Jump Start: Boys Over Flowers Season 2

[skjam]

Hi folks!

This Jump Start is a little unusual in that it's a shoujo title. Sadly, there is no online Shojo Beat magazine, so when Viz wanted to showcase "Boys Over Flowers Season 2", it had to be in their boys' manga anthology.



I have not actually read Hana Yori Dango ("Boys Over Flowers"), so this synopsis of the original series will be brief: Eitoku Academy is a private high school for rich kids, which is ruled by four obnoxious jerks who call themselves "The Flower Four" or "F4" for short. Their wealthy parents have paid off the school administration to make them immune to punishment, so they are free to bully anyone they please and make the student body go along with it.

That is, until scholarship student Tsukushi Makino finally defies the F4 when they attack her friend, and finds herself the target. She refuses to let them intimidate her, and her stubborness eventually mitigates their jerkitude, especially when their leader Tsukasa Domyoji falls in love with Tsukushi.

We pick up the story a couple of years after the previous cast graduated...21 pages of 65.



We open with a memory of Tsukasa, the person the narrator admired most.




The wealthy students dazzle the eyes of ordinary people, as do the gilded buildings. Or at least they did until two years ago. Now, five students in black jackets stride down the hall on a grim task. They come to a third-year (Americans would say "senior") classroom and ask for Taku Komatsubara.




Taku pleads that he's graduating in six months, and that by that time--nope, denied. The Correct 5 have declared him a "peasant" and Taku must now resign from the school. The other students think this is harsh, but apparently don't understand how the real world works, and believe that the Correct 5 are the only thing keeping the school "elite."



Like many of the students, he joined the school because the F4 were so cool (from a distance). And never mind that they were horrible people until their third year. The Correct 5 aren't quite as cool, but are tops of the nation at academic scoring. Kaguragi is also handsome and athletic.





Kaguragi rants that the falling enrollment will force the academy to go for quantity over quality, letting in commoners who can make modest payments, resulting in falling standards. Therefore, the Correct 5 must purge the school of anyone whose family can't donate large chunks of cash (which will cause enrollment to drop--logic is not their strong point it seems.)

We switch scenes to a girl in the Eitoku uniform, shuddering.



Oto's friend guesses that Oto is perhaps more interested in one of the other male members of the C5? Nope. The friend doesn't immediately jump to the conclusion that Oto likes girls, but does question her standards. The other girls gush over the Correct 5 and their peasant hunts.

Oto abruptly claims they are near her house and please drop her here in this upper crust neighborhood. She waits until they're out of sight, makes sure no one is watching, then starts sneaking off. Then she breaks into a dead run. She had to make the excuse, when caught walking, that her chauffeur was sick, and will need to find some way of evading the other girls tomorrow afternoon.

Her run puts her directly in the path of a limo. The driver stops in time, but the passengers pop out to see what's going on.



Kaito has an app with the data of every Eitoku student, and identifies her as Oto Edogawa, a second-year student. When questioned about her walking, Oto blurts out the sick chaffeur excuse again and rabbits off. She's not happy about having run into people that could ruin her life.

At Kaburagi's mansion, we learn that his manservant Kobayashi has a package for the young master. Kaburagi feigns disinterest until he is told that one of the users grew four inches in six months.




Of course, to maintain privacy, Kobayashi has the items shipped to a convenience store to be held for him. He's off there now--trips on a barbell and is out for the night.

At the Dowson store, two of the employees gossip about the weird old guy who constantly buys all the crap you see in ads at the back of magazines; can you believe anyone is stupid enough to actually believe in any of this?

A customer comes in, and an employee goes to the register to serve them.



Flashback to them meeting that afternoon. They manage to finish the transaction, but when Haruto leaves, Oto slumps down behind the counter. Both of them realize that their lives are over.



Haruto immediately demands that someone buy him a blowgun dart for the purpose of killing people.

At home, Oto is greeted by her mother, who notices a "Miracle Mars Rock" which Haruto forgot to pick up in his haste to leave, and Oto has been tasked with delivering. Oto asks if it would be okay if she switched schools.



We learn in a later chapter that the Edogawa family is on the financial ropes after her father's company went in the hole--the company technically still exists, but it's just a front for another corporation now, and all their personal money is gone.

