Boys Over Flowers

    Boys Over Flowers
    First tankōbon volume cover, featuring Tsukasa Domyoji (left), Tsukushi Makino (center), and Sojirou Nishikado (right)
    花より男子だんご
    (Hana yori Dango)
    Genre
    Manga
    Written byYoko Kamio
    Published byShueisha
    English publisher
    ImprintMargaret Comics
    MagazineMargaret
    DemographicShōjo
    Original runOctober 1992January 2004
    Volumes37
    Live-action television and films
    Anime television series
    Hana yori Dango
    Directed byShigeyasu Yamauchi
    Produced byTetsu Odake
    Yasuo Kameyama
    Takashi Horiuchi
    Hiromi Seki
    Written byYumi Kageyama
    Music byMichiru Ōshima
    StudioToei Animation
    Licensed by
    Original networkANN (ABC)
    Original run September 8, 1996 August 31, 1997
    Episodes51
    Anime film
    Hana yori Dango: The Movie
    StudioToei Animation
    Licensed by
    ReleasedMarch 8, 1997
    Runtime30 minutes
    Related

    Boys Over Flowers (花より男子だんご, Hana yori Dango) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yoko Kamio. The story takes place in the fictional Eitoku Academy, an elite school for children from rich families. It tells the story of Tsukushi Makino, a girl from a middle-class family, whose mother enrolls her in an elite high school to compete with the families from her husband's company. While at Eitoku, she encounters the F4, a gang of four boys who are children of Japan's wealthiest families and who bully anyone that gets in their way.

    The series was serialized in Shueisha's Margaret magazine from October 1992 to January 2004, with its chapters collected in 37 tankōbon volumes between 1992 and 2008. In North America, the manga is licensed by Viz Media.

    The manga has been adapted into various mediums. It was first adapted as an audio drama released on CD from July 1993 to July 1994. This was followed by a Japanese live-action feature film in 1995, then an animated television series, produced by Toei Animation, that was broadcast by ABC from 1996 to 1997. The first live-action television adaptation was one produced in Taiwan, titled Meteor Garden (2001). After Taiwan's Meteor Garden, a number of other live-action television adaptations have followed. A Japanese live-action series aired from 2005 to 2007 (and was followed by a 2008 film), a South Korean adaptation aired in 2009, a mainland Chinese adaptation, also titled Meteor Garden aired in 2018, and a Thai adaptation, F4 Thailand: Boys Over Flowers, was aired from 2021 to 2022.

    In 1996, Boys Over Flowers won the 41st Shogakukan Manga Award for the shōjo category. By February 2015, the series had over 61 million copies in circulation, making it one of the best-selling manga series of all time and the best-selling shōjo manga of all time. The series enjoys immense popularity in the Eastern Asia region.