by dulcie on December 25th, 2004, 4:15pm

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User rating of this review - 4.8 out of 5
Story/Plot - 5 out of 5
Characters - 5 out of 5
Drawing Style - 4 out of 5
Enjoyment - 5 out of 5
Overall - 5 out of 5

Click here for series information

Plot/Story
Makino Tsukushi is a poor girl going to a rich, pretentious, private school. Her wish is to pass through school unnoticed, just smile and go with the flow. However, this changes when she decides to stand up to the F4, a tyrannous group of four of the richest, most popular boys in the school, after seeing them bully her friend ruthlessly. The F4 then change their target to Tsukushi, but are shocked when she fights back. Through a series of misunderstandings, the leader of the F4, Domyoji Tsukasa, gets it into his head that Tsukushi is in love with him, when in fact she hates him. Gradually, she sees him in a new light, but many obstacles lie ahead for them.

Characters
Characters are developed well, although the story mainly revolves around Tsukushi and Domyoji, and Rui for a time. The F4 consists of the four richest and handsomest boys of the school, who are constant rule breakers, but get away with it because of the large amounts of money their parents pay to the school. They are Hanazawa Rui, a quiet, introverted person, Mimasaka Akira, someone who only dates older women, Nishikado Soujirou, a playboy and Domyoji Tsukasa, the richest, and also the leader of the F4, and heir to the great Domyoji empire. Makino Tsukushi is a poor girl with a lively character who will stand up for what she believes in. Tsukushi's change of opinion of Domyoji happens gradually and her feelings are shown in different scenes. Each of the F4's past are described, Nishikado's towards the end of the manga, and Mimasaka's only a little. Other characters include Tsukushi's 'rivals' in love, and later friends, Sakurako and Shigeru, her freind from middle school, Yuki, her parents and little brother, Domyoji's horrible mother and his fierce sister, the old maid of the Domyoji household and some other characters who come in-between Tsukushi and Domyoji.

Drawing Style
The series ends at 36 volumes, drawn over a period of about 10 years (or roundabout that time, I'm not sure). The characters change slightly as the mangaka's style develops, as does the clothes. The drawing style's nice and clean, and improves with the later volumes.

Enjoyment
Very enjoyable. I was hooked throughout.

Overall
Hana Yori Dango was very popular throughout Asia, and was made into an anime and also a real live drama in Taiwan (Meteor Garden). It is very good overall in terms of characters, plot and drawing quality. Characters aren't annoying and the main characters are likeable and makes you want to root for them. Plot takes a lot of twists and turns which haven't been too overused. There's some comedic elements in it, which is always good, but also has serious emotional moments. A very good manga. Go and read it!

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