Forum - View topicBuried Treasure - Boys over Flowers (Hana Yori Dango)
|
Goto page Previous 1, 2, 3, 4 Next Note: this is the discussion thread for this article |
| Author | Message | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
The_Libertarian_Otaku
 Posts: 189 |
|
|||
Because the anime's old and hardly anyone or their dog really makes mention of it in this day and age with their precious Naruto, K-ON!, Strawberry Panic, etc. Why the hell didn't Viz bother to just release BOF in season box sets due to its length? Even half-season sets would have sufficed! (At least Tokyopop got it right with their release of Marmalade Boy!) Also, why doesn't shoujo anime do well? What do people think will happen if it did? (Which it NEEDS to, just as shounen does) |
||||
|
||||
|
jsevakis
Former ANN Editor in Chief
 Posts: 1684 Location: Los Angeles, CA |
|
|||
GO AWAY. |
||||
|
||||
Beryl7
 Posts: 73 |
|
|||
|
First off, I just wanted to say, Mr. Sevakis, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. Simply seeing HYD as topic for discussion this month made me ecstatic, and thus I read your happily piece before I ran off to work. Again, thank you.
HYD/BOF is one of my favorite series in general, let alone my favorite shoujo. And I'm extremely cautious and picky when it comes to getting involved in a series. If it wasn't for Viz's advertising in the couple issues of Animerica I bought, I would've never heard of the show or manga. It was sheer curiosity that drove me to it (aside from Domyouji's character design--he really stuck out and that helped). And that curiosity killed my wallet, ha ha. I admit, I was one of the poor saps who, years ago, bought all 12 DVD's at $25-30 a pop. What can I say, even after reading all the episode summaries online ahead of time, I was hooked. And I'm still not quite sure why (oh, but there are theories...). Seeing Right Stuf selling the series for $90 two or three years back seriously made me want to cry. I'm really pleased to have read that you enjoyed the dub. Of course, I had some issues with it (like everyone else) but I thought it was rather decent and enjoyable. I have my own theories regarding Domyouji, his personality, and his relationship with Makino, and as much as I want to ramble on and make clever comments about their "love" and delve into the manga, I'm sure no one really cares. I'll just say this: all the characters are psychological goldmines, in my opinion. Oh, and one more thing.
Holy. Crap. I was absolutely planning on saying that if you hadn't. My sentiments exactly. I was horribly upset at the anime ending. |
||||
|
||||
KanjiiZ
 Posts: 661 Location: Central Coast |
|
|||
Maybe I've been looking in all the wrong places, but Hana Yori seems to not be as obscure as you might think. Old? It's about 15 years old, that's not old! Well, maybe to all those recent fans that find Gundam Wing and Tenchi Muhyo to be old school, but otherwise it's pretty damn recent. Because America isn't ready for shoujo. It's rare for those type of titles do well with girls, let alone boys. It seems like a pretty small niche to target anyone really. |
||||
|
||||
Agent355
 Posts: 5113 Location: Crackberry in hand, thumbs at the ready... |
|
|||
|
I have to give the author credit. When I first started reading Boys Over Flowers, I rooted for Makino. I really loved her personality. She was smart, compared herself to a weed rather than a flower and persisted with stubborn determination to stand against the bullies. Which was why I was sickened by her when she started falling for one of them. I am dumbfounded by the popularity of this series and those similar to it (Hot Gimmick).
Dysfunctional relationships are one thing, but descending into a relationship with someone who has an outright abusive personality is disturbing. A horror story rather than a romance. I'm supersensitive, though, having seen *real life* domestic violence, I just can't take it when such relationships are celebrated in fiction. So-called "tsundere" female characters disturb me, too, because the relationship dynamic I am most familiar with are women who physically and emotionally abuse men, which is far, far more common than people think, and not the least bit funny in real life. Justin, this was a great column, and you made some incredible observations, but no matter how good the show is, I don't think I could bring myself to watch it through. On a lighter note, I think anime fans can agree that ALL Japanese men have a secret ambition to pilot a giant robot. 
