#Giving the part of Hana’s design I dislike the most a personality so I am infinitely more attached to it

[ragnar0c]

Chapter 4 is out, and now I can finally talk about Jewels and ether generators 🥹 The zodiac wings,, ofc more about them like types, purpose, and zodiac lore in the chapter + author’s note.

I had Hana refer to hers, Jewels, with she/her pronouns despite the generator not being like... fully conscious. And ever since I've been doing it too! Jewels beloved…. She grew on me….She was always a part of the story, but I wanted to highlight her more and give her a bit of personality.

Hana named her after Saturn, the Jewel of solar system and her favorite planet. The “S” came just because saying “Jewels” is smoother than “Jewel”. Hana likes to act cool, but she loves naming things with intention. Saturn is seen as a symbol of structure, responsibility, and working toward her goals. For her, Jewels is the same. A great friend that may be hard for her to use, but will ultimately help her succeed.

[parfaitwaffles]

Mid-Season Cures: Top Ranking

A few weeks ago, the newest mid season Cure, Cure Cosmo has debuted. And since Star Twinkle has been the 10th season to have a mid season Cure, I started to think about which mid season Cures are my most favorites.

Note: This ranking only includes Cures that appeared in the 20-ish episodes (aka joined the team around that time). Otherwise, it’d be hard (for me at least) to determine who exactly is the mid season Cure for certain seasons.

This ranking is based on personal opinion! You don’t have to agree with it, nor do you have to like it. It was made just for fun and not to serve the purpose to hate on certain characters!

#1 Cure Passion

It might sound a little funny, but yes, the very first official mid season Cure is also my most favorite one! Despite joining the fandom in 2013, Fresh Pretty Cure! was the first season I watched and totally fell in love with. There’s not a single thing I dislike about the season and I love ever character of the show. 

But that is not the reason why Passion is my most favorite mid season Cure. Among all Cures that joined late, Passion/Eas just simply had the best redemption arc in my opinion! She was a badass character as Eas and suffered through her arc, trying to prove to Moebius that’s she is a loyal servant, even if it meant to risk her own life. And her struggle didn’t end after she became Cure Passion. She kept on doubting herself, she felt like she was all alone until she realized and accepted that Love and the others wanted her to be with her.

Additionally, Setsuna is simply badass, I can’t help but loving her.

#2 Cure Scarlet

To be honest, when Go! Pri first aired, I didn’t like it at all, it was among my least favorite seasons, and thus I didn’t think highly of Cure Scarlet. By today, however, I have totally fallen in love with the season and appreciate the plot, the setting, the characters, the everything. In my personal ranking, Go! Pri might not be my most favorite season but I still love it very much. 

Originally, I thought Scarlet might be a rip off of Passion. But I learned and realized that despite them both being redemption Cures, they are quite different. Setsuna might have had the more impacting arc, but that didn’t mean that Towa’s was bad!! In fact, I teared up quite often during her arc as well and Twilight is a terribly awesome character! (I kinda even like Twilight more than Towa tbh).

#3 Cure Fortune

A lot people dislike HaCha, so I wonder how many of you would be surprised to see Fortune to be my 3rd most favorite mid season Cure. But yes, she is! Fortune has a lot badass-ness to give. Like... all other Cures were somehow chosen by Blue (he threw the crystals at them) while Iona took the PreChanMirror of her sister to avange her. She was probably one of the most determined Cures we have ever met. She literally went “God, who? I will rescue my sister no matter what!”. I agree that she was a little strict and stubborn towards Hime, but let’s be honest, she had all reason to!

Cure Fortune is just cute and amazing, I totally love her!

#4 Cure Sunshine

//coughs// I wanna talk with you Toei, about how you handled Itsuki. Because?? She (Cure Sunshine) debuted as a badass Cure who does shields but can kick ass because she’s awesome and all! But after a while, all she does is shielding her friends? She can kick ass, so let her kick ass, please! 

Ehem... yes, I also really love Cure Sunshine. Tho before I watched Heartcatch Pretty Cure!, I thought Itsuki was boring... oh how wrong I was, right? Itsuki has probably one of the best transformations of all. It shows that you can be cute and badass at the same time. I’ve seen someone talking bad about her transformation, but tbh?? It’s amazing, give me more like that!

