Hana Yori Dango (Boys Over Flowers)

[KlahaXGackt]

Has anyone ever seen the anime of this?

 

[MHtrStevie]

I saw the enitre series in my local anime club over the last two years (one ep. per week)... I enjoyed it, although after a while you tend to get frustrated by the main character's constant indecision. But that seems to be a hallmark of some romance shows...



I did enjoy it, though... reading the manga at the moment... was there something in particular about the show you were asking about?

 

[budd]

bought the dvd on sight when i saw it @ bbuy -- already owned the whole set fansubbed

 

[KlahaXGackt]

I've been reading the manga...and not really....I was just asking in general. So does it do a good job of sticking to manga? Because so far I've been through the first 2 volumes and well I love how the leader of the F4 straightens his hair...I like how the F4 is in the manga...so are the depicted as about the same in the Anime?

 

[KlahaXGackt]

Yeah I guess that is kind of a Hallmark...look at FY....

 

[MHtrStevie]

Since I assume we're both reading the U.S. release, then we're reading at about the same pace... and so far the manga and anime are essentially identical. There are a few slight differences, but nothing in regards to major plot points or characterization.

In other words, if you're liking the manga so far you'll definitely enjoy the anime version as well...

Just as a side note, did anyone else see the animated OVA which was a sort of alternate reality where Makino and the F4 are part of some sort of dance troupe? It's the basis for why the opening animation for the HYD anime looks the way it looks...

 

[KlahaXGackt]

That sounds strange...not all of the things about the anime but F4 and Makino in a dance troupe. Yes I have been reading the American release of it...

 

[budd]

"It's the basis for why the opening animation for the HYD anime looks the way it looks..."
that's some good info. no, i haven't (didn't know it existed)

 

[KlahaXGackt]

hmmm....that is interesting

 

[MHtrStevie]

One of the members of my local anime club had it and showed it while we were watching the TV series... if I remember things correctly, the OVA ends with the dance sequence that ends up as the opening for the TV series. But it's been almost two years since I saw it, so don't quote me on that...

Maybe there's a manga basis for the OVA too, since I'm only at the beginning of the manga story... did anyone see the Greenwood OVAs? Remember the 3rd OVA where the dorm members film a movie about a medieval adventure? The movie they film is actually based on an alternate-reality story told originally in the manga... so we'll have to see if anything like this dance troupe story shows up in the manga...

 

[Gaki]

Only seen the first few episodes, it got made into a Taiwanese tv drama fairly recently called "Meteor Garden".

 

[KlahaXGackt]

Really....I've actually heard of MG....I guess Peach Girl was turned into a Taiwanese drama as well. Hmmm....that's pretty cool

 

[V.I.B]

Personally feel it's a sucky series~ No offence... It was nice all the way until vol. 23 but after that the whole series starts to go downhill. The mangaka just decide to go on dragging the series although she has no more creative juices left.

Anime is very nice coz it was nice and short as compared to the long and draggy manga but dun really like the ending.. Was it just me but I felt very affected by the "happy" ending at the end coz it struck me as in not a 100% happy ending..

As for the series turning into a drama series in Taiwan, there was even a second season for that Taiwanese series. Didn't managed to finish watching even the first episode coz the actor really live up to their "idol actor" name tag. They coulddn't act or sing for godsake. *sweat* F4 fans are probably going to hate me for this but they only have the looks but no talent.. (I mean the Taiwanese boy band F4, not the one in the anime /manga series, yes, there is even a Taiwanese band who's named after them. The band has since broke up. One of the member Vaness later acted in Peach Girl)

A few other anime like MVP Lover, and that "beggar boy" shoujo series (can't remember title) was turned into Taiwanese drama too.. No comment on that..

Just my few cents' worth.. (sweat) the anime is nice so watch it but don't collect the manga series.. coz you might regret it towards the later series. From vol. 26 onwards, her characters started to look very disfigured.. And the plot kinda drifted off...

