From the back cover:
Love is in the air at Osaka High School—bittersweet and true, as Nakao confesses his feelings for Minami, and Noe receives a Valentine’s Day chocolate from a girl. While the whole gang goes to the bowling alley, Mizuki finds some time alone with Sano. How much longer can she pretend to be a boy? How much longer can she hide who she is… and who she loves?
Review:
Finally! Confessions! Smooching! A puppy!
The balance between romance and slice of life was well done in this volume. See, I don’t mind a few chapters where the gang hangs out and does something, as long as the story is also making progress at the same time. Therefore, the bowling bit was pretty cute, since there was romantic tension between Sano and Mizuki throughout.
I shan’t spoil how everything goes down, but Chapter 125 is the high point of the volume. The last one is also very good, but it ends on a bizarre note, with Mizuki deciding to get trained in karate completely out of the blue. I have a bad feeling that this is only so her gender can get accidentally discovered in the next volume (according to the previews), which is lame. I hate when an author forces a character to do something without any real motivation just to fit how the plot is supposed to go. Sigh.
The last time I read this series, I read six volumes in a row, which I think helped my enjoyment immensely. The plot progresses so slowly, it seems best to take it in multi-volume chunks (which it seems like you’ve been doing as well). I do like Hana-Kimi a lot, though. Reading your reviews is sort of helping me gage how things are holding up at the end of the series. I haven’t touched it since volume 15, and it sounds like I should.
You should. Just don’t go expecting very much until this volume. 🙂