"Billionaire bad boy with too many guns loves a stoic girl with super strength."

This is an old review from when I first read this in 2015. Keep in mind I haven't read this in a while.

Hana ni Arashi is a wild ride about a super strong girl and her breezy billionaire lover. It's Riko's goal in life to be ordinary, but Ran's not having that!

Story:
The basis of Riko's ordinary life gets encumbered by Ran's crazy life daily. Whatever wacky hijinks of the chapter usually revolves around two plots: 1. Assassin trying to kill/capture Ran 2. Assassin wanting Riko for himself (usually to be his bride).

With assassins as the forefront of the story, things do get somewhat serious. Large machine/military guns can be pulled out of anyone's pocket at any time though that's mostly done for a humorous effect.

SN: The side stories in Hana ni Arashi are mature and deal with abortion and molestation.

Characters:
After a bad rejection, Riko has dedicated herself to becoming ordinary when she's anything but that. The manga called her extremely flexible, but I think that's a bad translation for "super strong." This chick picked up an entire Christmas tree by herself!

I liked how when it wasn't needed for the plot (this is shoujo y'know) she saved herself. She did not regularly play the damsel in distress. Riko even had to save Ran once and issue out a rescue mission. Not much of her personality was shown, but she seemed to be stoic until Ran made her open up.

Ran, I think, is my favorite character. He's an eccentric, billionaire bad boy with too many guns and too much fun. He falls in love with Riko at first sight and tells her at GUNPOINT she will be his bride. Although being associated with him endangers her life, he can't stay away due to liking her so much. Instead, he places tracking devices on her.

He is just unorthodox like that. He's a clingy teenager who is used to being spoiled. There could have been some hidden development in his character if we had gotten to see his mother. Unfortunately, the mangaka couldn't squeeze that in. All in all, Ran's a goofball!

Baldy was a close second for my favorite. He had the best one-liners. Riko's classmates as a whole were cool. I loved how when an assassin attacked the school these idiots retaliated by throwing paper balls and WON.

Tachibana was confusing. I could never figure out if he was good or bad? I guess he stuck true to what most assassins believe; their allegiance is to the highest payer.

Relationship:
The relationship was rushed. It went from Ran annoying Riko to marry him to Riko deciding he wasn't so bad to her soulmate. I guess maybe it was fate that they were together. Riko never said "I love you," but it was shown in her actions.

Art:
I liked the art. Most of the characters were plain in appearance (Read: Riko and Baldy), but Ran and his father were gorgeous! They knew they had to be the eye candy with the way everyone else looked.

The only female assassin had the weirdest breasts, whenever she was in motion her side boob would stay static no matter what. I don't know if the mangaka was hinting her breast were fake or not, but it was funny. Also, I like how often Riko's eye-ware changed and the covers of the manga were excellent.

Overall, it's all right.

In conclusion, I wish the ending could have been more meaningful. Hana no Arashi was a mostly entertaining story though I got bored during the middle chapters. This should be a fun try for anyone looking for a short read. ( )

So cute! Had more fun reading this than I thought I would, and the romance is so great! Even the extra story was pretty good. Looking forward to getting my fangirly hands on the second (and sadly last!) volume of this series :) ( )

"Billionaire bad boy with too many guns loves a stoic girl with super strength."

This is an old review from when I first read this in 2015. Keep in mind I haven't read this in a while.

Hana ni Arashi is a wild ride about a super strong girl and her breezy billionaire lover. It's Riko's goal in life to be ordinary, but Ran's not having that!

Story:
The basis of Riko's ordinary life gets encumbered by Ran's crazy life daily. Whatever wacky hijinks of the chapter usually revolves around two plots: 1. An assassin trying to kill/capture Ran 2. Assassin wanting Riko for himself (usually to be his bride).

With assassins at the forefront of the story, things do get somewhat serious. Large machine/military guns can be pulled out of anyone's pocket at any time though that's mostly done for a humorous effect.

SN: The side stories in Hana ni Arashi are mature and deal with abortion and molestation.

Characters:
After a bad rejection, Riko has dedicated herself to becoming ordinary when she's anything but that. The manga called her extremely flexible, but I think that's a bad translation for "super strong." This chick picked up an entire Christmas tree by herself!

I liked how when it wasn't needed for the plot (this is shoujo y'know) she saved herself. She did not regularly play the damsel in distress. Riko even had to save Ran once and issue out a rescue mission. Not much of her personality was shown, but she seemed to be stoic until Ran made her open up.

Ran, I think, is my favorite character. He's an eccentric, billionaire bad boy with too many guns and too much fun. He falls in love with Riko at first sight and tells her at GUNPOINT she will be his bride. Although being associated with him endangers her life, he can't stay away due to liking her so much. Instead, he places tracking devices on her.