 

[KlahaXGackt]

*laughs* I like V.I.B blunt honesty....reminds me of Kit Fox from Animerica

 

[V.I.B]

The series is nice in its own way.. seriously.. Not trying to turn people away from giving it a try.. I hate to admit it but I do love the series very2 much at first. Its anime version is even the very first anime which got me started into even thinking of watching anime.. (even if at that time all my frens were crazy over CCS..~~||b ) Not to mention the manga series is also the very first manga collection I ever own.. Can even remember how I was so "in luv" with that curly hair guy.. whats his name.. doumyoji or something?? (only remember how it roughly sounded.. ) So in a way I should either thank this author for getting me into this whole obsession with anime and manga (or should I blame her for making me spend thousands on feeding my crazy obsession.. T_T )

Anyway, it's overall a good series for starters I should say but if possible I would rather just rent or borrow the anime / manga from personal experience.. Coz I spend a huge sum on collecting the anime and manga and later sold everything off at less than half the price ~sad.. As for people interested in the Taiwanese drama, only have 2 words for advice.. "Forget it".. (sweat) Firstly, other than drooling at the good-looking (supposedly so.. used to thought they are damn good-looking till "talent-less" spoilt their whole image.. really, they are, all 1.8m or taller.. saw them in real life.. ) guys, the show sux and one really wonder if the drama had spoilt the overall image of the whole series.. (As I say their fans are going to hate me for saying all this.. *hohoho* Hopefully there won't be too many F4 fans here.. sweat.. Not that I hate good looking boy bands.. Jus I preferred talented ones.. e.g 5566, energy..etc ) Would rather go and spend my time drooling at all my fav. jrock/cpop and manga/anime bishounens.. .*muhahaha*

 

[MHtrStevie]

Frankyl I felt like the anime dragged on a little too long as well... but I always felt that this was a fairly frequent weakness of this particular genre. The problem is always that once the girl finally makes her choice (which often ends up in her choosing the guy you expected her to choose from the beginning), the story's over at that point... so if the series is popular, the publisher itself might even lobby the mangaka to draw the story out longer than originally planned to maximize profit. I've seen this happen a lot, where the original creator's vision ends up being changed due to pressure from either the publisher or the fans... in a situation like that, it's hard to tell what truly happened "behind the scenes".

So I always felt like I enjoyed HYD for what it is, despite some of its weaknesses... the wekanesses found there can often be found in many similar anime/manga titles.

As far as "Meteor Garden" goes, I tend not to expect much from a show featuring some top idol group as its stars, whether it be from Japan, Korea or Taiwan... I was curious about it more just to say I saw a live-action HYD. How many live-action versions of manga/anime stories have you all seen? I've seen...

* GTO live-action TV series from Japan
* Tokyo Love Story live-action TV series from Japan
* Maison Ikkoku live-action movie from Japan
* Video Girl Ai live-action movie from Hong Kong

GTO and Tokyo Love Story were both quite good, and although the movies were both pretty bad they each have something very unique/silly to make them endearing.

Hmm... I seem to have started babbling on... sorry...

:sorry:

 

[V.I.B]

Originally posted by MHtrStevie
Frankyl I felt like the anime dragged on a little too long as well... but I always felt that this was a ........

Agree ~ Am I the only one who felt that the ending is too abrupt though? It seems to me the whole thing was dragging for a tack too long and then all of a sudden it just ended. (sweat) As for the mangak been pressurized by publishers and fans to drag on the series longer, maybe it might had happened but then again one might never know. HYD was a very popular series even in Taiwan and Singapore. When the anime was shown on tv here, suddenly everyone got to notice it and it just got so popular the manga sold out in no time.. (~~||b) But then some got into the manga and anime only after watching the Meteor Garden drama.. Even now I still see gals going gaga over it at comics store.. (@@||b)

