Quote of the day:
“There are lots of ways of being miserable, but there’s only one way of being comfortable, and that is to stop running round after happiness. If you make up your mind not to be happy there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have a fairly good time.”
- Edith Warthon
There’s really much to be said about life. For example, one could see life as a very big drama, a very big one. In fact, dramas are mostly filled with emotion but I never thought that this one drama could push me to such an extent. Over the course of that particular drama, I was definitely dazed more than once and there were times when I would just sit down in total blankness, asking myself what happened and why I was staring into blank space. It could’ve been too emotional for me, or I was simply too amazed. While I don’t know what exactly it is, it helps me define what is “a great drama”.
The drama I kept mentioning is entitled 「花ざかりの君たちへ」 or otherwise known as 「Hanazakari no Kimitachi he」, often shortened to simply Hana Kimi. Based on a manga originally authored in 2004, this drama was created in 2007 and reflects a very similar story. I might be doing a full episode rewrite every now and then and it’s been a while since I did any descriptive writing myself so why not write about something I absolutely love? This would allow my expressive side to show a little more. Somehow I can’t help but feel that there’s a need to write or tell someone about this; I need to share my thoughts and feelings. Nonetheless, I should at least write a summary.
Ashiya Mizuki (芦屋瑞樹) is a Japanese girl from America who fled from her family alone, returning to Japan to regain the motivation of a boy by the name of Sano Izumi (佐野泉) in a high-classed, all-boys high school named Ohsaka Gakuen (桜咲学園). His school was an all-boys school and hence, Ashiya had to enroll and disguise herself as a boy. The background story revolves around Ashiya intending to witness Sano’s amazing high jump abilities which had gained the attention of the world. When Sano had traveled to America for the competition, Ashiya was trailing him to the camp when she was captured by a number of thugs. Sano noticed her and quickly attempted to rescue her. When Ashiya had gotten free, Sano tried to escape from them until he came to a dead end. He resorted to his last move and quickly tried to jump over a fence when his leg was cut with a knife. Ever since then, Sano had gave up on high jumping for all his life and Ashiya felt that she is at fault for causing such an incident to occur. Hence, she enrolled in the school in order to return Sano’s smile back and persuade him to jump once again or she would not return to America.
In the beginning, she was subjected to all sorts of mishaps and other whacky situations due to the fact that the school was an all-boys school. A number of situations include being unable to use the bathroom, being treated like a boy, being treated physically, sexual harassment, bullying, sounding like a girl, looking like a girl, and several other things. Throughout the course of the school time, Ashiya had stayed in a dorm with Sano for a roommate, by pure coincidence. As an additional statement, the dorms were split into three particular “factions”. The first dorm was for the athletic bunch with a bad-tempered black belt as the dorm head. The third dorm on the other hand, housed the artistic students with a dorm head who thinks everything can be solved with his “intelligence”. Meanwhile, Ashiya chose the second dorm, where she and the rest of the students were generally mixed and normal students.
Considering how this is getting really long, I guess I’ll be doing a rewrite on each and every episode sometime soon; some project this will turn out to become. After all, everything I’ve written above would easily sum up the first episode or two, probably just the first. Whichever the case, there’s definitely more to come about this. Even till now, I am still extremely touched by everything I’ve seen thus far. This drama, by all means, is the greatest drama I’ve seen yet. There’s no appropriate reason for me to say such a thing but even so, I believe my mind already knows what it is and hence, so be it. Never before have I been so moved by such a simple story.
