Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.I have put this off for far too long (a la Bilbo from Fellowship of the Ring *dork*). What have I been doing cluttering my head with trashy shojo manga that didn't make any sense?
So this craze started off when a friend of mine came running to me about how obsessed she became about the Hana Yori Dango J-dorama in December, which I had already watched, along with the movie when it came out in the summer (I watched it with my Fukuokan host family) and thought it was cute... no, good... really good, actually, for a manga adaptation - but I couldn't really warm up to MatsuJun (no offense, but it's just how uncomfortably simian he looks). But I think it was some point in January when I figured what-the-hell and decided to plough through it, despite the unattractive art (which was what had put me off from reading it years before).
I'm now totally, totally reformed.
I admit, I was one of those "Ew, Domyouji? The curly hair? Really?" people. I was so, so wrong. Domyouji is the most awesome manga character evar. It's been a while since I've had past-healthy-feelings for a manga character, I've got to say that he has the most awesome lines and can get away with all kinds of shit because of the great character he plays.
So to retell the story that has been remade into 3 live-action dramas, 1 56-episode anime, 2 full-length movies, and a bunch of fan-fics (not to mention spawn a generation of similarly-told-and-unoriginal shojo mangas... I mean, this is like the mother of all shojo...), Makino Tsukukshi is an average girl who comes from a middle-class family and attends the prestigious Eitoku High School - a school for the super-rich upperclass. What's particular about the school is that the world-renown F4 attend it as well - the boys who are blessed with looks and riches, headed by Domyouji Tsukasa, the richest and "baddest" of them all. Although Makino isn't anything special - brains, beauty and feminine elegance are all categories that she falls short in - she's gutsy, and she catches the F4's attention when she stands up for her friend against the F4, who rule the school, by declaring war against the terrible foursome.
And ya-de-ya-de-yah. I don't think there's a single person in the world anymore who isn't familiar with the story.
But it's a brilliant story, and Kamio Youko's a genius for coming up with it. It must have been oodles of fun to write/draw as well! In the world of the rich upper class, everyone and everything can be pretty and it'll make sense! Youko Kamio doesn't really take advantage of that with her art (sad face), at least in the beginning, and the fashions make me thank god that I never had to go through that 90's phase as a teenager, but it's really the drama that pulls the manga through. It's... PERFECT. Particularly the characters.
First, lets start off with Makino. She's a great shojo heroine. She's not the really stupid and clumsy kind of girl you see in a lot of shojo manga that is completely passive, submissive, innocent-to-the-point-where-readers-want-to-rip-their-hairs-out, and really clueless - a lot of manga-ka's go overboard with that. She's smart (ish), spunky, cheerful, motivated, and confident. She's not especially cute/beautiful (and this actually comes across in the drawings - most shojo manga don't really make the distinction in the art because come on - no one reads manga to see ugly/plain people get together. She also has self-respect for herself, which I admire a lot. She also doesn't blush at every word said to her by the opposite sex, which is refreshing for once.
And then we have the F4: ah,where do I begin? They've got the looks and the money, but it's a lonely life for them because of how they've only been able to live in the bubble of their high-class privileges. They're only high schoolers, and yet they already claim world-weariness and are tired of the fakery of the world that they've already been so exposed to. This is where the title is so appropriate - Boys over Flowers - because more than anything, they are still boys with lives to live, loves to experience and memories to make. Not flowers to be displayed in a glass case and never touched, as they have thus been treated. The four stick together because they understand each other, and understand the burden and pain of their lifestyles that less-knowledgeable others admire. Akira Mimasaki, for example, only dates older women to escape his family of creepily-young women. Nishikado Soujiro flits from woman to woman to alleviate the pain of his lost first love, whom he lost because of... of... his status? I'm not really sure, I skipped this part of the manga because I really wasn't interested. It was the only part of the manga that I didn't like, I guess mainly because of Yuki's character... MOVING ON.
Hanazawa Rui... I love this guy. He's a kind of societal rogue in that he acts independently according to his feelings, regardless of the consequences to come (i.e. kissing Makino). But he's not so impulsive as Domyouji (we'll get there), because he doesn't express himself very often, and is very reticent. The words that he does utter, however, usually hold the most power. He's also the only guy who can really stand on equal footing with Domyouji, and has always acted as some kind of rival to him since childhood, knowingly or not. I guess the best phrase to describe him is that he's a guy who "doesn't care", but this develops later on beautifully as the manga progress when he goes out of his way to protect others (F4 and Makino!). He's also really insightful... He's Makino's first love, reason being that he saves her countless times from rape, bullying... and more bullying. And that he acts independently of the F4, and doesn't follow evil Domyouji's orders. He does so, however, rather unconsciously, showing that he has these sense of moral ideals already firmly implanted in his head. And... and... he's left single at the end of the series, even when he has finally learned to open his heart and love Makino... which made me want to bawl with fury... but not really, because of...
