A lovely set of stories about the students and teachers of a particular school, and the various little life hurdles that they come across and deal with in their own unique ways. Hana Bolo is one of those rare works that manage to be reflective about life, childhood and growing up and drop little bites of "food for thought" without being depressing and/or full of obscure symbolism; a perfect representative of one of my favourite sub-genre in manga: mono no aware.

Iwaoka Hisae's simple-but-unusual art style and quirky, loveable characters act in perfect concert with the premise to create an intelligent, warm and peaceful reading experience. "Flower cookies for the stressful mind" indeed!

... Last updated on July 29th, 2017, 2:29pm