Here I am sitting in a café trying to log into the internet but somehow I can’t, so I ended up staring at my laptop for an hour.
Today is such a rainy, easy breezy day, you know? Relaxing and quiet. I like rainy days. On rainy days, it’s cool and quiet. I like quiet.
Recently I’ve been reading a lot of manga thanks to my friends who download them and pass them on to me.
Hana Yori Dango
This manga first appeared in the weekly chinese comic magazine and of course since it was in chinese I didn’t particularly pay much attention to it back then. I stumbled upon the translated title ‘Boys Over Flowers’ which is probably wrong but I checked it out and was immediately hooked.
Unlike the usual manga about romance and love, this is about a ordinary girl, Tsukushi Makino, who goes to an elite school. There she met with F4 (I’ll explain this in a bit), a group of gorgeous boys, sons of extremely rich and powerful families. F4 stands for ‘Flower Four’ because the boys were so handsome, they were like flowers.
Ok, gag on that part, I know I did. The art work is alright and a bit outdated, so I’m guessing it was published around early 90’s.
Tsukusi was a down to earth and practical girl with a strong sense of justice and morality. When the F4 started to bully her friend, she couldn’t take it and openly challenged them, especially their leader, Domyoji. In the end, he fell in love with her instead but due to his weird twisted character and sense of pride (considering he’s one of the richest and most sought out guys), all his actions turn into screw ups.
Not only those two can’t seem to stop fighting, but they are constantly butting heads due to their pride. *sigh* But that’s why it makes for a really entertaining manga to read, instead of the usual girl likes boy, boy likes girl, they go out, then another boy like girl, try to break them up, in the end boy turns out to be the half brother of the other boy, or the long time ago childhood sweetheart. You know, the usual. XD
This manga can be sappy at times and makes me roll my eyes at out outrageous these boys are but then again their ridiculous and screwed up stories makes me laugh more than I ever had from a romance manga.
It was so popular in Japan and Taiwan, that by year 2000, Taiwan decided to make a series based on this manga. Only the series was called ‘Meteor Garden’ instead of ‘Boys Over Garden’. Hence, F4, the Taiwanese boy band, was born. The series was a hit and not long Japan had one made too.
I only watched the Japan ver but from what I read online a lot of people prefer the Japanese version because it stuck more to the storyline than the Taiwanese ver. But what I find most *ahem* appealing bit of the series was that they casted hunkster Matsumoto Jun as Domyoji. He also starred in another manga based series called, ‘Gokusen’ as ‘Shin’.
Ratings :
Comedy - 8.5
Romance - 8
Art - 5.5
Storyline - 7.5
Creativity - 6.5
Overall score - 7.2
Today is such a rainy, easy breezy day, you know? Relaxing and quiet. I like rainy days. On rainy days, it’s cool and quiet. I like quiet.
Recently I’ve been reading a lot of manga thanks to my friends who download them and pass them on to me.
Hana Yori Dango
This manga first appeared in the weekly chinese comic magazine and of course since it was in chinese I didn’t particularly pay much attention to it back then. I stumbled upon the translated title ‘Boys Over Flowers’ which is probably wrong but I checked it out and was immediately hooked.
Unlike the usual manga about romance and love, this is about a ordinary girl, Tsukushi Makino, who goes to an elite school. There she met with F4 (I’ll explain this in a bit), a group of gorgeous boys, sons of extremely rich and powerful families. F4 stands for ‘Flower Four’ because the boys were so handsome, they were like flowers.
Ok, gag on that part, I know I did. The art work is alright and a bit outdated, so I’m guessing it was published around early 90’s.
Tsukusi was a down to earth and practical girl with a strong sense of justice and morality. When the F4 started to bully her friend, she couldn’t take it and openly challenged them, especially their leader, Domyoji. In the end, he fell in love with her instead but due to his weird twisted character and sense of pride (considering he’s one of the richest and most sought out guys), all his actions turn into screw ups.
Not only those two can’t seem to stop fighting, but they are constantly butting heads due to their pride. *sigh* But that’s why it makes for a really entertaining manga to read, instead of the usual girl likes boy, boy likes girl, they go out, then another boy like girl, try to break them up, in the end boy turns out to be the half brother of the other boy, or the long time ago childhood sweetheart. You know, the usual. XD
This manga can be sappy at times and makes me roll my eyes at out outrageous these boys are but then again their ridiculous and screwed up stories makes me laugh more than I ever had from a romance manga.
It was so popular in Japan and Taiwan, that by year 2000, Taiwan decided to make a series based on this manga. Only the series was called ‘Meteor Garden’ instead of ‘Boys Over Garden’. Hence, F4, the Taiwanese boy band, was born. The series was a hit and not long Japan had one made too.
I only watched the Japan ver but from what I read online a lot of people prefer the Japanese version because it stuck more to the storyline than the Taiwanese ver. But what I find most *ahem* appealing bit of the series was that they casted hunkster Matsumoto Jun as Domyoji. He also starred in another manga based series called, ‘Gokusen’ as ‘Shin’.
Ratings :
Comedy - 8.5
Romance - 8
Art - 5.5
Storyline - 7.5
Creativity - 6.5
Overall score - 7.2