#5 Cure Beat

I have once started watching Suite Pretty Cure♪ but dropped it (because life got crazy). I will watch it completely one day though! And for favorite Cure... of Suite I love Cure Muse the most, but as I limited the mid season ranking to Cures that appeared in the 20ish episodes, I have to go with Beat. And I really do like Beat!! Like Passion, Beat was once a villain of the season, but even though they have a similar background, the story was completely different and I think Toei chose a good plot for Beat! I doubt that a redemption arc like Eas’ had fit with her tbh. 

Now, I could never take Siren as serious as Eas but... I suppose we never should. I guess she was always supposed to be a funny character that the audience loves to see. And tbh that’s what I like about Siren/Ellen/Beat. How random and funny she was at times, but then could also be determined and protective again. 

Also, guitars. Yes please. We need more Guitar Cures. We’ve only had 3 so far! (4 if you count Gelato, but she didn’t use one to attack)

#6 Cure Parfait

Tbh, I prefer Kirarin over Parfait and Ciel, but there we go; Cure Parfait is my favorite Cure from her season because she’s so different from everyone else. Her transformation is, imo, the most beautiful one and her attack... is really weird, but not as weird as creating a darn cake and then throw it at the enemy (seriously Toei, that attack is lame, what were you thinking xD). I can’t exactly say what I liked about Cure Parfait, I might like her the most because she and Pikario (best boy!!) had the best development and best arc of the whole season and thus her debut was so emotional, to me at least. Idk, but here we are. She can’t even make it to my top 5 favorite mid season Cures... xD

#7 Cure Amour & Cure MaCherie

I love Cure MaCherie and am neutral about Cure Amour, and as mid season Cures I’m pretty much “meh” about them because they simply took too much spotlight from the other three Cures. In the end,... usually a mid season Cure joins when the Cures can’t take a certain challenge anymore and need support. Then the candidate to become a Cure, becomes determinded and creates a miracle by becoming another Pretty Cure (that is the usual way. I prefer more creative ways, like Towa and Setsuna’s tbh). Emiru and Ruru’s debut was ... Hana was sick and Homare and Saaya were ignored. That’s why they had to transform... right?? In other words, it was lame.

At least the transformation and attacks were nice! They also felt like they are part of the team, which I missed in KiraKira, where Ciel always only spoke with Ichika and that’s it...

#8 Cure Felice

I still have to watch Mahou Tsukai, so my opinion of her could still change! But for now, I’m very neutral towards Cure Felice tbh, she is cute and I love her design but... that’s just it? Her transformation is beautiful, but just so looooooong... same with her attack, way too long and also a bit boring. I get she is the Cure of nature, but did you have to show the flowers blooming from step to step @ toei???

Also I never understood why we need a flower Cure in a season based on magic. I know she is Mother RaPaPa but... eh... yes. 

#9 Cure Ace

One word: meh. Too bossy, and her entrance was too random. She never appeared before. It’s like Toei forgot about her until episode 23.

#10 Cure Cosmo

hmmm please note that this opinion of Cure Cosmo can still change as Star Twinkle Pretty Cure is still airing! However, as for now, I’m really no fan of her. I really like Yuni/Blue Cat though, as she is a badass character who likes to be a lone wolf! Cure Cosmo, however, just seems a little useless at the moment. Of course this is to blame on Toei but ,... well everything that happens is always to blame on Toei, so that’s even.

To me, her debut episodes, her transformation and even her attack were medicore and can’t be compared to other mid season Cures. Even Cure Ace had a flashier transformation (even though her fairy partner is annoying me). And even Ace’s attack was impacting, while Rainbow Splash is just good for visuals but except for that, it’s really lame. Up until now, the only (!!!) thing I can love Cosmo for is all the 80s aesthetic (but then again, Toei is trying WAYYYY to hard it that. It’s so much that it hurts, I’m sorry.) 

I hope Toei steps up the game with Cosmo and maybe I’ll like her more by the end of the season. But now she’s just... kinda meh to me.

[putschki1969]

VOICE Tour Tokyo ~ Quick live report Part 1

Hello everyone!

I have landed savely in Japan and last night I had the pleasure of attending Wakana’s Tokyo live. The last two days have been crazy as hell so I haven’t posted anything, sorry about that. I haven’t slept in what feels like forever so I am not sure how much sense I will be making but I wanna write a little report before all my memories fade away. After the Fukuoka live I might write another more detailed report but for now I wanna share my initial thoughts on the Tokyo concert. This is part 1 since I need to get to bed asap. Part 2 will follow at some point tomorrow.

Without further ado, let’s get to it 〈(•ˇ‿ˇ•)-→

I met up with two friends at the venue around 11 am. That’s super early considering the merchandise sale wasn’t scheduled to start until 16:00. No one was there except for us. And literally, no one did arrive until much later (maybe 15:00 or so...). Anyways, it happened to be our lucky day. Since we had arrived so early, we got to meet Wakana. Can you believe it? Yup, we met her!! Still completely in shock. It all happened so quickly and at first I didn’t even register it was her. Shame on me. My friends were also star-struck. It was quite the awkward moment actually.  We ran into her while she was taking some pictures of the venue. She had just finished and headed back inside when she walked past our little group. She greeted us and thanked us for coming. I don’t even know how to describe it but she was so freaking cute. I was dying, I didn’t know what to do. She was heading up the stairs - jumping like a little bunny actually - all the while waving at us. We waved back like our lives depended on it, Out of respect we kept our distance of course, we declared our undying love for her, wished her lots of luck and showed her our little “Wakana/若奈” sign which has been handed down from fan to fan all across the country. Wakana seemed quite excited when she saw it. Here’s a picture of a bunch of us later in the day.

Now it has become my duty to bring it to Fukuoka. I am really nervous about that. Anyways, here’s Wa-chan being cute in her little striped dress. I am so freaking glad we decided to turn up early. Best decision ever. Didn’t win the backstage tour but this was still a special moment. So happy!

Once it was time to buy the live goods, I decided to get the pamphlet, the tote bag, a t-shirt, the Kinmokusei towel, the thermos bottle, the keyholder and the shark-sake set. I also got a bunch of little presents and snacks from some of the Kala-fans I met. A fellow fan was kind enough to give me one of the clearfiles he got during the Toki Wo Koeru Yoru ni release event. So happy about that. I will be buying the single and album at the upcoming Fukuoka live to get those freaking posters. I need those posters in my life XD

Now let’s get to the live. Some general thoughts before I focus on each song (which will follow in part 2). I had a seat in the middle of the second row (!!) so Wakana was pretty much right in front of me. Waaaahhh! So lucky! These days I feel like they are giving out really good tickets to fan club members. That was never the case back in the Kalafina days. The venue was mostly filled up except for the top floor. I have mentioned it before but I will say it again, there were a ton of cameras and Wakana cofirmed during the live that we would get a release soon. So everyone, celebrate!! Our first Wakana home video release! BANZAI!! And what a great release it will be. Overall it was an amazing concert, a must-watch for every Wakana fan. Not a lot of action, for the most part Wakana was swaying gently on stage, once in a while she would walk from side to side and flap her skirt. There was a bit of action during Hard Rain, Kaze ni Naritai and Kimi Dake no Stage. The only time fans stood up was during Musunde Hiraku and even then a majority (myself included) remained seated. Just like her album, the concert was quite understated which is not a bad thing in my opinion but many of you might not like that.

Wakana did great, she was in good shape as far as I could tell, she didn’t struggle on the high notes (in fact, she sounded PERFECT during some of these high notes), she didn’t seem out of breath and she only started sweating a bit towards the end. Her microphone settings were a little off though, her voice was VERY loud at times. I guess it had to be that way because the band was super loud too. During certain songs it was more obvious than during others. The beginning of the concert (Yakusoku no Yoake) was particularly loud - bordering on too loud if you ask me but it got a lot better as the live continued. Bear in mind though that I was suffering from a lack of sleep at that point so I might have been a little too sensitive. At any rate, loudness is nothing that can’t be fixed with a bit of studio magic.

Since there were so many cameras Wakana was super nervous. I wanted to go up on stage and hug her. She struggled quite a bit during the MCs, there were some awkward pauses where she didn’t know what to say but hey, no one minded. Everyone was just like, “awwww, so cute!!” I wonder if they will keep all the MCs on the DVD/BD...? I hope they will, they made the live so much more intimate and real.

As for outfits, Wakana was wearing three different dresses. All of them screamed ”WAKANA” to me, undoubtedly they were chosen by her, they all looked like she would wear them on her off-days as well. Long, loose, crazy designs. Most people will probably dislike them because they were a little out there and not exactly flattering but hey, to each their own. Personally, I loved all three of them and I know Wakana feels comfy in dresses like that so that makes me super happy.

