Actually, the whole smiley thingie was one of the aspects I really liked about Jun's portrayal. His Dounmyoji REALLY deviates from the text (seriously folks, would the *real* Dounmoyji wear pink fur? hellz no! ), but I liked how his sad-clown / monster characterization matched Makino's relationship with the school, high class world.Frankly spoken it gives me the creeps when the drama Doumyouji silliliy laughs or grins in some scenes (for example in the zoo when he doesn't get the name of that animal right). It makes him look too stupid, I'm feeling embarrassed in his place!!
Oddly enough, my first impression of Dounmyoji was that, he was somehow a Japanese appropriate of the ultra hot-blooded K-drama male lead. In fact, I initially approahced HYD manga as a sort of "poor girl / rich boy" K-drama on paper.
Nah, I have to disagree there, because in the drama, the triangle eats up about 6-7 episodes of the show.I also disagree as for the love triangle. I think it was a much bigger deal in the manga than in the drama, and I also maintain that even towards the end of the series a lot of readers still had hopes for
Yeah, I kinda wince at the Gokusen=GTO Lite cliche, because what made the original Gokusen (shoujo?) hilarious was its yakuza humor. The TV adaptation was when it really became a GTO-esque show.Btw, I think you should say it the other way around: GTO is a shounen version of Hanadan (although I don't think so at all! I'd rather compare GTO to Gokusen) since Hanadan is at least 5 years older.
When I started watching the Hanadan anime, I actually thought a lot of GTO. The whole "poor girl in rich school" storyline isn't new; but Kamio really ran with the concept.