelings.

Sano asks why his father is there, and his dad asks if it’s bad for a father to want to see his son. He asks if he still can’t let go of what happened with his mom. Sano clenches his jaw and Mizuki sneaks in behind a bush to listen. Sano’s dad says he understands Izumi’s feelings, and a teary-eyed Sano tells him not to screw around; he doesn’t know anything, even when mom was in the hospital, all he knew was jumping. Sano says he can’t possibly understand his feelings, and asks him never to come back.

Mizuki jumps out from behind the bush and Sano’s dad sees her. She introduces herself as Sano’s roommate, and when he gives a sidelong glance at the dress, she begins to explain the dance but he turns around to leave. She says he came just because he wanted to see Sano, right? He confirms it, but says they don’t see eye to eye. Mizuki asks if it’s true that he was at work when Sano’s mom died, and he didn’t see her. He says it is. Mizuki says she doesn’t understand, but she thinks that Sano will accept him. Mizuki asks if he didn’t cry when Sano’s mom died, and he says yes, he didn’t cry. He walks away, leaving Mizuki to absorb this.

Back in the dance hall, Akira announces Nakatsu and Ashiya as the Best Couple. Hibari and Oscar make a big stink about this. They run offscreen just as Noe runs in, mad at Sekime for tricking him about the Gundam thing. Erika sees the whole exchange and gets ticked at Sekime as well. Nanba, worn out from the dance, crawls over to the gold bricks. Nakao saunters over, picks up the top one and takes a bite out of it. It turns out that the gold bars are actually Belgian chocolate. The VP offers the floor and the two uneaten bricks to a very sullen Nakatsu, who accepts them. When the light falls on him, he forces a smile, thanks everyone for their hard work but half-laughs about the gold only being chocolate. Everyone claps but Kayashima sees right through Nakatsu’s smiles.

In 205 the room is dark as Mizuki comes up behind Sano, who is hunched over the desk. “Sano,” she says, standing in the doorway.
“Sorry...” he says and then after a long pause, “Can you leave me alone?”
“You and your dad had a good talk, right?” she asks.
“Did you not hear me?”
She steps closer. “At this time... you were able to talk to your dad. You and your dad really want to reconcile. So–“
Sano tears the paper off the desk in fury. “You don’t understand anything about my dad.”
“I might not, but–“
“THAT’S WHY!” he lowers his voice. “That’s why... don’t interfere.” He tells her that he told her that he doesn’t want to talk to his dad, but she says she can’t understand that. She says that Sano isn’t the Sano he was before, so she thought that...
He moves closer to her and tells her that she doesn’t understand his feelings at all. He storms out, slamming the door behind him.

In the Yuujiro area, Nakatsu is back in his normal clothes and staring at the bricks. He sees Sano in the hall behind him, and asks after Mizuki, but Sano just keeps striding away. Nakatsu is concerned.

In 205 Mizuki is still standing motionless in the same spot. She thinks that she didn’t think of Sano’s feelings and ended up hurting him. She begins to cry and whispers “I’m sorry” to the moonlight. Behind her, Nakatsu silently enters the room.

Sano stops striding at the gate and breathes deeply and painfully. He looks back at the dorm in sorrow.

Nakatsu watched Mizuki cry from the doorway before swiftly coming up behind her and draping his arms around her shoulders. She stops crying, mildly surprised, and to the side at him.
“Depend on me,” he tells her, as he stares straight ahead but with his head against hers. She looks up at him, blinking in surprise. He swallows, furrows his brows, and says “I don’t care who you like....” He adjusts his arms to hold her closer, closes his eyes, and whispers into her hair, “I love you.”

Outside, Sano continues to walk.

____________________________________
Preview for ep 11:
Sano finally jumps, Osaka is apparently teeming with male cheerleaders, and Nakatsu overhears Hibari telling the 3 dorm heads that there’s a girl among them.

Yup guys, brace yourselves, cuz we’ve got 2 episodes left and there is not going to be a second season.

The good news(speculative spoilers): there will probably be a very steamy kiss involved, if not in the very next episode then definitely in episode 12. The bad news : Nakatsu’s going to get his heart badly broken. I know I’ve already stocked up on Kleenex. Have you?

