"Hana Nochi Hare" is a sequel to my favorite drama, "Hana Yori Dango" (2005). It is also based on the manga, "Boys Over Flowers Season 2", which I've been avidly reading since its beginning. Though I know most of the people who watched "Hana Nochi Hare" probably aren't familiar with the manga, please bear with me. The drama takes very few liberties with the story. The biggest change was probably taking the story from three years after F4's graduation to ten. "Hana Nochi Hare" surprisingly managed to respect both the manga and its parent drama.

Hana Sugisaki and Taishi Nakagawa as Oto and Tenma were brilliant together. I'm convinced Taishi only took the second male lead in order to work with Hana again. Sho Hirano was charming as the male lead Haruto, though his acting was a little on the weaker side. The supporting cast were also fun and did a reasonably well job. I was a bit conflicted about the "friend group" thing between Oto, Konno, Airi, and Megumi as this does not happen in the manga. It felt a bit unrealistic to be honest, especially for Megumi.

The highlight of the series were the cameos [I cried when Tsukasa (Jun Matsumoto) appeared]! I was a little disappointed by the ending. They are obviously hoping for a second season since it only covers seven volumes of the manga. "Hana Nochi Hare", while not as good as "Hana Yori Dango", will hopefully delight old and new fans.