Boys Over Flowers Vol. #05

By Chris Beveridge     May 05, 2004
Release Date: May 04, 2004



What They Say
Tsukushi never expected a confession of love from Tsukasa. As her feelings slowly turn towards him, Rui suddenly comes back from Paris with a different attitude - flirting with everyone! Not knowing what is going on in Rui's mind, Tsukushi's heart wavers...

Contains 4 Episodes:

Mine at Last
Will You Go Out With Me?
Be Still My Beating Heart
Night Of Betrayal

The Review!
That up and down lifestyle that Tsukushi has ended up with continues pretty strongly here as she deals not only with the romantically stupid Tsukasa but also the return of Rui to the F4.

Audio:
For our primary viewing session, we listened to this show in its original language of Japanese. The stereo mix here is very simple with the bulk if not all of the dialogue coming from the center channel while the music made use of the stereo channels. Dialogue is nice and clear throughout and we had no issues with dropouts or distortions.

Video:
Originally airing in 1996, the look and feel of the show is a curious one. The transfer itself looks good with only a few minor nicks and dirt in a few scattered places, with the main issue being the grainy feel to the look of it. Depending on the setup and equipment being used, this could either be slightly noticeable or glaringly so. With this volume, the amount of grain seems to have increased a bit and made the print a bit more problematic. The print itself is completely as the Japanese saw with the original opening and ending credits left intact as well as the title cards. The show's color palette is very much real world style, which lends to a slightly dull looking print.

Packaging:
Providing for fans of both names, the cover works out nicely here as the top bar of the cover features in prominent type the English translated name but also nicely places the original Hana Yori Dango in there, as many fans only know it by that name. Though she has little to do with this particular set of episodes, Shizuka gets the front cover in the center bar this time while the lower one gives away a little too much with Rui and Tsukushi for my tastes. The back cover provides the logo again and a short summary of what the premise is. With a few shots from the show, a listing of extras and the episode numbers and titles, the cover is good all around with the exception of no real volume numbering. The insert provided has a full length shot of Shizuka with an appropriate quote from her while the reverse side has chapter listings for each episode.

Menu:
The menu layout is nicely done but much too heavy on transitional animations. Opening with one (after front-loaded skippable trailers for other shows) where we see the legs running, it settles into a nice relaxing series of images from the show playing out underneath the logo and selections. But every time you want to go to a submenu, you get more transitions. Actual menu load times are decent outside of the transitions and the layout is nicely done.

Extras:
The extras continue as they have for past volumes, this time with Shizuka getting her miniature bio page and several pages worth of character design sketches for her and the design of her mansion.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
Boys Over Flowers continues to be a series that goes right into the player as soon as we get a new volume. There's something simply addictive about it. While the show plays out things in a much more operatic and larger way than the fellow series Marmalade Boy, the two do share many traits. Both of them are ones that I'll definitely remember for quite a long time for the way they simply sunk their claws into me and held on.

This volume picks up right where things left off from the previous volume with Tsukasa having rescued Tsukushi from the massive beating she was getting from the other students. Since she's so messed over, Tsukasa simply wraps her up in his shirt which ends up leaving him
bare-chested for all the girls to enjoy as he carries her off, eventually taking her to his house. Once she's back to full consciousness and aware of what's going on, this leads to all sorts of fun. Part of it is once again her realizing just how rich Tsukasa's family is and the other is dealing with him now that he's the way he is about her. She's shocked to see him at one point early on after he'd showered and his hair is straight. Amusingly, she's finding herself fascinated by how different he looks this way and is almost drawn to him. Of course, his revelations, nothing really new in a way, continue to throw her off course. Tsukushi is another in a long list of women who don't know how to handle men who are bluntly honest about their feelings.

