• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Let's talk about Japanese Dramas!

Status
Not open for further replies.

Akito

Member
iOFbuz44dCBAr.jpg

I finished Biblia Koshodou no Jiken Techou yesterday and can recommend it to everyone who enjoys (light) detective stories, even though the MC can be your typical reasoning god at times but often as not you can come to the right conclusion by yourself before it get officially revealed. And if not, the mysteries will get broken down in a coherent way. The cases also get more interesting along the way and there's even something like overarching storyline. I like most of the characters especially Shioriko (she's just too cute) and the hilarious store manager. I could definitely have done without Gora's constant "Eh?!" remarks.
 

Bodacious

Banned
My wife's japanese, so I've watched the majority of the dramas mentioned here so far. Here's a few more I'd strongly recommend (sorry if any were mentioned and I missed them):

Tiger and Dragon

Kisarazu Cat's Eye

Jikou Keisatsu (mystery solving farce, w. Odagiri Joe)

Atami no Sousakan (like a Japanese Twin Peaks, w. Odagiri Joe)

Saka no Ue no Kumo (historical drama about Russo-Japanese war. Fantastic.)

Trick (if you like Nakama Yukie, this is a must)

Keizoku (old one, but great)

Keizoku 2 : SPEC (more recent, w. Erika Toda)




Watching one right now with Erika Toda called, "Shoten in Michiru no Mi no Uebanashi" ... i.e. The Life Story of Bookstore Clerk Michiru. Pretty interesting so far, and her most 'adult' character yet.
 

Kurita

Member
Almost done with Biblia Koshodou no Jiken Techou, just watched episode 8.
I agree with everything you said actually. Shioriko is ridiculously cute, damn. Gora is still likeable despite his never-ending "Eh" "What" :lol
I also love the scenes in the bookshop, they really look good, love that yellow-ish filter.
Overall, all the characters are cool, the mysteries aren't too far fetched. It's not the most exciting show ever but still enjoyable.
 

Slayven

Member
Can't stop watching Galileo, one of the best detective drama out there.
Almost done with it, I have like 3 episodes + the SP to watch. Can't wait for the 2nd season.
Best montage music ever. The last case was crazy but that's jdrama.
 

Fuzz Rez

Banned
Really can't go wrong with anything that has this guy in it

feature_abe_hiroshi.jpg
Not long ago I thought the same but I have to say I didn't care much of his early 00s work. He was great as always but the shows were nothing special. I did watch first episode of Trick and it seemed interesting and I'll be watching rest of for sure.
 

Ryuukan

Member
Just finished Nobunaga no Chef

I wasn't expecting much from a period piece like this but wow, so entertaining. I love food dramas and that Nobunaga swag was off the charts.
 

dokish

Banned
Where is Sekai no Chuushin de Ai Wo Sakebu?

The saddest drama I ever seen. :'(


1126941164.jpg


Sekai-no-Chuushin-de-Ai-wo-Sakebu-2004-Japanese.jpg


Also, the first season of Gokusen is pretty awesome. Yukie Nakama is sooo beautiful. Don't bother with the other seasons.

Also, the old GTO is a must see... Hmm... and Ichi Rittoru no Namida.

gokusen.jpg
 

Kurita

Member
Just finished Nobunaga no Chef

I wasn't expecting much from a period piece like this but wow, so entertaining. I love food dramas and that Nobunaga swag was off the charts.
Ah, I'm currently watching it, I really like it too.
I'm also reading the manga. There are some noticeable differences that make both versions worth experiencing.
 
Almost through Liar Game.

I don't understand how round 3 works. Even went to the wiki to see if I understood it correctly. The wiki says:

* If an inspector calls "doubt" and it exceeds or equals the amount in the case then the inspector will take the money for their country.

* If the inspector calls doubt and it is less than the money in the case then the smuggler will get all the money in the case, plus an idemnity amount, added to their amount in the "Third Country".

So...if the inspector is allowed to go over...why would he ever say anything other than 100 million after calling doubt?
 
Because if it's empty you have to pay half (was it half?) the amount you "doubted".

Right, right. Forgot about that part. Lowballing with the number after you're already decided to call doubt still seems like a completely unnecessary risk to me.

...

Season 2 any good? Although I haven't seen how 1 ends yet, having another season already doesn't seem necessary.
 

