Fan Art: Boys Over Flowers

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After reading this comic by Humon ([link]), I notice the dynamics of the relationship between Estonia and the Nordic Boys reminds me of the popular Japanese manga "Hana Yori Dango" ("Boys Over Flowers").

I can imagine Estonia relating herself to the main female character, Tsukushi, a plucky scholar who was poor but resourceful and moving up academically to be part of an elite school--like the way Estonia achieved significant economic progress (especially prior to the crisis of 2008) and entered into the European Union. The Nordic countries are considered among the wealthiest in the world, parallel to the fact that the "Flower Four" or "F4" of this manga belong to the wealthiest families. The response of fans to the main characters of Humon's "Scandinavia & the World" comic strip is almost like the way people respond to the F4 (characters in the manga, and fans in real life).

One might wonder why I excluded Iceland--well, I wanted to be a bit more faithful to the manga so they are not F5, but F4. And because of the 2008 crisis, Iceland is no longer considered wealthy, so it's easy to remove him from the club.

One can imagine Estonia begging and pleading Sister Japan to draw a manga fulfilling her fantasy becoming part of the Nordic group, and Sister Japan obliged by coming up with this manga, going a bit mainstream from her usual yaoi proclivities.

But one thing is for certain: there is no way the SATW characters will end up like the way the manga did--if we follow the manga, there will be a love triangle between Sweden, Estonia, and Finland, with Estonia ending up with Sweden. We all know Finland's heart (and loins and butt) belongs to Sister Sweden, and Sweden's heart (and loins, and maybe butt, but I think Sweden is more of a top) beats for Aland.

The manga is actually more popular because of its live action TV adaptations that were aired all throughout Asia. There were four versions aired so far: Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, and Mainland China.

The Taiwanese version, known as "Meteor Garden", was arguably the most popular--its four actors actually formed a boyband known as, yes, F4 (though when Japan was creating its own TV adaptation, they requested that the group change its name but apparently that didn't really follow through even as they were temporarily identified as JVKV). The boyband have actually garnered major hits all throughout Southeast Asia. The Japanese and Korean versions have also been broadcast in my country.

Character Credits:
Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, and Sister Japan copyright by Humon
Hana Yori Dango title and logo copyright by Yoko Kamio


By: josephvitug 8th July 2011