Hana Yori Dango -- Contemporary Cinderella Fantasy

Boys Over Flowers

            As one of the best seller and most popular work in the Shoujo Manga genre (comic for girls), Boys Over Flowers had serialized 12 years (1992~2004). After it had finished its serialization, this manga won the 41^st Shogakukan Manga Award, which is Japan’s major manga award.

The main story of the Boys Over Flowers is about a poor girl enters a private high school which is full of rich children, and after a series of misunderstanding and troubles, she finally falls in love a handsome boy, who is also one of the richest students in her school. The summary of this masterpiece of contemporary Shoujo Manga is more like a normal girl’s fantasy of being a princess and marry a prince like Cinderella’s fairy tale. However, this impractical story attracts a huge amount of audience all around the world and has sold 61 million copies in 2015 and reaches the best-selling position of Shoujo Manga genre. Except the outstanding performance on selling, the story also brings its author, Yoko Kamio, a lot of chances to be famous worldwide. Since 1996 the animation version is on stage, the story of Boys Over Flowers was produced in various formats and languages, including animation, film, and also Television drama, in Japanese, Chinese and also Korean.

Its classic plot could be considered as the representative of contemporary melodrama for several elements: opposite position (poor girl vs. rich boy; ordinary student vs. private school); dilemma (two best friends fall in love with the same girl; family members do not accept a poor girl); unexpected plot, especially with sudden transition (being framed by the other jealous girls; being understood by the person she loved).

During the beginning of 21^st century, women are the major audience of Television due to the Asian cultural background that most women stay in homes and work in home as housewives. As a work which are majorly targeting those female audience, these elements enable the Boys Over Flowers to attract those audience who are considered as more sensitive by setting the story from the poor girl’s point of view to give them sense of substitution.

On the other hand, it also has the attractiveness of serialized work. No matter the original manga itself or its animation and Television dramas, as a serialized work, the most charming point is that the story would cut off at the climax of one part, which is the most exciting or tense timing. This set up is for triggering and attracting audience to think about the plot and the later plot during the waiting weekdays. Since this circumstance is built up, people who want to know the plot in next episode would discuss and recommend it to their friends. So that, the work could be spread to everywhere.