Not sure about anime turned drama series from Korea.. Haven't watched any before.. (Oh, but Korean shoujo manga are nice.. it's very different from Japanese manga.. very poetry-like.. I even found one shoune-ai manga which I luv.. ) Somehow I feel that those from Japan are good enough to make me watch them.. or at least those that I had watched.. Not the Taiwan ones though. Not because it's in Chinese or the actors/actresses are not good looking enough.. (Taiwanese guys are very good looking btw ~^^ ) but most of them who starred in those drama can't act... *sigh* MVP Lover is slightly a little better than the rest coz 5566 can act.. No comment about the rest.. I guess I am just one of those fussy ones who get turned off by untalented stuffs.. ~~||b

GTO and Tokyo Love Story drama.. I luv them~!! GTO was nice.. The actor (wat's his name.. only remember his chinese name.. the one that acted as the teacher..) was not just good looking, he CAN act. Japanese drama are very different from the Taiwanese ones. They more or less follow the original plot but the Taiwanese ones doesn't. They change and twist the whole plot it makes me feel sick when I watch them.. (sweat) Not sure if that was the reason or it's coz the actors simply can't act.. Here's the list of other anime I know was turned into drama.. Added onto MHtrStevie's list..

* GTO live-action TV series from Japan
* Tokyo Love Story live-action TV series from Japan
* Maison Ikkoku live-action movie from Japan
* Video Girl Ai live-action movie from Hong Kong
* HYD TV drama from Taiwan (starring F4)
* Peach Girl TV drama from Taiwan (starring Vaness from F4)
* MVP Lover TV drama from Taiwan (starring 5566)
* "Ping Qiong Gui Gong Zi" TV drama (starring Zaizai from F4 & Comic Boyz) PS: Dun know the Japanese name for this series.. It's the popular manga comedy series on the poor beggar boy whom everyone idolise and thought was very rich and had a lot of siblings, a good for nothing father and amum who always spend away his $...

eto ne.. There's another one blabber here.. (^_~) Seems like I seems to blab the moment my fingers touch the keyboard.. It happens all the time.. (@@||b)

 

[KlahaXGackt]

Yeah well I felt Fushigi Yugi dragged and dragged and DRAGGED!!!! and I wasn't picking on you V.I.P I just respected your comment...like when I do read Animerica anymore....I will only respect what Kit says because him and I have similar taste and I'm picky as to what I watch...

 

[V.I.B]

No worries~ I never thought you're picking me (^_~)

It's sad that some anime/manga started off very nice but dragged on way far too long for their own good.. ~(T.T)~ Once the author run out of ideas they should really just end the series off no matter its popularity. It's for theirr own good anyway..

Ok~ I'm getting a little off topic but there's one series, Hanakimi by my fav. shoujo mangaka Hisaya Nakajo.. it's still ongoing and 21 vols. had been released so far.. at one point of time around #17 when I felt it was over-dragging coz imagine after 17 vols. the 2 main characters still don't know that they both have mutual feeling for each other. (sigh) 17 VOLS. Imagine that.. (>"<;A )Actually even up till #20 they still have no idea.. lol.. but the mangaka is smart enough to add it fresh ideas and introduce new characters along the way so much so that she was able to leave the story hanging everytime the vol. ended.. This way, baka pple like me will continue waiting impatiently for the next vol. to come out.. As for gravitation (the first shounen-ai/yaoi manga which got me into those yaoi stuff..) the story was good until vol. 7 onwards.. *sigh* Those who only watch the anime are the "lucky" ones coz they dun get the disappointment of reading the ridiculous plots towards the end.. Imagine having some teddy bear spaceship and manager that carry a machine shotgun who goes around shooting pple.. (@@||b) The manga was a disappointment but the anime was one of the nicest one around.. Have no idea what happened to the author after that since she suddenly disappeared and her series was abruptly stopped..

Fushigi Yuugi was not that bad, a little draggy but better than Ayashi no Ceres.. I luv that evil guy (name starting witf nxxxx?), even felt pity for him.. Guess I am one of those who luv the baddies.. I thought Ayashi no Ceres was the one that dragged too long.. maybe coz I didn't like the idea of so many pple losing their lives for the main female character.. too many deaths.. Would recommend pple to watch e series but swear I won't ever watch it again.. The animes are good but I'm a keen supporter for happy ending.. ~~"

 

[MHtrStevie]

I agree that the ending was abrupt, but again I think this is just part of this type of story... like I said before, once the girl in a story like this finally makes her choice, usually the story ends immediately. There might be a little bit about what happens afterwards generally, but usually the story isn't followed too much after the choice is made. So I tend to expect the abruptness of the ending... but if the story drags on too long, it does make the ending feel even more abrupt, doesn't it?

To answer a couple of questions from above:

* The actor who plays Onizuka-sensei in GTO is Takashi Sorimachi. Not only can he act, but he's not a bad singer. He often performs the theme songs to his own drama shows, like "Poison" from GTO or "Forever" from Beach Boys.

* V.I.B. - I think the character from FY you're thinking of is Nakago. One of the aspects of the anime/manga I enjoy most is the depth of the characters, especially the villians. They usually are never just completely evil... there's often much more to them than meets the eye.

 

[KlahaXGackt]

FY was okay....and I think you mean Nakago...me I was getting sick of Yui's whining....she was really getting on my nerves...maybe that was because she reminded me of one of my friends...the sad thing is it make me look way too much like Miaka whose voice drove me nuts in English and in Japanese....

Not all bad guys are evil...just misunderstood.... *smiles* I usually like the baddies too

 

[V.I.B]

*MHtrStevie <~ Takashi Sorimachi.. yes, that's e name! -"-;n Remembering names is just not one of my abilities.. Knew it's Takashi but e only name that came up in my head was Takashi Kaneshiro His shows are nice.. Beach Boys was very nice~

*KlahaXGackt <~ Yup, yup, Nakago (again shows my inabilities to remember names. T_T;> ) was e one I was referring to. He's my fav. chara. in FY ~~ act. kinda sympathise with him coz he reminds me of a lobster ~fragile inside but appears tough on e outside~ In my opinion he was not as evil/inhuman as he portrays.. his tortured & unhappy childhood might have play a huge part..

Yui & Miaka's "talented abilities" at driving pple nut..you're not e 1st & will not be e last to think so.. lolol.. I hated both of them and so does a lot of others who watched e anime.. I didn't like Yui coz she was too whining & self-centered.. and Miaka, her voice alone was enough to drive me nuts, not to mention her actions & ability to "eat down a whole hse" even when in danger.. (e only thing she has talent for other than irritates pple who watch e anime.. *evil grins* ) Watase Yuu's female leads, as usual come in a package that include one long queue of admirers who will become her sacrifiers they were blindly in love with who else.. ||b

It's already a huge "?" how almost all e male characters fell blindly in love with her and even more so when she managed to change the mind of e gay guy (who nearly got her killed coz he was in love with e emperor who ~again~ was in love with her *jaws drop* ) and lose his life to save her.. why?? coz he changed his mind and go for her instead. ~~ makes me wonder e part he died I cried becoz it was sad for him or felt sorry coz here's another one of her sacrifier.. (^_^;;>)

 

[KlahaXGackt]

I was always a big fan of the twins in FY You know Amiboshi and Suboshi...they had a really tragic past and well Hotohori always got to me because when it came to Miaka...he was willing to do anything even if it meant question to his throne and even if it meant his life...Yui...wow I hated her...I use to think that she was pretty cool until she became evil, I understand why it was done...but did the jealously really need to factor in.

I know this is off subject...but I've watched Uzumaki and Another Heaven I love Fhi Fan's acting and well Takashi Kashiwabara in Another Heaven...wow...I actually felt bad for him being psycho!