"I love the happiness and the suffering. Because the only emotions I feel... are the ones you grant me."
At first, Hanasakeru Seishounen appears to be a rather typical reverse harem story. Young girl surrounded by several beautiful men, nothing new for the given genre. But don't let this throw you off. Soon enough, our protagonists, along with the three marriage candidates, get involved in a complicated political conspiracy of a small Middle Eastern country. They face great dangers as they travel across the world, learn to trust and support each other, discover new emotions within themselves, and mature in order to survive and reach their goals.
The story was nicely paced and very intriguing, with numerous plot twists -- I could not bring myself to stop watching it or to let any other anime interrupt it. I loved that although the story set off with romance in mind, it was not the main focus. I will even say that if the whole husband-choosing piece was not present, this anime would still be just as good.
At the end of the series, there was a certain sense of completeness, all questions were answered, all characters found their place in the world; it was a perfect spot to drop the curtain. I did feel a little sad, however, that such a great series came to a finale.
-CHARACTERS- 10/10
Kajika is not your typical damsel in distress constantly being saved by her male harem. She is strong and confident, is able to stand up for herself and to speak her mind when she has to. She is, however, rather slow when it comes to love and realizing her own feelings; but that is also understandable, considering that she grew up away from society and did not get a chance to experience romance until the husband game began. But even despite that, she treats each man with equal respect and consideration, which is very admirable.
To me, however, the most interesting characters are the men surrounding Kajika. Needless to say that they are also not your typical male stereotypes found in a reverse harem. What grabbed me the most is how each one of potential candidates represented a different kind of love. Li Ren's love is strong and deep, to the point of becoming possessive of Kajika, yet his pride as a head of his clan stops him from being honest. Eugene's love is noble and selfless; he is willing to spend an eternity just watching over Kajika, whether she chooses him or not. Lumati, a young heir of Raginei, is blunt and straightforward about his love, but is also ready to admit defeat if his rival is worthy. And lastly, Carl is rather reserved and indecisive, but is equally sincere with his love and respectful toward his rivals. I really loved that these characters are not at each other's throats all the time, despite "fighting" against each other and feeling jealous, and instead act like mature adults and take both Kajika and each other seriously. Li Ren and Eugene may be an exception to that, but I don't believe they were ever serious during their quarrels.
One character whose purpose I am still not sure about is Yui, Kajika's first female friend. She does not seem to do anything aside from exchanging letters with Kajika and fangirling over the male cast. She definitely belongs in a more typical shoujo setting, but thankfully her occurance was not frequent enough to cause a distraction.
-ART/ANIMATION- 8/10
Somewhere around episode 10 I found out that starting from episode 24 the series will have a different director. I was not worried about that. In fact, I was sure the series would become even better, considering that the second director is more experienced with shoujo anime and is famous for series like Fushigi Yuugi and Ayashi no Ceres. But unfortunately, as I later discovered, that change was not the best idea. It was obvious how the series became more "shoujo", with more diverse and less realistic facial expressions, and a couple super-deformed scenes here and there. However, Hanasakeru Seishounen is a dramatic story that had no need for comedy elements; if anything, they were a distraction. Kajika, who was now blushing and showing her "girly" side more often, almost started to look like a typical shoujo heroine. Semi-chibi elements seemed completely out of place in such a serious setting. The character designs also went through a slight change, and although it was not major, some general inaccuracies emerged; for example, Kajika described Eugene's eye color as "topaz" in the beginning, but with the direction change, his eyes became a mix of light green and yellow instead of a golden brown from the first twenty-three episodes.
The animation quality itself seemed to have improved in the second half and toward the end, and the opening animation also became more appealing, but I would still prefer that it did not undergo such a drastic change in the middle. Also, all the CG vehicles stood out too much and were a pain to look at; especially considering that cars, planes, and helicopters appeared on the screen very often because the characters moved around a lot between cities and countries.
-SOUND- 6/10
The background music was pretty good; it did not really grab my attention though, so there isn't much to discuss. I was not too impressed by the opening and ending songs either -- they were too "pop" for my tastes.
