Hana Yori Dango
Oct. 30th, 2005 08:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sub_dividedMy favorite character of any series is always the main character, and my favorite pairing is always the main pairing if there is one, and yesterday when I finished Hana Yori Dango (manga) instead of my midterm essay (*helpless sob*) I relized why. It's because if I don't like them, I don't read the series.
It's that simple! I don't like the main characters, I walk! Hana Yori Dango makes the first exception (I will blame this on extreme stress and work-avoidance, otherwise I probably would not have finished it) -- I did like Domyoji by the end, but only at the end, ie volume 34 (of 36) by which point he had become a different person.
In the middle-to-end of the series I liked Tsukukushi less than I had the beginning of the series. The thing I most disliked about her was her attachment to Domyoji.
Here's my Domyoji timeline:
-introduced as unattractive and psychopathic
-revealed to be unattractive, psychopathic, demanding and childish
-Rui leaves, add stupid and unreasonable to that list
-politician's son is introduced, I root for him
-Rui comes back, I root for him
-Junpei is introduced, I...well, okay, it's a little hard to root for Junpei. I've read enough shoujo manga by this point to know that you never trust the male model, that is unless you knew him before he became a model.
-Domyoji's adjective list now includes "reckless", but "psychopathic" has changed to "psychopathic except where Tsukukusi is involved". This is supposed to be endearing? Points for making up with Rui, though.
-character re-design means you can cross off "unattractive" too, but this is totally not enough considering his personality
-a love interest for Domyoji who isn't Sakurano! I root for her, they really seem to fit.
-the maid thing. ye gods how awful. Not Domyoji's fault, of course, and I don't hold it against him. It doesn't even properly belong on this list, I just thought I'd mention how much the maid thing bugged me.
-guy who looks like Domyoji is introduced. I root for him despite strong suspicions that even his confession is a calculated part of his seduction strategy. (why wasn't it? that would have been creepy awesome.)
-by this point we have learned that Domyoji has reasons for being an asshole, that he is less of an asshole with Tsukukushi, that in fact he *needs* Tsukukushi to function as a normal human being, but that they are incapable of holding a single decent conversation.
-Tsukukushi follows Domyoji to New York, Rui follows Tsukukushi and confesses. I root for Rui. Actually, I never stopped rooting for Rui. "Which one needs me the most" shouldn't be the deciding factor in a love triangle. "Which one can I live with without being miserable," that's a little bit more like it.
-Domyoji is hospitalized. I feel bad even saying this about a manga character, but I really wanted him to die.
-Another love interest for Domyoji! I disliked her. (Well, that was the point, wasn't it?) However I disliked the "outsiders shouldn't interfere" line more, or rather I hated that this was the single greatest justification for her dismissal. It's the same kind of viewer-oriented non-logic that keeps the lead with the same girl on most teen dramas. To draw an in-series parallel, it's like Tsukukushi's descision to continue in Eitoku for her third year of high school -- there's no reason for her to want that, but every reason for the readers to want that.
-This is the chapter where you realize exactly how much Tsukukushi has changed. I really felt for Domyoji during the amnesia scenes -- Tsukukushi expects he'll fall in love with her again, but she doesn't act like the person he fell in love with in the first place. She's more timid, less honest, more fragile, cries more often, the list goes on. Of course, Domyoji's the one who made her this way, although not always directly (some of it was his mother).
-TURNING POINT: Domyoji says his inner psychopath has been soothed by Tsukukushi. Not soothed while tsukukushi is with me, which is an entirely different thing. Soothed just because he knew her once. This was when I decided Domyoji was an acceptable human being (although Rui will always be better).
My number one beef with shoujo manga is the idea that total dependence is a good thing(*). Numbers two and three are that the heroine always ends up with the first guy she shares a panel with and that all love interests must be childhood friends, even when one of them doesn't realize it. Hana Yori Dango sidsteps these two very neatly.
I feel like I'm writing both too much and not enough about this manga, which I *did* like no matter what it sounds like. But here's something that happened while I was reading: volumes 32 and 33 were missing, which meant there was a sudden jump from Domyoji in the hospital to a totally different Domyoji and Tsukukushi happily out on a date. I blinked, blinked some more, thought about it for a little while and concluded that this was what had happened in the missing two volumes:
1. Domyoji died.
2. Tsukukushi woke up. She was sharing a bed with Kunisawa Amon, the Domyoji's cousin impersonator.
3. The last 5 volumes of the manga were all a fever-dream.
4. Tsukukushi struggled to remember what was real. Her parents moved away, the apartment collapsed, she became a maid, she tried to date Domyoji but ultimately gave up, the saturn pendant, she was looking for it in the river and that must have been when she came down with Domyoji never went to New York and he isn't dead.
