Hana Yori Dango

My sister and I finished watching the two seasons of a Jdorama titled Hana Yori Dango (花より男子), or Boys over Flowers (or Boys before Flowers). It stars Arashi's Matsumoto Jun (松本潤), Inoue Mao (井上真央) from First Kiss, Oguri Shun (小栗旬) from Hanazakari no Kimitachi e, Matsuda Shota (松田翔太), and Abe Tsuyoshi (阿部力), among others including Death Note's Erika Toda (戸田恵梨香) and Taiyou no Uta's Sato Megumi (佐藤めぐみ). Oh! And Ikuta Toma (生田斗真)!!

The first season's only 9 episodes while the second one's 11. There's supposed to be a movie titled Hana Yori Dango FINAL coming out June 23, 2008 - I'll be watching that!! The trailer's already out in the movie's official site. :)

Anywho, even though it was a rough ride and there were so many times when I wanted to bang in the heads of the characters, I eventually got through and I have to say that the last episode was pretty satisfying. AND the movie acts as an epilogue as well! I'll stop here just in case I end up spoiling things but... here's a summary of the first season taken from DramaWiki!

Makino Tsukushi is the only poor student at Eitoku Gakuen, the school of the ridiculously rich and privileged that is ruled by Flower 4 or F4, a group of four boys who come from extremely powerful families: Domyoji Tsukasa, the leader and heir of the Domyoji World Finance Group; Hanazawa Rui, the introverted son of a large company; Nishikado Sojiro, a player who is the heir of a tea ceremony school; and Mimasaka Akira, a madam killer with ties to the underground. If a student gets on the F4’s bad side, he/she gets a red notice and is bullied and driven out of school.

Makino hopes to pass her days quietly-- without drawing any attention to herself-- but one day, she stands up to Domyoji in defense of her friend. The next day, Makino gets the dreaded red notice. Even though she is harassed, Makino decides to keep going to school because she is a “tough weed”. She declares war right back on the F4. Her resolve gets the attention of her crush Hanazawa Rui and oddly enough, rouses romantic feelings in her worst enemy, Domyoji Tsukasa.

The series is based on the Japanese shoujo manga "Hana Yori Dango" (Boys Before Flowers) by Kamio Yoko.

NOTE: Yes, I know that the picture I used is for the movie. :)