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Hana Yori Dango

       
                 
                 
 

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Title Info

  • seen: 1-6 of 51
  • type: TV
  • grade: watchable
  • genre: shoujo
  • made: unknown
  • Review created: A while ago, i'll revise it eventually.
  • mod: none

The title translates as either "dumplings before flowers" or "boys before flowers" depending on how it is written, which is probably a great pun in Japanese but loses something in translation (info. from series notes on the fansub). The story concerns a Japanese school-girl (16'ish) attending a prestigious school well above her social station. The school is dominated by four older boys, called the F4, who place a red card in the locker of the school pariah, who becomes an instant target for bullying. In standing up for a friend the lead manages to achieve this `honor', but being a bit tougher and more resilient than the average girl the result is not what they expect. At the same time she is drawn to the most reserved and introverted member of the F4, while the extroverted leader begins to find her intriguing, despite the fact that they have declared war on each other. The alternation between sociabilility and opposition on the part of the F4, and love and loathing on the part of the heroine, makes for some stressful scenes, but it never quite reaches the poison level of `brother, dear brother', possibly because there is so much happening. On the other hand those who have watched any `school bitchiness' anime will probably find this heroine a delight for her firey temper and bravery even when she is terrified of what she is doing. Of course the thing that hurts her the most is the strength of her love, which she realises is probably doomed to fail. The writing is not without flaws, some of the mood changes being a bit sudden, and the amount of activity reduces the atmosphere, but this is still an interesting piece. The animation is clean and minimal, in the expected shoujo manner. I very much look forward to watching the story unfold.

Well,Lord Carnage is having none of this, with the review calling it a `crappy rehash of Marmalade Boy with crappy animation', ouch.

       
                 
                 
       

Words by Andrew Shelton, Web by Ticti, Last Compile: Wed Aug 5 12:39:19 WST 2009