I like these manga and i feel bad for all chara idk why, I feel bad for Hanashiro and Kuroto the most, they have shity fate, but i love them even so somehow i dont understand with their action(?) and Hanashiro i understand he loves Kuroto but does Kuroto feels the same? I dont think so. but I’m relieved that is have good ending, but the good ending still sad tho huhuhuhu

...as brid's comment makes it seem. Her claim that this manga is a failure because it 'tries to be deep' is rather irrational, since the "destined enemies who fall in love and somehow manage to save the world without killing each other" theme is quite prominently featured in many works of fiction -- and it was no more absurd here than it is in pretty much any other story that tries to justify the 'love conquers all' concept.

Admittedly, I also felt that Hanashiro's personality was rather terrible -- but he's quite a common character archetype; the "I will kill anyone who tries to hurt my beloved" kind of anti-hero protagonist who doesn't care one whit about destiny and seems be more capable of destruction than the salvation he is fated to mete out. But I never got the impression that the author was trying to force us to like or sympathize with him, so my annoyance did not become too unbearable.

I found the concept of the destined "Saviour" being selfish and bitter while the fabled "Destroyer" is a peaceful, resigned man quite interesting. It's worth reading Hanakisou just for that unique spin on the old "Chosen One" routine.

My final verdict for Hanakisou would be that it's one of those manga which, like most fantasy BL stories, doesn't quite realize its full potential due to the constraints of length and the general naivety and romanticism that fans of the genre demand. If this was published in a josei magazine instead of a shoujo one, it could have been quite impressive. As of now, it is just above average.

... Last updated on July 8th, 2011, 2:18pm

...Then you will eat this manga with a spoon.

The premise of the manga is certainly interesting enough: two people bound by destiny to confront one another, the fate of the world hanging in the balance, etc., etc. But somehow despite the grandiose premise, neither the story nor the characters came together especially well for me. The first volume of the series focuses on Kuroto and Hanashiro getting to know one another. Kuroto is a nice guy and lives a peaceful life, which causes Hanashiro to doubt his role as the one destinied to kill him. But that destiny soon catches up with Hanashiro and by halfway through the first volume, rather than just thinking Kuroto is a gentle person who means well, Hanashiro has decided that Kuroto means more to him than the whole world(!), the fate of the world and his destiny be damned. Hanashiro is even willing to kill innocents (and in fact, does kill innocents) just to protect Kuroto.

At this point, as a reader I lost all sympathy for Hanashiro and was partially rooting against him, somewhat hopng that he'd fail in protecting Kuroto. (After all, why should selfish, irresponsible, whining brats get what they want?) To counter Hanashiro's obsession, poor Kuroto on the other hand, was portrayed as the most passive seme(?) future uke(?) I have ever seen in BL. There were character-based reasons for it, so I couldn't dislike him because of it, but Kuroto's willingness to surrender to his fate made Hanashiro's actions all the more annoying (and selfish).

But what really lowered the score for me on this manga wasn't just that I didn't especially like Hanashiro, rather it was the manga's lame attempts at providing a deep, metaphorical justification for the fate Hanashiro and Kuroto are bound in. The second half of the first volume and the entire second volume focus on providing an explaination/justification for just what the lord of the world was doing when he created this "garden" and what he hopes the combined destinies for Hanashiro and Kuroto will do for the world, etc., etc. It's all a bit dull and more than a bit nonsensical.

The artwork of the manga is quite nice, so you may want to check it out for that reason alone, but if you're a BL fan, be warned: the characters don't even so much as share a kiss (it's BL only if you squint), so for that reason you may want to avoid it. Taking the good with the bad, this ended up being a solid middle of the road manga for me: I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either.