Hana ni Arashi – Manga Review

Hana ni Arashi (はなにあらし) or also known as Nanoha to Chidori, is a manga series by Ruka Kobachi (古鉢 るか).

It’s completed with 13 volumes.

As the second title suggests, it’s about Chidori and Nanoha. Both are high-schoolers in an all-girls-school in Sendai. They’re best friends to everyone else, but lovers in secret.

Story

Even though they’re already together at the start of the first chapter, they’re both new to dating and haven’t really done anything except confess to each other. It’s very slow-burned and takes a while until they get closer physically. Expect lots of blushing and awkwardness. 

It’s mostly just fluff and everything is kept lighthearted. There are two rivals – each in a different volume – but it doesn’t get too dramatic and you know they both will work it through. It does get a bit emotional here and there, but it’s mostly kept lightly. 

This is an everyday manga to relax.

Around the middle, after they’ve gone through a bit more hardships, it gets more mature, with less awkwardness between them and more communication, as well as more skin-ship. (No smut scenes though.)

What I didn’t like

The few mentions of body fat. There is no main character, who is chubby or overweight. Sure, Chidori being short and having a larger cup size does look chubbier than the other characters, but she’s still rather thin. Yet for some reason the author thinks that this is chubby and keeps mentioning it here and there. There even was a whole chapter of Chidori being depressed because she was afraid Nanoha will hate her, if she’ll notice that she gained a bit more weight. (There literally was no difference though.)

This topic does get a development in the 2nd half of the series, when Chidori wants to buy a dress but is afraid it’ll look fat on her. A character then tells her that that doesn’t matter and she shouldn’t restrict herself by worrying what others think; if she wants to wear something, she should do it because she enjoys it. 

And that was the end of the chubby comments in the series, which was a great development on the author’s side. Still, though, I would find it better if the previous ones were changed or cut out altogether.

I‘m aware those comments are rather for comedic purposes, but considering she is NOT chubby at all and doesn’t joke about it herself, it just leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. If she were a bit overweight, okay, but that’s not the case. So it’s not only toxic but completely unnecessary.

At least those comments were kept to a minimum. The rest is all positive. And while it was a bit too awkward between them at the beginning (for my taste), it is overall a cute series. 

A plus is also that there’s no homophobia. Only some characters are pretty heteronormative, but that also comes because of their secrecy. 

Overall I do recommend it, if you’re into GL/Yuri, and just want something lighthearted to read/binge.

Read the series: 3rd – 5th January 2024
~Arden Skye

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