I made a Instagram to share my love for the Japanese versions of Hana Yori Dango!

@Hanadan.collects

Also, on my Meteor Garden DVD, I found an extra listing some of the filming locations for the drama. Some of the locations I already knew and some were just impossible to find (It was filmed in 2001 after all). I'm including screenshots from the extra below to serve as a source:

And now my neverending quest for the Meteor Garden filming locations continue. (And I've barely even started on the locations of the K-drama and C-drama lol).

On my Meteor Garden DVD, I found two interesting bonus features. One is a production timeline with some information that cannot be found online anymore. I'm including here so that I don't have to keep going back to reference it. Some of my translations may not be 100% correct

• March 2, 2001: Press conference; First appearance of the F4.

• March 3, 2001: Shooting starts.

• April 4, 2001: A preview of the drama earns praise.

• April 12, 2001: Broadcast begins.

• April 19, 2001: Rating 4.42%; Ranked first in its time slot; CTS president visits the filming to encourage the cast.

• May 23, 2001: TV soundtrack released; more than 100,000 copies sold.

• May 24, 2001: Ratings reach a new high of 5.59%.

• June 28, 2001: Ratings exceed 6.84%.

• July 3, 2001: VCD launched; more than 2,000 pre-orders.

• July 5, 2001: Ratings 8.11%; ranked first in the country.

• July 31, 2001: Moved from its 9:00 PM time slot to 8:00 PM.

• August 12, 2001: Filming wraps.

• August 16, 2001: Finale broadcast.

I'm most interested in ratings notes since I've yet to find the ratings recorded anywhere else. The only thing I've seen is that the average rating was 6.99%, which remained the highest average until 2006.

Tsukasa Domyoji (道明寺司)

Birthday: January 31, 2007

Height: 193cm

Weight: 75kg

Blood Type: B

Rui Hanazawa (花沢類)

Birthday: March 30, 2007

Height: 190cm

Weight: 69kg

Blood Type: AB

Sojiro Nishikado (西門総二郎)

Birthday: December 3, 2007

Height: 189cm

Weight: 73kg

Blood Type: O

Akira Mimasaka (美作あきら)

Birthday: February 28, 2007

Height: 187cm

Weight: 70kg

Blood Type: A

Tsukushi Makino (牧野つくし)

Birthday: December 28, 2007

Height: 168cm

Weight: 50kg

Blood Type: B

RUMORS

Tsukushi Makino (牧野つくし) → 169cm

Tsukasa Domyoji (道明寺司) → 193cm

Rui Hanazawa (花沢類) → 190cm

Sojiro Nishikado (西門総二郎) → 188cm

Akira Mimasaka (美作あきら) → 187cm

... Well is done!!

I love myself cause I am re watching the whole episode of f4 Tialand cause who wouldn't

You may not remember Koichi Hashizume. He's an actor from the 1995 Hana Yori Dango film. He plays Akira in the film with Kensaku Saeki as Sojiro. However, they receive so little screentime you may not even realize which roles the two are playing. That aside, Koichi is actually the first person involved in the Hana Yori Dango franchise to pass away. For that reason, he has always stuck out in my mind.

Koichi (left) pictured filming Picnic with Tadanobu Asano and Chara.

Possibly due to his passing at an early age and it being the pre-internet age, a lot of mystery surrounds Koichi. First of all, I haven't been able to find a source for his Wikipedia listed birthdate (November 30, 1972). After some digging, I found a listing for a pamphlet for Picnic on a Japanese website for secondhand goods. The photo (see below) lists his birthday as March 18, 1972. It also lists his birthplace as Yamaguchi, though the Hana Yori Dango pamphlet lists it as Nagano. However, this can be explained as him being born in Yamaguchi but being from Nagano.

His career, thankfully, is less mysterious. Koichi entered the industry as a model, before filming a commercial for the Nissan Lucino. It was directed by then up-and-coming director Shunji Iwai, whom later cast Koichi as Satoru for his film Picnic. It was going to be Koichi's film debut, but the censor board caused the release to be delayed until 1996. Picnic became a somewhat forgotten Iwai film, but had a resurgence after the director's cut was released.

Koichi's acting debut subsequently became Hana Yori Dango (1995). Despite his relatively small part, he still played a member of the F4 and therefore still remains remembered for that. Koichi then began appearing in television dramas, such as Doc (1996), Singles (1997), News no Onna, and Shomuni (both 1998).

Koichi (far left) with Hana Yori Dango costars Naohito Fujiki, Shosuke Tanihara, and Kensaku Saeki.

Unfortunately, there's a lot of mystery surrounding Koichi's death. On July 9, 1999, he passed away at the age of twenty-six. A blog post confirms the year and month, but not the day. According to said post, his agency claimed that Koichi died in a motorcycle accident but the author (possibly a friend of Koichi's whom also knew Shosuke Tanihara) claims that it could have been suicide. I personally cannot verify either cause of death. I've only been able to find one vague source and then a lot of articles just repeating the Japanese Wikipedia article (which only has one source to it that I cannot access).

In response to this research, I've decided to change Koichi's birthday on his article to March 18 since the November 30 date cannot be verified. I've rewritten his career section with better sources and death section has also been changed to reflect the uncertainness of his cause of death.

I hope Koichi rests in peace along with the others we have lost throughout the years. Hopefully, in the future, some of the mysteriousness around his life will be cleared up.

Happy August everyone :) First, let's start with some updates on the Hanadan exhibit.

The exhibit was pretty busy this month, visiting both Sendai and Osaka. The picture above is a special display for the Osaka exhibit. Both also had collaboration menus, which you can view here. Osaka had a pretty elaborate menu, featuring items on nearly every floor of the building.

The next exhibit is coming to Shizuoka on September 5.

Boys Over Flowers has collaborated with the fashion brand, Foxey, for a capsule collection. Yoko Kamio drew new illustrations of Tsukushi, Tsukasa, and Rui in the fashions. As part of the collaboration, Tsukasa will also grace the cover of the fashion magazine Spur with actress Mitsuki Takahata.

More from the collab is expected, such as a special website, video, pop-up store, etc.

Rei Yuzuka, whom starred as Tsukasa in the 2019 musical, has announced her decision to retire from the Takarazuka Revue. Yuzuka has been the top star of the revue's Flower Troupe for five years, though much of it was effected by COVID-19. Her costar Madoka Hoshikaze will also retire on the same day, May 26, 2024.

Another Tsukasa portrayer, Bright Vachirawit (Thyme in F4 Thailand), revealed that he opted not to renew his contract with GMMTV and become an independent artist.

I'm leaving the actor news at that. I only mentioned these two because of the implications for Boys Over Flowers. Yuzuka will never reprise her role as Tsukasa, though I still hope that the Takarazuka Revue will put on another production someday with an all-new cast. Bright leaving GMMTV means that we'll likely never get a sequel to F4 Thailand.

That's it for this month! I hope everyone has a great September.

A day and a half late, but here we go!

F4 Thailand was added to Viki! I'm not sure in which regions but it's been subbed or is being subbed in at least fourteen languages. F4 Thailand is available to watch on YouTube, but has been blocked in some regions (including mine).

A new stop for the Hana Yori Dango exhibit was added. It's coming to Sendai from August 2 to 13 and then Osaka from August 16 to 28.

The website Net Lab conducted a survey on favorite Japanese school drams of the 2010s. Hana Nochi Hare ranked number one with 654 votes out of 1088. (Source)

Now for wiki news! This month I officially implemented a project I've been thinking about for a while. And that is Promotion pages! While researching things for the wiki, I often come across things that don't seem to fit anywhere so I decided to split the Promotion sections of the dramas and such into full pages. That way I can add extra details and have a place to document the odds and ends.

So far I've created six promotion pages. Feel free to check out: Manga, Meteor Garden, Hana Yori Dango, Hana Yori Dango: The Musical, Hana Nochi Hare, and F4 Thailand. These pages aren't complete yet though! I'm planing to add promotion pages for the Korean drama, Meteor Garden (2018), and the maybe the other musicals. I'm working on merchandise pages for the Korean and Chinese dramas as well.

For actor news:

• Earlier this month Fah Yongwaree dropped out of Beauty Newbie costarring Win Metawin. On the 26th, GMMTV announced that she was pregnant. Fah later confirmed that she was expecting a girl.

