[Free Download Hana No Shoujo
Sharif Garmon
Please note that I do NOT encourage people to stay with SOs who are emotionally, sexually, or physically abusive. NOT AT ALL. If you ever find yourself in that situation, you do NOT need to convince yourself that the person loves you and that you should stay for them; this is dangerous, and YOU DESERVE BETTER, regardless of what you may feel. Any love that the other person may believe they hold for you is NOT HEALTHY LOVE if they are habitually treating you with less than the utmost respect.
I like your thoughts on how something so problematic could be so interesting and thoughtful Shoujo. I think that teaches us to look at something a little more from a character explorations and stuff then instantly dismissing things for shock value.
Romanticizing abusive relationships in shoujo manga is definitely problematic considering that the shoujo genre is typically catering to a young female audience. For a young girl it may come across as this is what a relationship should look like. That is not okay. But other than that, I agree that these deeply flawed characters draw me into wanting to see how they can develop in the long run. I love that you brought this up. Great post.
Hanako Ikezawa (池沢 華子, Ikezawa Hanako) is one of the five primary heroine characters in Katawa Shoujo. She is badly scarred on the right side of her body, due to a house fire that claimed the lives of her parents. Having lost her only family, Hanako grew up in an orphanage, eventually becoming the oldest resident.
Hanako developed an extreme social anxiety in response to years of teasing and bullying by her peers due to her scars. As a result, she is extremely shy and only trusts a few people in whose presence she seems to relax and be comfortable in. Hanako grows her hair long and uses it to hide her facial scarring from casual observation.
An honest girl, she believes in equality between friends and highly values the few people she chooses to spend time with. As a result of her social isolation, Hanako developed a number of solitary interests including chess and reading. Surprisingly, and in contrast to her personality, she is also fond of both karaoke and billiards.
Hanako is a girl of average build and average height with waist-length dark purple hair that has a slick of hair on the right side of her face that covers one of her eyes where it partially covers her facial scars and purple eyes.
She's usually seen wearing the standard school uniform with a pair of black stockings and a pair of brown leather boots. Her pajamas consist of a long-sleeved and ankle-length light pink night gown, with a small red ribbon in the middle of her chest. Her casual clothes consist of a long-sleeved dark blue denim jacket with a light pink frilly necked blouse with a small black ribbon, a pair of long black pants, and black shoes. She also wears a black beret to cover her scars from passersby.
Hanako is a quiet and extremely shy girl who is likely to run away when an unfamiliar person tries to make contact with her (e.g Hisao Nakai on his first day at Yamaku), and also tends to leave classes early due to her severe anxiety. Despite her shy demeanor, she does get along with certain students that she is acquainted with; such as Lilly Satou, Shizune Hakamichi, Emi Ibarazaki and Misha, more so with Lilly who is her closest friend. Even in spite of her anxiety, Hanako is still willing to try and live her life the best she can, even having the courage to try doing group work with Shizune and Misha despite her being unused to working with them simply because she trusted Hisao enough.
She is initially very shy and evasive around Hisao, but soon they may become close friends. During this time, several facets of Hanako's personality begin to emerge, and it's revealed that some of her favourite activities such as chess, snooker and karaoke, which either require another person or can be done with other people, implying that Hanako isn't antisocial and would on some level enjoy sharing her interests with another person. This is supported by Hanako joining the newspaper club in Lily's route, and she even plans on travelling to Hokkaido independently of Lily with a group of friends. She's also interested in cooking, and while some of her attempts haven't always succeeded, hasn't deterred her from trying to improve.
She is usually very friendly despite not being very outspoken, especially with her close friends. However, she lashes out at Hisao when he tries to get close to her on her birthday if the bad ending is achieved, stating that she hates to be treated like a weak, broken person. Hanako is painfully aware of what other people think of her and in sharp contrast to Misha is self-conscious of social norms, trying her best not to stand out too much. Though she's close to Lily and is reliant on her during social situations, on some level, she resents Lily for coddling her and turns on Hisao during the bad ending, believing that Hisao's attempts to white knight her are no different to Lily's mothering of Hanako despite their good intentions.
Ten years before the story, Hanako's house inexplicably caught fire while her family slept (this was hinted to have occurred on the night of her birthday), which killed her parents and badly scarred Hanako herself. Hanako told Hisao Nakai that the only reason she survived was that her mother shielded her from the fire before succumbing to the heat. After spending a length of time in the hospital recovering, Hanako lived at an orphanage: while she got along somewhat with the children there, she couldn't make close friends and the kids from outside the orphanage, especially the students at her middle school, harassed her because of her appearance. This made her become very aware of her scarring, and this self-consciousness developed into paralyzing social anxiety, prompting her self-isolation. She secluded herself in the orphanage's library until she was offered the opportunity to attend Yamaku Academy.
Mr. and Mrs. Ikezawa (Hanako's parents) died in a house fire when Hanako was eight and she only survived because her mother shielded her from the flames. Unfortunately, the entire right side of Hanako's body was badly burned and scarred. With no living relatives, Hanako became a ward of the state.
Hanako has only brief acquaintances with her fellow students; the only person at Yamaku with whom she has a deeper relationship is Lilly Satou. Their friendship started when Lilly moved into the dorm room next to hers. Hanako was able to open up to Lilly, presumably because her blindness meant that Lilly would not react to Hanako's scarring. Ever since Lilly moved into the dorm, their friendship deepened, with Hanako depending the most on Lilly. Lilly deeply cares for Hanako, always looking out for her well being. She even bought Hanako a doll for her birthday and a phone for Christmas. Although Shizune Hakamichi and Shiina Mikado care for her well being as a student, they frown upon the liberties granted to her due to her social anxiety. Hanako is shown to be crippled in social situations on multiple occasions, and is prone to running away or even breaking down, going so far as becoming catatonic, only worsened by other students staring and speculating on what had happened. Later in Lilly's route she ends up joining the newspaper club and makes a few more friends, eventually overcoming her anxiety.
Hanako only interacts with the Yamaku Academy's staff members if necessary. Usually the teachers, mostly Akio Mutou, try to give Hanako time to herself, which often leads to her secluding herself in the library, even during class hours. Hanako is also acquainted with Yuuko Shirakawa the librarian through Lilly.
Hanako has few acquaintances outside of Yamaku. She is shown to be very fond of Akira Satou (Lilly Satou's elder sister), who even attends Hanako's birthday party with a gift of two wine bottles. Akira takes Lilly, Hanako and Hisao Nakai for a night out in the city just before Lilly leaves for Scotland to visit her family. It is also mentioned that Hanako visits a therapist every weekend.
Takane to Hana is a shoujo series by Yuki Shiwasu that is currently running in The Hana to Yume magazine. So far there are three tankoban volumes available in Japan, the last one just being published this past November. Shiwasu-san has a few shorter shorter series under her belt, but Takane to Hana is the longest running series so far. It started off as a one-shot story, but the popularity of it led to demand of a longer series.
Social media is the easiest way to get a title across to a publisher. I know Seven Seas and Kodansha are very active on their askfm sites. Shojo Beat is very active on tumblr. Yen Press I see mostly on Twitter.
Whoa are there other manga like this? Ones with a bickering couple? I like stories like this a lot! I love when the main love interests fight like this ( Library Wars, Kamisama Kiss) and things like these movies: The Shop Around The Corner, Anastasia, etc.
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