#Boys Before Flowers

[sojirosteacup]

Makino's school uniform design, or, what are the colors of her clothes anyway?!

Hello, here is another post of me dissecting this 30 yo manga. This time we are focusing on Tsukushi's many uniform designs over the years! Enjoy!

If you ever read the manga and watched the anime, you may have noticed that Tsukushi's school uniform looks a bit different in both versions:

Her manga uniform has a gray tone, indicating that it is a dark color. Meanwhile, her skirt is checkered

In the anime, her uniform is yellow with a blue (not checkered!) skirt. It's a bit different from her manga design, but that's what usually happened with anime adaptations back then.

(They also changed the direction her suit buttons close. That's because the manga one was an oversight from the mangaka, girl's uniforms don't close that way.)

I imagine the animation studio changed the color pallete and a bit of the design to make the animation easier (again, as was common for anime from that time) and the mangaka kept them in her illustrations to keep the characters recognizable

also, were the black socks in this one an oversight or a reference to some of the dramas? Probably an oversight i'm reading too much into this

I know what you are thinking: "This is just our regular manga vs anime design difference from the 90's, why does it deserve a post?"

Because there is more!

Some of the anime merch shows her... wearing a red uniform?!? Its more often found on the VHS tape covers, but you can see it on some other merch too, like this puzzle i just saw on mercari:

?????????

Why red??? This is not the manga design, the suit color is dark but the skirt is different. It's also clearly anime merch. Was that some kind of prototype color pallete before the anime release?? Was there some version of the anime using a different color pallet? What is going on???? I have no idea.

This color was clearly the inspiration for the J-drama uniform, though (with a few changes).

So what was the original color of her uniform anyway? Well, we may never know. Correct me if i'm wrong, but i can't find any color art of her or another character in uniform from before the anime aired. The color images from the early days of the manga tended to show the characters in normal clothes. Unless there is some Margaret color page I don't know about.

However, when you look at the color version of the manga (released digitally, many years later) you can see they colored it blue with a yellow checkered skirt.

I don't know if this is the originally intended color, or if the colorist designed for the job just thought it fit the design (though, i imagine they had some guidance for the colors), but it might be the closest thing to the original vision for her uniform colors.

This design + the black and white manga one was clearly the inspiration for the k-drama uniform (again, with a few changes)

(it might not look like in the picture, but Jandi's uniform is dark blue)

Also, in a few scenes she is shown to wear something else beside the normal uniform. Probably an alternative uniform for hotter days:

Which i think served as inspiration for the thai-drama/lakorn uniform

(I also think it served as inspiration for the coat Jandi wears under her uniform in the k-drama, but i could be reaching here)

What's the point of this post? Idk, it's late and i should be sleeping and this is probably full of spelling mistakes i'll only notice tomorrow and cringe at, but i hope you enjoyed the random uniform trivia.

[ateacupdraws]

Is the leader of the F4 and heir of the Shinhwa group actually a shedding baby penguin? Why can't he swim? More at 8

[rughydrangea]

I just finished the Hanadan movie, and I must share my thoughts on this whirlwind journey I have undertaken these past few weeks. I must!

So, my only previous interaction with this property was the kdrama version, which I watched in... 2014. Yikes, that was a long time ago. It was one of my first kdramas, and I would say I had a good time watching it, even though it’s terrible. The thing about the kdrama is that it’s just so deeply stupid that it’s actually incredibly watchable. And although I haven’t rewatched it, I remember being genuinely into whatever LMH was doing. In retrospect, I’m not sure if I would say he gave a good performance, but I find him to be a deeply charismatic actor, and he really was on the wavelength of the drama in a way that worked, and compensated for the fact that all of the other main performers were actively terrible (okay, I liked the gangster kid! He didn’t do anything but he was sweet).

And honestly, I think the reason it took me so long to watch Hanadan, even though it has been sitting on my hard-drive for like seven years, is that I assumed that it would be just as dumb as the kdrama, and I didn’t see the point in sitting through that story a second time. But this winter break, I decided to watch it.

And I really liked it! Here’s the thing: it’s still deeply, deeply dumb. And the jdrama is arguably even more over-the-top than the kdrama? But it works so well. It is UNREAL what a difference an ensemble that can actually act makes, and especially having a leading lady who is capable of representing human behavior onscreen. Inoue Mao is so good at showing Makino as a relatable, down-to-earth person who nonetheless fits into the cartoon world she lives in. A huge part of why the romance here works so well is that she is so winning that the viewer totally gets why Domyouji falls for her like a ton of rocks, and supports him exploding his life to make room for her in it. When she punches him and he looks at her like his world is finally in color, you get it, because she really is that dreamy. And the actors actually have chemistry! Watching them bicker and fight and laugh and pine at each other is enjoyable! (These are the basics of screen romance, I know, but the kdrama clearly though they were optional.) 