P.S. I've just GOTTA add this. That last hug was just... ooh for me it rivalled the hug from episode 6. ^_^;; Poor poor Nakatsu :(. I think him overhearing Hibari will have veeeerry interesting repercussions. I can imagine him telling Mizuki that he knows, just so that he can protect her from the dorm heads. And I think Sano will tell Mizuki he knows in ep 11 too. And I'll bet you anything it'll be one of those situations where he goes "About you... I've always known... that you're a girl." *leadup to PEACH music plays*

pajama_lllama @ 2007-08-28T15:44:00

2007-08-28T20:45:31Z

Hey guys
I don't have access to the internet at home (I'm in a cafe right now) so my summary won't appear till Saturday night (and by then I'm sure you'll have seen the subs, but I feel like it anyway :P).

In the meantime, quick summary from what I can rememeber amd my own thoughts.

Basic plot in a nutshell:
New teacher arrives (Kitahama) and right away he targets Nakatsu. When a cheat note accidentally lands on his desk, Kitahama catches it and tries to punish him. Luckily Kyoto sensei is there and tells him to let him go because he has other important tests to finish, so he lets Nakatsu go but tells him he's not done with him. Nakatsu goes to talk with him again and is surprised when he sees his friends were waiting for his return (Sano even made up test notes for him). Even Nakao was there, aww. Anyway Kitahama gets ahold of Nakatsu again and gives him the ultimatum that he either sign a confession that he cheated or Kitahama will ensure that he won't get to play in the soccer playoffs. Though he doesn't tell people what happened, his down demeanor makes it pretty obvious and Sano asks him what happens, finally admitting that they're friends. Awesome. Mizuki overhears what happened and when she gets upset, Sano holds her close and comforts her. Another confrontation occurs with Kitahama, leading to Mizuki stepping in and kind of screwing things up/making them worse. The Cherry Blossom Alliance steps, Sano asks about Kitahama's past, and we learn that the teach is being descriminating because his younger brother was rebellious, joined a band, and got stabbed.

Meanwhile the dorms have a live show, which after Kitahama is stopped (thanks to Sano and the Kaokai), Kitahama attends.

But more importantly, the episode ends with Kagurazaka telling Sano about the finals and how Shin made it to them, and MORE IMPORTANTLY.... NAkatsu walks in on Mizuki in the shower and learns that she's a girl (so far she doesn't know he knows though). Dude! Completely different from the manga there, but further cements my theory that this is it, this is all we get, there will NOT be a season 2 (it's kind of pointless to have one).

--------
Peej's thoughts!
Thank. Frigging. Lord. The series is finally starting to lean more towards what makes the manga so awesome. Also, actually almost following this story from the manga absolutely completely. And it only took 3/4s of the series to get to a manga-feel point! :P. Sano is becoming the Sano around vol 2 (took long enough) and has finally decided to make Nakatsu part of his life again. Also, he apparently now gives a damn about other people. Wow! It only took TWO MONTHS.

This episode rocked though, it's nice to see that Sano is developping a mildly likeable personality, however with Nakatsu's new knowledge, there's gonna be a lot more rivalry going on. Which is neat. This series has been a mishmash so far, a lot of mistakes have been made in the pacing I feel, so it was nice to have an episode dedicated to one of the 3 main characters instead of half Nakasanozuki, half dorm antics. (Dorm stuff was minimal in this one, FINALLY, and was used to support the plot of the main characters). I am really looking forward to the Nakatsu knowing plot, in the TW he never found out and in the manga by the time he did find out Sano and Mizuki were already quite together so he just gave up. But loving her while knowing she's a girl, that's going to be fun.

Hanazakari no Kimitachi E ~Ikemen Paradise episode 8

2007-08-22T23:27:42Z

It's finally here!
HANAZAKARI NO KIMITACHI E EPISODE 8!!

First of all, let me say that this was a much better episode than I expected it to be. Sorry it took me a little longer than usual to translate; I had some massive deadlines at work and this episode used some cultural references and also, more annoyingly, Kanji subtitles for certain scenes. So, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my wonderful roommate Akiko, for helping me with the Kanji I did't know and a couple cultural things I didn't get. Japanese is not my first language so if I make mistakes please correct me.

