Kono Aug 09, 2016
Honest, intelligent news and reviews for manga romantics
Yoko Kamio’s shojo series Hana Yori Dango, translated as Boys Over Flowers, ran in Japanese publication Margaret from October 1992 to September 2003. In 1996 it won the Shogakukan Manga Award in the shojo category. It’s still the all time best selling shojo series in Japan. Viz media published the series in the states from 2003 to 2009. At a total of 36 volumes, Boys Over Flowers bombards readers with a roller-coaster romance that sputters to an anti-climatic ending.
The Gist: The series begins with high school student Makino Tsukushi trying to blend in at the elite Eitoku Academy. Since the academy is the choice school of wealthy and high society families, Tsukushi does not relate well with many of the students being from a family that is very poor. It is her strong sense of justice that catches the attention of the F4, or Flower Four, the four wealthiest and most beautiful boys on campus. Headed up by Tsukasa Domyoji, the heir to the large and successful Domyoji Corporation, the group also includes Rui Hanazawa, Akira Mimasaka, and Sojiro Nishikado. When Tsukushi becomes the target of the F4’s harassment, she clashes wills with Tsukasa Domyoji. Tsukasa becomes infatuated with Tsukushi because she is one of the first girls who doesn’t fawn over him for his money. During the course of the series, Tsukushi develops feeling for Rui Hanazawa, Tsukasa’s best friend. However, she learns that Rui is trying to overcome his feelings for another girl and does not reciprocate Tsukushi’s feelings at the opportune time. Meanwhile Tsukasa continues to pursue Tsukushi, and as Tsukushi notices the changes in Tsukasa’s personality for her own benefit, she begins to develop feelings for him too. These two angsty teenagers from opposite backgrounds must overcome numerous obstacles to unite their ever-diverging lives.
As for this series as a whole, unless you absolutely want to torture yourself and wind up disappointed at the end, stay away from Boys Over Flowers. It’s not worth the time or emotional investment.
Hi Laura! 🙂
What a refreshing point of view of you have of the manga. I’ll admit I haven’t read the manga, but I agree with you on all points because my thoughts on the subject have been pretty similar. I recently finished watching the South Korean ‘Boys Over Flowers’ drama and was left absolutely heartbroken at the end when Rui and Tsukushi didn’t end up together (all because of a missed opportunity. What a completely different story it could have been!).
Having watched the drama, I’ve been contemplating whether to read the manga. On the one hand all the opinions I’ve read so far has been how it’s the greatest shoujo manga of all time yet on the other hand I already know I will be disappointed with the manga’s ending because it not the ending I hoped for. I fell in love with Rui watching the drama and to be honest, the only reason I’ve been considering reading the manga is to gain a deeper understanding of his character. So I simply have to ask, do you think it’s worth the emotional turmoil for me to read it for this reason alone? I’m still recovering from the emotional turmoil the drama has caused me…
Domyouji was def rocking that late 80’s early 90’s Jordan Knight hair lol. This is literally in my opinion one of the all time great shojo manga though nothing tops this for me. Sorry to hear you didn’t like it ?
Wow i’m really disappointed in this review.. I suppose you’re not a shoujo manga fan? I don’t know why you’d even review it if you’re not. This manga is such a relief from the common fickle shoujo heroin. And the constant write outs are because they wanted to keep it okay for a younger audience, obviously. If Tsukasa and Tsukushi just had sex it’d take away from the manga, since it’d really feel over. Wheras the vague ending including only the engagement lets the reader create their own ending. Do you really need everything spelt out for you in an ending? The whole manga was so emotional that it was so much more refreshing to just get a simple ending. I feel bad for you that you couldn’t understand it and for anyone who might not have read this amazing manga because you gave it a bad name.
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Hi, why is there no picture of black singer “Prince” ? First’s Yoko Kamio thaught ! Tsukasa looks like Prince, juste compare their faces with google’s pictures…