Joō no Hana

Joō no Hana (Japanese: 女王の花; lit. "The Queen's Flower") is a Japanese historical romance manga 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]

Joō no Hana
女王の花
Genre	Fantasy,[1] historical, romance,[2]
Manga
Written by	Kaneyoshi Izumi
Published by	Shogakukan
Imprint	Flower Comics
Magazine	Betsucomi
Original run	October 13, 2007 (2007-10-13) – December 13, 2016 (2016-12-13)
Volumes	15 (List of volumes)

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]

In 2015, Joō no Hana won the 60th Shogakukan Manga Award for Best Shōjo Manga.^[1]

Volumes

No.	Japanese release date	Japanese ISBN
1	August 26, 2008[6][9]	978-4-09-132009-4
2	July 26, 2010[10][11]	978-4-09-133383-4
3	January 26, 2011[12][13]	978-4-09-133654-5
4	July 26, 2011[14][15]	978-4-09-133690-3
5	January 26, 2012[16][17]	978-4-09-134308-6
6	August 24, 2012[18][19]	978-4-09-134500-4
7	February 26, 2013[20][21]	978-4-09-135085-5
8	August 26, 2013[22][23]	978-4-09-135449-5
9	February 26, 2014[24][25]	978-4-09-135764-9
10	August 26, 2014[26][27]	978-4-09-136312-1
11	February 26, 2015[28][29]	978-4-09-136820-1
12	August 26, 2015[30][31]	978-4-09-137649-7
13	February 26, 2016[32][33]	978-4-09-138289-4
14	August 26, 2016[34][35]	978-4-09-138479-9
15	March 24, 2017[7][36]	978-4-09-139124-7

Reception

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]

In 2015, Joō no Hana won the 60th Shogakukan Manga Award for Best Shōjo Manga.^[1]