5. On the other hand she never secretly dated Dyomouji; and the happiest day of her life, at the ballpark, never happened.
6. Hanazawa Rui never confessed.
7. She sat on the bed while Domyoji's cousin...wait. Had he claimed to be Domyoji's cousin yet? Wasn't he just a college student at a party? Ugh. While Amon stared at her with an oddly predatory look, and thought, but thank godness he's alive. Even if those five volumes were all the good parts, nothing would be worth worth it if he was dead. But they'd just fought, hadn't they, and her parents were still away and her appartment was still gone and his mother was still awful.
8. Amon (no, that was wrong, she had definitely been dreaming when he'd told her his name) revealed that he'd nursed her in secrecy for his own Nefarious Purposes. He wouldn't allow her to her leave the appartment. He was Doyouji's cousin, and this was revenge. (Threatened rape? Some kind of disigfurement?)
9. Domyouji saved her. It made the nightly news. Domyoji's mother conceeded temporary defeat as they'd already had so much public exposure, and allowed them to date (she's secretly plotting something though).
10. Tsukushi, having seen a future where they can actually get along, was filled with new and tender feelings for Domyoji. Her belief in him brought out Domyoji's better half, and the dream him became the real him.
And then we come in at volume 34, when Tsukukushi's parents return from the countryside to bump into the happy couple. You have no idea how strongly I was convinced that this was, in fact, exactly what had happened. "It makes so much sense!" I thought. "There's no way Tsukukushi could really have caught a world-record home run ball, flown to New York where she met Thomas of all people, and single-handedly saved the Domyoji financial group from ruin with bad dialogue about the importance of forgiveness!"
...
...
...ahaha.
(*)Exceptions: Kodomo no Omocha (that's not why Sana likes him), Kare Kano (that's not why Miyazawa likes him plus Arima hides it really well), Please Save My Earth (...LOVE THIS SERIES. Hey![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
memlu and falxumbra, if you are really anxious to read it there is a full-series bittorent here. And then after you've read the scans you should BUY THE OFFICIAL TRANSLATION, because it's one of those rare ones that gets all of the jokes and all of the references, and has notes about the meanings of flowers at the end.)
It's that simple! I don't like the main characters, I walk! Hana Yori Dango makes the first exception (I will blame this on extreme stress and work-avoidance, otherwise I probably would not have finished it) -- I did like Domyoji by the end, but only at the end, ie volume 34 (of 36) by which point he had become a different person.
In the middle-to-end of the series I liked Tsukukushi less than I had the beginning of the series. The thing I most disliked about her was her attachment to Domyoji.
Here's my Domyoji timeline:
-introduced as unattractive and psychopathic
-revealed to be unattractive, psychopathic, demanding and childish
-Rui leaves, add stupid and unreasonable to that list
-politician's son is introduced, I root for him
-Rui comes back, I root for him
-Junpei is introduced, I...well, okay, it's a little hard to root for Junpei. I've read enough shoujo manga by this point to know that you never trust the male model, that is unless you knew him before he became a model.
-Domyoji's adjective list now includes "reckless", but "psychopathic" has changed to "psychopathic except where Tsukukusi is involved". This is supposed to be endearing? Points for making up with Rui, though.
-character re-design means you can cross off "unattractive" too, but this is totally not enough considering his personality
-a love interest for Domyoji who isn't Sakurano! I root for her, they really seem to fit.
-the maid thing. ye gods how awful. Not Domyoji's fault, of course, and I don't hold it against him. It doesn't even properly belong on this list, I just thought I'd mention how much the maid thing bugged me.
-guy who looks like Domyoji is introduced. I root for him despite strong suspicions that even his confession is a calculated part of his seduction strategy. (why wasn't it? that would have been creepy awesome.)
-by this point we have learned that Domyoji has reasons for being an asshole, that he is less of an asshole with Tsukukushi, that in fact he *needs* Tsukukushi to function as a normal human being, but that they are incapable of holding a single decent conversation.
-Tsukukushi follows Domyoji to New York, Rui follows Tsukukushi and confesses. I root for Rui. Actually, I never stopped rooting for Rui. "Which one needs me the most" shouldn't be the deciding factor in a love triangle. "Which one can I live with without being miserable," that's a little bit more like it.
