WOW! And I say it louder.

Hana yori Dango (also known as ‘Boys before Flowers’) was the recent drama I watched. More specifically, both seasons of it actually. Was one of the few dramas that had more than one season but I can understand why… The series is based around a poor girl being sent to a very high class and expensive school due to her family giving up all of their extra money to have her go there.  It kind of is like a bragging right for the family though, so they don’t mind.

There is also a very interesting group of 4 guys that rule the school. All 4 come from well known and rich families from Japan and they call themselves the ‘Flower 4′. The story unfolds as the main character has the leader of F4 fall in love with her as she falls in love with another one of the F4 group members. All through out the series you never really know which guy is going to get the girl.  This is by far my favorite archetype of Asian dramas.  Love triangle.

Season 1, being 9 episodes, ended with the promise of one of the guys getting the girl but he leaves for New York so we never really know what happens. Like does she go there or he come back? Do they live happily ever after? …. that’s where season 2, being 11 episodes, comes in. And the whole process starts over as she thinks they aren’t together anymore. Same love triangle, but ends in a marriage proposal. And, it definitely was “The World’s Best Proposal” (the title of the last episode). So, we know that it ends well, and I am not going to tell who gets married to who!

Oh, and in case you are wondering why 4 guys call themselves “Flower 4″, it’s because the title is a pun on a Japanese saying. “Food before Flowers”. As in, need before want, or flowers are nice but not necessary. The title is saying that you need these boys. And well.. there is 4 of them. Throughout the series they just call them F4 for short though.

Over all, one of my top recommendations. Good story. Great acting. Hot women and handsome guy counter parts.

And, to leave with one last pic. I took a screenshot and cut it out of one of the scenes. All through out the series you see lots of nice cars, i.e. Ferraris Bentleys  and normal cars too…. But, in the midst of fancy cars and normal looking cars this one was way out of place. One of the cars I will own someday, though, I don’t want the paint job or decals.

I sometimes hate to admit this, but I am a sucker for foreign movies and tv shows. Especially the asian type. I love the way they do certain things and how character development always keeps you guessing. And not knowing if the guy will actually get the girl will keep you on the edge of your seat until the end.

I didn’t have a very productive day. Instead, I had downloaded an entire TV series called ‘Shimokita GLORY DAYS‘…and watched all 12 episodes. For those that don’t read japanese: It’s about a boy that becomes a household pet for 6 women he moves in with. Doing their chores and cooking the meals. All while they are trying to temp him to break one of the household rules: no sex.  Alas, he is in love with a girl that doesn’t live there and no sex ever happens. But hilarious to say the least.  It was the first asain drama series to show something I haven’t seen in any other drama… and it made it a point to show it more than 2 times an episode…what, half of the cast are porn stars! Not my usual type of drama I watch and I am not a perv.  On a side not though, this series reminded me of an anime called ‘Love Hina’, if anyone has ever watched that… Actually, it seemed to be almost the same story line and everything, but was a live action.

I hate how they make all the series feel so short, and almost never make a second season. They seem to just make a new series instead. The most I have ever seen is 2 seasons of any show. Maybe asians get bored faster than us? Just look at how many seasons Friends or Seinfeld or even The Simpsons have done. Mind you, it’s not the fact that the series suck or don’t do well, it just seems to be the culture. Any normal guy would pray for a second season of this show.

Anyways, nite blog.

Edit: After thinking about it today. Dramas only do 1 and rarely 2 seasons, but anime can go for years. Maybe the target audiences are that much different? Adults don’t have time to watch a show for years while kids do?  I thought kids had shorter attention spans.