Hanasakeru Seishounen
花咲ける青少年Kajika Louisa Kugami Burnsworth is the only daughter of Harry Burnsworth, an influential and respected industrialist who has the power to move the world. There was a threat on Kajika’s life when she was just two years old, and her mother died protecting her. After this tragic incident, Harry sent his only child to an isolated island, Giviolle, where she was raised by the island’s native, Maria. Kajika’s companions during her time there include a white leopard named Mustafa and a boy named Li Ren Fang, who visited her two or three times a year. Kajika, now fourteen, returns to her father's side, only to be told to begin a game to find her future husband. Harry makes sure that Kajika willingly participates in this game by telling her that she needs to face the harshness of her fate along with the man she chooses to be her husband. She needs to decide among the three candidates that Harry has personally chosen, but it won’t be easy. Kajika must figure out who they are and where they are without any information to go on except that they all possess an irresistible brilliance and charm. All the while, the men aren't even aware that they are the chosen ones. Kajika must also choose wisely, as her partner has to willingly accept her to be his bride.Hansakeru Seishounen revolves around endearing love, intense passion, noble friendship, undying loyalty, family relations, and political intrigue. The heaviness of Kajika’s fate is real, the threat on Kajika’s life is inevitable, and the husband game is more than just a mere game. Harry needs to find a suitable partner to protect his daughter before someone discovers Kajika’s deep secret—a secret even she is unaware of.
Reviews
orie21 - 2014-05-31 19:37:51
I love a good romance with politics involved. I swear, this anime is awesome and so underrated. People need to see this masterpiece. The story is WAAAYY deeper than a teenage girl going around picking out one guy to be her husband in 39 episodes :)) the romance is excellently executed. The episodes give each guy the chance to show the audience their pasts, personalities and reasons why they love the female lead. Moreover, it also explores the characters of the side characters (which is interesting and a fresh wind) The animation is very great, the colors are a little josei but still wonderful. The opening song is gentle but fits perfectly with the mood of the series. Thus, I had fun watching this one since it was captivating; unlike those series where I just fast forward because I practically find them boring.
anya93 - 2014-05-07 18:05:04
Shojo romance stories are something that I've found vastly under-represented in main-steam animation. Even those of the Genre that are considered vastly influential and popular like Fruits Basket and Ouran High School Host club received anime adaptations that are lack-luster to say the very least. It is exceedingly rare in the first place that any Manga adaptation actually covers the story in whole, and even more so for Shojo-romance stories. And so, I was utterly ecstatic when I chose to watch this on a whim, expecting a turn-your-brain-off pretty-boy fest, and instead got oh-so-much more.
The first thing of note regarding the original manga is that it is by the same manga-ka who wrote Jyu-Oh-Sei(another anime I highly recommend) Natsumi Itsuki; which, as I discovered this early on, gave me hope, because Jyu-Oh-Sei is a story that has come up in discussions of Shojo series that serve to subvert the Genre. Like Jyu-Oh-Sei, Hanasakeru Seishounen is heavily steeped in plot elements outside of the romance plots. The romance plot itself is orchestrated along-side of the extremely dangerous and poignant political climate that the main Heroine Kajika finds herself in.
The reverse-harem aspect is expertly handled and instead of halting Kajika's development as a character and leaving her lost and unable to decide, the relationships she forges push her forward and help her to discover what the "love" is that her father so wishes her to find.
The world is masterfully crafted in a slightly-fictionalized real-word fashion where the main plot is driven by the economic and government politics of fictional, recently-developed Indonesian nation of Raginei. Kajika's mysterious connection to this nation and it's royalty throws her world into chaos over and over again as she must also learn what it truly means to be an adult and a leader.
It is somewhere between a classic coming-of-age story and a near fantasy-esque tale of kings and gods with the real-world struggles for economic power keeping it all in it's place. It is an astounding story and my only regret is that it got such a low-budget and aggressively average adaptation when it deserved so much more.
If the 39 episodes are too intimidating for a show so outside your usual genres, go ahead and check out Jyu-Oh-Sei which is a 13-episode series done by Bones and does an excellent job of showcasing Natsumi Itsuki's heavily political and ethnically driven story-lines in a much shorter time-span. It instead is also more sci-fi and action-based with romance waiting in the wings in a very similar manner. (Available dubbed on Netflix and Subbed on Crunchyroll)
I highly recommend this series to anyone who loves a strong story with a conclusive and satisfying romance that doesn't eclipse the core plot. My personal rating is a B+ rating despite it's strong story, it's downfall is the uninspired production by studio Peirrot, and the dated appearance of the original Manga. The show is currently available subbed on Crunchyroll and is worth the watch.