My Asadora History

• Aired: Apr 4, 1983
• Completed: Jul 18, 2023

Review. Rating: 4/Disliked it.

• Aired: Apr 1, 1985
• Completed: Aug 4, 2025

Review. Rating: 8/Good.

• Aired: Oct 3, 1988
• Completed: Sep 21, 2025

Review. Rating: 7/Liked it.

• Aired: Oct 7, 1996
• Completed: Sep 17, 2025

Review. Rating: 8/Good.

• Aired: Oct 4, 1999
• Completed: Dec 25, 2025

I'd have enjoyed this more if the female lead wasn't a constant victim of child abuse and domestic violence by her father, a horrible man who thought he could resolve everything with his fists. It was so distracting and made me so angry that I couldn't focus on the main story and thought it was all very uninteresting. Takeuchi Yuko was a wonderful actress though, one of the few things I liked, and I hope she is in peace wherever she is. Rating: 5/Uninteresting.

• Aired: Apr 2, 2001
• Completed: Aug 10, 2025

Review. Rating: 7/Liked it.

• Aired: Apr 1, 2002
• Completed: Sep 18, 2025

Review. Rating: 8/Good.

• Aired: Oct 3, 2005
• Completed: Dec 31, 2025

Not much to say considering I was bored from beginning to end. Rating: 5/Uninteresting.

• Aired: Apr 3, 2006
• Completed: Aug 11, 2025

Review. Rating: 6/Fine.

• Aired: Apr 2, 2007
• Completed: Sep 20, 2025

A good story of self-realization, it's always nice to see a woman come to the conclusion that she should accomplish things for herself and not for a man. I'd have given it an 8, but once Ayaka's storyline wrapped up, the whole thing sorta slowed down to me. Rating: 7/Liked it.

• Aired: Oct 1, 2007 
• Completed: Sep 14, 2024

An infuriating and pathetic female lead meets an equally infuriating and pathetic male lead, creating an unbelievably lackluster romance that only matured way past episode 100. Tiresome and annoying, really the only aspect of the story I liked was that I learned what rakugo was thanks to it, and of course, as an asadora, the fact that it challenged the male dominated area of the art. Rating: 3/Bad.

• Aired: Mar 31, 2008
• Completed: Dec 27, 2025

The stories revolving the foster children were interesting, but the dancing part was giving that white lady teaching hip hop. Rating: 6/Fine.

• Aired: Sep 29, 2008
• Completed: Dec 30, 2025

The beginning with the sort of Parent Trap type of story was so interesting that I was confused why the average rating is so low, and then from the moment the musical/band plot starts I got why. Uninspiring, messy and boring, those are the words I'd use to describe this asadora. Rating: 5/Uninteresting.

• Aired: Mar 30, 2009
• Completed: Dec 30, 2025

The slapstick comedy of 2000s Japan just doesn't work in asadoras for me. This was too ridiculous, too random, and as a Brazilian woman too stereotypical and over the top. Rating: 1/Hated.

• Aired: Sep 28, 2009
• Completed: Nov 16, 2025

A story as boring as its protagonist. Rating: 5/Uninteresting.

• Aired: Mar 29, 2010
• Completed: Dec 27, 2025

How can I enjoy a story with such a weak ML? THe whole relationship started wrong with him not being honest about his financial situation, and continued to be a mess with him not caring for the FL as she deserved. Rating: 6/Fine.

• Aired: Sep 27, 2010
• Completed: Dec 31, 2025

Deeply boring. Rating: 5/Uninteresting.

• Aired: Apr 4, 2011
• Completed: Unknown

My first asadora, sadly I don't remember when I finished or really anything about it to write a review because it's been so long since I watched it. Rating: 7/Liked it.

• Aired: Oct 3, 2011
• Completed: Dec 25, 2025

It started out really well, but I lost interest around the post-WWII plot. Rating: 6/Fine.

• Aired: Apr 2, 2012
• Completed: Dec 30, 2025

This had all the ingredients that I love, yet I was never drawn to it. Rating: 6/Fine.

• Aired: Apr 1, 2013
• Completed: Aug 18, 2024

I understand that trying different things is part of the coming of age story, because it all goes back to figuring out who you are and what life path you want to follow, but that didn't change the fact that I was very frustrated with the female lead's constant change of plans, which the asadora was very much aware of, since her mother pointed it out.

All in all, I have to disagree with Oricon, I don't think Aki is the best Asadora heroine. If you ask me, we should take Aki from the Top 10 and put Kaworu from Mio Tsukushi in her place. Rating: 6/Fine.

• Aired: Sep 30, 2013
• Completed: Unknown

Watched it such a long time ago that I don't quite remember the story. I do remember enjoying the lead couple, though, and thinking it was lovely that they got married in real life, so it's a shame that Masahiro didn't stay true to his vows and harmed not only Anne, but their children too. Rating: 8/Good.

• Aired: Mar 31, 2014
• Completed: Unknown

As a massive fan of Anne of Green Gables (my username "annestofannes" is a quote from the books), I thought I was going to love this more, but it was quite average. Rating: 6/Fine.

