Hanazakari no Kimitachi e

Hanazakari no Kimitachi e Ikemen Paradise 花ざかりの君たちへ イケメン♂パラダイス
From left to right: Toma Ikuta, Maki Horikita, and Shun Oguri.
Also known as	Ikemen Paradise Hana Kimi
Genre	Comedy, Romance, Romantic comedy, Drama
Written by	Muto Shogo Yamaura Masahiro (Ep. 8 & 10)
Directed by	Matsuda Hidetomo Tsuzuki Junichi Sato Genta
Starring	Maki Horikita Shun Oguri Toma Ikuta
Opening theme	Ikenai Taiyō by Orange Range
Ending theme	Peach by Ai Otsuka
Country of origin	Japan
Original language(s)	Japanese
No. of episodes	12
Production
Running time	54 minute episodes
Release
Original network	Fuji Television
Original release	July 3 (2007-07-03) – September 18, 2007 (2007-09-18)
Chronology
Related shows	Hanazakarino Kimitachihe Hanazakari no kimitachi e (2011) To the Beautiful You
External links
Website

Hanazakari no Kimitachi e: Ikemen Paradise (花ざかりの君たちへ イケメン♂パラダイス, Hanazakari no Kimitachi e: Ikemen Paradaisu), also known as Ike-para, is a Japanese drama produced by Fuji Television and first aired on July 3, 2007. It is based on the comic by Hisaya Nakajo, published in English as Hana-Kimi. Filming locations include the Ryutsu Keizai University.

A TV Special has already aired with the regular cast reprising their roles. The story starts off half a year after Mizuki's secret of being a girl has revealed. It is near Valentine's Day, and Sano and Nakatsu are talking about the last week of Summer vacation. This is when the story gets back to the last week of Summer holidays, which is between episode 7 and 8. The shooting started on March 19, 2008.^[1] A conference was held on September 18, 2008 announcing the completion of the special, subtitled Sotsugyoshiki & 7 to 1/2 wa Special (卒業式&7と1/2話スペシャル).^[2]

A remake of this drama with an entirely different cast was aired on Fuji Television during the 2011 summer season.^[3]

Plot summary

The drama is based on the popular comic of the same name by Nakajo Hisaya. Horikita plays the protagonist Ashiya Mizuki, a Japanese girl in the United States who one day sees the young athlete Sano Izumi compete in the high jump on television. She begins to idolize him. Sano gets injured one day in America while trying to help Mizuki escape from some gangsters. He stops high jumping ever since. Mizuki blames herself for the incident and decides to go to Japan and help Sano find his love for high jumping.

Izumi goes to an all-boys school, so Mizuki disguises herself as a boy to meet with him again. Sano found out about Mizuki when her brother came to Japan. Sano hides the fact that he knows Mizuki's gender so that she doesn't go back to America. Sano, who gets closer to Mizuki, tries to high jump again. In the middle of the story Mizuki, falls in love with Sano. Nakatsu falls for Mizuki. Nakatsu was searching for shampoo when he opened Mizuki and Sano's bathroom and saw Mizuki in the shower — that's when he found out about Mizuki. Nakatsu and Sano try to not let Mizuki go back to America.

When Mizuki rushes to Sano's competition to bring his lucky charm, she bumps to Hibari; Mizuki drops her wallet and was found out by Hibari. Hibari showed the passport inside the wallet to the three dorm heads; she was unable to let the dorm heads see what is inside because Nakatsu interrupted. She was only able to tell that there is a girl in the school. The search began and Mizuki felt nervous, but Nakatsu and Sano had plans to cover her. The dorm heads saw a girl changing in the office and called Mizuki. They now know that Mizuki was a girl. Sano and Nakatsu also confesses that they knew about her gender before the dorm head learned. The dorm heads let Mizuki stay until graduation, but she collapsed when she fell from the stairs where her classmates were setting the maid cafe. The classmates opens her clothes and figured out she was a girl. Mizuki decides she will go back to America. Sano and the school nurse brought her to the airport where Sano gave Mizuki a goodbye kiss.

For the Hana Kimi special, Nakatsu and Sano reminiscence about when Sano fell in love with Mizuki. This takes us back to the weeks between episodes 7 and 8, where Mizuki's friend, Julia, from America comes to Osaka Gakuen to take Mizuki back to America. While Julia is in Japan, she decides to act as Mizuki's girlfriend to see if Sano really cares for her.

Cast

Episode list

Average viewership as 17.33%. Highest viewership recorded was on September 18, 2007 at 22:11 at 23.1%. (In Kantō region).

Differences

There are many differences from the manga and drama. Though the concept and characters are the same, the story is described differently. For example, Sano got injured from saving his friend, while in the drama he got injured from saving Mizuki. Genders are also different in the drama as well. Akiha is supposed to be a guy, however the character is portrayed as a woman in the drama. In the manga Sano found out Mizuki's true gender when he accidentally "felt her up", but in the drama Sano finds out Mizuki's a girl when he overhears Mizuki talking to her brother. Nakatsu also found out about Mizuki's gender a lot earlier, while in the manga he finds out Mizuki's true gender along with everyone else.

Music

Soundtrack

1. Peach [Performed by: Otsuka Ai]
2. Ikenai Taiyou [Performed by: Orange Range]
3. IKEMEN Boogie
4. Men of Paradise
5. St.BLOSSOM
6. Go to School!
7. HA.NA.ZA Carnival
8. Save Me
9. Early Summer
10. IKE-MEN 2007
11. I can't tell you why
12. Boyz be ambitious!
13. Beautiful Enough
14. Into a Nap
15. Be Silent
16. OSAKA♂Boyz
17. IKEMEN Boogie Nights
18. I am Lady
19. I can't tell you why (reprise)
20. Emergency
21. Sand Time
22. Is This Spiritual
23. Trap Happy
24. PEACH (IKEMEN☆instrumental version)

Insert songs

• My Love by Kawashima Ai
• Boom boom boom by Go Hiromi (not present in the TVB broadcast of the series)
• Paradise Ginga by Hikaru Genji
• Tomaranai Ha~Ha by Yazawa Eikichi
• Girlfriend by Avril Lavigne
• (Sakuranbo (さくらんぼ) by Otsuka Ai played alternatively in the TVB broadcast of the series)
• Oh My Julia by Checkers

International broadcasts

Philippines

• Airing date: March 24, 2008 to April 25, 2008
• Broadcast network: GMA Network^[4]
• Theme song: PEACH by Ai Otsuka

Hong Kong

• Airing date: May 4, 2008 to July 27, 2008
• Broadcast network: TVB Jade

China

• Airing date: January 16, 2009 to January 26, 2009
• Broadcast network: Xing Kong^[5]

Indonesia

• Airing date: June 18, 2011 to July 15, 2011
• Broadcast network: Indosiar

Malaysia

• Airing date: October, 2008 to January, 2009
• Broadcast network: 8TV

See also

• Hanazakari no Kimitachi e (2011 TV series), the 2011 Japanese remake.

References

External links

• ReviewAsia - Hanazakari no Kimitachi e Reviews
• Hanazakari no Kimitachi e
  Ikemen Paradise
  花ざかりの君たちへ
  イケメン♂パラダイス at the Internet Movie Database
• Japanese Scripts of "Hanazakari no Kimitachi e"