Kianna White

First of all I am a HUGE, HUGE fan of boys over flowers. I originally started off with the Japanese drama, Hana Yori Dango. It was beautifully done and was my favorite for a long time. I even re-watched it recently just for sentimental reasons. However, a lot of important characters were axed in this version, as well as key plot points. I then re-read the manga, because i had started it a while ago but never actually finished it. So after finishing it, it was easier to see who was missing and what scenes were left out. So the drama, while nice, it was also really heavy and you don’t get a real feel of why Tsuskushi and Tsukasa are even a couple...not to mention when Tsukusa was being silly/ or nervous, it was awkward lol Then I watched the K-Drama: and it’s vastly different from the J-Drama. More comedy. And tbh I didn’t like it. It had a lot of cute travel scenes and stuff but I simple could not (and I mean I was stuck and it was glaringly impossible) accept Geum Jan Di as the main character for a high school setting. She was way too old, and the acting was entirely over the top. I also found myself comparing the beautiful yet intense J version and with the K version and was highly disappointed with the K version. Just not my cup of tea I guess. So then I decided, for fun, to watch all the adaptations of the manga that were formed into dramas. Which brought me to Meteor Garden, the C-Drama. And at first, I’ll admit after having such strong reactions to the previous two dramas I was certain I wasn’t going to like it very much. I was extremely wrong. With the manga still fresh in my mind, after reading it, I new I was going to be critical. But the C-Drama was done wonderfully. It’s modern, the actors are all fresh new faces. Best of all, to my delight, it follows the manga perfectly on my opinion. Obviously changes were made; like instead of high school they’re in college, and instead of the F4 being domineering and flaunting their wealth and power and bullying the students: they’re champion Bridge players with earned respect, and when bullying does take place (like the faithful plot point with Thomas and how the students turn against ShanChi) it’s done through social media. But each plot point was kept for the most part and the characters that were axed from the manga in other dramas were kept which I loved. For example in the manga Kazuya, was Tsukushi’s childhood friend who had a crush on her and ends up at the same high school with her. His love for is unrequited but he sticks around regardless. And the ex-fiancé and sakurako who gave their own roles as well and end up befriending Tsukushi and really caring about her and help her out in her times of need. These characters are in the C-Drama albeit sime details have been altered like Sakurako isn’t rich anymore. But the important part is they are there.Which I think is important because it better shows how she can make friends and lasting relationships. And the most important part, to me, is since they stayed so true to manga and kept all these characters and plot points and basically following the manga perfectly with the exception of minor tweaks, adding new romances and modernizing it to fit a newer generation. They story flows better and the struggles and how the main characters end up together and their relationship seems more true. Honestly I’m just absolutely in love with this drama, it’s totally binge worthy, and I’m definitely gonna watch it multiple times. If I could rate this drama higher than 5 stars I definitely would.