Hananoi-kun to Koi no Yamai

Hotaru Hinase has lived nearly sixteen years without romance. She is satisfied alone as long as she can enjoy the little things in life with her beloved friends and family. In her mind, she is not meant to fall in love, nor does she understand the concept.

While out with a friend, Hotaru witnesses the severe breakup of her schoolmate Hananoi, to whom she has never spoken. Afterward, she sees him sitting in the snow and holds her umbrella over him. To her surprise, this gesture results in him confessing his feelings for her at school the next day. Though Hotaru rejects him, Hananoi insists on letting her get to know him. He does whatever he can to woo her, from changing his hairstyle to finding her lost hairpin in the snow.

Although she has no romantic feelings towards him, Hotaru believes that by spending more time with him, she will learn how to love. She agrees to date him and slowly begins to navigate what being a girlfriend entails, including how to reciprocate the kind gestures that Hananoi continues to perform for her.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Hananoi, Saki Main

Kobayashi, Chiaki Japanese

Hinase, Hotaru Main

Hanazawa, Kana Japanese

Shibamura, Tsukiha Supporting

Sakamoto, Maaya Japanese

Kurata, Keigo Supporting

Oosaka, Ryouta Japanese

Yao, Souhei Supporting

Kimura, Ryouhei Japanese

Hinase, Kagari Supporting

Komatsu, Mikako Japanese

Hananoi's Grandmother Supporting

Takashima, Gara Japanese

Ginji Supporting

Uchida, Naoya Japanese

Nonchan Supporting

Kouno, Marika Japanese

Hananoi-kun's Aunt Supporting

Kurosu, Nobuhiko Producer

Matsumoto, Takuya Producer

Shioya, Yoshiyuki Producer

Sakurai, Ryousuke Producer

Reviews

Jun 29, 2024

mercurybyakugan

Recommended

I feel like a lot of people missed the purpose of this anime. Not all love is perfect and healthy the entire relationship. People are flawed, emotional, toxic, possessive, damaged, & countless other things. These two had their own hurdles to overcome and they found a way to identify their shortcomings & grow from it. They both dealt with major triggers early in their lives and started to unravel their issues together. They didn’t get it perfect each time but they kept at it with the goal of improving or learning more about their emotions.

If people took the time to truly understand the message, ... I think they’d appreciate the show more. This one wasn’t necessarily meant to make you feel all warm and bubbly from start to finish, it had a few lessons to teach that people don’t like to face themselves.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Jun 20, 2024

Marinate1016

Mixed Feelings

Well-written

Hananoi Kun is one of the most inconsistent shows I’ve watched recently. At times, it’s a great shoujo romance with some really cute and wholesome interactions between the main couple, and at other times it’s extremely uncomfortable due to the male lead’s toxic and overbearing behaviour. Luckily, the male lead does show signs of improvement and by the end of the season while still not great, he’s a lot more bearable. Certainly worth a watch for shoujo fans.

It’s hard to rag on this show too much because it did have some things I really liked. I think Hananoi and Hotaru while starting as a very ... unhealthy and seemingly random relationship do progress to have a stable mutually beneficial relationship in which they both grow as people and improve their insecurities. Hananoi being someone who’s dealt with a lot of trauma as a kid which has impacted how he views people and relationships, and Hotaru the traditional plain shoujo female lead who happens to pull the hottest guy in school.

I’ve said before and I’ll say again, this show felt like “I can fix him” the anime. Because of Hananoi’s unresolved trauma, he has some really unhealthy tendencies. Being overly possessive with Hotaru, not wanting her to talk to other guys or spend time with people besides him, he doesn’t believe he needs friends etc. While I get that the guy has been through a lot, it was just very hard to see some of the stuff he does in the show. To her credit, Hotaru is very sympathetic and tries to be considerate of Hananoi’s situation, but at times I felt like she enabled the behaviour rather than helping.

The show gives us a nice flashback arc at one point and to its credit, it does a good job of fleshing out Hananoi character and why he acts the way he does, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. I think it’s very clearly just something that a lot of girls are into and since I’m not a girl I can’t really relate.

As I said before, I still enjoyed a lot of the show. I think once the relationship became official, Hananoi and Hotaru had some really cute moments that made my heart flutter. I also appreciate that they were able to openly communicate about issues they had and move forward rather than avoiding problems. By the end of the show, we at least see some growth from the male lead and you get a sense that with enough time and patience from Hotaru, he’ll eventually get his act together. That’s all you can ask for with annoying characters. I’ve seen the manga being praised a lot so it’s probably just a situation of the show ending before things get really good.

Production wise, it’s pretty much your standard shoujo seasonal. Some cute art, mediocre animation, decent OST and a BANGER ED which actually is my 2nd fave this season.

So what’s the verdict on Hananoi kun? Worth watching? I’d say if you’re a big shoujo fan like myself it’s definitely worth it. There’s worse ways to spend 2 hours, just don’t expect furuba or Yubiren level writing. There’s some things I’d improve in the story, mainly Hananoi’s personality, but it’s a serviceable romance story with some nice moments.

Hananoi kun gets 7 out of 10.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Jun 20, 2024

SacredArrow2000

Not Recommended

This was a very disappointing anime within the spring releases.

In the beginning the story's premise was endearing. However, several issues quickly arose from the plot, unlikable characters, poor animation, lame OST and boring dialogue. Mainly, the overall concept of 'love' was obsessive and constantly brought up, to the point that the audience became desensitized by the word. The actual 'loving' moments between the main couple were also overdramatized and shallow.

It had the general foundation of a Shoujo anime, in which the characters are students in a high school setting, creating their own identities while trying to form relationships in romance, as well as with ... their peers and having uplifting tones overall. Unfortunately, with no comedic aspects or fun characters, the whole series was taken too seriously. The characters interactions felt more like an office setting then teenagers in school.

The female lead was portrayed as innocent, when she was simply naive from not having enough life experience. Her character was given more depth due to her trauma in middle school, making her rooted fear of 'falling in love' understandable to a degree. However, it didn't impact her ability to have friendships or be apart of social situations. Real trauma affects multiple areas of a person's life, it isn't as selective as this anime portrayed.

On the other hand, the male lead was consistently possessive, lacked his own interests and his fear of abandonment contributed to his stalker-like attitude. It was always brushed off as his 'trying too hard' personality, but if he didn't have a handsome character design, then their relationship's dynamic would have been drastically different.

The writing of the series both in plot and dialogue was subpar, not enough emotion was brought from these characters which made it difficult to connect with their love story.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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	Why does this anime has such a low rating? ( 1 2 ) Ello08 - Jun 19	52 replies	by TuyNOM »» 9 hours ago
	Poll: Hananoi-kun to Koi no Yamai Episode 6 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - May 9	56 replies	by SonOfNeptuno »» Jul 19, 5:30 PM
	Poll: Hananoi-kun to Koi no Yamai Episode 12 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - Jun 20	69 replies	by Ayunee »» Jul 13, 4:48 AM
	Is there reasonable hope for a 2nd season? (spoilers) griddyweeb - Jun 22	18 replies	by imjayhime »» Jul 11, 10:53 AM
	Poll: Hananoi-kun to Koi no Yamai Episode 5 Discussion ( 1 2 ) Stark700 - May 2	69 replies	by adbeaver »» Jul 4, 7:00 AM