Thoughts on ... Boys Over Flowers // Hana Yori Dango (review)

Boys Over Flowers (BOF), or "silly girls falling in love with trash boys" is a manga series written by Yoko Kamio. It is insanely popular, only I never knew exactly how seminal this text was until I had read twenty capacity or so, after which I decided to requite it a quick Google search to determine whether or non I was wasting my fourth dimension. Information technology turns out that Boys Over Flowers, written betwixt 1992-2008, is the best-selling shojo manga of all time, and based on the premise, quite a few shojo romances that I've enjoyed over the years have been inspired by the story in some mode or other. I read it considering I was looking for a fun shojo to read, and the Shonen Jump Twitter folio announced that it had been added to their vault. For £2 a calendar month I've been pleasantly surprised by just how much manga I have access to now, and I'yard really hoping that Hakusensha and other companies follow suit in the hereafter.

Tsukushi Makino is a poor girl with insufferable parents who attends the exclusive Eitoku Academy for rich elite kids. Four boys, dubbed the F4 (Flowery Four), rule the school in the most sadistic fashion possible. They are all sons of some of the biggest companies in Japan, and their de-facto leader, Tsukasa, is heir to the Domyoji empire. When the F4 decides they don't like someone, they go out a red sideslip in their locker, afterward which the entire school relentlessly bullies the victim until they finally give upwardly and leave permanently. Even teachers bring together in. Due to an altercation, Tsukushi receives a red slip in her locker and goes to state of war with the balance of the school, eventually coming head-to-caput with the F4 and Tsukasa.

It'due south an interesting premise and I like how headstrong Tsukushi is at the outset of the story. She'south not a pushover, and unlike her predecessors, she doesn't allow the ruddy slip to finish her from attending the school, in fact, she faces challenges head on, much to the surprise of her peers. Simply the serial has a lot of issues, and I wonder if it is a victim of its time, when violent masculinity as a mask for affection was notwithstanding seen every bit cute, and the tedious depreciation of a strong female pb as a result of her falling in dear was merely accepted as normal immature developed behaviour. I don't know. But in that location is a lot of that sort of thing in this story and at nearly 250 chapters it gets tiring very speedily.

Bad boys :( (L-R) Tsukasa, Sojiro, Akira, Rui Hanazawa

Bad boys :(
(L-R) Tsukasa, Sojiro, Akira, Rui Hanazawa

Let's wait at the F4. Tsukasa is the heir of the Domyoji company, a global powerhouse that pretty much keeps the Japanese economy afloat. He is violent, headstrong, unable to articulate his feelings without shouting or resorting to insults. He besides has abandonment bug because his parents never looked after him every bit he grew upwards, resulting in his "spoilt rich kid" persona. His larger than life personality inevitably makes him the caput of the grouping. Rui Hanazawa is the aloof airhead, and the person who Tsukushi initially falls in honey with. I genuinely recall he's the just decent member of the group. Sojiro and Akira are both self-confessed playboys who run through several women a week, although Akira spends a lot of time sleeping effectually with grown married women despite him but being a high school senior. I wish we were given some sort of STD-side story with these two, because their sexual habits are incredibly unhealthy. They also similar to pressure Tsukasa into having sex with various women, but he'south young and a prude so information technology never works out.

Overall, I don't really recall whatsoever of their personalities are glamourised. just they aren't challenged, either. No graphic symbol faces proper consequences for their behaviours: Tsukasa smashes a bootleg block in a girl'due south confront, and the scene changes humorously. Rui Hanazawa fools around with Tsukushi knowing total well that his best friend Tsukasa is in love with her, only after a few chapters and a basketball game, the tension dissipates. Tsukushi's parents are gold-digging freeloaders, merely there'due south never a proper conversation betwixt the family to address their shameless antics at trying to marry her off to a rich man so that they don't take to work, very different the difficult mother-girl relationship explored in another Shojo romance-comedy, Skip Beat! Other characters are hurt or display extremely unpleasant personalities, like Umi from the infirmary, just she is forgiven apace and the blame for her trying to dispense a sick and amnesiac Tsukasa is placed on Tsukasa himself. It'due south very frustrating to read.

NOT OKAY. And it happens more than once in the story!

NOT OKAY. And information technology happens more than once in the story!

In that location's besides the violence. Early on on in the story, during her ordeals, Tsukasa physically abuses Tsukushi and and so attempts to rape her. Considering she cries and gets scared, he stops himself. Neither political party recalls this incident once again every bit their dear develops, and his previous behaviour is never countered or challenged past his friends. I knew early on that Tsukasa would be the main beloved involvement, only subsequently the slap and rape attempt I was thrown a little and thought "oh, maybe she does cease up with Rui Hanazawa subsequently all". It then became increasingly disturbing that Tsukasa's initial violence towards Tsukushi is never addressed and blown off every bit his awkward style of telling her that he has feelings for her.

