Observations on the Winter 2015 season, about a month too late. Oop! (more…)
Tag: j-dramas
-
Day 30: Favorite Drama
And with this post, this blog challenge is finally complete! Hopefully I was able to introduce you to some dramas you’ve never heard about! And trust me, there’s actually a lot more where that came from. You can find the rest of the posts in this series through this tag here. Master list coming soon… (maybe). Thank you for following along!I don’t have a favorite! Seriously, I don’t have one. This is the most difficult subject for me to rank because out of the handful (LOL) that I’ve watched, I have more than twenty as my top ranking. It’s a bit of a cop out, but if you pressed me I could probably pick one. The problem is that I wouldn’t want it to be indicative of my taste in dramas (I promise I’m not into destroying my heart/mind/soul with these heartrending shows), and that’s where I run the slippery slope of naming different dramas that I love for so many different reasons.
For example, I love “Hero” because it was the drama that set the bar (haha) for what a GOOD drama could be like, and it was a total game changer. I love “Mother” because it was the first emotional and character based drama I ever took a chance on, “Keizoku 2: SPEC” for the high concept and theories that had everyone talking, “JIN” for marking a change in the types of dramas I watched (hint, I got pickier), and “49 Days” for being the first edge-of-your-seat and hardcore melo I’ve ever witness. Or I’m just indecisive.
I’ve already talked about quite a few favorites of mine in this blog challenge, but I will talk another one that I love for being another “first”. (more…)
-
Day 29: Favorite Ending
I’ve never watched an ending I’ve completely loved, and I’m usually left feeling like there was something missing or could have been left out to avoid ruining an otherwise flawless run.
Maruyama Ryuhei was one of those Johnny’s I didn’t know I liked until I watched Strawberry Night and finally, “Boys on the Run” (TV Asahi / 2012). The latter was a drama I tacked onto my year-end to-watch list, and I actually got really into it! The ending was surprisingly sweet for how much Toshiyuki had been crapped on by people over the course of the drama. Even better was that everything was resolved, and that’s something that a lot of dramas can’t do — nicely or not.
. . .
(More) Reasons to Watch: I think Maruyama Ryuhei is an adorable goofnugget, and I loved him Nakuna Hara-chan. He’s also leading this year’s Jigoku Sensei Nube, which looks ridiculous. Not sure if good or bad, but it’ll probably be right up his alley.
Honorable Mention: “49 Days” (SBS / 2011), “Vampire Prosecutor” (OCN / 2011), and “Loss Time Life” (Fuji TV / 2008). It’s an omnibus drama, but the last episode was the perfect send off for the series.
-
Day 27: Favorite Comedy
If you’re following along with this blog challenge, then I hope you’ve made good and watched my suggestion for Best Concept! If you have, then rejoice in the fact that the director of that series came back this year with “Aoi Honoo” (TV Tokyo / 2014), which is a love song for anyone who has ever watched and enjoyed anime or manga classics, and anything retro.
I’ve had a lot of free time lately, so I went ahead and finished Aoi Honoo, which has been floating around in “currently watching” purgatory for the past few months. Aside from the history lesson in learning about GAINAX before they were GAINAX, Aoi Honoo provides the lolz. I wasn’t sure I was going to like it because it was hella slapstick and Honoo Moyuru (Yuya Yagira) did so. much. screaming, but midway through it became very difficult for me to hide my laughter. (more…)
-
Day 21: Favorite Title Sequence
Naturally the show with the best concept would have one of the best openers! (more…)
-
Day 20: Favorite Song from a Drama
AHHH MEMORIES. There’s a nice mixture of oldies (songs from the mid-90s!) and goodies here. Some of them I love because of the memory associated with it (“Symphony No. 7”, “Touch Love”), and others were just legitimately good ass songs (see: “beautiful”, “괜찮아 사랑이야”)… not to say they weren’t all great songs, though. I actually didn’t watch the drama “青春” came from but it came from a drama so it counts!
You can listen to the songs here. Songs will be up until Day 25.
-
Day 19: Favorite “Feel Good” Drama
GYABOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO~
There’s not a single show on this earth that makes me as happy as “Nodame Cantabile” (Fuji TV / 2006). This is one of those lucky dramas that strikes gold; not only did it make a seemingly dull topic (classical music, bleh) fun, but it filled it with heart and did so with one of the best ensemble casts in any drama. I could say a lot about Nodame Cantabile, but the moment that made me happiest from this show was the S-Oke v. A-Oke arc! Their performance had me feeling like…
Cello spins, violin lifts, S-Oke shirts and ALL. -
Day 18: Favorite Character II
Sometimes the protagonists in female-lead dramas are hapless and lacking in some quality, usually having to do with their inability to attract males. Even if you have a female lead in a drama, I bet you there will be constant insults angled at her lack of a love life. In “BOSS” (Fuji TV / 2009), not so much (thank goodness). We got the fakeout with rumors that she lost her job and had to move to America because of a man, but it was much more serious than just romantic entanglements.
This is a perfect example of a typical detective/cop show. A new team is assembled for a specific reason: an outcast leader, a group of misfits, with odds all against them. As typical as the formula was, Osawa Eriko was the character to win me over. (more…)
-
Day 17: Favorite Mystery Drama
This post brought to you by the fact that Oguri Shun is now a dad! Yay, babies!
Ghost-Seeing Detective Cheo Yong (obvious title is obvious) was a show that I’d been wanting to watch for quite some time. When I did finally watch an episode, it sucked, so I felt like I had to find a replacement. That’s where “BORDER” (TV Asahi / 2014) came in. The premise is similar, with Oguri Shun as an added bonus. Instead of being born with the ability to see the dead, Ishikawa Ango was shot in the head (!) and is able to see/talk to them as a result of having left that bullet in his brain. (more…)
-
Day 16: An Underrated Drama
Set in the sleepy city of Nara, “Shikaotoko Aoniyoshi” (Fuji TV / 2008) is a drama about a couple key things:
- A talking deer.
- A talking deer who tasks a human (“deliverer”) with completing a sacred rite in order prevent the destruction of Japan.
- (Japan’s destruction is also being expedited by a giant catfish casually resting among some tectonic plates, causing a ton of earthquakes. Or in a fault. I’m not a geologist!)
- In order to complete the sacred rite, the deliverer must find the “Eye”, and that’s how our story begins..
It sounds super cray on paper: a talking deer is asking you to save your country and it’s like, “bruh, I JUST moved here!”
What’s nice about it is that it could have been so much worse, but it actually ended up being better than average as an overall drama. What’s nice about is that not only was a very deft and tightly-wound “mystery”, it could have been that much worse, especially with the concept. And it wasn’t! Shikaotoko Aoniyoshi is very (read: very) slow paced, but not a single episode goes to waste in telling the story of
Chiaki-senpaiour hero trying to unravel these mysterious happenings around him. And despite the inherent crazy, the slow pace and whimsy is what keeps it down to earth. Somehow!P.S. There are more talking animals.
Honorable Mention: King of Dramas (SBS / 2012). Hella meta drama about dramas with an awesome lead character.