This anime typically features very pretty boys and their undying love for the girl heroine.
So from my shoujo list, I've seen Fruits Basket (excellent), Azumanga Daioh (super-excellent), and Chobits (meh ... Besides, I don't think it's a "shoujo" anyway.) Somewhere along the line I came upon Boys Over Flowers. Boys Over Flowers is also known as "Hana Yori Dango," which means "boys are more essential than flowers." (And I guess that's true.)
Boys Over Flowers is considered the ultimate shoujo. It features a strong female heroine, it's centered around the typical concerns of a young girl's life, and it's all about l'amour. However, unlike the typical shoujo, the heroine is very strong-willed and self-sufficient, and not a "damsel in distress." And the show itself is not too sugary. Another distinction from the typical shoujo genre is that most of them feature pretty-boys who are clean-cut, effeminate and sexually non-threatening. (The precise appeal of boy bands and Teen Beat heartthrobs.) But the boys in Boys Over Flowers are not like that at all. They downright smolder.
The Story
Tsukushi Makino comes from a working-class family, but attends the elite Eitoku High School, where super-rich children attend. Super-rich children tend to be cruel, and the cruelest bunch on campus is the F4, a group of four boys who would beat you for brushing against them in the hall. They are the richest and the best-looking, and everyone fears them. They are so powerful that if they stick a "red card" in someone's locker, the whole school will turn against that person, and torture him by throwing garbage at him and chasing him. The F4 have been known to drive several students out of the school, forcing them to transfer. They have even driven away a teacher they didn't like. Basically, they're a bunch of bullies.
Tsukushi tried for a year to blend in and not be noticed at Eitoku. But one day during her second year, she encounters the F4 when one of her friends accidentally crashes into the F4 leader, Tsukasa. Tsukushi dares to sticks up for her friend, and the F4 red-cards her. And then the torture begins. The other students throw eggs at Tsukushi, chase her with brooms, and toss her desk into the dumpster.
Tsukushi is a spunky girl who doesn't take this abuse lying down, and fights back, slowly winning the respect of everyone, including the F4 themselves. And ... then comes loooove. (Because, I mean, of course.)
The basic premise reminded me of Pride and Prejudice (class differences) and maybe even a bit of Gidget (tomboy girl among a gang of hunky boys). But it also reminded of Pretty in Pink, where you have the poor girl being courted by the nice rich guy (Blaine) and the dorky poor guy (Duckie). But beyond the immortal Blaine vs. Duckie debate that has surely raged since 1986, does anyone remember that James Spader's character, the mean and creepy rich guy, was also into Molly Ringwald's character? And how his attraction was expressed with cruelty towards her? Whatever happened to that storyline? Molly Ringwald had more crackling sexual energy with James Spader than she ever had with Blandy Blaine or Freaky Duckie. Well, in Boys Over Flowers, the James Spader character (so to speak) gets some screen time. And it's actually pretty cool.
Boys Over Flowers has a very operatic quality that is downright laughable. Almost every moment is scored with a swelling symphonic Gone-With-the-Wind-esque music and punctuated with slow-mo. A simple run down the school hall can look like a dash of life-or-death significance, and an encounter can have the tone of a cinematic thunderstorm. Many doors are slammed, and many things are thrown and broken in a fit of passion. Woo! Really, every other moment is a "Dun Dun DUN!! Moment of Reckoning" with classical music (by Mahler and Albinoni) pounding in your ear, and it's very over-the-top. And it is really fun to watch.
Aside from the style, the storyline itself is amped up to the max: first you have the bullying, which gets downright medieval. And Tsukasa, the richest of the F4, is not just rich, but comes from a billionaire family with ungodly amounts of money. And Shizuka (Rui's girlfriend) is not just beautiful, but she's an heiress, an international supermodel, and a beauty queen to boot. Basically, every element is taken up a notch (or two or three).
So you won't find cutting edge animation technique here. But while I have no problem with the sub-par visuals, my one complaint about the series is that the drawings themselves look sort of weird, and sometimes, downright ugly. I'm usually not particular about this sort of thing, although I do appreciate it when the character designs are beautiful (e.g., Chobits - The story was so-so, but so very pretty to look at!).
If anything, there's too much cutesy-wootsy stuff in anime that you tend to overdose on cute. But Boys Over Flowers can use an infusion of cuteness. For one thing, the female characters just look sort of odd, even the ones that are supposed to be beautiful (e.g., Shizuka and Sakurako). It's a little off-putting. I'm not sure why this is, since the boys look just fine. Also, the quality of the animation seems to deteriorate as the series goes on. By the final episode, everyone's eyes look all jacked-up and weird.
Anyway, plot-wise, a lot of it is fairly predictable, and there's melodrama to spare. The genius of this show is that while the premise is very standard, unlike a lot of other romances, it's not obvious. In countless romance movies/shows, it becomes very clear from the beginning which characters are supposed to pair up, and the rest is just a matter of overcoming the contrived obstacles. But Boys Over Flowers really keeps you guessing about the outcome. Rui or Tsukasa? Or neither? Or both?
The Boys
Rui Hanazawa is hard to figure out: is he sensitive and kind, or a withdrawn misanthrope? Even though he is one of the F4, he's also a bit of a loner. He soulfully plays the violin by himself on campus, which is what first catches Tsukushi's attention. Rui is also not violent like the other members of the F4, and when the other students bully Tsukushi, Rui saves her from the worst of it. But it's hard to tell if he does this out of the goodness of his heart, or if he just can't stand the noise.