• Aired: Sep 29, 2014
• Completed: Unknown

A slow start and a strong ending. As a biracial Afro-Latina it was lovely to see an interracial relationship being portrayed with so much care, and I quite appreciate the casting of the FL, usually non-Asian actors in dramas are terrible, but Charlotte did a wonderful job as the focus point of the story. Rating: 7/Liked it.

• Aired: Mar 30, 2015
• Completed: Unknown

Tao and Kento were born to play husband and wife on screen, it's their fate and I hope they keep blessing us with their chemistry. Rating: 9/Great.

• Aired: Sep 28, 2015
• Completed: Unknown

A great drama about an amazing and tenacious woman, where it fails is with the romance. Despite the female lead only getting married once she comes of age, the fact that she was engaged to the male lead since childhood made for an uncomfortable start that never changed because of how much of a disrespectful bum he was. Add that to the lack of chemistry between the actors, and there was nothing to root for except for the female lead to get a divorce. Rating: 8/Good.

• Aired: Apr 4, 2016
• Completed: Jun 13, 2022

TW: Rising Sun Flag

I admit that the lack of romance is what made this an unenjoyable watch, so it's more about my own preferences as a viewer than the actual drama. Rating: 6/Fine.

• Aired: Oct 3, 2016
• Completed: Aug 10, 2025

My interest in the story diminished after the male lead was physically violent with the female lead, and never picked up again because I was uninterested by the plots involving their daughter as a teen and as an adult. Rating: 6/Fine.

• Aired: Apr 3, 2017
• Completed: Apr 29, 2022

The highlight of the story was the mystery surrounding the female lead's father, but the resolution wasn't all that interesting. Rating: 7/Liked it.

• Aired: Apr 2, 2018
• Completed: Jun 15, 2022

The lead couple ruined this drama, there was no chemistry and the romance was poorly written. And I do like Satoh Takeru, but he can't portray teenagers anymore, he is not one of those adults who look youthful enough to pass as a high schooler, that in itself, combined with the age gap between him and Nagano Mei, took the fantasy out of the story for me. Rating: 3/Bad.

• Aired: Oct 1, 2018
• Completed: Dec 31, 2025

Couldn't stand the ML and his so-called "putting my family first", to be honest a lot of his actions seemed selfish to me.  Rating: 6/Fine.

• Aired: Mar 25, 2019
• Completed: Apr 29, 2022

Cute, but unnecessary. Rating: 6/Fine.

• Aired: Apr 1, 2019
• Completed: Dec 13, 2023

It felt like the romance was very rushed, both the lead couple and the female lead's little sister's marriage happened in such a sudden way, and while I enjoyed them, especially the lead couple, I can't help but think how much more I'd have liked them if they had taken their time to establish these relationships. Rating: 7/Liked it.

• Aired: Mar 30, 2020
• Completed: May 29, 2025

The beginning was very compelling, my rating was an 8 as I loved the romantic storyline between the leads, but somehow it all lost its spark once they were together, which is the complete opposite of what I felt watching Okaeri Mone, Mare and Gochisosan, which only got better as the relationships got serious. Still, a pretty nice asadora. Rating: 6/Fine.

• Aired: Nov 30, 2020
• Completed: Oct 23, 2025

Started out very interesting, but somehow the theater aspect of the story lost me. Rating: 6/Fine.

• Aired: May 17, 2021
• Completed: Feb 2, 2022

I know and understand that the entire point of the drama was to show how distance could not destroy the lead couple's relationship, but when the chemistry is this good, the lack of more romance becomes an issue to me. For that alone, this drama gets a 9 and not a 10 because otherwise I was obsessed with it. Rating: Great.

• Aired: Oct 3, 2022
• Completed: Oct 24, 2025

There was a very short period of time where this story was interesting, and my rating was an 8, too bad it didn't last long and it didn't go anywhere. Rating: 5/Uninteresting.

• Aired: Apr 1, 2024
• Completed: Nov 24, 2025

As someone who went to law school I tend to dislike law stories, which is not common, I remember my classmates all being obsessed with shows like Suits, The Good Wife, How to Get Away with Murder etc., it might be because despite studying law I never had the intention of becoming a lawyer, so it's just not appeasing to me. And this wasn't different, I liked the discussions about women's studies and women in the workplace, but the law aspect of the story was very boring to me. I also wish the drama went there when it came to the Korean character, but Japan can never truly look inward and criticize they way it has treated other Asian people/countries, which is a shame because it always makes their art only half as good as it could be. Rating: 7/Liked it.

• Aired: Mar 31, 2025
• Completed: Jan 20, 2026

"Even if they hate us, I can't blame them. My squad's been going around seizing private homes since we got here. We drove out the people living there for the sake of the military. It couldn't be helped. This is what war is." I think this quote is a perfect example of how the drama was always on the verge of being honest about Japan's role in WWII, but it'd eventually fail and frame it as "war is at fault, hunger is at fault". I hope I get to see the day when Japan will be fully honest about their past of colonization, imperialism and genocide, without trying to frame their actions as an attempt to protect anyone.