Kurita

Member
Right, right. Forgot about that part. Lowballing with the number after you're already decided to call doubt still seems like a completely unnecessary risk to me.

...

Season 2 any good? Although I haven't seen how 1 ends yet, another season doesn't seem particularly necessary.

I thought season 2 was actually better. I wouldn't say it was necessary but since the manga is still running I guess they wanted to adapt more stuff.
 
Finished Freeter and while it started out great, I slowly lost interest in it. Still a good drama though. Now I'm watching "Late Blooming Sunflower" and this seems like a really good show at the moment. I've seen two episodes and I'm really into it.
 

Kurita

Member
Finished Biblia Koshodou no Jiken Techou. That was a pretty decent show.
I'll miss Gouriki Ayame's cute face, such a beautiful girl...
 

Ryuukan

Member
GTO Graduation SP was great, please end the series there and don't beat it to death like Gokusen. (Unless they want to do a post grad vacation trip SP with the same class)

Finally watched My Boss My Hero this weekend, I was all hanya? as to why I never watched it in the past.
 

Kurita

Member
Finished Galileo this morning.
The finale was... weird with that bomb thing. Can't wait for the second season though.

Also, we were talking about Ayame's cute face, but I think I'm slowly falling in love with Maki Yoko in Saikou No Rikon.

She's so damn charming.
 

survivor

Banned
I watched the first 4 episodes of Biblia Koshodou no Jiken Techou and it's pretty enjoyable. Sure the pacing is bad since most of these mysteries don't need 45 mins to go through them, the acting is corny as you would expect from a j-drama and the writing been iffy at times, but I am a sucker for these light mysteries type of stories. Sure it's not as good as Hyouka and the way they try to make book of the episode feel so important to the guest characters does get silly sometimes, but it's enjoyable as hell with a fun cast of characters.

Oh yeah, the OST is godly. It does get too distracting sometimes and inappropriate at some scenes, but I just love it, especially whenever the main characters get their epiphany for the episode. Is there a list of songs or anywhere to know more about it? In particular I wanna know the name of the song that generally plays in the last 5 mins in every episode so far.

I also watched first two episodes of Mother. It has its moments, but I don't like the direction of the show so far. I hope the MC settles down and focuses on raising the kid instead of being on the run.
 

ZoddGutts

Member
Finished Galileo this morning.
The finale was... weird with that bomb thing. Can't wait for the second season though.

Watch the movie for Galileo if you can, it's pretty good.

Anyways another series that I enjoyed was Kisarazu Cat's Eye, very fun series. The Director/Writer for that series had worked on Ikebukuro West Gate Park and Tiger & Dragon, if you enjoyed those series than it's very likely you'll enjoy Kisarazu Cat's Eye too. He also worked on Unubore Deka which Nagase Tomoya started, lots of funny moments as well.
 

survivor

Banned
Well the OST is available here : http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=RZCD-59260
Hard to find the songs on youtube and whatnot though.

Is the song you're talking about the one with the high-pitched voices and stuff? The instrumental part is great, but I have to say that I was like "WTF?" when I first heard it :lol

Yeah, the one that starts with a high pitch voice. Felt it was completely out of place given the settings, but it grew on me a lot.
 
Finished Galileo this morning.
The finale was... weird with that bomb thing. Can't wait for the second season though.

Also, we were talking about Ayame's cute face, but I think I'm slowly falling in love with Maki Yoko in Saikou No Rikon.


She's so damn charming.
She's in Late Blooming Sunflower! No wonder she looked so familiar. I was about to watch that drama but it was either that, or Sunflower. I chose that latter and I'm glad I went with it. I just finished it and I really loved it. Loved seeing Japan's country side as I'm more interested in that. All the characters were great, especially Jotaro and Kahori.
Jotaro: 「Ah, it's me, me. あっ おっ 俺 俺。」
Kahori:「Who's me, me? 俺 俺って誰?」
That little piece will probably stick with me for a while thanks to the way the two characters say it.

Great, when you finish a great drama, the hard part is looking for another good one. Perhaps I should change the genre up this time.
 

KuroNeeko

Member
Watch the movie for Galileo if you can, it's pretty good.