As for Domyouji himself... even I, an LMH fan, must admit that there’s no comparison. For one thing, much as I enjoyed the GJP perm--you could see LMH actively willing it to look good in every shot--Domyouji’s perm is just unironically great? He looks incredible, and he just kind of slinks and struts around everywhere in a way that is very compelling to watch. This character is definitely way more intense that his kdrama counterpart--the argument could be made that Domyouji is a full-on psychopath. I mean, his favorite activities are beating people up and calling girls that aren’t Makino ugly. He’s so genuinely volatile and violent that it’s hard to disagree when his own friends call him a beast. IRL, if I’m Makino’s friend I’m telling her to do everything in her power to stay away from this guy. But the fact that he can be this scary kind of just makes the cartoon fantasy even stronger? When people who know Domyouji say that it’s only around Makino that he acts like a human, it’s undeniably true. She doesn’t make him a better man, or inspire him to improve himself--she is the force that transforms him from animal to person. That’s romance, baby! Like, it’s not healthy romance, but it’s a cartoon world so who cares. And Matsumoto Jun just sells Domyouji’s unpredictability and vulnerability and rage and childishness so well, and every time he looks sadly/longingly at Makino something inside me broke. I’m not about to go dive down an Arashi rabbit hole, but if this were the version I had watched in 2014, that may very well have happened.

I don’t have a ton to say about Hanazawa Rui, but Oguri Shun was fun and quirky and I enjoyed him. But I do have to take a minute for Nishikado, because I think Kim Bum, an actor I like, is horrible in BOF. The whole point of that character is that he is a massive playboy, and Kim Bum just displays negative sexual charisma over the course of the drama. It torpedoes the character. But it turns out that when you put a deeply sexy actor in the role, it’s suddenly more than watchable. Ah, Matsuda Shota, looking at you is one of my favorite things to do. (Watching Nishikado avoid Yuki was a more compelling romance that whatever Kim Bum and KSE were doing, I’m sorry.)

So, yes, I had a great time. The plot got increasingly stupid as we made our way from the first season to the second season to the movie, but I didn’t care. Watching this made me feel like a teenager again, but in a good way, somehow. It’s loud and euphoric and silly and it hits the same music cues over and over again, but damn if it didn’t work. Is there any trope under the sun better than “oh no you’ve fallen on top of me and your fiancée just walked in”? No, there is not.

[taechnological]

Also, petition to have Namjoon in his white suit from his concept photos and Hoseok frolick in a field of flowers together

ah yes BLISS

tho ngl wildflower mv came to mind first but i love this sm too 😍

[bylightofdawn]

So I restarted my Viki membership in order to watch the MDZS donhua and randomly saw there is now a Thai version of Boys over Flowers and it kinda sent me down a rabbit hole. I REALLY enjoyed the Korean version which....fuck prolly came out like 15 years ago at this point and that was kinda the last time I watched the show. So now I'm watching the original Japanese version and holy fuck balls man.

Domyoji is an actual fucking psychopath.

I always had some issues with his relationship with Tsukushi and now, older and way more sensitive and aware of red flag behavior and general fuckery it's going to be interesting to see if I can actually watch this show. I remember the hazing in the Korean version was pretty hardcore. I don't remember how bad it got in the Japanese version.

I do suspect I'm going to be a helluva lot less sympathetic to poor, abandoned and alone rich boy with only his distant beloved sister to give him any kind of structure schtick. Pfffft. My ability to stomach fuck boy behavior is at a negative ten and only plummets from there.

That being said a part of me is kinda curious to check out the Thai version. I don't think I've ever actually WATCHED a Thai drama before. I've seen gif sets from various thai BL drama but nothing really caught me by the throat thus far. I might check it out. I also might end up watching Boys Before Flowers because I recall the Korean drama being better than the Japanese one.

[rojaloca]

Wait is the silly romcom a BL now?

Yep time to move on from ShanCai

[opikiquu]

(disappears for a month and reappears with a slightly obscure hyperfixation) Hey guys

[zazrichor]

a little preview of what I’ve been working on for @daflowerzine ! 🌸🌼🌺

[poisonousquinzel]

if y'all ever want a bit of modern harlivy angst that ends happy and doesn't feel laced with ooc toxicity in the like "oh the writer's apparent reference for ivy's characteristics in their relationship is plant ivy and that's it wow..." I'd recommend their little story from DC's Harley Quinn Romances cause <33333 it's very special to me

they make me unreasonably emotional

Ivy after reading Harley's au fic where she gets to punch Joker with her at prom:

[bizarrelittlemew]

the saddest line in the trailer

at first I was too distracted by Stede's plunging neckline and gold earring to fully realize why this kept nagging at me but:

"I've been a failure my whole life."

and the way he says it:

as a matter of fact, because he fully believes it – it's an integrated part of his self-image

to comfort someone else (presumably), meaning that even though it is sort of similar to Ed's "I'm not a good person" from s1e6, this scene doesn't seem to be about Stede getting comforted – he is just throwing that line in there

with the follow-up line of "It's not so bad once you get used to it," because he is used to being called a failure by everyone around him, even when he was a kid, so much that he doesn't question it

and yeah, Stede fucks up a lot and can be a bit air-headed/naive and overestimates his abilities (Stede's super high confidence vs. shit self-esteem is a central part of his character), often to the detriment of himself and everyone around him, but his biggest "crime" growing up was simply that he was different and didn't live up to the norms of masculinity. and this is what caused him to be made to feel like a failure by the world around him.