DOMYOUJI TSUAKASA. The greatest hero of all shojo manga. He's a complete psycho, and he goes bat-shit over all sorts of things. But he's downright lovable. He's hilarious and yet pitiful as the spoiled rich kid twisted and warped by his power from such a young age that the only pleasure he gets in life is entertainment in torturing others. Hence the red card system. So when Makino shows him another kind of human strength that isn't found in money, he is intrigued. Amused. Curious. And flabbergasted.
At first, he regards Makino as a new source of entertainment. One that he doesn't tire of, and one that doesn't disappoint him, because Makino, with her fighting-spirit, is capable of overcoming anything he throws at her. When he sees her with another guy, however (Rui in the video, and her friend whats-his-face-because-he's-not-important-really), he gets frustrated and he can't understand why. He's confused with his feelings (of course, because he's never felt like that before!) and he tries to resolve them by being more destructive. Because he's known nothing but money and force throughout his entire life, he tries to buy Makino by dressing her up in his house, and force himself on her after hearing about Rui.
So, it's all about force with this guy. He's pretty primitive, and he's really the equivalent of Rui only... different (I suck at explaining things). I mean that he's extremely impulsive, and he doesn't care about the world. But he expresses these impulses profusely - when he's angry, he goes nuts. When he's happy, he goes... nuts. In that way, he's really naive. Because he's been privileged all his life, he only has to worry about these basic set of values that he will stick to no matter what the costs. He's one of those characters that you can whole-heartedly believe when he says shit like, "I can't live without you", because... he can't! He goes absolutely insane when Makino's not around, and his eyes get all cold. The beliefs that he develops and discovers on his own - stuff about love, friendship, etc - are beliefs that he abides to with his life, and everything else is considered unimportant (partially because reality has never bothered him before. Money had always been there to clear away trivialities, which goes to show how corrupt society is depicted in HanaDan). Like when Makino worries about Yuki - despite the time (1:00AM), Domyouji drags her to Yuki's home because "she's you're friend, right?" He's a character your heart really goes out to, because he believes that he can do anything (partially true, because of his wealth and status). But it's especially sad because these very things are what obstruct him from the things that he has finally learned to desire.
Anyway, point being is that Domyouji is a complete nutcase. He's childish, impulsive, violent, forceful, stupid, and downright dangerous. But the only one who can tame him is Makino. And their relationship is... how do I describe it... he's endearingly sweet and protective of her - he wants to care for her and lavish all kind of luxuries onto her. He's convinced that she's the one (how can anyone not fall for that???) He's flustered by any shows of affection on her part and misinterprets a lot of things (again, he's never known such feelings and experiences before!) He's also (sweetly) selfish - knocks out any guy/gal that insults her, asks her for kisses and displays of affection, and wants Makino all to himself (particularly in rather steamy kiss-potential-sex-scenes). Makino hates his selfishness and disregard for others, but she acknowledges and appreciates how much he loves her, how sweet he can be to other people when he's nice (i.e. her family, the random kid at the zoo, etc).
So they're soul mates, basically. And it's Domyouji that chases after Makino, not the other way around (ah, old-fashioned chivalry). This manga hits it spot on with its good moments between Makino and Domyouji - it's appropriately physical and not stuffy and suffocating, and they have good dialogue exchange to substantiate their relationship (the dynamics of their conversation are really cute and funny). I can't remember squealing so much reading a manga. Who wouldn't, when you're watching a girl caught in the rivalry between two hot, rich, fearless guys?
(OWNAGE)
... along with a bunch of other names... (Domyouji-cousin-look-a-like-whatever-dude, the sushi-chef-but-son-of-a-senator-dude, etc... it got a little tiring after a while, to be honest)
Plus the art changes dramatically. Seriously - we get stuff from crap (sorry, Kamio Youko! But I do like your story!) like this:
which then develops into this!!!
So yeah.
HANA YORI DANGO FTW!!!