Anyways another series that I enjoyed was Kisarazu Cat's Eye, very fun series. The Director/Writer for that series had worked on Ikebukuro West Gate Park and Tiger & Dragon, if you enjoyed those series than it's very likely you'll enjoy Kisarazu Cat's Eye too. He also worked on Unubore Deka which Nagase Tomoya started, lots of funny moments as well.

Kisarazu is a fun drama, but I found the premise of the story (lead character has cancer and only 6 months left to live) too depressing to really get into it. :/ I'll go back and watch all of it one day. ;.;


Meitantei no Okite



The lead character knows he is in a crappy procedural series, but he can break the 4th wall to call the show out and solve the mysteries.

The book is the same way. The characters go out of their way to talk crap about the author and the ridiculousness of the situations they're put in. It's a fun book.

An interesting note is that the dazzling Kashii Yuu <3, the lead female in the TV series, isn't in the novel at all. She's a whole new addition (lucky us.)

 

Kurita

Member
She's in Late Blooming Sunflower! No wonder she looked so familiar. I was about to watch that drama but it was either that, or Sunflower. I chose that latter and I'm glad I went with it. I just finished it and I really loved it. Loved seeing Japan's country side as I'm more interested in that. All the characters were great, especially Jotaro and Kahori.
Jotaro: &#12300;Ah, it's me, me. &#12354;&#12387; &#12362;&#12387; &#20474; &#20474;&#65377;&#12301;
Kahori:&#12300;Who's me, me? &#20474; &#20474;&#12387;&#12390;&#35504;&#65311;&#12301;
That little piece will probably stick with me for a while thanks to the way the two characters say it.

I started it a few days ago actually. I'm 3 episodes in and so far it's really good.
The setting is pretty cool, loved that scene with the kayak.
 
Saki, starring Nakama Yukie, was pretty deranged. In a good way.

She got married/had kids and quit basically. That's pretty much alright with me, since Hermes was kind of the summit and there was nowhere left to go.

Noooooo! No wonder I've missed seeing her in shows.

Also, we were talking about Ayame's cute face, but I think I'm slowly falling in love with Maki Yoko in Saikou No Rikon.

She's so damn charming.

Yes! I just watched Saikou no Rikon with the wife.
 

Hachimaki

Member
Was flipping through the channels and managed to catch the last half hour of Kazoku Game.

I'm not big into Japanese dramas, but this one seemed kinda interesting. It has Sakurai Sho playing the lead character though unfortunately my Japanese isn't that great so I kinda get the jist of what's going on.
 

Hachimaki

Member
If you're into romantic comedies then Last Cinderella is a new drama that started this month. Only two episodes so far. It's silly and quirky, but I'm enjoying it.
 

LordCanti

Member
If we're talking about Spring dramas, the second season of Galileo could be the most popular. The first episode got the highest viewership rating of the season so far.

There's a season two of Galileo? Thanks.

I need to check all of the shows I've watched for specials soon. I could have done without the Rich Man Poor Woman special, but I'm sure there's others that I've missed.
 

Ryuukan

Member
Finally watched Dragonzakura, it was ok, nothing special really.

I started Smile, 2 eps in. Show is really bad so far. I hate how it keeps jumping around in time. Not sure if I'm going to finish it.
 

maomaoIYP

Member
Very nice op Kurita!
Where did you look up these award thingies? I wanna look up so jdorama as well.

To contribute, I really enjoyed Yamato Nadeshiko from way back.
7417poster_image_820_1_5.jpg


I'm quoting myself because I just finished rewatching this, the last time I did was over a decade ago.
Although this was filmed in the year 2000, it still holds up extremely well. It's still an incredible watch, with Matsushima Nanako in her prime. Lots of love, laughter and drama to be had. Anyone who's into jdorama is doing himself a disservice by not watching this classic.
 

Ryuukan

Member
Finished Papa to Musume no Nanokakan, show was hilarious.
About a father and daughter that switch bodies after an accident, very entertaining and has a rare good ending for a jdrama.
Also, Aragaki Yui so cute.
 
whats the hottest jdrama right now?
FbQddRf.jpg

Amachan seems to be really popular. It airs Monday-Saturdays and each episode is only 15 minutes long. I've seen two episodes of it so far, and it's pretty good. Loving the setting and the main character. I laughed at some scenes here and there. Check it out.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom