On a winter's day in early 20th century Japan, the demon Vivi returns to his earthly home to find an infant squalling on his doorstep. Bored and curious, he brings the child indoors. No sooner does she meet his eyes than she stops crying, and dons a smile that his butler, Tony, likens to a flower. Charmed by her innocence, Vivi adopts her on a whim. He names her 'Hana', after the plant whose image her smile evokes. Under Vivi's care, Hana's grown from a screaming infant into a cheerful young lady. The orphan Vivi considered 'expendable' is gone, leaving him to struggle with this affectionate young Miss and his own feelings for her. Though Hana knows he's a demon, the consequences seem to escape her: She still throws daytime tea parties (annoying; demons are nocturnal), gifts Vivi with flowers (pointless; a demon's touch kills them), and insists they'll grow old together (impossible; demons age too slowly).
Knowing Hana's dreams are unreachable, Vivi rejects her advances in hopes of putting some distance between them. But when old acquaintances from the Demon Realm show up to speed the process along, Vivi realizes Hana's not the only one with an irrational attachment...
Hana to Akuma ("Hana and the Demon") is a shojo manga by Hisamu Oto, which ran in Hana to Yume from 2007 to 2011. It boasts a fast-paced story, charming cast (of which the male-to-female ratio is surprisingly equal) and clean, attractive art. Though its premise isn't exactly groundbreaking, the characters hold their own and sport a surprising depth of emotion. This applies not only to Hana and Vivi, but their friends and enemies as well.
This show provides examples of:
- Aerith and Bob: There are names like Felten, Hana, and Klaus. And then there's Tony. (It's Toni!)
- Arc Words: "Demons can't touch flowers. If a demon touches a flower, it wilts."
- Arranged Marriage: High-class demons' are basically arranged from birth.
- Battle Butler: Lucifer's sword-bearing manservant.
- Bishie Sparkle: Where Felten goes, sparkles follow.
- Bittersweet Ending: Hana and Vivi did get married, but Hana eventually dies of old age, leaving him with two children.
- Embarrassing First Name: Momo, due to it usually being a girl's name (Momotarou being a similar but more common boy name).
- Everyone Can See It: Happens after Hana realizes her feelings for Vivi but tries to hide it.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Subverted. Felten only thinks he's Vivi's best friend. It's obvious Felten and Vivi have some kind of friendship but Vivi's too Tall, Dark, and Snarky to admit it.
- Poor Communication Kills:
- At least in the beginning, Hana and Vivi constantly misinterpret each other's actions as disaffection because their thoughts run on completely different tracks.
- This also starts to happen later on after Hana comes to realize her feelings for Vivi.
- She Is All Grown Up:
- Hana takes a potion that ages her up a couple years. Most fangirls consider Vivi's reaction squeeworthy.
- Momo takes the same potion in a later chapter, and proves handsome enough.
- After the timeskip Hana now looks like her potion induced aged-up self. Apparently Vivi didn't expect her to change so much after not seeing her for three years...This moment can be considered even more Squeeworthy than the above
- When You Coming Home, Dad?: Happens to Hana toward Vivi. He told her he was only going to be gone for 3 years. Three months after that, Hana kept attempting to get to the mansion with this mentality.
- Spell My Name With An S:
- Some of the translators turned Vivi into Bibi in earlier chapters.
- Most of the demons' names had multiple readings until the author released a page with all the characters' names in romaji, which established Vivi, Velten and Eleanor as the correct readings.