As always, Hana Kimi is (c) Hisaya Nakajo, but the words and this translation is totally mine, so do not take or post anywhere else without first getting the go-ahead from me, ok? Thanks and ENJOY!

~~~~~~~~~

Mizuki runs out of the school to the mailbox. She holds out a letter addressed to her dad and tells it, "Papa, please let me stay just a little longer." She plops it in and claps her hand twice and bows and just as I'm thinking "it's like she's at a shrine", her teacher calls from behind her, "Ashiya, that's not a shrine!". Awesome! Mizuki says it's been a while (cuzschool's back in session). She runs off.

Nakatsu strolls outside, singing and Mizuki runs up behind him and says good morning. The FlowerVision music plays as Nakatsu stutters about what happened the night Mizuki almost left and manages to get out that he's glad she stayed. "It's thanks to you, you know?" she says and he spits out his water. He repeats this and moves closer. He gets nervous and says, "about that... that time I.." and we flashback to when he said "I need you". She nods and says she was happy because the truth is, she needs him too. He spits out his water again, utterly shocked. He looks back to her and moves a little closer, deciding to tell her his feelings. "Mizuki, to me, you are..."
"Friends, right?" she finishes quickly with a smile. "Really great friends, right?" she walks off screen and NAkatsu ponders this for a moment. "Yes, we are friends!!" he realizes.

In the classroom the guys seem pretty happy to be back. Sano looks around with a great "wtf" look on his face here. Mizuki and Nakatsu come in, Nakatsu with his arm around Mizuki, something Sano immediately takes note of and doesn't seem overly happy about. Mizuki runs up
to Sano and says hi. He doesn't look up from his magazine and she asks him if he's feeling bad. He says it's nothing but mutters under his breath about hand-on-shoulder thing. Mizuki doesn't see anything wrong with it cuz she and Nakatsu are buds! After some back and forth bantering about his cranky mood she asks if he's just grumpy because it's his time of the month (AWESOME!!!!) which brings out a great protesting shocked face from him, but she says she's just kidding.

The teacher comes in and begins to talk as Mizuki stares at Sano's back with a smile on her face. She remembers his "stay" speech and says thank you.Akira is riding in the back of a small truck with a megaphone, making an announcement to the students. Umeda walks into the middle of the road and she interrupts herself to say hi to him. He asks her what the hell she's doing on the back of the truck and then tells her to go home. She freaks out, warning him that they're going to run him over but he's not worried-- and then the truck totally runs him over. Akira leaps out, doesn't see him under the truck, because he's hiding behind the camera. He turns around and has a big tire mark on his face. He punches the driver out for running him over. "That was cloooooose!" says Akira and Umeda hits her on the head with his fan for it, asking her what she was doing. She tells him work, and he points out that this has nothing to do with Sano jumping. She tells him that she's gotten a gig with a major magazine to do an Ikemen shoot, and asks him to gather the guys in one spot. He tells her to do it herself but when he turns he catches his reflection in the mirror. He realizes that there's a tire mark on his face and freaks out while Akira giggles behind him.

In the dining hall the 3 dorms are gathered and Akira comes in. She tells them about her gig: shooting the Ikemen, and shows them the magazine; An-An (which is a very real and very big magazine in Japan). Sekime comes in and explains, and the guys get really excited. But before things get out of hand, Akira stops them to tell them that wait, she can only use 4. Oscar thinks he's obviously one of them so "go ahead and choose the others" Tennouji also nominates himself as he shows off his giant pecs, and Kayashima nominates himself too. Akira's already chosen though, so she calls for a drumroll and announces the first name: Nanba Minami! (of course). There's a great shot here of Oscar begrudgingly saying congrats while Tennouji nibbles on his cape in frustration. Oh these guys. Next: Nakatsu Shuichi. He says thanks and he and Tennouji share a "Baybee!!" Third: Sano Izumi. He's been in the dining hall, disinterested, and when the light shines in his direction he blocks it off, irritated. Mizuki asks if he isn't happy about it and he says no, he doesn't give a damn. Oscar asks Akira to continue and she announces the fourth... Ashiya Mizuki! She's super excited but Sano looks super worried. He gets up and yoinks her aside to see if she's really gonna do it. Of course she is, to be a model in An An would be super cool! He asks if she knows what she's getting herself into and starts to bring up that "what if it's nude photos?" Akira interrupts this moment to say that since Sano's not interested, who would like to take his place. Everyone raises their hands but after a moment, so does Sano, so he stays. Everyone is bummed except Akira, Nakatsu, and Mizuki.

Ikenai Taiyou~~!!!