|
||||
|
||||
rti9
 Posts: 1241 |
|
|||
Hehe, nice way to describe HYD. It's really nice to see quite a big number of people who still hold this title preciously, but I wonder if you guys think it is surviving the test of time. Considering the low budget problem addressed by Justin and the fact that the story is kind of long and slow, I don't think the next generations will give this title a chance. Then again, they don't seem to give a chance to almost anything. I personally enjoyed it (impossible not to root for Tsukushi), but even I won't consider re-watching it. A question for those who have watched Hana Yori Dango in other formats: does the story still work when told in a more compact way or does it feel too butchered? Although focusing on comedy rather than drama, Ouran High School Host Club seems to be the HYD counterpart of the current decade. Do HYD fans like OHSHC? |
||||
|
||||
Gewürtztraminer
 Posts: 1028 Location: Texas - Its like whole other country. |
|
|||
If I want to legally see this (which I do, hell, I just rented Aquarion for god sakes), volumes 1-3, 9 and 11 are unavailable via Netflix On rentanime.com Volumes 2,3,4,5, 6, 8,9 are unavailable. Great! I have to crap all over copyright to watch this. It aint cool if you aint breaking the law. |
||||
|
||||
NekoYousei
 Posts: 13 Location: North Carolina |
|
|||
Every SINGLE thing you said are my thoughts exactly. This anime/manga has been one #1 all-time favorite since Middle School (I r smart college student nao). I watched the anime and then began to read the manga ("scanlations" at the time). I'm so happy because I just ordered the last two manga volumes (not including "Jewelry Box"). I'm having to play "catch up" on buying the DVDs because I waited...and waited...and waited for a box set. And as everyone now knows, it never came to be.  I was really hoping for a remastered box set because, PLEASE CORRECT ME IF I AM WRONG, the DVDs were released in the US in 2003...The anime was not available on DVD in Japan until 2006! Not until after the Japanese drama was the huge success that it was! So the R2's would have superior quality, right? That's why I waited so long for the DVDs. Not to mention the god-awful covers Viz had, geez. Looked like a 13 yr old went happy with photoshop. The R2 releases had such simple and clean designs.
I really recommend reading the manga if you are a fan of the anime because so many things are left out and there is so much MORE to the story!!! There is a lot more soul searching, bonding and healing. 36 (37) volumes may seem a bit daunting& the art work is a bit rough in the beginning, but it truly is worth it. I definitely wouldn't put too much faith in Viz doing a BIG Edition of HYD. |
||||
|
||||
Pinkwings
 Posts: 234 |
|
|||
|
I was fine with her choice at the end because Rui was boring. He became interesting later but it was too late. I already liked Makino and Tsukasa's bickering. I just like the bickering pairs over the calm and boring ones. I hated seeing Makino act awkward, blush, and make a fool out of herself in front of Rui. Like the part where she tries to explain the accidental kiss and he says something like "so?"..I forget. But just no.
Makino/Rui= ZZZZZZZZZZZZ Makino/Tsukasa= 
I only saw a few eps and stopped because the quality looked crappy. I prefer the manga. |
||||
|
||||
|
Beryl7
Posts: 73 |
|
|||
1. Yes. I've, um, seen both the Japanese and Korean adaptations, and while each has its flaws, both are very, very well done and rather faithful to the original material (anime and manga both). 2. Haha, this took me back; it's hilarious that someone asked this, because I remember when I first read about OHSHC in an old issue of Newtype USA (back when the series was still in pre-production), I hastily scrawled on top of the page "VENDETTA FOR HYD!" because I felt that the story was way too similar....And yet I watched the entire series within a few days and absolutely loved it...so, um, yes....damn addicting shoujo... |
||||
|
||||
DuelLadyS
 Posts: 1705 Location: WA state |
|
|||
*heavy sigh* OK, look- there's only so many 25+ year old anime supergems out there. It's not about digging up the most obscure, most hidden, most unobtainable anime out there- it's about bringing up shows that aren't in the spotlight to give you something good that isn't the current Big Thing to watch. Hana Yori Dango is out of print, not instantly findable online, and as already stated, not easily available to rent. Plus, despite your assertions, it IS old- remember, many anime fans are in their teens., and the popular shows rotate fast. It's going to be hard to convince them to watch a show that came out while they were in diapers... so it fits for the article. (Even if us old forgey fans are pretty familiar with it.) If it really bothers you, make a suggestion for a future buried treasure. Feedback is always good thing, at least when it's fully thought out. |
||||
|
||||
Sirenlove
 Posts: 79 Location: Corona,NY |
|
|||
lol cheating huh? Love the column anyway. I've seen the TV series already and didn't plan on watching the anime because I'd figured it would be redundant but now I want to see it. Sounds really good and your observations on gender roles especially in eastern vs. western society I cannot find fault in. Very true and courageous considering you will probably be attacked on here for it lol. Which has already happened. *rolls eyes* Either way. I support you! *looking forward to nyaf  where we will win all ANN trivia questions again.
