Name: Boys Over Flowers (Hana Yori Dango)
Mangaka: Kamio, Youko
Volumes: 37 (Such a painful number)
Licensed: Viz (Complete)
Scanlations: Complete
Scanlator: Too many
Type: Manga
Genre: Drama/High school/Comedy/Unrequited Love/Bullying
Age Group: Teen
Summary: Tsukushi attends an elite school, not because of wealth but because of intelligence. Because of this she has become aquainted with the F4. The F4 are the richest and hottest (Debatable) guys at school. Not to mention the biggest bullies ever. Like a weed, Tsukushi decides to fight back against her bullies and finds one of the guys is falling for her. Now press play.
Graphics Rating: 3/5
Plot Rating: 4/5
Opinion: Worst thing about this is the graphics. They are old. But, if you can suck it up the plot is very redeeming. Again with the bullying theme but it turns out quite well. This is another unrequited love story, but mostly for the side character rather then the main character. I mean the heroine deals with some rejection but not as much as Domyouji. How sad.
It is very long. Don’t bother if you can’t commit. And if you buy (like me) you are in for a LOT of pain (when buying). They are older too so the chance is slipping away. (Cries in corner) I really wannit. But, I must admit that the juice is worth the squeeze. The ending is real good. And when the main couple gets together its like “Well finally! How cute.”. It feels like couples end up together just too easily these days. It’s nice to see a struggle. (A THIRTY SEVEN VOLUME STRUGGLE!)
Final Rating: 4/5
Extra: There IS a drama but I haven’t seen it. Any good people? I’ve HEARD it’s good.
Read Online
Viz
I’ve read all volumes of Hanadan and you should watch Hanadan drama series :)
you could pick taiwan version,japan version and korean version :D
I waaaaant to. My friend has one of them (not sure which) but I dunno when I’ll ever find the time to snatch it from her AND watch it.
There’s so many version of for this series -drama-
http://www.mangatoshokan.com/series/Hana-Yori-Dango
Already watched Japan and Taiwan version. Prefer Jap version though (got 2 seasons plus movie finale. Taiwan if i’m not mistaken, way too diff than manga. Instead of high school, they are already in uni.
I absolutely love this site. I always come here when in need of new shoujo to read, and for the past year you haven’t failed me yet. :D
I just wanted to say, Hana Yori Dango is probably one of my favorite series (favorite in the shoujo department.)
At the beginning, the art was a huge turn off for me. I came across this series many times but passed it over because of the cover art especially. Tsukasa’s hair was… awkward to look at. It made me feel like he belonged in the Bahamas or something. I fell in love with Tsukushi’s character right away. Yet, I can honestly say that I hated Tsukasa right from the start.
Around chapter 16, though, I did a complete 180 and absolutely devoted myself the rest of the series to DxM. I do have to disagree with the rating you gave for the graphics. At the beginning they were, well, ugly. I considered putting it down and ended it there, but I’m glad I didn’t. They really improved throughout the series and half way through, I thought Makino was very cute. Even Domouyoji, with his strange hair, became freakin’ hot. The characters are great. You’ve got the spoiled brat that learns how to be willing to give up everything for that one person, the girl who is so independent that finally breaks down the walls, the guy that overcomes his autism, and everybody else. I wasn’t happy with the ending or how Makino dealt with some things though. *SPOILER* When Domoyouji was leaving to New York for 4 years and she just said, “Ok, I’ll stay here” I was screaming, “NO STUPID! GO WITH HIM!” /*SPOILER* A lot of the decisions she makes, she makes for herself. But she gets over that in the end. But for a character that started out so strong, she really started giving up a lot. The ending, oh boy. I want soo much to see what happens after the 4 years. But alas, the cries of fangirls are never answered. ;_;
This manga is A-MAZING, imho. If you were grading the art at the beginning only, I could see a 5/10. I disagree with it if you’re talking about the entire series though. I like the older graphics anyways, everything is so computer generated nowadays. A lot of manga I’ve seen today, they do everything in Photoshop and it shows. It just feels less authentic and more like it belongs as a webcomic to me. I’m watching the anime now, and I am hooked. I want to buy all the manga, but I can’t find anywhere to get them. Oh well, eBay here I come!
<3 Thanks! I personally like the graphics after a while too but sometimes I review graphics based on what a majority of people will think. I love this so much!
I'm actually in the process of purchasing the whole series too! It's difficult. I have 1-3 and my friend actually got me 16 volumes for christmas but I haven't gotten them yet. (He just has a loud mouth haha) I really hope you manage to find them all! It's a great series!
hi! as a fangirl myself, i would like to inform you guys that the mangaka yoko kamio did write sequels. the first was set on shizuka’s wedding in france. the second was focused on rui and domyouji’s attempt at finding a girl for him…and of course the proposal (which isn’t much if you ask me). i won’t give you more spoilers since i’ve given you one already. regarding the live action versions–if you haven’t seen them yet–i’d recommend the japanese. it’s my favorite simply because of inoue mao (makino) and matsumoto jun (domyouji) and their ah-mazing chemistry. the korean is i believe more popular (although the storm–that is the tawainese version–that raged throughout asia in the early 2000’s was phenomenal). however, i didn’t like it that much because of the lead actress and because throughout the whole series, it seemed as if the whole story was merely an unrequited love for jun pyo (korean domyouji). jan di was kinda dry in expressing her love for him. hmph.