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Boys Over Flowers (花より男子, Hana Yori Dango?) is a Japanese shōjo manga series by Yoko Kamio. It was serialized in the bi-weekly anthology magazine Margaret, which is aimed at high-school-age girls. The manga series ran continuously from October 1992 to September 2003, and was collected into 37 tankōbon volumes. In 1996, it received the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōjo.[1]
Recently, the series has started to be released in a deluxe edition (larger pages and with all the color artwork from the magazine reproduced). The manga has been remade into 3 drama productions (in Taiwan, Japan, and Korea, along with one spin-off, 2 live action movies, 1 anime movie and also an anime series.[2] Hana Yori Dango is the best-selling shōjo manga in Japan of all time (54 million copies in 2005.)[3]
The title Hana yori Dango, is a pun on a Japanese saying, "Dumplings before Flowers" (花より団子, "Hana yori Dango" lit. "dango (rice dumplings) rather than flowers"). "Dumplings before flowers" is a well-known Japanese expression that refers to people who attend Hanami, but rather than enjoying the beauty of the flowers, head straight for the food vendor booths, preferring tangible things like food and drink to the abstract appreciation of the flowers’ beauty.[4] The author creates the pun by changing the kanji of the title to mean "Boys over Flowers" (花より男子?). Note that "boys" (男子?) is normally read danshi (だんし?), but the furigana indicates that it reads dango (だんご?).
Makino Tsukushi, a working-class girl, attends an elite escalator school called Eitoku Academy (英徳学園, Eitoku Gakuen ?), populated by children and older youths from rich, high-society families. She is the "weed" of the school, surrounded by all the rich kids, including the "Flowery Four" (F4). The F4 leader and son of the wealthiest, most powerful family in Japan, Domyouji Tsukasa, takes an interest in Tsukushi, because she is the only girl at Eitoku who does not fawn over him. However, his hot-headed nature and bullying ways are originally a major turn-off for Tsukushi, who has her sights set on someone else (Hanazawa Rui).
The violinist Hanazawa Rui, Tsukasa's best friend, becomes Tsukushi's first serious romantic interest. He is a quiet and cool guy, but he has a soft spot for his close friend and Tsukushi's idol, the model Todou Shizuka, whom he harbored feelings for since childhood. His character is a bit complex, and always has changing feelings for Tsukushi, but above all cares about her a lot.
The other two members of the F4 are Mimasaka Akira, the laid-back peacemaker of the group, and Nishikado Sōjirō, an unrepentant playboy. They both usually have at least one girlfriend at any one time; Akira prefers older women because the women of his household (his mother and two younger sisters) are quite silly. Sojiro is happy to be in casual relationships with many women, although we later discover that at one time he was in love with a childhood friend.
Over the course of the series, however, Tsukushi's feelings evolve, and she begins to appreciate the degree of change that occurred in Tsukasa once he fell in love with her. He becomes fiercely loyal to Tsukushi and believes in her beyond all doubt, and slowly gets her to see him in a different light. The physical obstacles and emotional challenges of their rocky high-school courtship form the basis of the story. Other themes include Tsukushi's attempt to fit in at the school, the problems of her family's lifestyle and income, and the decadent lifestyle of upper-class Japanese girls.
Recently in July 2006, a short story was released in issue 15 of Margaret magazine.
An anime series was produced by Toei Animation and broadcast by Asahi Broadcasting Corporation. It ran from 8 September 1996 to 31 August 1997 with a total of 51 episodes. A 1997 anime movie was also produced, however it deviated from the plot of the actual manga as it was set in an alternate universe and characters were placed into new roles to suit the movie's new story. The anime movie is reminiscent of the American film Flashdance, Tsukushi is an aspiring dancer attempting to win a role in a large stage production.
Due to its immense popularity, Hana Yori Dango has been adapted into TV series several times: Meteor Garden, a 2001 Taiwanese series broadcast on CTS, followed by Meteor Garden II in 2002; Hana Yori Dango, a 2005 Japanese series broadcast on TBS, followed in 2007 by Hana Yori Dango Returns and also, most recently in 2009, a successful South Korean adaptation, Boys Over Flowers, broadcast on KBS.[5]It has also been confirmed that there will be a Philippine version coming out in 2011 of this series called Brat Boys Beyond.
In 2008, Hana Yori Dango Final was released in theatres on June 28, 2008[6] to end the Japanese TV series, all the original actors reprised their roles. The movie focused solely on Tsukasa and Tsukushi's adventure to retrieve the precious family heirloom: a tiara called "Smile of Venus" which was stolen by a mysterious man in black. The film has proven to be a huge success in Japanese cinemas remaining at #1 at the box office for several weeks, earning over US$ 70 million. The DVD for the drama is currently the #3 Best Selling Japanese Film DVD of all time after a mere 4 weeks of entering the charts, having stayed on top of them for all 4 weeks. The DVD was also the #1 best-selling DVD that was released in 2008.[7] A cameo appearance was made by Naohito Fujiki, who played Hanazawa Rui in the original first live action movie,[8]Hana Yori Dango, which was made in 1995 starring Uchida Yuki as Makino Tsukushi.
It's commonly mistranslated that Rui had autism "as a child", when a more accurate translation is that he had autism "since I was a child". Rui has Asperger syndrome, which makes socializing difficult for him. He has trouble recognizing facial expressions: for example, when trying to draw Tsukasa, he drew an expressionless egg with curly hair. These are personality traits which he still holds.
Domyouji and Tsukushi's relationship has varied from the start. In the beginning it was one of hatred and physical violence, due to the fact he waged war against her all the time. However as Domyouji got to know her, he slowly falls in love with her though he has always held a cold heart. Due to this, he attempts to make advances on Makino, but always ends up fighting with her. In the manga they go through many hardships to be together. His stubborn mother, Makino's friendship with Rui, Makino's constantly changing feelings, and also Domyoji's frequent angry outbursts (as wells as many other problems) are always keeping them apart. In the end, their love wins out. Towards the end Domyoji makes an announcement to the media to go to New York for 4 years in order to take over his father's company. During this announcement period, Makino is troubled but later says that she will not go with him and that when he comes back she'll be waiting for him and will make him a happy man. The story ends with Domyoji going to New York and Makino watch his plane leave in the sky.
There is also an unauthorized and implied adaptation of the story that finished airing in mainland China. The show is called Meteor Shower (or Meteor Rain). It was broadcast by Hunan TV
The show producers speaking on Hunan TV's website state that Meteor Shower is not a remake of Meteor Garden which was very popular in Chinese-speaking world, but an original drama completely different from earlier shows and should not be considered an Hana Yori Dango adaptation, in an attempt to circumvent the controversial copyrights issue. 《新流星花园》改名引网友热议 制片方称一切为原创开路. English translation : Renaming of "The New Meteor Garden" causes heated debate among Chinese netizens, producers claim original development of plot, Hunan TV
The reason for this deliberate distancing from Hana Yori Dango is that producers of Meteor Shower and Hunan TV never obtained a proper Hana Yori Dango dramatization license, which cannot be granted until 2011 under the copyrights holder's licensing policy.
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