Here is Greenwood is a manga written by Yukie Nasu, about a specific dorm at an all boys high school. It was first published in 1986 in Japan and ran for 11 volumes . It was later turned into a 6 episode OVA which was fun in its own right, but couldn't quite catch the entire charm of the manga itself. The OVA was released first in the US and was the first thing I saw. A few years ago, VIZ bought the rights to the manga. Currently. 8 volumes of it have been released. The OVAs have also been redubbed since then. All of it is worth your time. Here Is Greenwood is about Ryokuto Academy, an all boys school. More specifically, a particular dorm in the school, called Ryokurin-Ryo-- known by it's students as "Greenwood". Greenwood a term that came from Europe. It's used to describe the meeting place or living place of outlaws or misfits. (Think like Robin Hood's hideout). And when Kazuya Hasukawa enters the Academy and is assigned to the dorm, he has to agree with that title. To the students not living in Greenwood, it's a place where all the weirdos are. To those within the dorm, it's almost strange enough to call home. While it makes an okay anime, Here is Greenwood is by far my most favorite title in my manga collection. And it does it without magical transformations, extreme super powers, giant robots, and animal mascots. Yukie Nasu is a fantastic story teller. The charm of this series is that it feels so real to life and yet, magical at the same time. Some of the things that happen to our boys (aliens, ghosts, lesbians, etc) seem a bit out of this world. Yet it happens in such a way and in such a setting that it makes you feel like it really could happen. The characters themselves are all well developed and believable. As you're sucked into their world you begin to start accepting all the weirdness as just another day. And maybe you'll even find yourself wanting to visit Greenwood yourself--or seeing a bit of it in your own world. I've known I wanted to spotlight someone from Here is Greenwood in the BOM for a while. It it just such a shame so few people know of this awesome series. I don't know why the shounen-ai fans haven't jumped all over this one. I mean, it IS an all boy's dorm and there really is some shounen-ai in this series. I'm not kidding! I love this series and it has shounen-ai in it! We are not gay-haters here! You freaky yaoi fangirl idiots! Go bother someone else! Sheesh! Anyhow, I've been trying to decide which of the main four I wanted to spotlight for a while, and I just couldn't decide. So I broke the rules a little and decided just to touch a bit on all four. And I think it should be this way with this series. These guys are kind of a package deal. If you have them by themselves, they're kind of interesting, but not so much so as when you see them interact with each other. That's when the fun begins. So here I am saluting the boys of Greenwood and this absolutely fantastic manga!

Name: Kazuya Hasukawa Birthplace: Tokyo Zodiac: Capricorn Blood Type: A Special ability: Fastest runner you've ever seen. Kazuya has had more troubles than any one student could possibly handle. One bad thing after another has happened to him as he tried to get into Ryokuto Academy. But he is determined to get in. After all, he can't go home. Not when his older brother Hiro has turned their house into a newly-wed love nest. And to top it all off, his wife happens to be Kazuya's first love. Unable to stand home life, Kazuya finally manages to get in, only to be assigned the Greenwood dorm--where all the weirdo's are. And their ringleaders, Mitsuru and Shinobu, seem to be there only to tease Kazuya and make him more miserable. The first thing they do when he arrives is convince him that Shun, who really is a guy, just VERY feminine looking, is a girl. The fact that his brother is the school nurse at this all boy's school and his sister-in-law is constantly visiting doesn't help any. Nor does it stop our main boys from teasing him. But are they really doing it to be mean, or are they trying to get Kazuya to finally let go and enjoy life?

Name: Mitsuru Ikeda Birthplace: Tokyo Zodiac: Ares Blood Type: A Special Ability: Wounds to the face heal quickly without scarring. Mitsuru is neither ambitious nor the leader type. Yet, his charm and charisma won him the position of Dorm Head at Greenwood. And he takes full advantage of that. Also known as a pretty boy and a womanizer, Mitsuru is constantly swamped by girls any time he leaves the school grounds. Mitsuru is always happy and smiling though he comes from a troubled past. He was a bit of a trouble maker and even had some gang involvement in junior high. He is also adopted and distances himself from his family even though they love him and treat him like one of their own. But Mitsuru still seems to get real joy out of giving his lower classman, Kazuya a hard time about everything.

Name: Shinobu Tezuka Birthplace: Nagano Zodiac: Capricorn Blood Type: A Special Ability: Super smart schemer Shinobu is the "dark" character of the bunch. When he smiles it is never sincere and he always has an ulterior motive to everything he does. As my sister puts it "He sits on a throne of lies" as almost everything he tells Kazuya is flasehood. He seems to take morbid pleasure in seeing his lower classman's reaction as he falls for ruse after ruse. Shinobu comes from a rich and powerful family. He is destined to inherit all the family's power and money despite the fact that he has two older siblings. One of which is a sister who is absolutely insane and is obsessed with taking his inheritance away from him. But Shinobu is one who is hardly ever out done and practices his shrewd business sense at the dorm, often using the charismatic Mitsuru as a front to disguise his real plans. It remains to be seen whether Mitsuru and Shinobu are really best friends or bitter enemies.

Name: Shun Kisaragi Birthplace: Shizouka Zodiac: Libra Blood Type: AB Special Ability: Looks like a girl. As Kazuya's roommate, Shun is about as easy going as they come. He'ss about the most normal and mentally sane of them all; if you can over look the fact that he looks like a female. He also seems to enjoy confusing and frustrating his fellow classmates by even looking more the part by the way he dresses. I think he may want to watch out or might get jumped one of these days even if he is a guy. Shun comes from a well to do family of hotel/bath house owners in which the women are always the head of the household. Though this time, it's just Shun and his younger brother. So in order to prepare to take over the family business, Shun has always appeared as feminine as he can. However, his mother recently gave bith to a baby girl, automatically taking Shun out of the running as family head. But this doesn't bother him one bit and we'll see if it even affects the way he chooses to keep his physical appearance or not.

~Ty-Chou



No-chan: Greenwood is a fun show, and I'm really enjoying the manga, too! The books take a LONG time to read but that's ok! The boys are all cute, and some are evil, and I always feel so bad for Hasukawa! He's so picked on. Good pick, Ty-chou!

Nie-chan:

Pan-Pan: Had some trouble getting into this series, but Shinobu and Mitsuru make it awesome (at least I think so! *L*). They're cute with just a hint of evil. Nice pick!

Kime: I really liked this manga. All the stories were great and I *really* liked Shun. Even though he looks like a girl, I think he is awesome. Although, I think he would look really hot with a shorter haircut. Oh yeah . . .