The first one was salmon coloured/orange-y, it had a very loose cut and looked extra-comfy. It stopped around her ankles and she was wearing flat roman-style sandals. I think it’s the first time we are seeing her wear flats on stage. I am happy Wakana focuses more on comfort these days. As a result, her presence on stage feels different too. I don’t know how to explain it but her presence feels more “natural” I guess. The skirt had a fancy design with many colourful layers and whenever she walked around on stage she would flap that skirt like nobody’s business. It looked really pretty and colourful. At its base it was a shiny yellow and then it had all these different colours layered on top of it. The second dress had a very flattering cut compared to the first one and it showed off her collarbones (which is always nice). Some people might be thrown off by the many different patterns but I think it looked quite cool XD. The last dress is the one from her album cover-shoot. Super lovely. The sleeves were slightly altered though. The dress doesn’t have long sleeves anymore. She wore some hair-accessories that looked a lot like the ones from Kalafina’s 10th Anniversary Live encore, the vibe was similar, I think they might have actually re-used those accessories. Anyways, she looked like an angel (which was quite fitting for Hikari Furu I think).

Setlist (Hanamizuki and oblivious were not part of the original setlist) My personal highlights were: Hard Rain, Kioku no Hito, Kaze ni Naritai, Hotaru, Jidai, Mizu no Akashi, Toki wo Koeru Yoru ni, Kinmokusei, Hikari Furu, Ai no Hana, Ato Hitotsu. Yakusoku no Yoake was a little too loud for my taste but in general the performance was amazing and I guess it belongs in my little fave-line-up. The song was changed slightly for the live performance so that made it even better.

01.約束の夜明�� | Yakusoku no Yoake 02.流れ星 | Nagareboshi MC 03.瑠璃色の空 | Ruriiro no Sora 04.Hard Rain MC 05.記憶の人 | Kioku no Hito 06.時の音 | Toki no Ne MC 07.風になりたい | Kaze ni Naritai ❇Cover (original by THE BOOM) 08.ホタル | Hotaru ❇Cover (original by Spitz) MC 09.時代 | Jidai ❇Cover (orignal by Miyuki Nakajima) 10.水の証 | Mizu no Akashi ～ Mizu no Akashi inst (dress change) 11.翼 | Tsubasa 12.君だけのステージ | Kimi Dake no Stage MC（band introduction） 13.むすんでひらく | Musunde Hiraku MC (Satoshi Takebe joins Wakana on stage) 14. ハナミズキ | Hanamizuki ❇Cover (original by Yō Hitoto) 15. oblivious MC 16.僕の心の時計 | Boku no Kokoro no Tokei 17.時を越える夜に | Toki wo Koeru Yoru ni MC 18.金木犀 | Kinmokusei

~EN ~ 19.ひかりふる | Hikari Furu MC 20.愛の花 | Ai no Hana MC 21.あとひとつ | Ato Hitotsu

Part 2 will follow soon.

[medea10]

My Review of Happy Sugar Life

[drink-n-watch]

Here we are again, one last time. At least one last time for the foreseeable future. Even as I write this, I’m already missing The Morose Mononokean a little. I have no way of properly explaining it, but this season just grew on me like wildflowers.  I thought it amusing, and familiar then interesting and even comfortin. Before I realized it, I was looking forward to the new episode and our chat afterwards, much more than I would have imagined at the start of the season.

I can understand this show not being for everyone, but I can’t help to feel that some people missed out.

I know. As the end credits started rolling I waited impatiently, even though that ending song kind of grew on me as well, hoping for a season three announcement. Tragically it didn’t come, but I didn’t really expect a season 2, so hopefully a season 3 will eventually appear. This has been pure fun to watch and each week I’ve looked forward to the show, and our chat, even more.

I really like out talks too!

For those of you who don’t remember, we left episode 12 with the adorable piglet yokai possessed by the evil spider yokai and an unaware Hanae rushing to the scene. This went as well as you could imagine, after speed dialing Abeno, Hanae got himself promptly possessed and the few Hunter x Hunter fans in the audience were left with the amusing image of Hanae as a member of the Phantom troupe.

You have to admit, for all that Hanae gets himself into trouble a lot, he isn’t continuously getting possessed. Actual possession is a new one.

Setting the bar pretty low there, K!

What I found really interesting, was the spider possessing Hanae was a lot less trouble than the ghost of his father who kind of got rid of the spider possessing him as easily as wiping a way a bug.

evil Hanae was the oddest thing

Once Abeno gets there, it become quickly apparent that Hanae is actually haunted by Sakae spirit who proves to be much more troublesome than Sasa. We get our first real look a Sakae and he reminded me just a bit of the Justice. It’s the droopy eyes and long bob I think. Am I crazy?

Not crazy, but I think this show only really has one facial expression to show villains at this point.

Also, Oh no Fuzzy!!!

Tell me about it. Poor Fuzzy in this episode. And yet, he ended up being the real hero after the fact given Abeno wouldn’t have succeeded at exorcising the spider at all without Fuzzy there to vouch for him.

bodyguard Fuzzy to the rescue!

When you get right down it there wasn’t that much to the episode. Abeno must confront a possessed Hanae to protect Sasa before exorcising all the Yokai back to the Underworld. But we got just a bit more information in the process.

For one, Sakae really did dislike Yokai, but why? He seems very different form Hanae personality wise.Abeno mentions that Hanae use to be scared of Yokai but it was never comparable to Sakae’s rage.

I wonder how his mother could have fallen for a boy like that.

It really makes you want the full back-story, doesn’t it?

no I didn’t…Tell me!

We also found out that Sakae wasn’t above turning on humans to get to his end. He’s being painted as quite the bad guy yet it seems Itsuki still has some compassion for him.

Best moment of the episode was watching the face off between Abeno and Sakae. Ever since Hanae managed to control his power I’ve been wondering what would happen if he Abeno and he ever seriously disagreed. While this scene doesn’t answer the question, watching Sakae in Hanae’s body fighting with Abeno was pretty cool and promises some interesting possibilities further down the line.

And boy, Abeno sure s gentle. We’ve known that for some time but it seems he just may be kind to a fault.

Oh yes. Abeno’s gruff exterior is entirely exposed as a bluff at this point. He’s a softy through and through. I think Sakae is definitely going to take advantage of that at some point.

I,m not sure this is even a face off anymore

After the battle, we got a little Fuzzy flashback to his first meeting with Hanae. I thought it was a sweet little bookend, bringing back scenes from the first episode of the first season in the last episode of the second.

Well, Fuzzy moments are adorable in general. But you are right. It was a nice way to round out the two series so far by giving us that throw back to the very first episode.

Did you notice the music this episode? At some point there was what sounded like a music box rendition of the OP music. I really liked it and it’s the first time I’ve paid any attention to sound design in this show.

Honestly, I didn’t really notice the music mostly because I was too caught up in the episode. Everything just kind of came together for the season here and it was really satisfying to watch even as it made me want more.

as long as you’re being reasonable

You know, this entire season we’ve been chasing after the ghost of Sakae. Fitting for a show about Yokai. We’ve been patiently trying to put the pieces together. In the last act Abeno decides to discuss the matter openly with Hanae in uncharacteristic honesty.

We get apparent confirmation that Hanae has never seen Sakae (his dad?) and the man he did think of as his father for a very brief moment in their childhood was probably Aoi. We also know that some form of Sakae seems to still exist and isn’t overly concerned with the family he left behind. Although Abeno decided not to share this last part. Do you think he should have?

I don’t know that it would make a huge difference at this point whether he revealed it or not. I think he told Hanae enough and I think they both need time to process what they know.

That said, I’m thinking Abeno is going to have to figure out a way to tell Hanae that his father is possessing him and tried using him to kill a yokai at some point because that kind of thing seems fairly important. What is Abeno going to do is Sakae tries that when he isn’t around?

hair transformation fail! been there…

Once again, we see that Abeno is a man without a kingdom. He can’t relate to most humans at all but now that he finally has one friend, Abeno must keep secrets from the yokai to protect him. He’s constantly being pulled one way or another.

He’s definitely walking a very fine line but I agree with him about not letting the yokai know about Sakae because even if the Legislator doesn’t do anything, the Executive is definitely going to try to kill Hanae again if he knew.

But to me, more than anything, this episode made me realize that I was missing the forest for the threes. Trying to solve the mystery of Sakae’s existence, I failed to notice that he’s simply a clue to the much more important and impactful character of Aoi.

I also finally caught on that this isn’t young Abeno

We’ve heard of Aoi so much. They were Abeno’s master, yet what we know is a dissonant mishmash of information. Abeno refers to Aoi as “they”. He speaks of them in an almost neutral tone. Respectful but with very little emotional implication. Did they like each other? Did they get along at all? Apparently Aoi was a rather powerful Yokai and as the Master of the Mononokean enjoyed all the privileges of their role. So what happened to them? Where are they? Why would they care about a seemingly cruel employee so much as to make sure their memory survived with their family.

This seems like a very important question that no one is asking.

Aoi has remained very much the enigma but we’ve been getting small clues this season, as other plot threads have slowly come together. At this point, I’m much more inclined to think this story plans to address these ideas then I was after season one. Season one really didn’t seem like it was big on developing the over-arching ideas and was more just fixing the yokai of the week problem. Season two still has that aspect but has firmly moved to dealing with the larger issues for the characters and really it has been far, far better for it.

Bring on a third season so we can learn more about this. Either that or should I ever get to the end of Natsume I’m just going to have to pick up another series to read.

right!

All in all, this last episode had an edge of bitterness and sadness to it, even though it also showed everyone at their most vulnerable. It also made it clear that the story is nowhere near finished but left us at a satisfying spot.

What did you think of this finale?

I absolutely loved this episode and this ending. Like The Promised Neverland it leaves things needing another season, but also gives us enough closure on some points to feel satisfied with what we were given. This has been a great season and more people definitely need to check it out because it has been great fun.

Thanks so much for covering it with me.  Hopefully if we ever get another season we can come together again.

Well now I have two great reasons to hope for another season!

Of course I got more screencaps for you!!!

The Morose Mononokean Season 2 Episode 13 With Karandi and Irina Here we are again, one last time. At least one last time for the foreseeable future. Even as I write this, I’m already missing The Morose Mononokean a little.

[phoenixotaku1990animeversem-blog]

Series: Hana Yori Dango

Other Titles: Boys Over Flowers

Genre: Drama, Romance, School Life, Shojo

Series Run: 51 Episodes (aprox. 22 Min per)

Distributors: Viz Media, Discotek Media

Requested By: Janie

  I make no secret of the fact that I am a hopeless romantic who has a taste for the dromatic.  So, when the lady of my life requested that I review one of the few anime she has seen within the genre I was ecstatic.  Moreover, the fact that it is a shojo in a high-school setting made me wax nostalgic about our own romance so I was all-in.  While I don’t regret my gunge-ho approach to this series there were some moments that went way over the line of what was acceptable and made this an uncomfortable watch. But I will address that later in the review.

On a personal note, Dear I hope you like this one.

The Story

Hana Yori Dango is a school-life anime surrounding the exploits of Tsukushi Makino, a new student at Eitoku Academy who happens to be of lesser means. Desiring nothing more than a low-profile existence among the upper-crust of society Tsukushi’s world is turned upside down when she encounters an elite clique of popular men known as the F4. From here, she begins a chaotic, fish out of water story where the boys are constantly involved. In the midst of this, she manages to fall for two of the Flowers Four creating a romantic triangle with two distinct flavors.

The first relationship is your standard aloof love interest angle with Rui Hanazawa. I like the quiet, kind, artist, nature of the character and his dynamic when opposite Tsukushi elegantly done despite the lack of dialogue between them However, this ceases to be when their growing relationship is subvert by his returning flame, Shizuka Toudou. While Shizuka was a welcomed addition providing exposition on the F4’s history, a humanizing character for the group as a whole, and a sort of guide for Tsukushi she felt more like a protagonist in her own right rather than a supporting character. But, by far, the worst thing the writers of the anime could have done was use the sympathetic character to remove Rui as the love interest for the secondary alternative.

The secondary Romance begins with the leader of the F4. Tskasa Domyouji. To say that I despise this character is a gross understatement. His personality shifts between childishly lording his status over characters to picking on Tsukushi to being uncharacteristically nice to her. Worse yet he seems to have an almost incestuous fixation with his sister who happens to look like our main heroine. As if to feed into the creep factor he holds her down and nearly RAPES her in an early episode.

While he does mature throughout the series the and eventually becomes worthy of the love interest role the aforementioned moments irredeemably corrupted the character to such a degree that I cannot stand his on-screen prescience. Even after he redeems himself by softening up I still detest the character I am supposed to root for. In short I found him to be a pretty face with little more than a base understanding of social functions that was easily overshadowed by almost every other character.

this brings me to the side-characters which can be summed up in the phrase as bland as white bread. In fact, the only two character’s whose names I remember without consulting MyAnimeList ar Soujirou and Akira and their main functions were to act as the F4’s exposition and voices of reason. Otherwise, every other character in the series is a direct embodiment of their trope. The childhood friend is a cookie-cutter childhood friend. Tsukushi’s family seems to be the cliché poor family composed of the overbearing mother, the pathetic father, and the annoying little brother. After that every other character just blends into the background until they decide to cause trouble or just randomly speaks up. To remind Tsukushi of her place.

The focus on the pauper-versus-prince wealth disparity that persists throughout the series is a glaring weakness in storytelling. While this is a universal plot element that transcends its medium it actually weakens the relationship building aspect of the show. Combine this with the night-and day dynamic between Tsukushi and Tsukasa and the viewer gets a dysfunctional relationship that feels forced and unrealistic. Sure, one might see it as a clear case of opposites attract but, Boys Over Flowers executes this poorly.

Thus I come to the shows worst flaw of this entire narrative. its execution If the story of an independent woman finding herself in a high-society prep school featuring a cast of bishounen men is familiar to you have likely seen a reverse-harem anime in the last 20 years. While the show’s formula is well-trotted ground for many anime fans at this point the story’s progression is painfully slow providing the viewer with very little pay-off. For any romantic plot steady character growth and interaction is key. Hana Youri Dango’s characters grow at a snail’s pace making its run a slog to get through.

Style:

Alongside the painfully weak story Hana Yori Dango suffers from an eye-ruining animation style that seems to be a halfhearted attempt to simply colorize the cells of the original manga. While the muted colors and stark background would have translated well to the manga format the same cannot be said for animation. In fact. I found the lack of vibrancy and life in some scenes to be somewhat distracting at times. Aside from that character movements seem a bit stiff which forces some of the dialogue-heavy moments feel more like poorly animated GIFs rather than properly animated sequences. But, discounting my nitpicking, I feel that character and background designs are beautiful when assessed separately as portraiture.

Sound Design:

Much to my delight, Hana Yori Dango scores highest in the category of sound design. Unfortunately, this applies to the series’ soundtrack rather than its vocal performances. While they can be taken separately, I feel the two are inexorably linked and aides the viewer in suspending their disbelief. For their time, the talent did a passable job of bringing the characters to life. But, it is important to remember that the 90s were an awkward time for anime dubs and this anime suffers greatly from the growing pains of the time. Thankfully the music does a great job of distracting us from the flawed delivery.

For the most part, the music of Hana Yori Dango does quite a bit to amplify the high-society feel of the show. The opening and ending themes are light and airy J-pop pieces that connotes a relaxed and energetic tone. This does a great job of setting the tone as a slice of life piece. Intermittent pieces like Tomaso Abononi’s Symphony No. 5 adds depth to the upper-class feel of Eitoku Academy. Together, classical and popular styles fill the gap created by poor voice acting. Sadly, it isn’t enough.

I watched the series in its English dub as distributed by Viz Media as instructed by the one who requested this review. While it was nice to hear popular 90s era voice actors like Micheal Adamthwaite and Stephen Park in the roles of Tsukasa Domyouji and Rui Hanazawa I feel that Kelly Sherodin was completely miscast as Tsukushi. This led to my great dismay as her pronunciations of the name Rui as Luis grated on my ears. Alongside this, some dialog was stiff and stilted leading to an overall flat delivery. The lack of compelling delivery forces me to dislike the dub but only slightly.

Recommendations:

I do not usually give my recommendations separate from my conclusion but since the following are TV dramas rather than anime I feel obligated to break form and inform you as to the existence of two great shows.  If you wish to see this concept done  properly I point you to the Taiwanese Drama Meteor Garden as I believe the acters Vic Zhou and Jerry Yan provide the best characterizations of the two male leads.  While the Karean variant has its merits, I find it slightly less appealing.  Still, feel free to check both out for yorself as this is a matter of preference to me.

Final Thoughts:

In conclusion I feel that Hana Yori Dango suffers from a lack of proper execution. But, it is still a salvageable piece. In many ways it is the progenitor to great series in its genre and I encourage fans of pieces like Ouran High School Host Club to check this out, The dub is currently licensed by Viz Media and is available at Rightstufanime. Please feel free to enjoy Boys Over Flowers and stay tuned here for more reviews.

Anime Review: Boys over Flower Series: Hana Yori Dango Other Titles: Boys Over Flowers Genre: Drama, Romance, School Life, Shojo Series Run: …