I started watching this straight after Boys over flowers. I mentioned this in my review for BOF and I also believe that it applies to this show a little, the story is a outdated. Obviously. It is based on the manga which started around 1992, wow that's 30 years ago.
What's good about this version is that, even though some scenes are still too old fashioned to be believable, they are better than the Korean version because they kept it simple. The majority of the plots just happened naturally, and quicker. It was interesting to see the production decisions to make a scene happen in a certain part of the season rather than later or overcomplicated.
I felt that Domyouji was meaner than Gu Jun Pyo; Makino wasn't as whiny and came accross as a much stronger female character, that I could see as a potential role model; Hanazawa Rui wasn't as prince charming as Jihoo was in the beginning, but he started to show his own charms as the story unravelled. F4 was still F3 for a while but not as much as in the Kdrama version. I didn't feel a stronger connection for Sojiro in here as I did for So Yi Jung, maybe because his side story doesn't take so much screen time. Something in Akira made me like him a lot more than Woobin, I mean they were both meant to be the mediators of the group and did that just fine, maybe the fact that we saw his mother and twin sisters, or that he had a crush on the dango owner shop? Those details made him stand out more.

Unfortunately I spend so much time comparing the adaptations, that I can't give an unbiased opinion, and while I feel like some of the friendship elements weren't as strong in the Jdrama, the romance build up was more satisfying, to the point that I actually started cheering up for the main couple, which I could never in its Kdrama version. Jihoo will always be the best one for Jandi, but Domyoji and Makino simply belong together.

Ok now onto season 2!