Sano walks out of the bathroom area and calls to Mizuki that it's time. When she doesn't get up he goes up to her floor and sees her sprawled out in her bed, her belly exposed. She looks so much like a girl here. He stops in his tracks. Hesitantly he reaches down to wake her up but Nakatsu opens the door and he jerks back. Sano takes the opportunity to kick the covers over Mizuki's feminine form and tells Nakatsu that he's the middle of waking her up. He slaps her
in the forehead and she gets ups.

Kyoto sensei has gathered the three dorms (minus the four models) and tells them that Koujou sensei would like to have a personal meeting with each and every one of them, but he's keeping the topic a secret. He leaves them wondering what it could be about.

The four arrive at the model place, checking it out and the weird figurines there. Nakatsu shows Mizuki a shirt from a rack of clothes but she's more interested in the beaded dress behind him. Nakatsu takes his Renaissance shirt and in a pink glow jokingly approaches Mizuki as though she were Juliet. She turns with the dress and continues the charade, calling Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo? Just as Nakatsu moves in really close, Sano comes in and pulls his face away from Mizuki. "Juliet's a woman," Sano points out and Mizuki says she knows. Akira summons them and Sano puts the Juliet dress back and drags Mizuki away. Nakatsu calls after her "Juliet, Juliet! JULIET!" Nanba slaps him upside the head and tells him calmly to chill out, Romeo.

Akira shows them to the dressing room and tells them to pick something out. Nakatsu and Mizuki excited prowl the racks while Sano just stands there. Nakatsu finds a frilly pink top and says Mizuki should wear it, and Mizuki excitedly brings it to the mirror and says it'd be great. but Sano comes in with a big grey top and tells her that this would be better. Mizuki wants the pink one but Sano takes it away, and then he and Nakatsu fight about what Mizuki should wear. Nanba comes in and in a deadpan delivery tells them to just hurry and pick something. "Haaai." they all say.

In the shoot room, Minami grabs one of the weird mannequins and says, "Okay let's go, I leave it to you." Akira gets ticked at this, reminds him who's in charge and gets back to the shoot. Very nonchalantly as she stares into the camera, she says, "So, scream." So Minami screams. And Screams. And then she says, "laugh" so Minami laughs. The other three watch from the sidelines and Mizuki comments that it's like magic.

Mizuki's photoshoot is way less animated. She looks bored and nervous. Akira tells her to think of the person she loves and Mizuki looks over to where Sano is (with a goofy grin on his face as he plays with a manequin's posing). Nakatsu is seated directly in front of him and realizes: "I knew it. It's ME!" Akira tries to coerce Mizuki into giving up the name of the person she loves, but she denies that there is anyone. Nakatsu blushes and encourages her to say the name without hesitation (thinking it's him). Sano still isn't paying attention until Akira yells at Nakatsu to shut up. Mizuki's pictures come out terribly awkward looking but the two boys smile at her from behind. Akira instructs Mizuki to sit on the couch and Nakatsu begs her to let him be part of the photo.

She reluctantly agrees, and on the couch together is where Mizuki stops looking awkward and really looks like she's having fun. It's tremendously adorable, and Sano gets jealous. He knocks over the mannequin and the leg falls off. Minami walks in and asks what's going on. "Nothing."

The Dorm 3 crew are sneaking outside the director's office, Oscar leading the troups in a dirty blonde wig. This part is entirely subtitled because they are mouthing the words, so major major thank you to my roommate Akiko, who was kind enough to read the subtitles out loud for me. In essence, they think this whole personal meeting thing is kind of weird, so they're eavesdropping. Lackey #2 asks what's up with the wig and Oscar lamely explains that it's so he
won't be recognized. They listen in. The personal meetings are to see if the students like the school, but Dorm 3 confuses everything and somehow concludes that the school will be shut down (if they don't like it... somethin glike that).

Back at the photoshoot it's Sano's turn. He looks bored. But kind of hot. Akira prods him for finding this stuff tedious and stupid. He denies that he was thinking this, so Akira asks him if it's a bit scary for him?? He stares at her and walks away, and she points out that she's running away. He stops in his tracks, rolls his eyes, and comes back. He musses up his hair, officially becoming hot for the next 2 minutes. "Let's start". He says, and stares into the
camera. For the whole. time. Although the way they did this scene, it looks as though he's half staring at Mizuki. "So cool...." Mizuki breathes, and Nakatsu looks as though he's slowly starting to realize that Mizuki's feelings aren't for him after all.

Dorm 3 and Dorm 2 meet up, Oscar continuing with his charades with subtitles, and Kayashima (thankfully) translating aloud. They relay that the meetings are about the students liking or not liking the school and conclude that if they don't like it it'll be shut down. Dorm 3 and 1 go their seperate ways to figure out a way to save the school, but Dorm 2 is completely and utterly lost without their great leader Nanba present.

