yamato nadeshiko

Yamato Nadeshiko

Overview

Kyouhei, Ranmaru, Takenaga, and Yukinojou are a bunch of pretty boys have been given a task by their landlady in exchange for staying at her house for free - they have to turn her niece, Sunako, into a proper lady. However it proves to be more than a challenge as Sunako is a strange, scary girl who hates beautiful things (she gets nosebleeds whenever she sees the four boys) and loves nothing more than to lurk in the shadows of her dark room playing with her toys that include a skeleton and a anatomy model.
Sunako happens to be like that because she was called "ugly" by a boy, the first and only person to whom she confessed her love. This incident sparks a life change.

So she locked herself away in a world of solitude due to a traumatic experience with her first love. She has especially mixed feelings about Kyouhei, and as the storyline progresses, their relationship becomes more solid and intimate. She even shared a kiss with him.

Source: Wikipedia

Cast:

Kyohei Takano

While he says that all he cares about is getting free (or the lowest amount required to be paid) rent, he has a soft spot for Sunako and empathizes with her more so than the others. He is the most popular of the boys, and always has trouble keeping down a part-time job because his fans will chase after him, or his boss (male or female) will sexually harass him. Kyohei is cocky, short-tempered, and the only one tough enough to fight on the same level as Sunako. His hair is modeled after Tackey of Tackey and Tsubasa. He also tends to succumb to food and money. Since Sunako is the only girl who is able to understand his true personality regardless of his good looks, he gradually develops an obvious attraction towards her, even going as far as kissing her for no apparent reason. In latest chapters he seems to be aware of his feelings to at least a small degree, looking at a loss when it seems Sunako loves a guy (she doesn't) and when witnessing said guy hug a girl rushes to find Sunako after buying chocolates 'for himself' (to console her- he doesn't eat a single one). He seems to have softened towards her more in chapter 91, telling her she's fine just the way she is when she's upset, scolding her for lying on a dangerous place and telling the 'old man' who talked to her not to fill Sunako's head with too many strange ideas, that he and the others would be worried if she went to the underworld.

Source: Wikipedia

Oda Takenaga

A serious and intelligent young man from a wealthy family of Ikebana masters. Takenaga is usually the voice of reason amongst the foursome and the least fazed by Sunako's morbid habits. However, he is emotionally reserved as a result of extreme pressure as his family's heir; as a result, Takenaga is too shy to express his feelings towards his girlfriend, Noi. As the manga progresses, he becomes more social and open about himself.

Source: Wikipedia

 

Ranmaru Morii

Ranmaru is a notorious playboy who is the only son of a wealthy family of hotel chain owners. He is extroverted, confident, and a self-professed expert of love and women, having dated many older married women. However, he has a good heart and cares for his friends and is the most active in the goal towards making Sunako into an ideal lady. He is later engaged to a reserved and sheltered girl, whose unusual attitude towards him creates mixed feelings and makes him unsure of his playboy ways.

Source: Wikipedia

Sunako Nakahara

The female lead, Sunako locked herself away and chose to live without any desire for light or beauty after a traumatic experience where she was rejected by her first love. Sunako is a lover of solitude, gory movies, anatomical dolls and objects that reflect the "ugly" side of life as she puts it; her interests resulted in her distorted view of reality and isolation contributed to her low self-esteem.She is intelligent, talented in numerous areas, particularly cooking, and is an exceptionally strong fighter. However, by living with Kyouhei and the other boys, she gradually interacts with other people and slowly sheds her anti-social tendencies. She has especially mixed feelings about Kyouhei and as the storyline progresses, their relationship becomes more solid and intimate.

Source: Wikipedia

Toyama Yukinojo

A gentle and kind boy who is devoted to his friends, Yuki comes from an ordinary family to board with the Landlady, who is a friend of his mother's. He is the most innocent and easily frightened of the four, especially in regards to entering Sunako's room. Because of his effeminate features, he is often reluctantly forced to dress up like a girl, which has led to self-esteem issues.

