Ok, here is the deal, Hana Kimi happens to be one of my favorite jdramas, and as everyone, how can you not like Nakatsu and his whimsical flamboyant monologues. So I decided I would see what the taiwanese version was like, having heard rumours that it followed the story of the manga more. Now not being sure myself not having followed the manga I can not answer this but I can say that even though in general it is the same story it really isn't.

Each version focuses on different themes throughout the story, one of the strongest themes in the Japanese version I felt was this with the actually high jumping, this seems to be not so important in the Taiwanese version. I am not saying it is not important, but the "pure" love between Rui Xi and Yi Quan is a much stronger storyline.

Nakatsu's equivelent in the taiwanese version is a character that I feel deserves his own show, I mean I could never give up my "feelings" for Nakatsu but Xiu Yi played by Jiro Wang was an amazing addition to the series, and I feel at times saved the intense storyline and sometimes scary scenes with Ella. I feel kinda bad giving teh acting a 8 since there is such a great performance from Jiro Wang but there were certain things that didn't come across so well from other characters.

Overall this was an excellent series, and no doubt the story of "Hana Kimi" is still one of my favorite. There is no real way to say which one is better between Japanese and Taiwanese version, as they are essentially different sides to the same story. I like both versions for different reasons and suggest if you watch dramas for the stories and not just for the "hunks" as some people do I would recomment giving this a shot and seeing the different ways one story can be told.

*SPOILER ALERT* The next comments discuss the ending of the series if you do not want to know - DO NOT READ





I read some comments about this series on another forum and people were upset with the ending exclaiming that "I guess friendship is more important" but I get the feeling they did not understand the point that they were making. The ending is completely different from the Japanese version, and I see it is a happy ending they decide that they would rather love each other in secret so they can stay together, even though they each made this decision.

Ok so at times it is cheesy, predictable, uncanny, unwatchable due to embarrasment, and funny but as an overall it manages to light heartedly cover all the topics you would expect. There are serious obstacles and happenings aswell that only manage to bring the circle of friends closer. As with every jdrama the friendships are so strongand perfect, no matter what they will face they will manage to come out of it with an even stronger feeling towards each other. For lack of a better phrase "a proper feel good" series.