Hanazakari no Kimitachi e (or Ikemen Paradise or Hana Kimi)

When I first saw this on Dramawiki, the pic of all the boys put me off. As bishie harems arn’t my favourite kind of series. (Though admittedly, that was before we started watching buttloads of J-drama & stuff like Rookies where pretty much the whole cast is boys… Now I’m far more open to a reverse harem based ikemen overload haha.)

Its similar to 'Mei-chan no Shitsuji's airbrushed photo which put me off intially...somewhat superficial maybe? lol

BUT after watching a substantial amount of Honey & Clover and finding Ikuta Toma totally adorable in that, I decided to give this a whirl properly!  (Even though it was on the watch list, and I would have watched it eventually, I wanted some more Ikuta Toma, and I ain’t even finished Honey & Clover, maybe cos it got a bit depressing to watch for Ikuta’s character… he seems to get cast as the lovable underdog…) I think flicking through the Special episode and seeing some very funny stuff made me wanna watch this more too. BUT what I had no clue of whatsover, seriously, no idea, is that this was based on Hana Kimi. The semi-yaoi manga series(I thought…). The one I’d heard of but always steered clear of (not a big yaoi fan). I don’t think I clocked that it was related to Hana Kimi until I saw a streaming site listing it as Hana Kimi. Confused the crap outta me lol. And this was after I’d already downloaded the whole damn series too…

BUT to my pleasant surprise its not all fondling and caressing like I thought Hana Kimi was. Ikepara seems to be mostly  played for laughs, its so freakin’ over the top, I have to stop myself from laughing too loud at night while I’m watching (usually stupidly late, depends on other factors.). Though watching this kind of series which gets me all fangirly over it right before I go to bed, really not a great idea. I should be sleepy, not hyper, which is why Honey & Clover is probably more suitable bed time watching…

From left to right, Hiro, Maki, Oguri, Toma.

(The awesome pic from the AnAn magazine shoot episode 🙂 )

(Some Spoilers ahead now… in case you actually wanna watch it ya know? lol )I know I should have waited to watch this with Purplezest, but I’m soooo not against watching this again haha. I actually can’t wait to watch it again lol, cos its that over the top and funny lol. And Nakatsu’s just adorable… Episode 10 tonight, Nakatsu confesses far as I can tell from the preview from last nights ep. AND I was flailed so hard when he found out Ashiya was a girl, or so I hope he did, I hope he doesn’t write it off to wishful thinking or something, cos he just HAS to find out!! I can’t tell if what I saw in the Special ep was cos he knew or cos he’s just fully embraced his ‘feelings’ lol. Either way… HE’S GOTTA FIND OUT DAMMIT! How long as damn Sano known???!!! Thats another thing… Sano…. grumpy douchelord…. though throughout the course of watching, Oguri Shun is growing on me… specially now he’s got a bit more lighthearted in this series. Theres a series he’s in that Haruma Miura’s in anyways, so I’ll have to watch that for Haruma, and from the clip I saw of it, Oguri’s playing a nicer character.

I'm sorry... but that smiley ginger goof ball is so much cuter than Oguri Shun, I don't get the fandom over him one bit... is it all cos of Hana Yori Dango maybe?

Also, love the op theme, and the ed theme. Both awesome. Both totally not suitable for before bed viewing cos they just get me hyper haha. Just like tracking down numerous songs that Ikuta Toma has sung on… recipe for insomnia I tells ya!! I love that the boy can sing too… and dance… I’ve got ep 1 of Akihabara@Deep which he’s in too. Playing Box. I’ve got the movie version too, cos of Haruma’s presence in it. 🙂

Because the red pleather pants commanded I post it here too…. I do think I prefer Ikuta all gingered up actually haha.

Oh!! I almost forgot… the supposedly gay(ain’t *completely* clear…) school doctor in this series… has THE most mesmerising eyes EVER. Everytime the dudes on camera… I can’t not stare at them… its cos they’re blue or something strange… piercing is definately the word I’d use to describe them.

I blame the SPN fandom for me now *squee*ing at this...

I don’t even like Oguri Shun… yet I flailed like a mad thing when I saw this ep… and the bit where Sano kisses Shirota Yuu’s character… and his chara goes totally gay for Sano, twas hilarious haha. BUT if this was a screenshot from Brokeback Mountain… I would not be *squee*ing… I’d more likely be cringing… is that cos I like Gyllenhaal but not Ledger? I mean… I reeeeaaaallly don’t like Ledger… not sure why, or how I can rationalise it… but I dont wanna see Jakey doing Heath, or doing anything with Heath… Or whichever way round it is…

(And apparantly they had to do the above take 12 times… if either or them was homophobic they woulda been so screwed haha.)

And… cos I just found it on Fanpop…

Much prefer Hiro Mizushima in this role as opposed to his role in Mei-chan no Shitsuji. Much more light hearted in this 😀 (Damn….. the *squeee*ing and flailing that went on while writing this and finding screen caps… I’m not proud… it definately prolonged the time spent on this post thats for sure…..)

And now… because I feel bad for bombarding you with all this man-meat…. how bout some girls having a pillow fight?

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1740849 Sadly it won’t let me embed this… so you’ll just have to follow the link I’m afraid.

Tags: hana kimi, hanazakari no kimitachi e, hiro mizushima, horikita maki, horikitty, ikemen paradise, ikepara, ikuta toma, nakatsu, oguri shun, sano