Source: Wikipedia

Noi Kasahara

Most likely the most beautiful girl at school, Noi becomes friends with Sunako in order to become closer to Takenaga, though genuinely values her friendship with Sunako and greatly admires her abilities. She is Sunako's first female friend and stands up for her when their classmates make fun of her. Because of her quick temper and romantic notions, she and Kyouhei often argue, particularly in regards to Sunako. Noi loves Takenaga unfailingly, but often questions the nature of their relationship as Takenaga is too shy to make his feelings toward her more explicit. Like the boys, Noi is not that good when it comes to housework.

Source: Wikipedia

Special A

Overview

Hikari Hanazono has always been second to Kei Takishima. When they were six years old, their pro-wrestling loving fathers introduced them to each other. Assuming that she was the best in wrestling, young Hikari challenged Kei to a wrestling match only to be thoroughly defeated by him. Ever since that fateful incident, Hikari swore to beat Kei in school grades, sporting events - anything. To do this, she has enrolled in the same school as Kei since elementary. Now she attends Hakusenkan, an ultra elite school, that costs her carpenter father a lot of money. Hikari and Kei are the top two students in the school, with Kei holding firmly to that number one position. While Hikari considers Kei to be a rival and important friend, she is completely unaware that Kei loves her. The story primarily focuses on Hikari and her constant attempts to defeat her one and only rival, Kei, and how she finds love in their rivalry.

Extended Information

At the age of 6, Hanazono Hikari and Takishima Kei were brought together because of their fathers' love for wrestling. Being undefeated, Hikari tasted her first defeat by Kei, and from that day on, she vowed to surpass Kei (who is now her eternal rival), who is extremely talented at whatever he attempts. As teenagers, they both attend the same expensive elite school where the top 7 students form the group known as the "Special A", where Kei is ranked 1st and Hikari is 2nd. The story revolves around their interactions with the other 5 members of the Special A and their day to day school lives where Hikari challenges to defeat Kei, not knowing how he actually feels deep inside.

Her whole life, Hikari Hanazono has been consumed with the desire to win against her school rival, Kei Takishima--at anything. He always comes out on top no matter what he does, and Hikari is determined to do whatever it takes to beat this guy . . . somehow! Hikari Hanazono goes to an elite school where the students in each grade are divided by their test scores into groups A through to F. Group A is the top seven students in each class, and thats enough to get the respect of the entire school. But. . . the best students from the first three grades are placed into another group called "Special A" or "SA" for short. "SA" students have special uniforms to seperate them from the rest of the students, and they spend most of their time at school in their own building known as "Paradise on campus".

Source: Wikipedia

Cast:

Kei Takishima

Ranked first in school, Kei is the son of the CEO of Takishima Corporation. As Hikari's undefeated rival, he likes to refer to her as "Number Two", which never fails to provoke her. He has a photographic memory and the ability to do anything right on his first try. He usually prefers to do things on his own until Hikari shows him how much fun it can be to work together with others. Kei loves Hikari, a fact that he does not deny, and has loved her since they were children. However, he has not confessed his love to her because he knows that Hikari does not understand those feelings and would think that he is referring to a love between friends. Although he is stoic most of the time and always maintains a calm facade, things involving Hikari can bring intense anxiety out of him. It always bothers him whenever Hikari pushes herself too hard or causes trouble, but her strong will and determination are the reasons why he admires and respects her.

Source: Wikipedia

 

Hikari Hanazono

Hikari is the protagonist of the story. She holds the 2nd position in school for having the best grades. Self-proclaimed as Kei Takishima's greatest competitor, she is determined to beat him in any kind of competition. Stubborn, proud and hot-headed, Hikari never backs down from a challenge, especially one from Kei, because she is constantly looking for an opportunity to surpass him, though has never done so. A kind girl who always worries about others, Hikari sometimes lacks common sense. She is good at sports and academics, but she is very bad at teaching, cooking, and sewing (any other domestic work). Although she can handle her own in a fight (often against boys), Kei, nonetheless, gets irritated whenever she puts herself in danger. Although Hikari is rather sensitive to others, she is quite dense when it comes to love. She is oblivious to the romantic feelings Kei has for her, though everyone else knows that Kei is in love with her. In volume four Hikari begins to fall in love with Kei, though she does not realize it until volume six.

