Caterpillarpie

Lol.
Yup. Born and bred in Jolly old England. That's me. And I crash-landed on Earth almost 22 years ago.
It's fairly difficult. The basics start with the kana- Hiragana is used as the simplest of scripts, and is generally for Japanese words. Katakana makes the same sounds as Hiragana, but is mostly just used for foreign words. Kanji represent things, and there are thousands. It's part of the reason my reading/writing isn't anywhere near as good as my listening.
'The big green tree is pretty' would, I believe, be something like 'Ooki na midori no Ki ga (or wa?) kirei desu.' So if you translated it back literally, it would pretty much be 'Big green tree pretty is.' Kanji would be used for the oo, the midori and the Ki.

To be fair, I myself had forgotten the disturbing bits until re-watching. Such as episode 4 (I think), where Ani gets into money trouble and there's the creepy old dude who wants to eat stuff off of him.
An ALT is an Assistant Language Teacher. Basically, I would be helping to teach English in schools and help the students with pronunciation etc.
I'm not just learning through TV. That largely helps with pronunciation and stuff. I can read Kana and I've been self-studying Kanji, as well as using Japanese-English dictionaries and reading grammar books etc. The penpals help with grammar, and then when I feel a bit more confident I'm going to join some video language exchanges over skype.

I love KCE. It's just so randomly brilliant. Although a couple of the episodes are kind of... disturbing. I've seen it all before, but it was long enough ago that I can't remember the details.
I don't think Korean and Japanese are at all similar any more. That was more my worry when I first started watching a couple of years ago.
Yeah, I watch them both for enjoyment and to learn Japanese. Since I started watching dramas and variety shows, I can understand a whole lot more than I used to be able to. I actually want to become an ALT in Japan, so I want to be able to speak and understand as much as I can- I even have some Japanese penpals I found on mylanguageexchange.com

Yeah, pretty busy right now. I'm slowly working through QS2 again, as well as KCE with my mum.
I think dramas are definitely seen as a more female thing, for various reasons. You're definitely right in that matter.
I haven't actually seen any Korean dramas so far. I've been using them as a method for learning Japanese, so when I first started watching I was worried in case the two languages got muddled in my head. Don't think that would happen at this point, but I just haven't got round to watching any yet.

Fair enough. I guess I'd have to watch the whole of IWGP before I can really make an informed decision.
I think you're right that it's generally a female thing. Not because of the dramas themselves (there are plenty which guys would enjoy), but I think most guys are too stubborn to watch films and dramas they would have to read. I know that's the case for most of the guys I've tried to persuade.
Lol. In that case, I'd have to say I'm subconsciously tuned OUT of seeing ships. I'm not really into lovey-dovey stuff. Or even affection in general.

He really is. Lol.
It wasn't so much that they were similar in plot or anything. They just had a similar sort of feel to them, if you know what I mean? I watched it because it has a cameo by the Cat's Eye characters, as I think they were done by the same director or something.
It's pretty much my mum. My dad completely refuses. He's not a strong reader though, so it might be a bit more difficult. I've managed to get a couple of my sisters to watch a couple of things too. I'm determined to introduce as many people as possible to the world of JDoramas. Mwah ha ha ha haaaa!
It could have been in series 2 if you haven't seen it yet. It was only for a little while. He's just standing there. Fujimaru wakes up, sees him, smiles and offers up a very happy-sounding 'ohayo.' I never really saw anything other than bromance in YTM to be honest. Maybe that's just because I didn't find Ninomiya's acting particularly outstanding in it though. Not saying that he's not a good actor, he's just never really been able to pull me in unless he was playing a disabled person. Or maybe it's because I don't generally notice what other people see as ships. Kind of oblivious for the most part. Lol.

He is very good at smirking. Lol.
I've only seen the special of Ikebukuro. Very similar in style to Cat's eye, although that really isn't all that surprising.
Yeah- I got my mum (and several other members of the household) the watch TQS2. Luckily, my mum and I have fairly similar tastes in Dramas. Plus it's hilarious seeing how many of them she cries at (roughly 99% of Dramas so far. Lol).
Not really into the gay side of things, but I don't mind bromance. Or any really good friendship really. I don't actually think Fujimaru and Otoya were gay, but that whole thing where O was just standing over F and watching him sleep just sent me into hysterics.

It's pretty good, especially as it's (I think) the first one of it's kind. I wasn't all that impressed with Beat Takeshi (the teacher), but overall it's definitely worth watching.

Right now I'm in the middle of re-watching Kisarazu Cat's Eye. I've been showing my mum various dramas, and she was having what we've dubbed as Sakurai Withdrawal Symptoms (she loves his acting too), so we settled on that one.

I loved bloody monday. Although it's the first time when the relationship between a pair of male friends has actually appeared almost slashy to me. I think it was unintentional, but Fujimaru and Otoya come across as being really gay. Lol.

Shaken Baby looks interesting. I'll probably try it at some point, when I have the time. Thanks for the suggestion. XD

(ps. I know what you mean. A lot of female characters in Japanese Dramas can be annoying. Lol.)

She isn't so spoiled that she's not nice though. She's more childish than anything else. And the rest of the characters make it worth it, although guessing the culprit isn't very hard at all. Lol.
I know what you mean about Maou's picture. I watched it because I saw a trailer for it, and I don't regret it in the slightest.
Yeah, I watched S1 second. So glad I did it in that order, or I'd never have known how absolutely fantastic S2 is.
Oh, by the way, if you ever fancy watching something completely random, try Gekidan Engimono (4eps) and/or Yonimo Kimyona Monogatari (which includes talent-giving magic lollipops). Sooooo weird.

Trust me, the main characters in S1 don't get better. And I don't think I liked any of the guests until something like episode seven. Not good.
Tokio was a bit of an odd one. If you like psychological stuff, have you seen Maou? That one really makes you battle with your own ethics. And I really would recommend Kamisama no Karute. Sakurai does an excellent job, and the rest of the cast is amazing too.
QS2 is definitely my favourite drama. I really like stories about how circumstances affect/change people. And Sakurai just does it sooo well.

(ps. Don't worry about Nazotoki if you ever do choose to watch it- it's more him mocking her as an idiot than doting on her every whim))

Oh, I know what you mean. I absolutely can't stand most of series one. Mostly poor acting, bad characters and storylines, fake-sounding script and rubbish use of music. *shudders*
Do you just want ones with Sakurai? Or certain genres? Kamisama no Karute is an absolutely fantastic film, as is Honey and Clover if you like things to be more slow-paced. Or if you fancy a laugh, go for something like Tokujo Kabachi or Nazotoki wa dinner no ato de. Yoiko no mikata is a slightly earlier one, and is really sweet. The first one I ever saw him in (which persuaded me to watch more of his acting) is Yamada Taro Monogatari. And there are some really early dramas where he has more minor roles. Although they haven't been subbed. I should probsbly stop there for now...

Thanks so much. XD I really love Sakurai's acting style, so I'm glad something I wrote has managed to persuade someone to consider watching something he's in. :D