He is just unorthodox like that. He's a clingy teenager who is used to being spoiled. There could have been some hidden development in his character if we had gotten to see his mother. Unfortunately, the mangaka couldn't squeeze that in. All in all, Ran's a goofball!

Baldy was a close second for my favorite. He had the best one-liners. Riko's classmates as a whole were cool. I loved how when an assassin attacked the school these idiots retaliated by throwing paper balls and WON.

Tachibana was confusing. I could never figure out if he was good or bad? I guess he stuck true to what most assassins believe; their allegiance is to the highest payer.

Relationship:
The relationship was rushed. It went from Ran annoying Riko to marry him to Riko deciding he wasn't so bad to her soulmate. I guess maybe it was fate that they were together. Riko never said "I love you," but it was shown in her actions.

Art:
I liked the art. Most of the characters were plain in appearance (Read: Riko and Baldy), but Ran and his father were gorgeous! They knew they had to be the eye candy with the way everyone else looked.

The only female assassin had the weirdest breasts, whenever she was in motion her side boob would stay static no matter what. I don't know if the mangaka was hinting her breast were fake or not, but it was funny. Also, I like how often Riko's eye-ware changed and the covers of the manga were excellent.

Overall, it's all right.

In conclusion, I wish the ending could have been more meaningful. Hana no Arashi was a mostly entertaining story though I got bored during the middle chapters. This should be a fun try for anyone looking for a short read. ( )

I finally made myself finish reading this. Yay! Except I still have to get through volume 2...

Riko Kunimi wants nothing more than to be an ordinary high school girl. Unfortunately, her amazing physical abilities (super strength, ability to survive a three-story fall without injury, etc.) bring her to the attention of Ran Tachibana, the 17-year-old heir of one of the world's richest families. Ran is determined to marry her. He tells her he'll give up if she can evade him for the next 25 hours, but the deck is stacked against her. As Riko spends more time in Ran's world (because she has no choice), she learns that he's constantly in danger. And now that Riko is his fiancee, so is she.

I requested this one via interlibrary loan for two reasons. One, I liked the artwork on the cover. And two, I learned that the series was only two volumes long. Which I knew probably meant it was going to feel rushed, but short series are so much less daunting and time-consuming that I couldn't resist.

This first volume was a mess. It was too over-the-top and ridiculous for me to truly be enraged by it, but boy am I glad that I got this through the library and didn't buy it.

Ran's reason for falling in love with Riko was pretty silly, but I liked that his reaction to her physical abilities was usually a great big grin and some version of “Isn't she amazing?” He didn't seem to care that she could probably wipe the floor with him.

That said, as a romantic hero Ran sucked. He first met Riko when his driver almost ran her over. As the accident was happening, his first thought was “How am I going to hush this up?” Later, he arranged it so that he and Riko were locked up together and then got mad when she accidentally hit him while trying to get him to leave her alone. His exact words: “I'm being nice and you give me this attitude? What don't you like about me? My looks, family financial situation and prospects are great. If you ignore my personality, I'm perfect!” (29) That last line showed that Takagi was at least a little aware of how awful Ran was, and it might have worked out okay if he'd realized the error of his ways and backed off a bit (okay, more than a bit), but no. He basically badgered Riko into spending time with him, and then she let him convince her that she was falling in love with him.

Riko and Ran's various adventures, which included an assassin and a jealous rich kid, were pretty forgettable and weren't fun enough to make up for their terrible budding romance.

The volume included an extra unrelated story, “The Need for Artificial Respiration,” which was a bigger mess than the main story. The premise: Kiyoharu becomes curious about Toko, a girl in his school who once kissed him out of the blue. She doesn't seem to be dating anyone, but she spends a lot of time around one particular guy and is known for kissing a lot of guys.

Takagi tried to tell a serious story about a girl whoended up having an abortion, but the end result was muddled and confusing, and the characters were under-developed. Also, the sudden romance between Kiyoharu and Toko made me uncomfortable. Kiyoharu had no reason to fall for Toko, other than that one kiss she forced on him, and I got the impression that Toko had emotional problems she was trying to fix with boys.

Extras:

- A three-page Flower in a Storm bonus, in which Ran worries that he may be gaining weight.

- A one-page author's afterword.

- A brief note about the poem Ran quotes earlier in the volume.

Rating Note:

I initially considered giving this 2 stars, because I usually think of 1- and 1.5-star books as being memorable in their awfulness, and Flower in a Storm is fairly forgettable. However, writing about Ran reminded me of how much I disliked him. Enough to drop my rating a whole star! So there you go, 1 star.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )