I must say right now that my overall rating is completely biased. I am a huge fan of Hana Yori Dango because it was one of the first Asian dramas I watched in high school and the OST pulls at my heartstrings even today. So as you can imagine, Hana Nochi Hare brought back many feels, which was of course its ultimate goal and I must admit it makes up for its plot flaws, at least IMO.
The plot is nothing special or groundbreaking. Kaguragi Haruto is the new Doumyouji while Edogawa Oto is the new Makino. There are a few changes e.g. the new Makino has not always been poor, her family bankrupted while the new Doumyouji is basically the same (with the same flaws and quirks as the original one). You could even say that the plot of Hana Nochi Hare is the recycled version of Hana Yori Dango - and you would be right. This whole drama is meant to be a fan service to HYD fans because it does not offer anything special, different or new. The OST is not on par with HYD OST and neither the actors are as charismatic as the HYD ones but that is the point - there is only one HYD and nothing will ever manage to top it.
The proof that this drama is a deliberate fan service is that they re-shot the classic scenes e.g. Doumyouji waiting for Makino in the rain. And I still loved it. Hana Nochi Hare didn't even try to recreate the magic of HYD (they know it is impossible), it is just meant to pull at your heartstrings for a little while and maybe even pay a tribute to the original series, actors and fans. If you are a fan and look at it from this perspective, then you will probably find it at least a bit enjoyable.
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Hana Sugisaki and Taishi Nakagawa as Oto and Tenma were brilliant together. I'm convinced Taishi only took the second male lead in order to work with Hana again. Sho Hirano was charming as the male lead Haruto, though his acting was a little on the weaker side. The supporting cast were also fun and did a reasonably well job. I was a bit conflicted about the "friend group" thing between Oto, Konno, Airi, and Megumi as this does not happen in the manga. It felt a bit unrealistic to be honest, especially for Megumi.
The highlight of the series were the cameos [I cried when Tsukasa (Jun Matsumoto) appeared]! I was a little disappointed by the ending. They are obviously hoping for a second season since it only covers seven volumes of the manga. "Hana Nochi Hare", while not as good as "Hana Yori Dango", will hopefully delight old and new fans.
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This sequel had huge shoes to fill.
Now, let me explain my rather bad rating. I enjoyed the beginning of this drama. Very much! I was so hooked and felt like they did an outstanding job honoring the classic drama. I honestly was even convinced that it was one of the very few sequels, which managed to overthrow the original story. I'd have sold my soul for the first 1/3. The chemistry was overflowing and I basically got shot with all the cutesy cheesy lovey dovey feels behind my desk. It was soooo goooooood!!!!
But then, things went downhill.
The second lead combination couple:
The second lead combinations got too real to a point where I was questioning if this was one of the dramas where the second male lead wins. On top of that, especially the second male lead rubbed me the wrong way because I couldn't tell his real intentions. Does he love her? Does he not? Has he another plan up his sleeve? Can he be trusted? What even are his feelings? I don't know if it's the actors fault or intentional. At least they didn't have chemistry - put my heart at ease and made me anxious at the same time.
The development
Now that's a fun thing. Somewhere in the middle, both main leads got stuck with their feelings. And were completely delusional about it. Our first lady glues herself to a imaginary feeling. There is guilt shaming, pressuring the male lead into love from the second lady, annoying parents. Ugh. And the development slows down like a snail that ran out of slime. Maybe I experienced this frustration on this high level because the excitement from the beginning was such a contrast to it.
Overall, it started hella strong. Then the stagnation followed like a duckling its mom. I wished for more skinship moments. More lovey dovey fuzziness and moments to blush and look away with a smirk. Ofc you will get frustrated with the first leads in nearly every drama out there. But during this drama it's gotten to a point where I felt a strong dislike for especially the first lady.
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This review may contain spoilers
Does it count as romance if the lead female and male don't get together until the last minute of the show? Does it count as a romance if the lead female doesn't even decide on her own to be with the male lead the 2nd male lead has to tell her during the last 5 minutes of the show to go be with him?! Throughout the show, I had to force myself to continue the female lead was the equivalent of Kristen Stewart when it came to acting. Her facial expressions rarely changed and neither did her lips I had a hard time reading her emotions and WTF was up with her hair!? I hated the storyline, in the end, it seemed like all the villains won and all the good people just made out okay. The manipulative stepmother ended up getting what she wanted in the end. The male lead who was an awesome actor got the short end of the stick because he played his part throughout the show and the 2 female 2nd leads also did a great job I was even rooting for them throughout the show at times because the first lead was so uninspiring.
It's worth mentioning that I didn't watch Hana Yori Dango.
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The ending was weird, incomplete and very disappointing regardless of what is going on in the story, everything is too rushed even the ending... I wish there was a bit more backstory to things and that characters were made out to be more appealing in terms, when I get into a drama I usually have a range of emotions and have characters I am rooting for that captivate me throughout the episode's heck even characters I hate that make me want to throw a shoe at the screen and make me yell at the screen like a crazy person but with this story I generally was just rooting for Haruto because it's the only character I could make any connection with and I found Airy's personality kinda funny as well as cute, the C5 was no F4 but they weren't the worst part of the story either. I actually liked the music more than the story since at least it was good. I wouldn't re-watch this though and having waited so long to finish it just to get disappointed sucks.
The only other thing that was pretty great was the cameos of some of the F4 members in the drama, but other than that I can never like this more than the original Japanese version or even the Korean version. This was a very disappointing "follow up" that had a lot of promise.
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Read the manga. Skip the drama.
I watched this right after I finished the manga. I absolutely enjoyed the manga . It was a familiar but different story and set of characters. And this drama adaptation started off well enough. But after episode 3-4, it started to go downhill.They added storylines or modified storylines that was not accurate, even in the spirit of the manga. Some sideline characters were given more meat in the drama for the new storyline that make no sense. The additions/changes did not make for a better story. I think they changed some fundamental stories and fundamental characters and their development… for the worse!
I can’t understand why.. except that they wanted to mimic the original Hana Yori Dango. Hana Nochi Hare, is a different story, not an continuation of Hanadan.
The changes were so bad and frustrating, I couldn’t even get myself to finish the drama, and I only had one episode left.
I’m so upset. I need to erase the drama from my memories. I might reread the manga just so I can end this experience on a high note.
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This review may contain spoilers
I'm a very big fan of HYD so when I saw that the second series was coming out in a show I was quite excited. Currently the Manga series is still being written (I have not read it), so I figured things wouldn't feel fully finished in the ending. (Especially because it's only 11 eps),
It's got a very similar feel, there's an "F4", a "strong willed poor girl" and a "dumb rich guy". Even the whole boy from the band in the drama and a token sad Utada Hikaru song.
But this drama is just that. It's a similar feel, but you wouldn't even really have to have watched HYD to watch this show.
In the long run, if you feel like watching it as a fan I'd go for it (maybe).
The flow of the show feels weird, I can't tell if it's the writing fully, or if it's writing and bad direction for the actors to follow.
I didn't even really cry except for the cameos. Sweet moments touching on the legacy this show was -trying- to follow.
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The story revolves around Haruto Kaguragi, who idolizes F4, and wants to bring Eitoku-koko back to the glory it once was; Oto Edogawa, who is trying her best to get along until she can graduate; and Tenma Hase, the leader of Eitoku's rival school and Edogawa's oldest friend & fiance. Kaguragi's C5 aren't your typical HS bullies like F4 were originally. They're separatists. A rich kid school for rich kids. Peasants be gone! As such, C5 does peasant/commoner hunting and strongly suggest students who are not paying donations put in transfer papers. This is done in front of the student body at anytime/any place. Edogawa started school as a rich kid, but her family's business went under. I think you can see the clash. The storyline parallels HYD too much I believe. They made slight changes, but at it's core it was the same. A few more changes would have made it much more interesting.
They didn't skimp on the production. The sets were well appointed. I was happy to see the old Eitoku cafeteria. While the writing was unoriginal, but good for what it was, the direction, filming, and editing were expert. My guess is the screenwriter, Yoshida Erika, who is quite young, was given an outline or guide to follow. The one thing I found truly irritating was how Edogawa was so used to her poor life. The family business had only gone under 6 months earlier. One would expect her to still be trying to adjust.
The acting was really quite good. I'd never seen any of the actors that played the students before (I don't believe). Sugisaki Hana was fantastic as Edogawa. Her leading men, Hirano Sho (Kaguragi), and Nakagawa Taishi (Hase) were also quite good. FUN FACT for anyone who watches anime: Episode 10 has some serious Bleach vibes, Ichigo vs. Uryu. The rest of the cast rounds out nicely. Three of F4 make guest appearances. I only knew of 1 so I was pleasantly surprised. OK, I went all fan girl! It was just great to see them slip back into these rolls as "adults."
The OST (instrumental) is fitting. As for the themes, Utada's "First Love" is hauntingly beautiful. It gives you all the feels and goes wonderfully with the story. The title theme by King & Prince is fun, but not memorable.
I don't feel a need to rewatch this, but I don't feel the need to rewatch 99.9% of the dramas I watch. I would, however, welcome a season 2 of this next season.
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I watched this one while it got subbed, how i remember when i got frustrated when i couldn`t watch the next episode cuz it wasn`t subbed. Either way this a story that takes place 10 years since legendary F4 members Tsukasa Domyoji, Rui Hanazawa, Sojiro Nishikado and Akira Mimasaka have graduated from Eitoku Academy. Now another group has taken over the school which are C5 and their leader is the notorious Haruto Kaguragi who falls in love with Oto Edogawa, a girl whose fathers business got bankrupt and are now trying to hide that she is poor. But neither did Haruto know that Oto are engaged to his biggest rival Tenma Hase. Oh how i came to adore this series. We also get to see Domyjoji in a flashback where he saves Haruto. I love it when his love for Makino got mentioned. This drama has its own special classic feeling to it and i never got bored. I love how smitten Haruto are with Oto (like Domyjojo was with Makino) and the love-triangle are bitter-sweet to. A MUST-WATCH if you want some romance and high-school drama!
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At first I wasn't so sure of how the remake will actually be like given the fact I only knew (and loved) Nakagawa Taishi from the cast. So I did a further study and found out that Nakagawa and the leading lady here Sugisaka Hana had actually acted previously together in an incredible crime mystery drama. So I kinda left this off till they fully subbed it and started watching that. After finishing that I honestly was a bit downcast for the fact that the two of them aren't the leading couple in this drama.
That was until I watched the first episode of this and ultimately fell in love with the amazingly flawed character of Haruto. As the story and as Haruto's fatehr always reminds him, Haruto is extremely flawed. I am not saying this in any way to bring Haruto down. The fact that he is flawed is the perfect reason that he's so amazing. Compared to Tenma, Haruto is extremely lacking in talent but he makes up for it with the sheer genuineness and pureness he has in his heart. Please do not hate me for this but honestly liked Haruto's character a teensy bit more that Domyouji (yes I know I should be hung. If someone told this to me before I watched Hana Nochi Hare I would think that person is mad too). Unlike Domyouji I felt that Haruto had more compassion in his heart. As I mentioned before I was always conflicted on whom to like. Obviously I had the second lead syndrome. i started watching the drama with the second lead syndrome anyway but it took only few min for me to completely start rooting for Haruto. I love Tenma but Edogawa should simply be with Haruto. That's final.
I don't actually mind the side characters. They don't stand out that much as the side characters on HYD but nonetheless they make good support for our three. Only Airi and Megumi stands out a bit but other than that I can't even remember the names even properly.
One of the BEST parts of this story? The constant references to the parent story. it was nice surprise to hear about the characters all the time with occasional cameos. YES THERE ARE CAMEOS SO WATCH THIS!!!! With that I've got to finish my review cuz I am scared that I might actually spoil the story and one annoying person has been badgering me with one review where I had put a tiny spoiler (but in my defense I did mention before hand that there is a spoiler and not to read if they do not want it). Anyway that's for later.
I really hope they do a second season for this cuz honestly I'm dying for a second season so they can wrap up Haruto's and Edogawa's story nicely :)
PS- The songs are BEAUTIFUL. Utada Hikaru killed me with her track. Every time I hear it I imagine Haruto's heartbreaking face. The lyrics perfectly shows Haruto's feelings for Edogawa.
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This review may contain spoilers
As i like boys over flower all the version except the japanes version of this drama is sequel ,so i decided to watch this drama ..when drama starts story looks like a same one , going to have some fighting and then there would be love triangle but when both the lead actors hug their partners so i thought there is no sad story they both will end up with their love till second last episode i felt the same but end part make me so much sad ,i did not like ending .i felt bad for 2nd lead because he truely love her ,cherish her why she turn to first lead and end part also show incomplete . is there going to be second season or not .... Was this review helpful to you?
