Hana Yori Dango: Information

Hana Yori Dango, called affectionately by fans as "Hanadan" or in English as "Boys Over Flowers," is a manga series, an anime, an alternate-universe movie, a Japanese live-action movie, and Taiwanese live-action drama.

The HYD manga was created by Kamio Youko. it was published in the bi-weekly shoujo manga magazine called Margaret (also known for another fav series of mine, Bronze Zetsuai). it has recently ended, with 36 or 37 volumes. there is also a character book and an art book

the anime has ended after 51 episodes. at first, the anime was really close to the manga, but the anime ending is quite a bit different.

then there is a half-hour long movie which takes the characters and places them in an alternate reality. strange, but it does make the opening to the tv series make more sense ;)

there is a Japanese live-action movie as well, but it sucks. big time. i watched the first bit of it and couldn't take it anymore.

HYD has also been adapted as a Taiwanese live-action drama called "Meteor Garden." i've only seen the first few episodes so far, but it's really quite good. it follows pretty closely the story in the manga. the boys are cute, and the main actress is so pretty! there are 27 episodes in the first season, and i'm not sure how many in the second.