• Win and Bright Vachirawit successfully completed the first stop in Japan on their Side by Side tour. The next stop will be in Hong Kong on July 8.

• Tu Tontawan was cast in her first movie, titled The Chinese Family.

• Win also did an interview for Her World talking about F4 Thailand (Link).

• Barbie Hsu and her sister Dee are involved in some controversy yet again. Read about it here.

• And Ku Hye-sun lost her lawsuit against her former agency. Read about it here.

Now I'm introducing a new segment. Recent or upcoming dramas starring actors from the wiki! Also the show links go to MyDramaList.

• Out now: Why Didn't I Tell You a Million Times? starring Mao Inoue

• Out now: The Forbidden Flower starring Jerry Yan

• Out now: Tale of the Nine-Tailed 1938 starring Kim Bum

• Out now: Youth in the Flames of War starring Dylan Wang

• Out now: Hi Producer starring Sun Yi Han with Shen Yue in a guest role

• On air: Dou Suru Ieyasu starring Jun Matsumoto

• On air: Home School starring Dew, Nani, Cindy Bishop, and Kay

• On air: Loneliness Society starring Jan Ployshompoo

• July 13: Burn the House Down starring Taishi Nakagawa

• July 14: Trillion Game starring Mio Imada

• July 15: Enigma starring Win and Prim

I hope everyone had a great June!

In the end of "Night Betrayal", it's like Tsukushi is confessing her love to Rui, don't you think?

April was quite a busy month for Boys Over Flowers! I will be sharing the latest updates on the exhibit going on right now. And, once again, I have some sad news to share.

The 30th Anniversary Exhibit officially kicked off on April 19! Yoko Kamio also had her autograph session yesterday (April 29). The rest of the dates for the exhibit were announced as well and a nationwide tour is being planned. Refer to the exhibit's page for more details, such as the various merchandise and collaboration cafe menu. I'm planning on adding a gallery for the exhibit once the Tokyo run is over on May 8.

This month, Boys Over Flowers was certified by the Guinness World Records. It is the best selling shojo manga of all time, having sold 59,409,000 copies between October 1992 to November 2022. The number doesn't include digital copies (aka eBooks).

Shooting Star Concert was also broadcast on television for the first time on April 10 and 11.

Moving on to actor news. Sadly, actor Moon Bin took his own life on April 19. As a child, he played a young So Yi-jung in the Korean drama version of Boys Over Flowers. Moon Bin had recently rose to fame as a member of the K-pop band Astro. Moon Bin's page and So Yi-jung have both received an uptick in page views due to the sad news.

Now, for some happier and retroactive news. I'm trying something new here too, including some personal things and work news:

• Mackenyu got married to a non-celebrity in January. I'll have to update his page sometime soon. It's a mess.

• Actresses Ririka Kaga and Koko Miyahime retired from the Takarazuka Revue last month. Neither actress has opened any social media accounts yet.

• Continuing his "End of a Dream Tour", Kim Hyun-joong recently visited the Philippines. He went on Fast Talk with Boy Abunda and discussed how Boys Over Flowers changed his life.

• Kim Bum's highly anticipated drama Tale of the Nine Tailed 1938 starts airing on May 6.

• According to a survey, Lee Min-ho was named the world's favorite male Korean actor (source). Lee also recently finished filming his latest drama Ask the Stars.

• GMMTV's Midnight Museum finished airing this month. Bright, Tu, and Fah have guest roles in the series.

• Another GMMTV series, UMG, starring Milk is currently airing.

• Win visited New York recently to attend an event for Tiffany's.

On to wiki news:

• First, I changed the background to the above picture to commemorate the exhibit. The wiki's colors have also been changed to a pink theme.

• My current projects are working on the event pages, organizing and adding pictures. I'm also thinking of adding pages for the press cons.

• I also started another project: adding etymology sections to all of the character pages.

• I added quite a bit of photos this month, particularly to Hana Yori Dango gallery.

• For next month, I'm focusing on finding rare pictures. I already found several for the anime gallery and Korean drama gallery. And I'd like to return to writing summaries for the manga (which I neglected this month).

That's it for this month! I'm looking forward to the rest of the exhibit and eventually adding pictures from it.

