How does one even begin to review Hana Yori Dango? Practically a franchise, this started out as a manga by Kamio Youko serialized in Margaret magazine and then collected into 38 volumes. It spawned a 51-episode anime and an animated film (set about in a parallel universe with a different storyline) in the 90s. Due to its incredible popularity, it was adapted into a live action drama in Taiwan under the name Meteor Garden. The Japanese picked it up 2005 and made their own live action and fans are waiting with bated breath for the upcoming Korean version, slated for December of this year.
As stories go, Hana Yori Dango is hardly groundbreaking: Makino Tsukushi is a working-class girl who attends the prestigious Eitoku Gakuen, an elite school for the rich and influential. The school is dominated by the F4 (Flower 4), a group of boys who are more rich, influential, popular and handsome than anybody else in the school. The F4 are composed of: Mimasaka Akira, who has a penchant for older women but whose carefree exterior belies a gentle soul who is the peacemaker of the group and Nishikado Soujiro, another playboy whose casual relationships with women hide a secret love. Third member of the F4 is Hanazawa Rui, a complex and often expressionless character who doesn’t like to get involved and views the world in a detached manner but who feels an affinity for Tsukushi and begins a friendship with her. The leader of the F4 is Doumyoji Tsukasa, heir to the powerful Doumyoji Zaibatsu, a rich, spoiled, bullying and short-tempered boy who is very much used to getting his own way.
The story starts with Tsukushi, who doesn’t really fit in with the rich kids and doesn’t really have any friends, trying to keep a low profile at Eitoku and just wanting to get through to graduation as quickly and quietly as possible. One day she meets Hanazawa Rui playing the violin in the school gardens and a sort of friendship develops between them. Makino slowly starts to fall in love with Rui but, knowing that a romance between then is impossible and also knowing that he still holds a candle for his childhood friend Toudo Shizuka, prefers to enjoy this quiet friendship and to get through high school as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, fate conspires to bring her to the attention of Doumyoji Tsukasa and the rest of the F4. In trying to protect a friend, she goes up against Doumyoji who issues her with a red tag, which singles her out as the enemy of the F4 and therefore a target for harassment by the entire student body. Unlike all the other F4 victims, Makino doesn’t simply crawl away in tears and refuses to back down, claiming that she is a “weed” and as such, very difficult to eradicate. Against all odds, this earns her the admiration of Doumyoji who had always been used to getting his own way and to nobody ever going up against him. Having decided that Makino is the girl for him, Doumyoji sets out to make her his girlfriend. Unfortunately, he goes about it in the completely wrong way, by kidnapping her, dressing her up in beautiful and expensive clothes and then telling her that he will “allow” her to hang out with him. Needless to say, Tsukushi is not impressed.
The road to happiness is fraught with obstacles for Makino and Doumyoji, as his bad character and her attraction to Rui get in the way. The story continues with typical rich-boy-meets-poor-girl fashion, with the couple having to deal with the scheming of other girls at Eitoku, who want to get their hands on the Doumyoji Zaibatsu heir and the malevolent opposition of Doumyoji’s cold and calculating mother. As I said before, this is hardly ground-breaking stuff but something about this age-old story attracts teenage (and older) girls throughout the generations. Makino is a fiery and independent girl with whom it’s easy to identify yourself and Doumyoji is both irritating and endearing in equal measure. Hanazawa Rui has a huge fan following, all hoping Makino will eventually choose him but we all know by now that the nice guy never gets the girl. The secondary characters are all very interesting, with their own side stories and enough personality not to be simple foils for the lead characters.
The manga and anime, both from the 90s, may feel a bit dated now but for those who want the story exactly as the author wanted it told, this is where they should go. Subsequent live-action adaptations deviated in varying degrees from the original story. The Taiwanese version came first and is fairly faithful to the manga, though the title was changed to Meteor Garden and the character names were changed. ASOS elder sister Barbie Xu plays Makino Tsukushi, with Jerry Yan playing Doumyoji and Vic Zhou playing Rui. The other two F4 were played by Vaness Wu and Ken Chu. The incredible popularity of the show resulted in the F4 boys forming a pop band called (unsurprisingly) F4. Personally, I found Meteor Garden overlong at 50+ episodes and Jerry Yan lacked the personality to play Doumyoji. In the Japanese version, Makino is played by Inoue Mao and Doumyoji by a truly wonderful Matsumoto Jun. Oguri Shun also shines as Hanazawa Rui and Matsuda Shota and Abe Tsuyoshi bring the other two F4 to life. Though at times deviating from the original story, the Japanese version keeps to the heart of the story and, more importantly, the pace and mood of the story. The actors make a great effort to resemble their anime counterparts in both appearance and actions. The number of episodes is enough to tell the whole story without boring the audience. The Koreans have announced that they are planning their own version of Hana Yori Dango. Casting is to take place soon and fans are speculating as to who will get the roles of these much-loved characters. After the success of the Japanese version, the Koreans have much to live up to.
THE ANIME:
(clockwise from the top) Mimasaka Akira, Hanazawa Rui, Makino Tsukushi, Doumyoji Tsukasa and Nishikado Soujiro
Video of the anime:
THE TAIWANESE VERSION:
(from left to right) Mei Zuo/Nishikado Soujiro (Vaness Wu), Hua Ze Lei/Hanazawa Rui (Vic Zhou), Shan Cai/Makino Tsukushi (Barbie Xu), Dao Ming Su/ Doumyoji Tsukasa (Jerry Yan), Xi Men/Mimasaka Akira (Ken Zhu)
Video of the Taiwanese version:
THE JAPANESE VERSION:
(from left to right) Nishikado Soujiro (Matsuda Shota), Doumyoji Tsukasa (Matsumoto Jun), Makino Tsukushi (Inoue Mao) , Hanazawa Rui (Oguri Shun) and Mimasaka Akira (Abe Tsuyoshi)
Video of the Japanese version with the hit theme song by Utada Hikaru "Flavour of Life":
Another video of the Japanese version, where we see a bit more of the Makino/Rui dynamic and its effect on Doumyoji:
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