Hana Kimi 2011 - You're Only Young Once- Drama Review

When I first heard the news that they were going to make another Hana Kimi drama, I was surprised and I didn't understand why did they had to remake it. I thought that the first version was just good enough. But I guess it's just never enough.

Both the old and new versions of this drama is pretty much similar to one another. The characters, story background music, and the settings were all the same. But they have rearranged some of the scenes and changed some of the story lines like for example, Mizuki enters the Ohsaka High School in the time where its going to close down in three months. Sano already learns that the Mizuki is a girl from the end of episode one, and Nakatsu confesses to Mizuki that he like her early in the story. Although, I have never read the manga, so I don't know if the Hana Kimi 2011 drama was closer to the original story than the 2007 drama.  

Tokuyam as Masao, Kiriyama as Nanba, and Mitsushima as Tennoji

In this remake, I thought that the supporting cast were much more interesting to watch than it was in the old version. In the old version, there were some episodes where they took a break from the main plot and just focused on the other extra characters, but it ends up being too boring. But in this new version, the side character stories were intertwined with the main plot, so it did not feel boring. I liked that there were some supporting character's personalities were not too over-the-top and it was toned down a little. The older version had so many over dramatic acting and ridiculous character moments, but it was still hilarious. In the new version, the actors still retained the character's personality without being too over dramatic. 

As for the three main cast Maeda Astuko, Nakamura Aoi, and  Miura Shohei, I thought they weren't that bad. Although, I still prefer the original cast from the 2007 drama. Ikuta Toma does an amazing job as Nakatsu in the 2007 drama. It's hard to forget about his memorable performance. I was worried that Miura would not be as fun to watch compared to Toma. But Miura acts the same way as Toma did, since in both version they are still the same character and have the same personality trait. So, I did enjoy Miura's performance as Nakastu.

Maeda and Nakamura as Mizuki and Sano, there is really not much to I can say about them. I thought that they did a decent job in their roles. But I still prefer Oguri Shun and Horikita Maki from the original version as those characters because nothing beats their performances.

At first, I really didn't like the these actors in the new version. But around episode 4, I think I finally got into the new Hana Kimi vibe. It took me a while to get used to the new portrayals of these actors as their characters. Overall, I thought it wasn't that bad, although I did not enjoyed as much as I did with the original version. I think I'm getting a little tired and bored with this story. I mean, watching it once from the original drama version was enough for me. I know that the TV ratings for this show is pretty low and I'm assuming that this show did not meet everyone's expectations. I'm guessing that it's too soon to be making a remake when the older version just came out four years ago. The older version is still fresh in my mind, so its hard not to forget about it and compare it to this remake.