Rui has a very cold-hearted side to him. Most times, he seems blank-faced and emotionless, and at some point, he says, "I have no interest in other people." He also has a habit of rolling over and falling asleep whenever he gets bored. He says things bluntly even though they might not be tactful, and he will mess with Tsukushi's head just for kicks, knowing that she has a mad crush on him. His character develops very slowly, and remains frustratingly enigmatic until near the end of the series, when things finally click into place.
Tsukasa Domyoji is Rui's best friend, but unlike Rui, he wears his emotions on his sleeve. And at the beginning of the series, he is a real bastard. He's the instigator of most of the F4-inflicted violence, and his arrogance is epic. When Tsukushi refuses to leave Eitoku after the initial red-card-abuse, he enlists a group of male students to rape her. (As I said, it gets medieval.) Like any normal person, my initial reaction to Tsukasa was, "What a jerk!" and cheered when he gets kicked in the face.
But very surprisingly, Tsukasa transforms from a a-hole into a dreamboat. He became someone who really made this show: after a while, I couldn't wait to see him on the screen. That is some weird charisma. Tsukasa veers from brutish to hilariously stupid (his malapropisms are a running joke), but it's his serious side that really makes his character compelling. I can't even tell you how this happens, really, because Tsukasa doesn't actually change: he remains stunningly conceited and violent throughout the series. You might assume this is a case of a bad guy learning to be a good guy through the love of a good woman or something. But really, it's more than that. He's just a very magnetic lunkhead.
So Tsukushi bounces between quivering under Rui's cool, steady gaze and raging under Tsukasa's hot, intense sincerity. As far as love triangles go, this is a juicy one, because on the one hand, you have your tormentor, who's responsible for making your life hell. On the other hand, you have your savior, the only one who has the power to save you. On top of that, they're best friends with each other. So it gets pretty messy - a lot of drinks get thrown in people's faces, and a lot of people get slapped. Yay!
The Girls
Tsukushi is a good protagonist, very easy to like. You naturally root for her, because she's the tough girl who stands up to bullies and sticks up for her friends. But her character is not particularly complex compared to the boys: you can predict how she will (over)react to any given situation, and her self-righteousness gets annoying from time to time. But her strength of character is vividly conveyed. And it is the genuineness of her youthful confusion about love that sustains the love triangle in an authentic way.
Tsubaki Domyoji is Tsukasa's older sister. He's obviously quite attached to her, because the first couple of times Tsukushi smacks him down, he passes out muttering "Onee-san ... (big sister)" And when we meet Tsubaki later in the series, we see why. This is a violent family! But the beatdowns are hilarious, and her obvious affection for her younger brother, even as she throttles him, is sweet and funny. Tsubaki's a very weird person, but I ended up liking her.
Shizuka Todo is a childhood friend of the F4 boys, and has a special connection to Rui. She studied abroad in France for a year or so, but comes back to Eitoku in the middle of the series. She's beautiful and very kind, so it's hard to believe that she's so friendly with the ruthless F4 boys. But while she seems like a wonderful person, she's hard to pin down, much like Rui. You never know what she's thinking.
Shigeru Okarawara appears very late in the series, but ends up making quite an impression. Based on who she is in the story, the audience is poised to hate her. But she ends up being so adorably loopy that you just can't.
The Yuriko 3 is a clique of shallow gold-diggers at Eitoku, who focus all their energy in trying to bag the F4. When the F4 boys start paying attention to Tsukushi, the Yuriko 3 are outraged, and do everything from spreading dirty rumors about Tsukushi, to kissing her butt so they can ride on her coattails. Very nasty wenches.
Sakurako Sanjo is an underclassman who gives Tsukushi one of the worst experiences of her life. (More medieval hazing.) While she plays a pivotal role in the plot, her character is a bit underdeveloped. When she was little, the F4 boys made fun of her and she's held a grudge ever since. But she's also in love with one of them. And while she acts very demure at school, at night she's a club-hopping slut. These are all interesting elements, but none of them are fleshed out.
Conclusion
I've complained in the past about romances that, in my opinion, do not earn it, so to speak. The romance is not all that convincing, but the audience is bombarded with plot devices filled with romantic trappings obscuring that fact. I'll admit that when writing a story, it's very hard to create chemistry and make the audience feel it, so it's easier to dress it up in hearts and flowers and label it "fate." And I wouldn't have expected more from Boys Over Flowers, considering how much they use overdone music and histrionics to goose their dramatic moments. So naturally, I didn't expect the romance to feel very genuine. But you know, it surprised me.
It look me a good long while to get into Boys Over Flowers. I watched the first couple episodes, but wasn't motivated to watch more right away. Its almost shockingly uncute character designs, the fusty look, and the bizarre opening sequence (which I never warmed up to) all just repelled me at first. But I gave it another chance and by the end of the first disk, it sank its hooks into me.
Sometimes I watch anime series that I end up not liking very much; I just keep watching, hoping that it gets good, but it just ends up sucking anyway. Of course you might wonder: why would I continue to watch something if I didn't like it? Good question. I guess my answer would be: because of series like Boys Over Flowers. It took a little bit of patience, but I ended up enjoying it immensely. (Too bad that it doesn't always turn out this way.)
Another plus about Boys Over Flowers is that it has something that even the best anime series sometimes lack: a great ending. A lot of series have half-assed endings because of cancellation, production problems, or the story just simply runs out of steam. But Boys Over Flowers has a very satisfying ending that you will enjoy if you liked what came before. In fact, the series is consistently entertaining throughout, and manages to sustain the energy with no redundant or filler episodes in between.
I can't say this is a sophisticated series. Rather, it's a grandiloquent cheese-fest that's very enjoyable. It isn't for everyone, but if you have a taste for this stuff, give yourself a little time to get into the show, and Boys Over Flowers will turn out to be a great guilty pleasure.