Source: Wikipedia

Jun Yamamoto

Jun is ranked 3rd in school and is Megumi's younger twin brother. The son of a music producer and a talented singer, Jun loves music more than anything else, but ironically has little talent for music. Usually quiet and kindhearted, Jun has a split personality which he has concealed from everyone except Megumi and Ryuu. Triggered whenever he is kissed by a girl or receives a lot of affection, he becomes irrestible to nearly all women and is able to charm them effortlessly. His split personality resulted from an hypnotism program that Jun watched as a child and first emerged when he was still in grade six. During a date with a girl, he changed and all the other girls around him became mesmerized by him; this led the girl Jun was dating to hate him and call him disgusting. The only thing that can bring him back to his original self is by losing consciousness.

Source: Wikipedia

Megumi Yamamoto

Megumi is ranked 4th in school and is Jun's older twin sister. She is the daughter of a famous vocalist and music producer and shares her brother's love of music, but, like Jun, she does not possess any musical talent at all. A cute and nice girl who rarely joins in disputes, Megumi is always quiet and refuses to speak because she wants to save her voice for singing. She usually writes on a sketchpad to communicate with others, but will speak when deeply upset (usually in the form of a shout), which can generally have devastating after-effects. She rarely speaks to people normally on a consistent basis with the exception of Yahiro, who encourages her to sing. Although her singing usually has disastrous effects, Yahiro theorizes that she probably sings very well, but that it needs to be in an open area and at a great distance - eventually demonstrating that she has an amazingly beautiful voice. While he had initially ordered her to during a "game" in which she was trying to make him happy, she eventually begins to do so under her own volition and gradually develops feelings for him. Like Jun, she is very close to Ryuu; she can be fiercely protective of them both, and thinks of Ryuu as much of her family as her brother. Megumi also happens to be bad at sports and dislikes them.

Source: Wikipedia

Tadashi Karino

Innocent and carefree, Tadashi is ranked 5th in school. His mother, a fierce and intimidating woman, is the director of the school and the primary reason why he is in the SA; she told him he would be allowed to do whatever he wanted if he became a member of the SA. He suffers from wanderlust and frequently likes to vanish on some journey and return later for special school events. Tadashi is smarter than he looks and acts, though is usually the character who is most often comically attacked (frequently by Akira and Kei) because of his careless comments or reckless behavior. He loves Akira, but often makes rude, weird, stupid or inappropriate comments that provoke her to beat him up. Tadashi also seems to enjoy playing with puppets, is fond of Akira's cooking, and appears to like being beaten up by her.

Source: Wikipedia

Akira Toudou

Akira holds the 6th position in school and is the daughter of the owner of an airline company. She is very fond of Hikari and cute girls. Akira is very enthusiastic about her afternoon tea, and has even constructed her own kitchen on campus. Akira apparently loves Tadashi, but never seems to hold back when hitting him for teasing her. In chapter 37 she finally confesses to him, and he tells her that he returns her feelings.

Because of Akira's parents, she often played with Kei and Yahiro during her childhood days. She was surrounded by the most powerful people in kindergarten, so nobody dared to approach her, since the two are very protective. She used to envy all the other girls who were able to play freely. She was good friends with Yahiro as a child, but due to a misunderstanding resulting from Yahiro's protective and somewhat selfish behavior, she avoids him whenever possible. Her dislike of him stems from Yahiro causing her childhood friend Sayo to despise her when her family had to move away; since Yahiro never told her that he had discovered Sayo had only befriended Akira because she was rich in order to protect her, Akira continues to blame Yahiro for the loss of Sayo. She eventually accepts him as one of her friends again, though does not reciprocate Yahiro's feelings for her.

Source: Wikipedia

Ryuu Tsuji

Ryuu holds the 7th position in school, although his test scores are a poor reflection of his intellectual prowess. He is in 7th place mainly because of the twins - Megumi tends to fall asleep and Jun becomes bored during the test, which results in Ryuu focusing the part of his attention on them instead of his own exam. He has been close to Megumi and Jun since they were very young; it is evident that he cares for the twins very much and that the three of them see each other as family. An even-tempered and kindhearted person, Ryuu loves animals and is good with children. He is also the first amongst the S.A to discover Finn's real gender, a secret that few people in the world know, and appears to be developing feelings for her. He is the son of the CEO of a sports company and one of his family's clients is Yahiro's family.

Source: Wikipedia

special a