Cant get enough of this series. ( )

This is easily the weakest book in the series thus far. It's mostly just a bunch of uninteresting "school festival" crap, as is thoroughly overdone in anime and manga rather often, all on the literary level of a bad sitcom. I would have rated it two stars, but there is a shorter story in the back of the book called "The Thirsty Moon" in this translation, and it's good enough to justify the cover price all by itself (a solid four-star story). On balance, I think that makes the fourth book in this series worth about three stars.

I probably won't read any more of them; I only got this far because the first four books were all available at the same thrift store at the same time and I decided to check them out. ( )

The fourth volume sees Mizuki and her classmates beginning the annual school festival, where competitions abound. Each dorm accrues points as the week progresses, and the dorm with the most points at the end of the festival is the winner. Normally, this would just entail the honor of winning, but of course Nanba had to take things a step further. In his rivalry with the other dorm leaders, they made a wager - whoever wins can keep his hair; the losers must shave. So stakes are high, and everyone in the dorm is doing their best not to let their leaders down. Most of the events are physical - relay races, basketball, and chicken fights - but some tend to the dramatic. On the second day, dorms must provide entertainment, and Dorm 2 puts on a cross-dressing show and restaurant. In a manga with this as a dominant theme, that is hardly surprising. The author uses every chance she can get of dressing Mizuki as a girl and further flummoxing the boys around her. An added element of drama is introduced when it becomes apparent that mysterious persons from Dorm 1 have targeted Mizuki, and are trying to use "accidents" to take her out of the competition. Good thing Sano is around to protect her, allowing readers to swoon over his jealous guardianship of her. I really enjoyed the festival books, they have a lot of action, great character dynamics, and good romantic moments between Sano and Ashiya. Also, the cross dressing never fails to amuse me. This volume breaks mid-action, and I look forward to rereading the next one to remember how the festival winds up. ( )

Hana-Kimi's still awesome! I'm really surprised it's still holding my attention, but I love the characters and the new plots are still a lot of fun.

This volume also includes the bonus story "The Thirsty Moon", which is actually a bit of a disappointment.

Second time reading:
Character groooooowth! It always makes me happy, especially in shoujo manga. I really love Mizuki and Sano and Nakatsu and all the background characters whose names I don't know. I love them all. And I love the messes they get into. ( )