Speaking of of Nanba, the four are leaving the shoot, Nanba and Ashiya walking together and NAkatsu and Sano falling behind. Nakatsu takes this opportunity to ask Sano what changed his mind and caused him to stop Mizuki that time. "Nothing really" he says. "I don't know." This spirals into Nakatsu saying that he's prepared to like boys for the sake of love... but is Sano ready for that sort of thing? But Sano's already caught up with the other two.

In Dorm 1, Tennouji repeats the scenario, and they decide to hold a fake personal meeting in order to ensure he performs well in the real thing and gives it his all. Tennouji in a suit enters a room where three men are sitting at a desk. "I'm Tennouji Megumi" he says in a high pitched voice. The men invite him to sit down and he politely does so. They ask him a few questions and get a rise out of him. He's about to wail on them when he sees Kanna watching from the window behind. She mouthes to him "good luck" and he restrains himself and sits back down. A new point is brought up about Tennouji, and the "interviewers" start to laugh at him and he loses it again. Closeup on Kanna again and he settles down again. The interviewer gets super nervous and asks him what's up with that, and this time Tennouji loses it for real and fights all 3 guys at once. "Kanna...." says Tennouji after he's stopped, and starts to bawl.

Dorm 3! Oscar announces himself as entry number 20 in the Koujimen (personal meeting) audition. (I guess everyone has their own interpretation of what kind of meeting it will be) He'll be performing a dance which has a super catchy beat but the judges look bored. Hibari watches from the window and interrupts his dance to correct him on it. When performed together, the judges really groove to it. Did I mention how fun this song is? I really wanna know what it is.

The four models arrive back at the dorm and start complaining about how hungry they are etc. Mizuki takes off her plaid top, so she's left in just tshirt with the sleeves rolled up. Sano berates her for it, telling her to put it back on because she's dressing too lightly. She tells him he's been weird lately and he says she should be more careful. "Hm." she says, "you're like my dad." She saunters off leaving Sano to kind of disappointingly choke out "d..dad?"

Nanba and Nakatsu greet the rest of dorm 2, who rush to Nanba right away, clinging to him and telling him that the school is going to close. Sano and Mizuki come in in time to hear this and both have worried looks on their faces.

Infirmary! Akira slaps the magazine down on Umeda's fingers and in english he goes "My fingers!" He sprays them with disinfectant and uses tongs to pick up the magazine. Akira goes on a bit about the shoot, but Umeda says he doesn't like this kind of model stuff and much prefers it when her shots are candid, in the moment etc. She huffs off and thinks about what he said.

Outside the school Dorm 2 is trying to get donations and signatures from passerbys to save the school, waving flags and stuff. "Ikemen... BANZAI!" shouts Sekime, and the two elderly couples that stop by wonder what an "Ikemen" is. Awesome! Nakao asks for their donations.

Meanwhile Nanba is looking at the magazine spread, commenting on how perfect it is. Two Dorm 2 lackeys come in and whine to him that nothing is perfect, they haven't gotten any signatures yet.

Mizuki and Nakatsu run around with donation boxes and flags. Kagurazaka walks by and asks what they're doing, and in a hick accent Nakatsu asks why he's come. Kagurazaka asks after Sano, and Nakatsu comments that the jerk isn't helping at all, so he and Mizuki are left to do extra work in his place. Somewhere in this conversation it's mentioned that they're collecting donations and signatures to prevent the school from closing. Kagurazaka is surprised, but much to
their shock quickly whips out 1000 yen (about 10$) and drops it in. "Is that enough?" he asks sincerely (*I think this is what he says*). "NOT AT ALL!" replies Nakatsu, and as he reaches for the petition for Kagurazaka to sign, bonks him in the head with his flag.

Someone calls out Ahiya's name and a bunch of girls come up asking if "he" is Ashiya. She says yes she is, and they ask her to sign their An An magazines. She does-- on the con dition they sign the petition! Kagurazaka asks what's with that, and Nakatsu tells him about the modelling gig, adding that Sano came too. "Sano... a model??" says Kagurazaka.

The Hibari Four are wheeling around crates of the An An magazine. Apparently Hibari was worried that if other girls saw Sano as a model, they'd all run after him too, so they've tried to get every last copy of the issue. Along the way they spot Kagurazaka sitting on a bench reading the magazine, so Hibari races up to him. Her plot is interrupted though when she gets a look at the guy and hearts float around her. He stares at her and raises his brows in a "yeah what?" kind of way. She touches his leg and asks him about the magazine, making him look super uncomfortable.

Nakatsu and Mizuki walk back towards the school, Nakatsu commenting on what they've done for the school, and about the fact that Sano didn't come. Mizuki says there's nothing they can do about that (sano) so it's up to them! Mizuki says she can't believe the school will close . They talk about what they'll do if it does shut down, and how sad it will be not to graduate with everyone. Nakatsu gets his spirit back and leaps out from the tree, asking anyone around