I sympathize that this is a romcom and then obviously I'm expecting hijinks and mishaps, but subsequently a while the whirlwind becomes so dull. New characters are introduced into the story every few capacity, and every ane of them becomes a love rival to disrupt the chief pair's relationship. Information technology's almost as if Kamio'south editor said "we need another conflict to pad the story here" and up comes some other rando to drag the story on for far too many chapters longer. Even though I call back they're a toxic couple, I was begging them to assemble, merely to take me out of my misery and put a stop to the pointless stalling. Tsukushi's deliberations about whether or not she loves Tsukasa, fifty-fifty though it was obvious she does, quickly loses their charm and the long-awaited coupling drags on for probably 100 capacity. Likewise, it'due south interesting that this story started in school but halfway through , no one is in school anymore. Tsukushi is in her uniform, but she is regularly whisked away from her classes past some member of the F4 to visit cafes, taken on shotgun holidays, spirited away to remote islands and yacht parties, flown to New York, and forced to spend the night with Tsukasa in diverse forms by their friends, who just want the 2 of them to fuck.

There are several things the story does well, though. Rui Hanazawa is an interesting character, and he is regularly the phonation of reason. Without him, the plot would never move. Yuki'southward evolution as Tuskushi'due south church building mouse side-kick to confident and assertive young woman, haircut and all, is really nice to see, and I similar the dynamic between Tsukushi and the rest of the school. Like her or loathe her, she really does transform the people effectually her, like a deranged version of Tohru from Fruits Basket, and the grapheme evolutions are natural and well-paced. It's also a very funny serial. I laughed out loud more once. It's clear the story doesn't take itself too seriously, and any scene with the long-suffering Kazuya is a care for. Equally an bated, the artwork has a desperate change halfway through the series. At first it was very dated, very 90's in way, and and so it grew to be extraordinarily pretty, before devolving a footling scrap towards the end, with everyone'southward facial features melding into cookie-cutter copies. At some bespeak I couldn't tell the difference between Sojiro and Rui Hanazawa, and Yuki started to wait strangely similar to Sara and Shigeru.

genuinely made me laugh out loud. Her parents are a MESS.

genuinely fabricated me laugh out loud. Her parents are a MESS.

The ending is probably the biggest disappointment. 243 capacity, and we never see Tsukasa return to Japan to continue his relationship with the girl he beat upwards half the school for. After all their circling around each other, we don't even get a wedding? No terminal chapter with kids? No flash-frontward to their joint empire, with Tsukasa finally taking the reins after his male parent'southward declining wellness, and Tsukushi becoming… look, what did she fifty-fifty want to practise with her life, anyway? Nearly 250 chapters, and we're never told what her plans are after she finishes school. I'm enlightened that at that place are ii spin-off series, but based on the synopsis of the main one (Boys Over Flowers: Jewelry Box), the things I was expecting to see equally a fitting end to their crazy relationship drama are still nowhere to exist found. Give me a hymeneals.

This review is harsher that I thought, but I think my feelings are still raw as I finished it very recently. I just spent a fortnight off work. Two weeks of very little contact with friends and family unit, just me, my snacks, my computer and my manga. I began A Game of Thrones (the novel) before my annual leave started, and information technology stared at me wistfully every day whilst I ignored information technology. This fourth dimension off will be for manga, I told myself, incestuous war dramas can expect a bit while I finally catch upward on all the series I never really get to read during my working weeks. To call back that I spent and so much time on Boys Over Flowers made me a little depressed in the end. Thankfully, I spent the evenings re-reading Berserk. I'm currently on the Falcon Of the Millennium Empire arc, which is keen.

It's like a different manga. (credit to Vermilion Art/Yuki over at Amino for the photo collage.

Information technology'south like a different manga.
(credit to Vermilion Art/Yuki over at Amino for the photo collage.

I dunno, "read this if you lot want" is the bulletin here, if merely to witness a bit of historical significance. It'southward not also harmful, simply the problematic elements will really bound out at you lot if you're used to reading more than sophisticated shojo. Maybe this is sacrilege considering BOF came before, only if y'all want a fun story about a poor girl fumbling her way through elite life then I don't call back y'all tin go wrong with Ouran High School Host Club. Similarly, Maid-Sama is another series most a headstrong daughter who remains headstrong, butting heads with a rich elite boy who never disrespects her or tries to rape her at all. Also, nosotros become our nuptials.

I'll give this a 6/x.