Hana Yori Dango 2

Rating:

I am five months behind the time, but I have finally finished this series. To be truthful, I didn’t watch every single episode. I skipped through the slow moments where there were dramatic music and shocked faces. I doubt I missed anything too important, since nothing really happened during those scenes except the characters standing stock-still for a few minutes.

I was greatly disappointed by season two of Hana Yori Dango. There were problems carried over from the first season, but these problems were exaggerated. The characters were flat and the script less than satisfactory, which only made the actors and actresses seem as if they were terrible at their jobs. The only actress who I found to be playing her part correctly was Tsukasa’s mother.

Domyouji Tsukasa and Makino Tsukushi seem to “love” each other on no basis. I understand from the first season why Tsukasa may be attracted to Tsukushi–she has spunk. She was the first real person to stand up against him. But as season two progresses, there seem to be more reasons why the two should not be together. Even so, the two, with the encouragement of all their friends and random characters thrown along the way, stand together through the forest of obstacles. Such a plot really would not have been all that bad, even though it’s very cliché and unrealistic, if it was not for the lack of dynamic characters. This made the story seem absurd.

Throughout the series, there really is no reason for the two to be together that strongly. In every episode, the two would fight, there would be tears, and Tsukushi would end up saying, “I want to give up.” She lost her character and personality. Then, there are all these characters, such as the old lady and other adults, who just want to help the couple no matter what. They don’t really provide any real advice; they’re adults yet they chase dreams like the couple, who are obviously not mature enough.

As the episodes progress, it seems as if the couple are only surviving on passion and nothing else. It doesn’t seem like Tsukushi and Tsukasa even really know one another. The only real thing each of them know is that Tsukasa is the heir of the Domyouji group and Tsukushi is very poor. There’s no mention of likes or dislikes, hobbies, etc. In short, this season had uninteresting and underdeveloped characters in a cliché story.

I loved the first season, but I knew there were problems. The characters were still underdeveloped, but that didn’t matter as much since there were many more funny events happening in the story. The first season took a take on it as a comedic anime. But in this season, there really were no funny events and just one disappointment after another. It’s one of those dramas where a person’s life seems to fall further and further into pain and misery; there isn’t even one light of hope. But in this instance, the only reason for this pain and misery was the supposed love. If either character let go, everything would be fine again. Because of this, the show became more and more unrealistic and more and more boring.

So if you are up for one of those tragic dramas, but with a happy (unrealistic) ending, this drama is for you.