Hana Yori Dango Review

Drama: Hana Yori Dango
Alternate Titles: 花より男子/Boys Before Flowers/Boys Over Flowers
Genre: Romance
Language: Japanese
Number of Episodes: 9
Film Date: October 2005
Favorite Episode: 9
My Rating: 5/5


Main Cast: Inoue Mao as Makino Tsukushi
Matsumoto Jun as Domyouji Tsukasa
Oguri Shun as Hanazawa Rui
Matsuda Shota as Nishikado Soujiroh
Abe Tsuyoshi as Mimasaka Akira




Introduction/Description of Main Characters:
Makino Tsukushi - An ordinary girl from a middle-class family, Makino is enrolled in the most exclusive school in all of Japan: the much admired and envied Eitoku High School. However, Makino is not in the least enamoured of her wealthy classmates and their diamond watches. Instead, she dislikes the ostentatious show of extravagance around her, and longs for the day when she will be able to leave the school. In the meantime, she vows to keep her head down and avoid attracting attention, especially by the infamous F4. Unfortunately, that vow doesn't last long when her friend accidentally bumps into Domyouji Tsukasa with her lunch tray. Makino automatically stands up for her friend, and as a result, is bullied by F4 and the whole school. Strangely, Domyouji Tsukasa ends up falling for Makino.
Domyouji Tsukasa - The violent leader and heir of the Domyouji World Finance Group, he has never liked any girl until he meets Makino, a different girl from all the other ones and the only one he has "approved" of. He tries to buy Makino but realizes that the one thing he can't buy is her.
Hanazawa Rui - The most quiet and thoughtful of the group, Hanazawa Rui loves reading books. Everytime Makino is bullied, he rescues her, making Makino fall in love with him, but in reality, he's in love with Shizuka, his childhood friend and now famous model.
Nishikado Soujiroh - Player (aka ladykiller), Soujiroh is also the heir of a tea ceremony school. Later on in the drama, Makino's friend Yuki starts to like Soujiroh.
Mimasaka Akira - A madam killer who is notorious for his affairs with older married women, Akira has ties to the underground. He and Soujiroh are famous for their many affairs.


My Favorite Songs: Hana Yori Dango Opening Theme Song


Synopsis: Makino Tsukushi is the only poor student at Eitoku Gakuen, the school of the ridiculously rich and privileged that is ruled by F4 (or Flower 4), a group of four boys who come from extremely powerful families: Domyouji Tsukasa, the leader and heir of the Domyouji World Finance Group; Hanazawa Rui, the introverted son of a large company; Nishikado Sojiroh, a player who is the heir of a tea ceremony school, and Mimasaka Akira, a madam killer with ties to the underground. If a student gets on the F4’s bad side, he/she gets a red notice and is bullied and driven out of school. Makino hopes to pass her days quietly without drawing any attention to herself. But one day, she stands up to Domyouji in defense of her friend. The next day, Makino gets the dreaded red notice. Even though she is harassed, Makino decides to keep going to school because she is a “tough weed”. She declares war right back on F4. Her resolve gets the attention of her crush Hanazawa Rui and oddly enough, rouses romantic feelings in her worst enemy, Domyouji Tsukasa.



Review: This is a Japanese version of Meteor Garden (Taiwanese) that was made a couple years after the release of Meteor Garden. I found Hana Yori Dango more interesting than Meteor Garden because it was so much shorter but the episodes were the same length as those in Meteor Garden. The characters of F4 were also portrayed as more scarier in Hana Yori Dango whereas in Meteor Garden they didn't really seem as frightening. So mainly, for me, I thought that all the characters in Hana Yori Dango were portrayed more as how they were supposed to be. This drama was also very straight-forward and went towards the main points unlike Meteor Garden, which had many different side conflicts in it.

~Source for character descriptions and synopsis: http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Hana_Yori_Dango, www.mysoju.com/hana-yori-dango, http://www.spcnet.tv/Japanese-TV-Series/Hana-Yori-Dango-review-r1224.html