Not to be confused with Chapter 1 of Boys Over Flowers Season 2. |
- "I'm not letting you get away with this anymore! This is my declaration of war!"
- —Tsukushi Makino decides to fight back against the F4
The first chapter (
At Eitoku Academy, Tsukushi's friend, Makiko Endo, angers the leader of the F4, Tsukasa Domyoji. Tsukushi stands up for Makiko, placing all of the F4's wrath on herself. In the end, Tsukushi decides to fight back instead of leaving quietly.
Plot[]
Tsukushi Makino attends the affluent school, Eitoku Academy. She and her friend, Makiko Endo are both students from middle-class families, unlike most of their ultra-rich classmates. The two walk into their classroom and see Kimoto packing his belongings and leaving. He had previously stood up to the F4, a clique "at the top of the food chain." He was given a red card, the F4's "declaration of war." Despite being popular, no one helped him and he ultimately decided to leave Eitoku.
Tsukushi is frustrated by her classmates callousness and feels angry that she cannot help Kimoto. She runs to an emergency stairwell, where she yells out her frustrations by calling her classmates "stupid fools". Unseen by Tsukushi, Rui Hanazawa witnesses the spectacle and calls her "amazing". Later, Tsukushi remembers how her mother forced her to enroll at Eitoku, despite her protests. She resolves to "stay quiet and unnoticed" and repeats her mantra to "just hang on for two more years."
After school, Tsukushi and her classmates are cleaning the classroom, when a student gets dust on Tsukasa Domyoji's pants. Tsukasa, the F4's leader, orders him to blow the dust away and knocks over a trashcan on his way out. Another F4 member, Rui, picks up the trashcan and looks at Tsukushi briefly. She then blushes. At work, Tsukushi recounts her day to her best friend, Yuki Matsuoka. Yuki wonders out loud what has happened to Tsukushi, who regularly defended others when they were in middle school.
The following day, Tsukushi and Makiko walk to music class together. Makiko slips and falls down a flight of stairs. She lands on Tsukasa, who refuses to just accept her apology. Tsukushi stands up for Makiko and insults Tsukasa. She arrives at school the next day and finds the F4's notorious red slip in her locker. Makiko begins avoiding her. Later, Tsukushi decides to fight back against the F4. She gives them each red slips of her own making, saying "This is my declaration of war!"
Character appearances[]
- Akira Mimasaka (Debut)
- Chieko Makino (Flashback only)
- Haruo Makino (Flashback only)
- Kimoto (Debut)
- Makiko Endo (Debut)
- Proprietress (Debut)
- Rui Hanazawa (Debut)
- Sojiro Nishikado (Debut)
- Tsukasa Domyoji (Debut)
- Tsukasa Domyoji's father (First mentioned)
- Tsukushi Makino (Debut)
- Yuki Matsuoka (Debut)
- Yuriko Asai (Debut)
Notes[]
- Eitoku Academy is located in Yamanote, an area in Tokyo known for being affluent.
- The red card is described as the F4's "declaration of war," which is why Tsukushi repeats this phrase at the end of the chapter when she gives the F4 her own red card.
- A flashback sequence shows Tsukushi giving into her mother's desire for her to attend Eitoku. In the same sequence, her father is shown to be temperamental, the opposite of his later genial and rather silly personality.
- The quote "If an apology was good enough, we wouldn't need the police" has become one of the most popular quotes from the series, especially the delivery given by Jerry Yan in episode one of Meteor Garden (2001).
- Tsukushi and Yuki work at Sengoku Sweets, a store that sells traditional Japanese confections known as wagashi.
- Yuki mentions that Tsukushi was a class officer during middle school. Notably, Tsukushi never gets involved with any school-related activities at Eitoku.
- Tsukushi reveals that the F4's name stands for "Flower Four." Yuki then speculates that it is because "they [are] as pretty as flowers."
- At the end of the chapter, Tsukushi says "This is my declaration of war!" (
宣戦布告! Sensen Fukoku!). A version of this line is used in every adaptation.
- In its original Margaret release, chapter one was accompanied by a two-page color spread. Tsukushi and the F4 were featured in the illustration.[2][3] Excluded from the volume release, it was later republished in the art book and volume one of the complete edition.
- Tsukushi and Tsukasa were also featured on the cover of Margaret that this chapter was published in.[2]
- Yoko Kamio's initial idea was to have the F4 be the "F5." However, while drawing the color spread for this chapter, she changed it to four boys since she was not able to fit in five.[4]
- Kamio actually wanted to give Tsukasa dreadlocks but, according to her, she "could [not] get them right and they ended up like this."[5]
- Kamio thanks Mio Asada, Shumon Tanaka, Sachiko Negishi, and Yuki Negime, whom were likely her assistants, in the liner notes near the end of the chapter.
- Yuriko Asai has a Vuitton (エビットン) bag, which is a reference to the famous Louis Vuitton brand.
- Tsukasa's father is said to be on "Japan's Richest" list, which is a likely reference to the lists recorded by Forbes.
- A comment compares Tsukushi screaming her frustrations at the stairwell to an ancient Greek myth. In the story, King Midas has donkey ears and asks his barber to keep it a secret. The secret drives the barber to dig a hole and yell "The king has donkey ears!" in order to still keep his word.[6]
- In the English edition, Sojiro sings the chorus of "You're No Good" after Tsukasa kicks over a trash can on purpose. He sings (いけないんだ, いけないんだ) in the original Japanese version.
- Tsukushi references the Chinese fable "The Frog in the Shallow Well" saying that the F4 "know [their] tiny little well, but nothing about the ocean beyond it."[7]
Adaptations[]
- Hana Yori Dango (drama CD)
- Hana Yori Dango (film)
- Episode 1 of Boys over Flowers (anime)
- Episode 1 of Meteor Garden (2001)
- Episode 1 of Hana Yori Dango (2005)
- Episode 1 of Boys over Flowers (2009)
- Hana Yori Dango: The Musical
- Boys Over Flowers: The Musical
- Episode 1 of Meteor Garden (2018)
- Hana Yori Dango (2019 musical)
- Episode 1 of F4 Thailand
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Boys Over Flowers: Jewelry Box
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Hana Yori Dango: Yoko Kamio Illustrations
- ↑ Boys Over Flowers complete volume 1
- ↑ Boys Over Flowers volume 3, side-columns
- ↑ Boys Over Flowers volume 1, side-columns
- ↑ http://greece.mrdonn.org/greekgods/kingmidas2.html
- ↑ http://allaboutfrogs.org/stories/well.html
See also[]
External links[]
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