|
||||
|
||||
Quark
 Posts: 710 Location: British Columbia, Canada |
|
|||
This is very true. Even if a series was big a few years ago, a lot of the newer fans may have never heard of it, and some older fans may have never gotten the chance to see it. Myself, I had heard quite a bit about this series when I first started getting into anime about 11 years ago, but unfortunately, at the time, wasn't too interested in watching it. Years later, I had seen an episode or two of the live action drama, and was slightly interested, but was disappointed to find that the DVDs were pretty much all gone, and therefore put it out of my mind. Thanks for Justin's review, I've decided that it's high time to give this series a watch, and am currently downloading it. So really, for me, and I'm sure for other fans, I'm glad that there are articles to remind us of these shows that were once big back in the day, that have fallen by the wayside - whether for nostalgia, or to let us learn (or remember) about older series that deserve to be enjoyed again. Justin - have you done an article on Kimagure Orange Road yet? That one seems ripe to be a Buried Article feature. |
||||
|
||||
|
supersqueak
Posts: 194 |
|
|||
|
Lol I only signed up for this website because I saw that article about Hana Yori Dango. Okay people do not judge Makino and Domyoji's relationship until you have read the manga it is way longer and in depth than the anime. For some reason the anime got cut short. spoiler[Tsukasa had to do a lot to totally earn Tsukushi's love and respect yeah a lot of you probably see Tsukasa as brutish and he is but Tsukushi is no angel herself she is so stubborn I would hit her myself. In the manga Rui does NOT end up with Shizuka!! He and her parted ways in canada and she married the french guy along the way he realizes he loves tsukushi but steps aside for Tsukasa to pursue a relationship with her. He loves Tsukushi till the very end. Tsukasa and Tsukushi do not run off on some kind of cruise together!!! After more struggles he goes to new york to learn how to run his company and she continues on to college at eitoku. They eventually after 4 more years get engaged. Both characters do end up growing up quite a bit more. This isn't a stupid manga like hot gimmick where the guy physically, mentally and sexually abuses the heroine and they live crappily ever after. Tsukasa Domyoji was not originally even meant to be the love interest it was suppossed to be Rui but Tsukasa was more popular and Yoko Kamio grew to love him too. So don't be mad if he isn't your cookie cutter knight in shining armor.]
I myself only discovered this anime and manga last year. It annoys the hell out of me that Viz didn't do more to advertise this anime or give it a box set. I am struggling to try and collect the DVDs and the volumes of the manga. It's not easy. Please give this anime/manga a chance it is well worth your time. It didn't spawn up to 4 live action dramas because it's crappy. Yeah it's kind of old and so the animation and music aren't as hip as some of the other stuff out these days but the story is great and timeless. Any time some one asks me to recommend a shojo or high school anime/manga I tell them HANA YORI DANGO!! It will become one of your favorites if you let it. And that is the end of my long over the top post. |
||||
|
||||
Elves
 Posts: 269 Location: USA |
|
|||
From a girl's perspective...I couldn't stop laughing after I read this.  That's the best one-liner I've heard in a lo~ng time. Cause, in my opinion, you're pretty much right. lol
|
||||
|
||||
 |
All times are GMT - 5 Hours |
|
|
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group