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2023-04-19/boys-over-flowers-earns-guinness-world-record-for-most-published-shojo-manga/.197265

Here's a masterlist of platforms to read/watch Boys Over Flowers and its various adaptations. Please keep in mind that I can't possibly know everywhere you can read/watch the series'. This list will be heavily skewed towards English/American releases. If you know something about your region, please comment below so that I can add it!

Boys Over Flowers (manga) & Boys Over Flowers Season 2

The manga has been translated into eleven languages and remains in print in at least five languages. In English, the series is out of print but is available digitally. Season 2 has been translated into four languages. In English, the series was released digitally.

• Viz (original), Viz (sequel)

• Ebooks on Amazon (original), Amazon (sequel)

• Viz Manga App (subscription)

Boys Over Flowers (anime)

The anime has been broadcast and dubbed in at least eight countries. South Korea and the United States are the only countries to have a physical release. In 2020, the anime was added to Crunchyroll and is available in most English-speaking countries as well as Central America, South America and the Caribbean.

• Discotek Media (DVD)

• Crunchyroll (subscription)

• Netflix Japan (as of June 2021)

• U-Next (Japan; subscription)

Hana Yori Dango (1995 film)

The film has only been released officially in Japan. Since 2021, it has been released on various streaming platforms.

• U-Next (Japan; subscription)

• Amazon Japan (rent)

Meteor Garden (2001), Meteor Rain (2001), & Meteor Garden II (2002)

The first season of Meteor Garden has aired in over sixteen countries. It has seen some physical releases. The first and second seasons have never been released officially in English. Meteor Rain was released on DVD in the US but is now out of print. It also doesn't seem to be streaming anywhere.

• Tencent Video (China; as of 2018)

• Netflix Philippines (as of 2018)

• Amazon Prime Japan (subscription)

• U-Next (Japan; subscription)

Hana Yori Dango (2005), Hana Yori Dango Returns (2007) & Hana Yori Dango Final (2008)

The two seasons and film have been released in at least eight countries. In 2022, Viki licensed the series for its first official English release. To my knowledge, it is available on Viki in North and South America and possibly more regions.

• Paravi, TVer, and TBS Free (Japan)

• Amazon Prime Japan (Final only; subscription)

• U-Next (Final only; subscription)

• Viki (subscription)

Boys Over Flowers (2009)

This drama is the most successful internationally, reportedly airing in over one hundred countries. In English, it has been released on DVD (out of print) and on several streaming services, including Netflix. The series may or may not be available in other regions on the following:

• Netflix (subscription)

• Viki (free with ads)

• Amazon Prime (subscription)

• Tubi (free)

• AsianCrush (free with ads)

• HBO Max (Latin America)

Hana Nochi Hare (2018)

This drama has aired in four countries but has only seen a physical and streaming release in Japan.

• Paravi (Japan; subscription)

Meteor Garden (2018)

This drama was licensed by Netflix and is available in most countries that have Netflix, excluding Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand.

• Netflix (subscription)

Hana Yori Dango (2019 musical)

The 2019 musical is the only musical to receive a streaming release in Japan. It is also available on DVD.

• U-Next (Japan; subscription)

• Amazon Prime Japan (rent)

F4 Thailand: Boys Over Flowers (2021-22)

For the most part, F4 Thailand is available to watch for free on GMMTV's YouTube channel. Unfortunately, it has been made available in certain regions, including North America.

• YouTube

• U-Next (Japan; subscription)

• IWantTFC (Philippines; subscription)

Pleas refrain from commenting any links to illegal websites! Those comments will be deleted. This masterlist is only links to legal platforms. I will add though that many of the older adaptations have been uploaded to YouTube, but I will not link them since it's not exactly legal.

Shooting Star Asia Tour visited its last stop in Seoul on April 2. Despite starting all the way back in October, the tour really seemed to fly by. In this article, I'll discuss the final concert and the future of BWDN.

On March 8, the promoter made the sudden announcement that they were changing the venue from Kyung Hee University to Yes24 Live Hall. Customers were refunded their tickets due to the venue change. If they still wanted to go, they had to re-purchase tickets. We, of course, don't know the reason for the sudden change. However, I'm speculating that they didn't sell enough tickets for the original location which has a slightly higher capacity than the replacement. This is speculation though.