(but no one is) to support the school.

Io makes an appearance and she and Mizuki talk about the school closing. Mizuki is sad because if it closes everyone will scatter and she'll never see them again. Io tells her to chin up, that if they are friends they don't need to rely on the school to meet, right? She wishes her luck and leaves.

The guys empty out their boxes and realize how little they've made. Dorm 1 walks by saying they will win. Dorm 3 goes by and do a quick repeat of the bun bun bun song. Nakatsu looks out the window and sees Sano coming back from practice. He runs out to him. "Sano," he says. "You help out too" But Sano doesn't say anything and goes to his room. Nakatsu follows him and shuts the door behind him. "What?" asks Sano from the bathroom area. Nakatsu asks him why he doesn't
care, if he'd be alright if the school closes. "Do you really think that'll happen?" Sano says with a wry smile. "I don't." Sano walks to his locker as Nakatsu speaks and walks back. "You're always the same," says Nakatsu. "Always purposely excluding yourself from your comrades." He asks if high jump is all that's important to him. Sano asks so what if it is, and Nakatsu says it's unforgivable. He brings up the fact that he and Mizuki had to work extra hard to make up for him, and then asks him if he actually wants to be alone forever. Mizuki walks in on the tense moment. Nakatsu leaves without saying anything, Sano goes into the shower.

Yuujiro (hey, remember him?) eats as Mizuki looks at the moon and Sano looks... deep in thought. He rolls over and falls asleep and Mizuki stares down at him.

Mizuki comes in for breakfast and everyone is talking about the magazine photo, whining how "that coulda been me!" Mizuki gets an idea and tells Sekime to get everyone into the dining hall. Everyone? EVERYONE. Mizuki grabs Akira and Akira grabs her camera, and they return to the lunch hall where everyone is waiting. Mizuki gets up on the chair and says she wants to take a group photo. Dorm 1 and 3 both try to leave but Mizuki tells them that she'd feel sad if
she didn't see them because of the school closing, and hey, we've had some happy times together haven't we? They all smile and agree, but before they can take their place Sekime stands up and reminds them that it won't work because Sano's not there. "He'll come" assures Mizuki, but Nakao says he won't; he never comes. "He will definitely come," replies Mizuki, and runs to go get him. He's reading and Mizuki tells him that they're going to take a picture with everyone, so let's go! He looks up and looks back down to his book. "No." he says simply, so she takes the book out of his hands and starts to drag him away. He slips out of her grasp and says sorry. She grabs his cheeks and asks him if he's woken up yet. She releases her grip and tells him he's a great friend so this time, could he help her out? She really wants to do this picture with everyone. He stares down at her and slowly his expression softens into a smile.

Back in the dining hall, most people are sitting by this point, but some are still up and about singing Peach (AWESOME!). Akira kicks the rowdier ones into place and Nakatsu stands in awe as Sano comes in with Mizuki. "Unbelievable isn't it," comments Nakao. "You're too slow!" comments Nakatsu with a grin.

"Hurry and sit!" Sano seats himself between Mizuki and Tennouji, and Tennouji has this fantastic satisfied grin on his face. Sano smiles at him awkwardly. Akira snaps the photo but asks for more energy. Nakatsu notice Mizuki smiling at Sano and so he pulls her into a hug. She tries to shove him off and this causes the whole back row to collapse. They end up all in a big kuffuffle, and Akiha captures it all. Umeda watches from the sidelines and comments to her
that THIS is the kind of photo she's good at. The whole scene is really, really, really cute.

Umeda meets the director in his office, who is looking at the magazine spread. Umeda tosses the candid photos onto the magazine and comments that they aren't so bad either, are they? Director agrees wholeheartedly. The phone rings, it's Koujou. Umeda leaves the room as the two teachers discuss the love the students obviously have for their school.

In the classroom, Sekime suggests that they all do a Banzai to celebrate the fact that the school isn't closing down after all. They all get up in a big crowd (except for Sano of course), throw their arms up in the air and shout Banzai over and over. Sano smiles despite himself. Nakatsu comes over to him and says it's great the school didn't close, isn't it? Sano agrees. Nakatsu announces he's going to try harder and looks Sano in the eye. Without any stuttering or hesitation, he tells him that he's in love with Mizuki. Sano looks at him with a strange unreadable half-surprised look that doesn't shift. Nakatsu moves a few paces up, turns back and points to Sano. "I absolutely won't lose," he says with a grin. "That's all." With that, he rejoins the group in their Banzais, poking Mizuki so that she'll turn to him and banzai with him. Sano takes a deep breath, mulling over the situation, and his attention shifts to Mizuki. He rests his head on his hand and thinks.

