Joō no Hana (Japanese: 女王の花, lit. "The Queen's Flower") is a Japanese historical romancemanga series written and illustrated by Kaneyoshi Izumi. The story revolves around Aki, a cheerful princess who is treated coldly by others, despite her royal title. One day, Aki meets Hakusei, a slave boy with golden hair and blue eyes. The two form a bond, overcoming their differences in status; however, danger awaits them.[1][3]
The manga premiered in Shogakukan's Betsucomi magazine in the November 2007 issue (released on October 13).[4] It was serialized on an irregular basis until the June 2010 issue (released on May 13), after which it was serialized every other month.[5] The final chapter was published in the January 2017 issue (released on December 13, 2016).[2] Shogakukan collected the individual chapters into fifteen bound volumes under the Flower Comics imprint from August 26, 2008, to March 24, 2017.[6][7] The manga is licensed in France by Kazé Manga.[8]
Volume 2 reached the 14th place on the weekly Oricon manga charts and, as of August 1, 2010, has sold 45,260 copies;[37] volume 3 reached the 12th place and, as of January 30, 2011, has sold 42,495 copies;[38] volume 4 reached the 18th place and, as of July 31, 2011, has sold 45,389 copies;[39] volume 5 reached the 17th place[40] and, as of February 5, 2012, has sold 64,506 copies;[41] volume 6 reached the 26th place and, as of August 26, 2012, has sold 33,083 copies;[42] volume 7 reached the 11th place[43] and, as of March 9, 2013, has sold 71,625 copies;[44] volume 8 reached the 19th place and, as of September 1, 2013, has sold 59,147 copies;[45] volume 9 reached the 13th place[46] and, as of March 9, 2014, has sold 67,088 copies;[47] volume 10 reached the 17th place and, as of August 31, 2014, has sold 47,811 copies;[48] and volume 11 reached the 27th place and, as of March 1, 2015 has sold 40,701 copies.[49]
The series has a staff grade of 15.47 out of 20 on the French manga website Manga-News.com.[50]
^"Joô no Hana vo". manga-news.com (in French). Retrieved March 11, 2015.
^今月号のベツコ – 11月号 [This month's issue of Betsuco – November issue]. Betsucomi (in Japanese). Archived from the original on October 25, 2007. Retrieved December 8, 2019.