She ends up spending her time trying to cope with all that's gone on but jumps right back into her traditional mode the next morning when she finds out that Tsukasa left early. She ends up at school, courtesy of a new uniform he ordered for her, and finds out what Tsukasa's been up to. He actually went and grabbed the boys that had tortured her the day before and strung them up from the fourth or fifth floor of one of the buildings along the roof railing. And threatens to cut the ropes and let them die, words that remind her that he's said he'd kill for her before. She of course goes ballistic over this while the other two F4 wonder just what the heck is going on between them.

Pause for one of the kids hanging down to provide a golden shower sequence on all those watching below. And you thought that happened only in pornos!

This episode is important as it brings Rui back into play as he's returned from France. His arrival completely throws Tsukushi off balance since she's still madly in love with the concept of him, since as much as she does know him, she doesn't really know him. In fact, she's really gotten to know Tsukasa quite well over all this time and his hidden areas, but she ends up not really registering that fact since he's such a dunderhead at times in how he expresses himself. With Rui's entrance, Tsukasa does realize the competition instantly and the male pattern emerges fast. So fast that in a blink of animation he's got his arm around Tsukushi and is giving Rui a very amusing look and almost angling his head like a bird marking territory. It's a great little sequence that lets everything get laid out plainly enough to those involved, though they all continue to not actually say the words.

A lot of things start to happen once the F4 are back together. Sakurako's story comes back to the forefront again for a while as people discover what she looked like when she was younger and they find pictures from then. Though she's on the outs with everyone, including Tsukushi, Tsukushi does stand up for her at times and tries to get people to be a little less venomous about it. But she still doesn't extend herself to trying to be a friend to Sakurako based on what happened in the past, though her big blonde American friend does his best to try and cool things between all of them. Tsukasa in the meantime does his best to try and win over Tsukushi's family (and does so winningly as they're ready to marry her off) and the F4 in general slide back into their usual place of power within the school system now that they're all together.

A lot of the small subplots move along fairly well here and are given time across most of the episodes on this volume, but the show changes location for awhile as the F4 decide to head out to one of Tsukasa's private islands for their vacation. Yes, one of many islands that they own. In the planning phase, which is basically the decision on a whim, he simply grabs Tsukushi and ends up getting her right on the plane. It's a great little sequence where we once again see his lack of thinking about others but also the way her parents are being and enjoying being manipulated by him. The entire island arc brings a lot of things to light, such as revelations about what happened in France between Rui and Shizuka as well as getting to see Tsukushi misinterpreting Tsukasa more and more.

The relationship between the two of them continues to have us laughing. His bluntness and simple lack of consideration is a part of his character and his flaw, but at the same time I'm seeing Tsukushi fighting against him and not realizing that she's fighting against the fact that she likes that but can't admit it. There are plenty of women who like men that are bad for them or treat them in a certain way, even if they rail against it, they still want it. That's by no means a broad generalization but a simple observation of some women. The same goes for men. With his controlling ways and his being used to getting and having everything he wants, she's a challenge to him and he loves the thrill of that. She doesn't like being controlled but the more he does it I think the more she's liking it. But continuing that road would bring this into real hentai domain.

In Summary:
Boys Over Flowers continues to feel larger than life and simply entertains us with each episode. It's meant to be over the top in many ways and an exaggeration on some of the social class issues and other parts of high school romance with the Japanese system. These characters are simply so much fun because they're so wildly unpredictable. There's no telling what Tsukasa will do next or how Tsukushi will react, or whether things will go on between her and Rui. This show is constantly engaging and entertaining, causing us to laugh out loud and talk about the show quite a bit during the opening and ending sequences as it plays along. While it's not for everyone, we're greatly enjoying this show and can't wait to see more.

Features
Japanese Language,English Language,English Subtitles,Shizuka's Profile,Character Sketches

Review Equipment
Panasonic PT50LC13 50" LCD RP HDTV, Panasonic RP-82 Progressive Scan codefree DVD player, Sony STR-DE835 DD/DTS receiver, Monster component cable and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.