Hachimitsu no Hana

I have a lot of mixed feelings for this manga...


There were some interesting characters and backstories and I pretty much liked most of them except for the Female MC.


I understand this takes place during the Meiji Period, so generally women tend to be more conservative and shy.


And that was what the author was going for... she's the typical nice character with a pure heart and innocent. She was 14/15 during the manga, though by the end another 1-2 years might have passed.

But we all know from world history that there were just as many risqué men and women, and it wasn't as conservative compared to modern times as we thought.


But anyway, that's not the main point.


She was so innocent that she blew up every single time Lan got remotely close to her, and it was such a dapper. The first few times ok... bit as the years went by, surely you can go beyond blushing when he stares at you or tries to hold your hand.


And don't women usually get married at that age back in that era?


The romance understandably was hindered by her 'maid status' which I find more convincing since their class/status was ingrained into them for hundreds of years.


That's something you can't change, but romance between two people, surely is another issue.

The lack of progress in their relationship was so stagnant, even though they got together in the first/second chapter. It would have been a different story if they fell in love throughout the 12 chapters, that way we can at least see slow progress.


In shoujo romances, I prefer a balance between realism and escapism.


This manga definitely was axed, having introduced Mari can only be meant as more drama aka more chapters to fill.


I didn't quite like the art, it was very cluttered. It's an issue for me when mangakas try to fill in as much white space as possible for each page, adding too many frames etc.

I prefer cleaner pages, less frames, larger closeup drawings and easier to follow direction of said frames.


The back stories were interesting for the side characters, even Mari to a certain point.


tl;dr the female MC just ruins the enjoyment of the manga. I understand her self pity, lack of confidence but she was 1-dimensional and her character wasn't well developed in the beginning nor by the end. She wasn't a terrible character, but she wasn't nuanced enough and was too sugary sweet for my taste.

Her monologues helped but the romance suffered, and that was the core of this series imo.

Had some potential but meh overall

Kind of feels like it was axed prematurely? I mean I'm sure this was not the original ending the Mangaka was planning.

Well, sweet story in any case. Though the UST was killing me.

This is really bad. Cliches everywhere.

 

Poor young maid meets ill-mannered noble boy. Ill-mannered noble boy is misunderstood by everyone except for poor young maid. Poor young maid is self-conscious of her poor-young-maid-ness. Poor young maid melts ill-mannered boy's heart. Poor young maid and ill-mannered boy face difficulties but fall in love and be happy anyway.

 

(I've only read [most] of the first chapter, but I can tell where this manga is going..)

 

Decent art, though!

 

Not sure you can call the entire story "really bad" after reading (less than) one chapter. Sure, it's cliche, but it's still really cute and the ill-mannered boy quickly turns very sweet. There's not too much drama and it's just overall very fluffy. I enjoyed it

This is really bad. Cliches everywhere.

 

Poor young maid meets ill-mannered noble boy. Ill-mannered noble boy is misunderstood by everyone except for poor young maid. Poor young maid is self-conscious of her poor-young-maid-ness. Poor young maid melts ill-mannered boy's heart. Poor young maid and ill-mannered boy face difficulties but fall in love and be happy anyway.

 

(I've only read [most] of the first chapter, but I can tell where this manga is going..)

 

Decent art, though!

A good sweet manga, lovely characters, sweet stories. Sadly the ending is a bit lacking...I like resolution darn you!