Title: 花より男子
Also known as: Boys Over Flowers
Genre: Romance
Episodes: 9
Broadcast period: 2005-Oct-21 to 2005-Dec-16
Rating:
Summary:
Hana Yori Dango follows Tsukushi Makino who is a smart, poor girl who gets into a prestigious high school that is ruled by F4, who all come from rich, powerful families. F4, with Domiyoji Tsukasa as the leader, punishes students they think have offended them and Makino doesn't do anything, trying not to call attention to herself. Until her only friend is next in line for the wrath of F4, then Makino takes on Domiyoji herself. Domiyoji ends up falling in love with Makino, while Makino falls for Hanazawa Rui.
Normally I find dramas based off of manga to be a little corny, and thus they get one less dark chocolate, but for HanaYori Dango that doesn't apply. Granted it does have its corny parts to it, but the story and characters make up for that. One thing I really like about Hana Yori Dango is the multiple main characters. Since Makino is always with F4 you get to know all of them very well.
I usually don't like the typical love-triangle, but I love the relationship between Domiyoji-Makino-Rui. It was well kept through the whole show and never got too over baring. Though the reason why Rui acts the way he does is a little outrageous, but that's not the drama's fault.
Characters:
Inoue Mao as Makino Tsukushi
Matsumoto Jun as Domyoji Tsukasa
Oguri Shun as Hanazawa Rui
Matsuda Shota as Nishikado Sojiro
Abe Tsuyoshi as Mimasaka Akira
Tsukushi Makino is very independent and cares a lot for people. Makino is constantly standing up for weaker people, and this usually means she goes face-to-face with Domiyoji quite often. I really liked how she would stand up to him, even when she likes him she still will go against him when she thinks he's doing not doing the right thing. Makino also has a big heart, which makes her come off as kind of naive at times, but she means the best. Quite a few times she defends and cares for characters which, in my opinion, don't really deserve it. However that's what makes her unique.
Inoue Mao did a great job as Makino. I've seen her in a few things and she has a very natural way of acting. I think she was a great choice for Makino, she makes some of the cutest faces.
Domiyoji Tsukasa is an interesting character to me. Like most male leads he's a rich jerk, but once he falls in love with the lead girl he becomes nice for her. But Domiyoji is still quite the jerk even after he starts to fall for Makino. Plus he has a gradual change you can see and a pretty good reason for why he's the way he is. Since his mother has forced so much on him he is still a child at heart, so when he gets giddy about Makino it's quite cute. But along with his cute side he is also very serious, when it comes to his friends he is very protective and will comes to blows.
This was my first drama with any of the Arashi members and to tell the truth I just thought they all where over-rated, but Matsumoto Jun is amazing! I absolutely loved him as Domiyoji. He portrays Domiyoji's spunky personality so well.
I loved Hanazawa Rui though out this whole show. He was a great support to Makoto when most of the school and Domiyoji had it out for her. For the most part he is very quiet and likes to be alone, but he is also very protective of Domiyoji, in particular. Usually he is passive and just sits back and lets the rest of F4 do the rest. Because of his passiveness there isn't really much to say about Rui other how much of a sweet character his is, though he does have a darker side as well.
Oguri Shun is hands down one of my favorite actor. And he just added another amazing role to his list as Rui. He's always so passionate about his roles and lives his characters.
The third member of F4 is Nishikado Sojiro. He comes from a very traditional family and is an expert in tea ceremonies. Sojiro is also the playboy of the group; he's constantly hitting on girls. But deep down he's very loyal. He's quite serious a majority of the time, but can also be funny, particularly when it comes to tricking Akira into doing something stupid. Through most of the show he is running away from Makino's best friend, who has a huge crush on him. I liked Sojiro a lot, he was like the calming element for F4 - compared to Domiyoji's energy, Rui's aloofness, and Akira's brawns.
Matsuda Shota is another of my favorite actors. He can pull off both serious and comedy very well, I'm not sure which I like him best in.
Mimasaka Akira is the final member of F4. Akira is the son of a yakuza boss and is kind of the information gatherer for the group. And like Sojiro, he's a bit of a playboy though he is fonder of older, married women. At the same time of being the big bad son of the yakuza, he's also kind of pitiful, always being used to do the random errands. I found Akira's character more of the comic relief, paired along with Sojiro.
I'm not the biggest fan of Abe Tsuyoshi, I found his acting him a little stiff and not quite emotionless, but not very easy to sympathize with. But I think it kind of worked for Akira's personality.
As for other characters, I really liked Domiyoji's sister. She was protective of Domiyoji but also beat the crap out of him when he was acting spoiled. Plus she was one only only people to stand up to her mother.
Theme Song:
The theme song for Hana Yori Dango is "Planetarium" by Otsuka Ai. I absolutely love this song, it’s gorgeous and fits the mood of the drama so well. It never gets old hearing it play throughout the show.
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