Now for the concert itself, I couldn't find any articles at all talking about it. So I have very little information, except what I saw on social media. Since the concerts are mostly the same, you can imagine what happened. There's the opening with "Who am I," talking portions, game portion, and the solos. Bright opted to sing "My Ecstasy" this time, while Win performed "That Person Must be You." Dew sung his classic "In the Wind." Nani, possibly being tired of "Best Life," decided to perform "Good Time" which he previously sung at the Japanese concert.

To end off the Seoul talk, I'm wondering whether this was the best concert to end the tour. I'm sure it was relatively successful, but it doesn't seem to have been as popular as the other locations... Maybe, I'm just looking too much into things though. I still think that they should've ended with the Japanese concert as it was the most "epic" of all the concerts (my bias is showing lol).

Now on to the future. Does BWDN have a future? The answer is: I don't know. Last year when I was watching the original Shooting Star Concert, I thought GMMTV was angling to make BWDN a boy band a la F4. The F4's first concert was even similar to BWDN's. However, I have no idea how successful this concert tour was. It seems like it did well, but who really knows? And, even if did do well, that doesn't mean GMMTV will have BWDN continue working together in the future.

I guess I'm in a pessimistic mood right now! To be more optimistic, I hope that BWDN will have a chance to work together again. I think they have really nice chemistry together and their voices are all nice. My sincere wish is that there will be a continuation of F4 Thailand somehow. A miniseries with the original cast or maybe something a spin-off like Boys Over Flowers Season 2. Now with the concert tour over, let's wait and see if any news comes in the following months or even years!

March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb. Sorry, I just wanted to say that. Well, it's time for the monthly newsletter. I have some updates on the latest events as well as some sad news. Let's go!

First, we have the latest on Shooting Star Asia Tour. The concerts in Vietnam, Singapore, and Japan were successfully completed. You can read my posts on these concerts here and here. I wanted to include some information here that I forgot in my original Japan post. The concert took place for two days with the last day being broadcast by TV Asahi. It will be rebroadcast in May. Japan also opened an online goods store that international fans can use.

The final concert will take place on April 2 in Seoul, South Korea. The venue was suddenly changed earlier this month and all customers were refunded. I hope everyone was able to re-buy their tickets without trouble! Fans can also buy a streaming ticket to watch the concert. And, finally, something called a "KiT Video" containing the full live performance will be released.

Next, some updates on the 30th Anniversary Exhibit. The MG Cafe, located in the same building as the exhibit, will have a collaboration menu with Boys Over Flowers. They will serve several items like the drinks shown above inspired by the series. For more, visit the 30th anniversary page. Some more merchandise has also been shared.

The exhibit will open on April 19. It is suggested to buy your tickets in advance as the day may be full if you just show up. Yoko Kamio will be at the exhibit on April 29 for an autograph section. You have to buy a different ticket to participate.

Now we have some sad news. Peter Mak (pictured above in yellow), one of the directors of Meteor Garden II, passed away on March 26. No cause of death was given. The family set up a mourning hall for relatives and friends. It is almost the one year anniversary of Kenneth Tsang's death (pictured above in blue).

I don't have any actor news this month as it's been kind of slow. Everyone seems to be doing okay with their career, but with over 300+ people it's hard to keep up or even single out a few people to report on. So we'll move right on to wiki news. Cue random transition photo!

This month I've focused on a mix of projects. One of them was adding photos and re-formatting the galleries. I added around 100 photos (like the one above) to the Hana Yori Dango gallery. I'm still working on that gallery as well as the one for Hana Nochi Hare. I also finally found the original poster for MG2; the previous picture posted had the top cut off.

I added a number of new pages this month. My favorite was the filming locations for the Hana Yori Dango film, which lead to a fun discovery. Read about that here. This month, I also became obsessed with unofficial remakes for several days and ended up making a page for Siapa Takut Jatuh Cinta. I summarized some of the new information I found here. I also reformatted all of the pages for the unofficial remakes, mostly finding new sources.

Lastly, I added summaries to several chapters and volumes. I'll be writing the summary for volume 32 soon hopefully. That's all for this month! I hope everyone had a great month and let's cross our fingers for the next!