The Music

There are four Hana Yori Dango anime music CDs plus a few drama CDs. The drama CDs star Kimura Takuya from SMAP (how mind boggling!), but I have yet to get/listen to them! The music of Hana Yori Dango is unusual for an anime series, but I think it is outstanding and works wonderfully to set the proper dramatic mood. I admit to being a bit thrown off at first by the very upbeat opening song, 'An Ordinary Sunday', but soon the song became quite catchy, and I found myself singing it every episode :)

Opening Song:
'Futsuu no Nichiyoubi' ('Ordinary Sunday')

The opening animation features Tsukushi and the entire HYD cast in New York dancing like they are in some sort of musical production number. There is a 45 record of the HYD song playing, and each of the characters is featured. This opening animation may seem somewhat odd, considering that the series takes place in Japan, not New York =) However with the release of the HYD anime movie, TV series opening makes a little more sense (but not much, hehe ^_^)

Ending Songs

The first ending song, 'Kenka no ato de' ('After the Quarrel') is lovely as well! The ending animation features Tsukushi in a white dress standing in a cobblestone-type of area that is immersed in a few inches of water. She is holding the voice memo and seems to be lost in thought. She then begins to move, her dress rippling in the breeze. She walks towards a guy whose face is obscured by the mist, and isn't shown in the reflection in the water. (how frustrating :)

In episode 33 they introduced a new ending song and ending animation! It is very upbeat and cheerful! It is called "Todoku kana", and is by a group called CaYOCO. The new animation is of a beach scene. Tsukushi, sporting her new look, is running through the surf, the water above her ankles. As she runs, they repeatedly flash to a scene of the main HYD characters lying in a circle on the sand. Every few seconds one or two of the characters disappears until only Tsukushi and Doumyouji are left. More character pictures are shown, and finally Tsukushi stops running in the surf and she turns around. Doumyouji is standing there. The water sparkles. Very cool! Oh yeah, a meaningless bit of info that was noticed- at first when the new song is used, when it ends, the volume just gets really low as it drits away and you can hear the waves. Around episode 37 or so, the song just cuts off at the end, but you can still hear the waves. I wonder why they did this... Oh well :)

Hana Yori Dango CDs

Hana Yori Dango Single AYDM-118. This cd single contains "Futsuu no Nichiyoubi" ("An Ordinary Sunday", the opening song) and "Kenka no Atode" ("After the Quarrel", the first ending theme). Both songs are by Kikuta Tomohiko/TSUKASA.

Hana Yori Dango: Variations- "Hana-Dan" AYCM-546 There are 10 tracks, all of them BGM. This CD contains all of the beautiful music that so well emphasizes the action of the anime. Once I have all the track titles translated, I will list them here. I know that the cd includes Tsukushi's theme, Rui's theme, a variation of the main theme, etc. Basically, all the bgm -from the gentle romantic music that plays in episode 17, to the frightful dramatic music that plays in episode 10- is on this CD, not to mention Rui's Violin music! Click on the small image of the cover to see a larger picture of it. Here are some images from the cd booklet! [1] [2] [3] [4] [5]

Hana Yori Dango: Encore Piece from Tsukushi AYCM-583 This CD is the soundtrack to the animated Hana Yori Dango movie that was released this spring and it also has many tracks from the TV series that aren't on the 'Variations' CD. It has a total of 29 tracks, including both the TV length and full-length versions of the TV show's opening and first closing songs. Lots of great BGM from the TV series Yay! This is an excellent CD as well! *Oh, something I noticed! As of episode 38, they began to use new BGM in the series. Up until now it has been the same beautiful classical music. However with the introduction of the character of Shigeru, they introduced a whole new set of BGM that seems to play only when she is around. It is the saxaphone/jazzy type of music that is on this CD that I had first thought was only in the HYD anime movie. So now a lot of time in each episode is filled with the upbeat sax music. It is cool, but weird at first =) I miss the sweeping classical stuff :) This music seems to be used mainly when Shigeru is there. Hmm.

Hana Yori Dango CD Single: "Todoku kana" AYDM-134. This CD contains the second HYD ending theme that was first shown in the anime at episode 33. This is a very upbeat, happy song! I liked it as soon as I heard it =) The other song on this CD is called 'Saigo no Rabusongu', "Last Love Song". Both songs are by CaYOCO. Interestingly enough, CaYOCO also did the opening and ending songs for the Cyber Formula Saga GPX anime. Those songs have a very different feel to them, very techno, while their HYD ed song is not techno at all =)

Hana Yori Dango TV Drama Original Soundtrack JACA-5028 Here is the soundtrack for the Japanese TV drama version of HYD. It contains 16 tracks of background music from the series, including that piece at the beginning of episode 1 that sounds very... Harry Potter-ish to me ^_^ The opening theme 'WISH' and insert song, 'Planetarium' are not on this CD in their vocal versions. To get those you will need to purchase ARASHI's single for WISH (or their album ARASHIC) or purchase Otsuka Ai's single. This HYD OST is all BGM.

Hana Yori Dango TV Drama Opening Theme: WISH JACA-5026 This is ARASHI's CD single for the HYD opening song, Wish. There is a Limited Edition of the CD and a regular version, each with slightly different track listings. However both of them contain the full version of WISH. This is such a happy, cute song!

Hana Yori Dango 2 TV Drama Opening Theme: Love So Sweet JACA-5052 (Limited) JACA-5053 (Regular) ARASHI is back again with the opening single for the second season of the HYD J-drama! This is another upbeat, happy song. So adorable! As usual, the CD is released in Limited Press and Regular editions. The Limited Press version contains an extra song, whitle the regular version also contains the karaoke tracks.

Hana Yori Dango 2 TV Drama Original Soundtrack NQCL-2002, ¥2,500, Release date: February 28, 2007 Here is the Original Soundtrack for HYD series 2. Again, it is just background music tracks. If you want the vocal versions of the opening, get the 'Love So Sweet' single by ARASHI, or the 'Flavor of Life' single by Utada Hikaru. Hana Yori Dango 2 TV Drama Insert Theme: Flavor of Life, by Utada Hikaru TOCT-40095 And speaking of Utada Hikaru, here is her CD single for "Flavor of Life". The Ballad version, included on this CD, is used as the insert song in the HYD drama season 2.