(putting the rest under the cut because I have a lot to say apparently lmao ⬇️)

idk it is just so sad that after everything that happened at the end of season 1, he still echoes his father's and the Badmintons' words when talking about himself (and his own "I'm not a pirate, I'm an idiot" from s1e1). he still has a lot of growth to do.

and while it's good that he embraces his own shortcomings (and I hope he stays a loser in many ways <3) and the show reinforces that you don't have to be perfect to be worthy of love/that you are worthy of love just as you are, it is just. idk SO SAD to hear him say that about himself so earnestly

but do you know who doesn't let Stede self-deprecate?

THIS GUY, FROM THEIR VERY FIRST DAY TOGETHER

from telling Stede he isn't such a terrible pirate (at least he's alive), to not letting Stede call his own ideas stupid, Ed likes Stede for who he is WHILE not letting him talk bad about himself like that.

now we can't know who Stede is talking to in the scene in the trailer, just that it is someone with long dark hair:

and it could be someone else (to me it doesn't look quite like Ed's hair, but the quality/lighting makes it difficult to tell), but if it IS Ed, it has the potential for him to (once again) go against Stede's negative self-talk 😌

I am so interested to see how this scene plays out and I REALLY hope we get a scene mirroring the bathtub scene (even if it's not this one) but with the roles switched ✌️

[archangel-1]

[circusclowne]

lesbian flower real

(why do i keep drawing flower so much)

[akemiiya]

flowey would be banned from the kitchen. not because he doesn't know how to cook - he actually has a pretty good grasp on the fundamentals and do's and dont's for cooking, because he used to help his mom in the kitchen - but because he has zero patience. he always does things like cook on the highest heat when he shouldn't be, and ends up burning stuff a lot because of it.

he could cook well if he tried, but he doesn't bother because it's too time consuming. he's all about instant gratification, and he doesn't really need to eat anyways, so... yeah.

likewise, he sucks at baking because baking needs precise measurements. he doesn't have the patience to do all that, so he just shakes the bags of ingredients upside down a few times and ends up with wildly off measurements. (and he doesn't preheat the oven either)

you could have him hang around your shoulder and watch you cook and he would give you all kinds of useful tips and suggestions to make your food taste better. but don't let him do the cooking himself. frisk learned the hard way.

i think his character development on the surface would involve him restoring his attention span and becoming more patient with things, mostly with cooking and baking. this could start with him baking a pie for frisk's birthday or something. they're a little scared at first because he's not supposed to be in the kitchen, but when they take a bite they find out that it actually tastes really good, almost on par with toriel's. after that they push flowey to cook and bake more, and it just goes from there.

[hppjmxrgosg]

This is my favorite song🤩 <333333

Nothing goes as planned for our boy😔

Also

Tony: hey spidey why do you not fight like strong ppl do?

Peter:

Tony:

[fromtheseventhhell]

I want to make a longer post about this someday but: I think Arya's TWOW arc is going to include her coming to terms with her identity as a Lady. This has been an ongoing conflict with her since her first chapter and I think her flowering in winds is going to mark a turning point. The theory of her having an apprenticeship with the courtesans holds a lot of weight and the idea of Arya going through puberty among a group of unconventional women she's fostered a positive relationship with is just too perfect. It would really have an impact on Arya reconciling her personal idea of what a Lady should be. There's also a lot that she could learn from them in terms of courtesies, communication, appearances, body-language, etc. that would elevate her current skill-set and ways her relationship with them could push the plot.

Not to mention she will undoubtedly reclaim her identity as Arya Stark, and her being a Lady is inseparable from that. Arya Stark is a Lady Stark and being a Lady is a social position, not a measure of how well someone preforms feminine tasks. She shouldn't have to relinquish her position because she doesn't fit patriarchal standards. That's not to say that she's ever going to be the perfect example of a traditional Lady but what I think will happen is that she becomes capable of playing the part. She plays several identities throughout the series but she's always been Arya underneath, so I think it's appropriate that she learns to adopt a "persona" that's part of her. Her remembering Ned putting on his "Lord's face" (+ the various examples of other characters being separate from their ruling persona) makes me think that Arya will be donning her "Lady's face" when she makes a return to Westeros.

[charmbyclairo]

˚˖𓍢ִ໋🧁ིྀ ˚ lara jean covey moodboard (˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶)