Winter
Mahoro Ekimae Bangaichi
Nakuna, Hara-chan
Shotenin Michiru no Mi no Uebanashi
Saikou no Rikon
Sharehouse no Koibito
Spring
Cheap Flight
Doubles ~Futari no Keiji~
Last Cinderella
Soratobu Kouhoushitsu
Nine: Nine Times Travels
Summer
Double Tone
I Hear Your Voice
Yamada-kun to 7-nin no Majo
Master’s Sun
Two Weeks
Autumn
Ando Lloyd
Glass no Ie
Hana no Kusari
Medical Top Team
Koi
Miss Korea
Realizing now that I never got the opportunity to talk about some of the dramas I watched last year, but I think doing one of these towards the end of the next year is perfect timing. HAH.
It wasn’t the strongest of years, even though I still managed to watch a total of 21 new dramas (including two specials). This list is a little misleading because I also watched 7 older dramas, most of them Korean. Shock! Even though I was familiar with watching them, they’d never grabbed me to consistently watch season after season. Then I watched “Vampire Prosecutor” after a recommendation and it ruined my life. IT WAS SO GOOD. (cries) The nice thing about Korean dramas is that they’re easily accessible, so I watched the majority of my earlier ones on Netflix.
Anyway, notes on what I watched last year:
- “Koi” was a forgotten nugget of crazy. It’s the early-1970s. A professor, his wife, and an apprentice stay at a villa in the summertime. What could possibly go wrong? Spoiler: EVERYTHING! This show was suuuuuuch a mess, and that powered me through every minute of it, because lord knows it wasn’t for Arata or Takumi Saito. Why must you always play shady dudes?
- “Miss Korea” disappointed me for a lot of reasons. I know that it was set during the 1997 IMF Crisis and supposedly very realistic, but it was still so dreary and uninspiring. It was hard to watch our main characters struggle to get through the cards that life dealt them week by week. Even when Oh Ji Young became Miss Korea (was there ever any doubt?), it didn’t really feel like an accomplishment. I just remember watching it and thinking, “it’s still not over?” The only bright spot was Oh Jung-se, who’s been quietly endearing himself to everyone these days.
- Battle of the ingenues! Aragaki Yui’s “Soratobu Kouhoushitsu” was actually quite fun to watch for reasons that I don’t quite understand. Also watched Toda Erika’s “Shotenin Michiru no Mi no Uebanashi“, which I can’t believe lasted for 10 episodes. The episodes were very short (~30 mins), so it might have contributed to how short it felt. Not remarkable, but I liked it.