After watching 4 episodes of Hana Yori Dango (Japanese drama version), I am forced to conclude that it is actually two entirely different shows mashed together. One of them is absolutely hysterically funny and charming! The other is INTENSELY DISTURBING AND INFURIATING.

There is so much OH MY GOD JUST WHY WOULD YOU EVER in such a short space I can't even -

Okay so, let's have the Designated Love Interest be the kind of scummy asshole that would actually try to get the heroine gang raped to run her out of the school! Then, later, when he has started to actually act like something akin to a human being, let's have her friend backstab her and get a random guy at a club to slip her a roofie and take half-naked pictures of her next to him, and then spread them around the school! And then, to top it off, let's have Designated Love Interest not believe her when she tries to tell him that this wasn't her doing and decide she must be a cheating bitch (nevermind the fact that she has never agreed to go out with him in the first place)! This sounds great, right?!

NO. No, this sounds perfectly AWFUL, what were you THINKING.

It's all the more upsetting because when the show is funny and charming, it's really funny and charming. And then they just keep throwing all this jarringly awful sexist bullshit in there. Am I seriously supposed to be rooting for this couple? SERIOUSLY???

I am told that the manga for this is just as awful, which, considering that it is supposedly the best selling shoujo manga of all time, disturbs me on so many levels I can't even begin to enumerate them.