Boys Over Flowers Vol. #07

By Chris Beveridge     September 04, 2004
Release Date: September 07, 2004



What They Say
Four fun-filled episodes of the cult anime show BOYS OVER FLOWERS reside on this release. Threatened with expulsion from Eitoku, Tsukushi and Rui escape, but when they learn that Tsukasa is planning to move to New York for two years they plan an appeal to make her stay. Episodes include "Two Ways To Love," "Sleepless Night!" "Tsukasa Goes To New York!" and "Tsukasa Goes To Canada!"

The Review!
The tensions rise as the game to decide the fate of friends gets underway.

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. The central picture for this volume gives way to the terrible trio of Yuriko, Eriko and Makino and their wicked looks. Much like many of the characters in the show, they irritate the heck out of me, even just showing up on the cover. 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 all three in their school uniforms, as well as a very appropriate quote, 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 installment has minor background profiles for the terrible trio of Yuriko, Eriko and Minako. In addition to the profiles, there's a series of design sketches for them as well. And in the odd category, a section of sketches is done for the various bath items that show up here.

Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
And right from the start of the opening song, this series sinks its hooks into me again and everything about it just practically sweeps me away. What becomes interesting is that as the series progresses, the way the characters interact throughout the opening sequence seem to change as well. The animation is the same, but the perception of the relationships and the dynamics gives new layers to it and as each relationship changes, so does the way the opening seems to play.

This set of episodes moves the show along in its varied ways once more and continues to be highly unpredictable. This is almost a given when you have a character like Tsukasa to begin with but once you add in his sister, well, Tsubaki adds in a lot more unpredictability. During one highly amusing segment where she realizes that Tsukushi and Rui haven't actually done anything other than to kiss that one time, she tells him to be a man about things and to have sex with her. This alone is enough to shock Tsukushi but it gets even more over the top when Tsubaki tosses her and Rui into one of the many bedrooms in their mansion to spend the night together. But even over the top moments like that brings out some of the best character points as it allows the two to really start talking a bit and we learn more about Rui than we have in some time.

Not unexpectedly, the relationships between the main three characters shift once again due to the game and the various revelations about who is feeling what about whom. Once more with Tsubaki providing some guidance on how they all used to interact as kids, we learn some of what makes Tsukasa the way he is, particularly with Rui, during an incident with a teddy bear all those years ago. While it isn't an even that weighs particularly heavy on anyone, Tsukasa continues to look at it as a thing where he's unable to understand Rui since he continued to be his friend afterwards. Tsukasa's general aloofness from people other than those in the F4 continues to be a major stumbling block for him.

But it's also a huge source of his attraction to Tsukushi. Since most of the women in his life tend to fawn over him, other than Tsubaki, he doesn't take them as worthwhile since they don't speak their mind. Not that he's actually interested in what they're saying or that they're standing up to him if they do, but just that they lack a certain life to them that his sister and likely his mother exemplify. There's a great scene where Tsukushi and all the others have gone off to Vancouver to "rescue" Tsukasa from his villa there after he got on the wrong plane only to find him enjoying a nice fire in the huge place. Tsukushi just lays right into him while the terrible trio only want to suck up. When she does it, you can almost see a fire in his eyes as he comes to life when she does this. And there's something to Tsukushi as well when she's like this as opposed to the more pleasing manner she tries to have with Rui. Yet it's still obvious that she loves both just in different ways.

Ah, society, how cruel you are with your rules.

One area where Viz continues to confound me, unless I do just not understand their menu layout, is that their subtitle track for signs and such is independent of the full subtitle track. So if you're watching the dub, you get to understand the messages that are shown on various signs, toys and other items. If you're watching the full subtitle track, you get all the dialogue subtitles but none of the signs. For example, when Tsukushi pushes her fortune telling toy in the first episode here, it focuses in on the Japanese text that comes up. If you're watching with full subtitles, nothing is subtitled there. If you're watching the dub, you get a "something yellow" subtitle that comes up there. It's almost like they don't understand what a signs subtitle track is for. Very frustrating since it takes away some basic elements that are needed to understand parts of the show.

In Summary:
While there's a bit of globe trotting going on here after the basketball game, the show continues to be very much focused on the characters. There's a number of amusing changes in the relationships as people talk more, surprise surprise, but there's also a comical change to Tsukushi's home life that makes you wonder how any of them have survived that long. This set of episodes is just a lot of fun as it goes through the ups and downs of all the characters and in how everyone seemingly deals with the mood swings of Tsukasa as a central force in their lives.

Features
Japanese 2.0 Language,English 2.0 Language,English Subtitles,Character Profiles

Review Equipment
Panasonic PT50LC13 50" LCD RP HDTV, Zenith DVB-318 Progressive Scan codefree DVD player via DVI with upconversion set to 720p, Sony STR-DE835 DD/DTS receiver, Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.