I'm a bit underwhelmed to be honest. I think I'll watch Sukina Hito ga Iru Koto, because of the eye candy and the comedy potential. But that's about it. Thankfully still loads of older dramas on my plan-to-watch list.
I realy like your article. I love Jdrama exactly because of the reasons you describe: the realisme, the emphasis…
Ha ha... Kon-kon. Isn't Akira the most adorable jdrama character? A (quite handsome) dork with his heart in the right place. I loved Border too, one of the few dramas I'd like to see a second season of. And you can never have enough Oguri Shun (I'm watching Nobunaga Concerto right now, and getting my sister hooked on jdrama with it). But you're right: Keizoku 2: SPEC is fantastic too. It's the one I recommend to people who think jdrama is lame. And it always works.
I realy like your article. I love Jdrama exactly because of the reasons you describe: the realisme, the emphasis on the characters, the diversity of subjects (not everything needs to be romantic) and some really great actors. I also like the fact that most of the dramas have only around 10 episodes: short but sweet, and things don't get dragged out. It makes it possible to watch loads of different things.
I have seen most of your examples and one or two are on my plan-to-watch list. I would have to add Nobuta Wo Produce (which I think is near perfect), Hana Kimi (2007) and Ouroboros.
I have seen most of your examples and one or two are on my plan-to-watch list. I would have to add Nobuta Wo Produce (which I think is near perfect), Hana Kimi (2007) and Ouroboros.