drama: February 2007 Archives

I'm flabbergasted. Really, I am. I've just seen the first episode of "Red Garden" and think I've stumbled onto something interesting this season. I heard about this show from an anime fan (who else?) and agree that the show is unusual to say the least.

You wouldn't know what it was from the intro song which sucked big time. Some Jpop songs just need to go away. Far far away. Maybe to another galaxy.

The episode begins with men in suits driving several teenage girls to their homes I suppose since you see them being put to bed. But another car rams one of the vehicles. Two men break into the car and kill the men in suits escorting an unconscious girl with long orange hair. A man in white looks at the prone girl and smirks.

The next time we see the girl she is dead and her body has been dumped in a wooded area in New Jersey. The cops are swarming about the place and we hear that this is the fifth girl found like this. They don't know yet if it's a suicide or a murder.

The four other girls we saw earlier, Rachel, Claire, Rose and Kate, have no memory of what happened that night.They're groggy. One is nauseous. Another falls asleep while standing up. Turns out they all go to this New York school where the hall monitors are called "Grace" and are led by this little Miss Perfect called Paula. Kate appears to be a new member of "Grace" favored by Paula.

The dead girl was Lisa and she also was a student here. School gets dismissed early because of the terrible news. Kate is devastated. It seems Lisa was her friend and told Kate recently of landing a boyfriend she met in Coney Island. Now here is where things take a weird turn. A weeping Kate wanders the school grounds and sings a mournful tune. I didn't know if I had been dropped into the middle of a musical. She stops warbling and then the episode continues. Eh? At least no dancers gyrate around Kate.

Instead, a horde of black butterflies surround her. Rachel who is walking along with her posse sees them too. The butterflies, which are only visible to the four girls, lure them to a park. Claire asks the others if they also don't remember last night. They get creeped out.

A man and a woman appear from the shadows.The woman introduces herself as their teacher and says the girls died last night. She tells them that a man is approaching and orders the girls to kill him with their bare hands. The man runs at them on all fours. They scream.

I was hooked despite the terrible songs used for the intro and the ending. The ending song was a Jrock tune with terrible lyrics and a horrible beat. The character designs are well, unique too. OK, I'll be honest. The people in this show are ugly. I don't have a problem about the characters being long and lanky but they sport really big noses. You don't notice the exaggerated noses until you see them in profile. Poor Rachel looks like a clown because she has a bulbous nose. Other than that, they look fine when not in profile.

But the storyline is very promising. There's murder, mystery and weird messenger butterflies. Woohoo! I hope "Red Garden" doesn't disappoint later on. But for now I think I kinda like this weird place. Move over Toto and don't hog the Pocky.

In honor of Buy-Me-Roses-Or-We're-Through Day, otherwise known as Valentine's Day, I bring you an oldie but goodie shoujo series called "Hana Yori Dango" or "Boys Over Flowers." The anime came out in the early '90s so the animation can be crude-looking in some spots. The animators also used a palette of soft colors so the background looks like it was rendered in watercolors. And the switch from violin and piano background music to a jazzy soundtrack midway through the series seemed jarring to me.

But it's the storyline and characters that draw one to Hanadan as it's called by fans. Some fans even go so far as to say that the story has elements of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" because of the clash between the hero and heroine who come from two very different social backgrounds. I love Austen and have read "Pride and Prejudice" a dozen times but I don't agree with these fans' assessment.

The storyline in "Hana Yori Dango" is commonly found in any soap opera, romantic fiction or love song. But the series makes it work because the characters are likeable and not one-dimensional. The heroine is Tsukushi Makino, aka the weed, a poor girl attending Etoiku which is a school for the rich and privileged. She tries to keep a low profile until she and her friend have a run-in with the F4, the four boys who run the school. Anyone who crosses the F4 gets a red tag in their lockers which is a signal for the rest of the students to bully the victims.

But Tsukushi is different. She fights back and even kicks the F4's violent leader, Tsukasa Domyoji, in the head. She has a crush on Rui Hanazawa, the quiet introverted member of the F4 and Tsukasa's best friend. Tsukasa later becomes smitten with her and the resulting love triangle leads to a tissue break or two for the viewers.

The series shows how Tsukasa's character evolves to make himself worthy of Tsukushi. Our tough gal doesn't want to be protected like some simpering fool and she resists falling for this arrogant rich boy. But she realizes he isn't so bad after all especially when he keeps saving her.

Then there is the matter of his mother, Kaede Domyoji, who does everything in her power to split Tsukushi and Tsukasa apart.

Bear in mind that the anime ended long before the manga so the ending is different from the comics. Actually I prefer the manga now since the artwork vastly improves as the series goes on and there are more twists to the story in this version.

"Hana Yori Dango" by Yoko Kamio also spawned a movie, a Taiwanese drama called "Meteor Garden" and a Japanese drama which is currently in its second season.

When my inner girly girl surfaces, I placate her by reading the manga or watching the anime again with plenty of tissues on hand. This is classic shoujo anime that is worth viewing even if the animation looks dated now. Both DVDs of the show and the manga have been released in the U.S. by Viz Media.

So get swept along by the drama and romance of "Hana Yori Dango"/"Boys Over Flowers". I promise the effects will last longer than any flowers or chocolates you'll get today.