~~~

Next week: yet another plot from the manga AND Taiwanese version! They're on a roll here. New teacher who's a total jerk, accuses Nakatsu of cheating (but we all know that he would never do that) and is basically a pain in everyone's butt, causing the students to take a stand. Also, this teacher is also played by a super famous member of SMAP. Or so I'm told? Look forward to the usual as well: Nakatsu being mind numbingly awesome, Mizuki finally getting more and more supportive, Sano finally leaning into a light crush on Mizuki, Umeda being freaked by Akira, Kagurazaka making an appearance, the Hibari Four complete with Odamari Komari, and of course, dorm hijinks that will ultimately lead to the 3 teams working together to achieve a common goal.

I will continue to do these translation summaries until the show is over, but as I have been banned from the Ikemen Paradise community and my previous postings deleted because of pro Nakatsu/Mizuki comments, my summaries will only be posted here. Freedom of speech, yo! Typically I watch the show late at night on Tuesdays or on Wednesday mornings and post the summaries by Wednesday evenings, so look forward to it!

Hanazakari no Kimitachi E ~ Ep 8

2007-08-22T12:27:33Z

Hana Kimi episode 8!

Hey guys!
If you're here you've probably been redirected by raining_nina, so a big thanks to her to leading you all here!

This episode was a toughie, lot of dialogue, lot of singing, lot of kanji, so it's taking me a little bit longer than usual. But it's totally worth the wait because (to me anyway), it was the best episode so far. Got some long-awaited Sano Mizuki going on, loads of "Can Nakatsu get any MORE awesome?", some hot guys in a photoshoot, and of course, some crazy dorm antics and catchy music. I have work so the summary will be up this evening when I get back. Thanks for your support!

~Peej

pajama_lllama @ 2006-03-07T01:42:00

2006-03-07T06:42:48Z

Anything non-Hana Kimi related is Friends Only.
Thanks! :)