Back in the day, and we are talking about years ago, I had a love hate relationship with Crunchy Roll. For starters, every time I heard the name I developed strong cravings for egg rolls and Chinese food, and I found myself completely confused with it's interface online. In the end, I was disappointed: not only did I not get to watch any anime, but I didn't even have any crispy goodness to show for it. Recently this year I gave Crunchy Roll another shot, and I not only found the anime searching and watching process light years easier, but I also found a pretty solid anime to watch: Hanasakeru Seishounen.
Hanasakeru Seishounen is about a noble 14 year old girl named Kajika who transferred to Japan from a tropical island for schooling, as per her agreement with her father. She ends up befriending Yamate Yui, a girl that reminds me of a Wakaba from Revolutionary Girl Utena, and after getting in trouble with a street gang leader, she is later escorted by to America by her bodyguard, Li Leng, to visit her father. Her father, wanting to get her daughter to chill, wants her to marry, and Kajika refuses. The father proposes a game that he would send in her path three men of whom she would know instinctively is a potential suitor for marriage, and she could choose one or none of the men to marry.
What I like:
For starters, the protagonist is actually intelligent. She's a high school student who is clearly wise beyond her years, and yet even her "immaturity" is more mature than anyone will likely ever encounter in American ADULTS. Futhermore, this is not a sexually driven. Except for some chicks from Texas, you aren't likely to see enormous boobs just hovering across your screen.
This anime does, however, explore the concept of love apart from sexuality. The title "Hanasakeru Seishounen" translates in English to "Blooming Young People", or "The Bloom of Youth." I personally feel that this anime was well named because the anime focuses on allowing love to develop naturally, which means that the sexual instinct is not always present from the get go. This is especially relevant to Kajika's age seeing how she is only 14 and apparently hasn't even fully went through puberty yet- characters and relatives alike all talk about how much she looks like a boy and lacks sex appeal. That's not to say that there is no sexual displays within the anime, but there aren't many with regard to the main character.
In addition to the focus of the anime not being sexual in nature, I find the attempt of utilizing characters from different nationalities to be extremely commendable. Actually, this anime is probably one of the few in which they place emphasis on the fact that all of the characters speak a different language. For example, there is a scene in which one of the suitors who is in Japan speaks English- though he's French- when trying to communicate with high school students, and they actually have him speaking English while Li Leng, Chinese and familiar with the Japanese language, teases the suitor for his inconsiderate and sometimes inappropriate behaviors, sometimes trash talking about him in Japanese. It's not perfect, but it's definitely commendable.
Finally, in general, this anime is practically a soap opera. Quite frankly, I think this would work extremely well as a drama as it is truly engaging with it's personal themes with regard to love and dynamic with its depiction of political tension. It is something that both men and women can watch and enjoy. And yet despite that, there are a few things that kind of piss me off about this anime. Actually, just three things...
What I dislike:
While the anime does incorporate people of various nationalities and cultures, their stereotypical depiction of African Americans and Islanders is kind of offensive. Kajika's servant is a heavy set black woman who is recognized for having raised Kajika after her mother was killed. Quite frankly, I think this is probably the most significantly racist- yes I said it- aspect of the anime. As a member of the human race, I am truly offended. I'm so offended that I'm going to knock one and half cups of ramen from the score of this anime just for stereotyping.
Furthermore, another African American character named Eddy is depicted as a untrustworthy and unscrupulous antagonist for a good part of the anime. While I'm personally fine with anyone being portrayed as an antagonist, I find it sad that the character's name is Eddy, and he looks a lot like Chris Tucker from Rush Hour. And that, is all that I really dislike from the anime.
So my ratings are.... 3.5 out of 5 cups of Stone Ramen!
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