-Domyoji is hospitalized. I feel bad even saying this about a manga character, but I really wanted him to die.
-Another love interest for Domyoji! I disliked her. (Well, that was the point, wasn't it?) However I disliked the "outsiders shouldn't interfere" line more, or rather I hated that this was the single greatest justification for her dismissal. It's the same kind of viewer-oriented non-logic that keeps the lead with the same girl on most teen dramas. To draw an in-series parallel, it's like Tsukukushi's descision to continue in Eitoku for her third year of high school -- there's no reason for her to want that, but every reason for the readers to want that.
-This is the chapter where you realize exactly how much Tsukukushi has changed. I really felt for Domyoji during the amnesia scenes -- Tsukukushi expects he'll fall in love with her again, but she doesn't act like the person he fell in love with in the first place. She's more timid, less honest, more fragile, cries more often, the list goes on. Of course, Domyoji's the one who made her this way, although not always directly (some of it was his mother).
-TURNING POINT: Domyoji says his inner psychopath has been soothed by Tsukukushi. Not soothed while tsukukushi is with me, which is an entirely different thing. Soothed just because he knew her once. This was when I decided Domyoji was an acceptable human being (although Rui will always be better).
My number one beef with shoujo manga is the idea that total dependence is a good thing(*). Numbers two and three are that the heroine always ends up with the first guy she shares a panel with and that all love interests must be childhood friends, even when one of them doesn't realize it. Hana Yori Dango sidsteps these two very neatly.
I feel like I'm writing both too much and not enough about this manga, which I *did* like no matter what it sounds like. But here's something that happened while I was reading: volumes 32 and 33 were missing, which meant there was a sudden jump from Domyoji in the hospital to a totally different Domyoji and Tsukukushi happily out on a date. I blinked, blinked some more, thought about it for a little while and concluded that this was what had happened in the missing two volumes:
1. Domyoji died.
2. Tsukukushi woke up. She was sharing a bed with Kunisawa Amon, the Domyoji's cousin impersonator.
3. The last 5 volumes of the manga were all a fever-dream.
4. Tsukukushi struggled to remember what was real. Her parents moved away, the apartment collapsed, she became a maid, she tried to date Domyoji but ultimately gave up, the saturn pendant, she was looking for it in the river and that must have been when she came down with Domyoji never went to New York and he isn't dead.
5. On the other hand she never secretly dated Dyomouji; and the happiest day of her life, at the ballpark, never happened.
6. Hanazawa Rui never confessed.
7. She sat on the bed while Domyoji's cousin...wait. Had he claimed to be Domyoji's cousin yet? Wasn't he just a college student at a party? Ugh. While Amon stared at her with an oddly predatory look, and thought, but thank godness he's alive. Even if those five volumes were all the good parts, nothing would be worth worth it if he was dead. But they'd just fought, hadn't they, and her parents were still away and her appartment was still gone and his mother was still awful.
8. Amon (no, that was wrong, she had definitely been dreaming when he'd told her his name) revealed that he'd nursed her in secrecy for his own Nefarious Purposes. He wouldn't allow her to her leave the appartment. He was Doyouji's cousin, and this was revenge. (Threatened rape? Some kind of disigfurement?)
9. Domyouji saved her. It made the nightly news. Domyoji's mother conceeded temporary defeat as they'd already had so much public exposure, and allowed them to date (she's secretly plotting something though).
10. Tsukushi, having seen a future where they can actually get along, was filled with new and tender feelings for Domyoji. Her belief in him brought out Domyoji's better half, and the dream him became the real him.
And then we come in at volume 34, when Tsukukushi's parents return from the countryside to bump into the happy couple. You have no idea how strongly I was convinced that this was, in fact, exactly what had happened. "It makes so much sense!" I thought. "There's no way Tsukukushi could really have caught a world-record home run ball, flown to New York where she met Thomas of all people, and single-handedly saved the Domyoji financial group from ruin with bad dialogue about the importance of forgiveness!"
...
...
...ahaha.
(*)Exceptions: Kodomo no Omocha (that's not why Sana likes him), Kare Kano (that's not why Miyazawa likes him plus Arima hides it really well), Please Save My Earth (...LOVE THIS SERIES. Hey
memlu and falxumbra, if you are really anxious to read it there is a full-series bittorent here. And then after you've read the scans you should BUY THE OFFICIAL TRANSLATION, because it's one of those rare ones that gets all of the jokes and all of the references, and has notes about the meanings of flowers at the end.)