Haruto consults with Kaito, who had told him to stop buying this crap, but too late now. Haruto considers murder as a possible solution, but Kaito points out that some things about the F4 were not a good idea to imitate.

Oto trudges her weary way to school, feeling like she's on the way to her execution (she doesn't know how literal that might have turned out to be.)

Haruto greets Oto at the gate, and goes on the attack about her part-time job, and tries to intimidate her into resigning without even coming in. But then there's a voice, pleading--
\



Some leader Haruto is! She throws the Mars Rock box at him and goes herself to defend the girl being harassed. Unfortunately, the Momonozono ("Peach Garden") creeps decide they can just hassle two girls; one uppity.

Haruto flashes back to when he was bullied by thugs who demanded money from him, until Tsukasa saved him but called Haruto "pathetic" for not fighting back. Thus it was that Haruto went on a massive campaign of self-improvement. And when Tsukasa graduated and left for New York, he entrusted Haruto with the fate of Eitoku.

Back in the present, the hoods are still hassling the girls. Haruto finally steps up and tells them to stop. And when that doesn't work, hits one, knocking the creep on his back. The crowd cheers.



Haruto is pleased with his confirmed "cool" status, but then there's Oto, with that Mars Rock. She's grateful enough not to say anything for now, but--



Clearly, these two are made for each other :-P



Your thoughts and comments?
SKJAM!
Check out my shoujo manga reviews here: http://www.skjam.com/tag/shoujo/

And in other news, I give my icebreaker speech at Toastmasters tomorrow night!

Comments

[sagrada]

There's so much classism in this it would make Karl Marx's mind implode, and it's so over-the-top the drama clustered around it is like mushrooms next to a pine tree.

This is God-damned hilarious, thanks for scanning and submitting.

[skjam]

Future chapters continue to be silly, as our heroine slaps the male lead's meat into his face after he tries to impress her with it.

[sagrada]

I'm going to assume the most immature interpretation of that possible and giggle at the mental image of a snobby rich guy getting slapped in the face by his own dick.

[skjam]

My phrasing was deliberate, although the statement is true.

[arilou_skiff]

The original was just as bad :p I kind of love it. (in a "so-bad-it's-good" kind of way)

[icon_uk]

That first scan of the covers, the expression on Oto's face is more than slightly terrifying, there's a serial killer behind that expression, you mark my words.

This is not a genre of manga I am fond of, for much the same reason that books about boarding-school stories with entitled main characters never appealed to me growing up.

Is the humiliation and probable academic destruction of poor Taku (and those others like him) ever addressed again for example? (It would be nice to be pleasantly surprised here)

[skjam]

Not in the next two chapters; Haruto is more concerned with finding ways to eliminate Oto as a threat, and regular "peasant hunting" is the furthest thing from his mind. It's bound to come up eventually, but may be sidelined for a battle against the rival school.

[janegray]

This is entertaining, but I'm confused as to how a bunch of students have the power to force other students to leave the school. What are the teachers and principal saying?

[icon_uk]

Presumably the teachers have been warned off taking any action against them by the governors who are in the pocket of the 5's parents.

[skemono]

My interpretation--which could be totally wrong--was that they didn't have any actual administrative authority, and couldn't themselves actually expel a student. But they were the top dogs of the school and everyone else fell in line behind them, so they could bully any student they didn't want there (and the rest of the school body would presumably follow suit) until the student left. Hence they're not saying "You're gone, here's your walking papers", they're saying "You need to resign."

Unless it's one of those Japanese schools where the student council holds all actual administrative powers, which is not all that uncommon in manga.

[glimmung]

I can't stand Boys over flowers.

Strangely I really like most of her other works. Cat street for one.

[raisedbymoogles]

**SPOILERS for the original series**

Oh god, this series. Okay, I adore Tsukushi. She's probably in the top 5 Manga Heroines With An Actual Goddamn Spine. But I peaced out when Domyoji sexually assaulted her (after physically assaulting another student and a teacher) and not only suffered precisely zero consequences for it, but subsequently wound up being set up to be Tsukushi's new love interest.

She'll be fine as long as she doesn't Make Him Angry, guys! Probably!

*gag*

Hopefully this series won't go there again, but I doubt the gender politics overall will be any better.

[sagrada]

That is some Mayu Shinjo shit right there. Jesus.