Mertseger

Subs and RAWs are at drama-otaku

The one that beat Tori ni Tsubasa for Best Director that quarter was Kazoku Dakara Aishitan Janakute, Aishita no ga Kazoku Datta. It was originally released in 2023 on an NHK satellite channel, but they broadcasted it last summer. I strongly recommend it. Subs and RAWs are available at drama-otaku.

For me, it's the best thing since Tora ni Tsubasa last year. But: it's a Japanese comedy. The acting is broad at times, and if it does not match your sense of humor, it may not work for you. I think the action sequences are objectively well executed, but almost entirely bloodless, and so don't go looking for gritty realism here. (What was your first clue? The talking chibi animals?) All I can say is that ep. 4 just made me genuinely cry, and then genuinely laugh.

Non singing PUFFY? Have the producers been reading my secret wish diary?

For anyone discovering and loving Tokyo Love Story now that it's on Netflix, the writer, Sakamoto Yuji, continues to write to this day with two movies coming out in theaters in Japan in the next 3 months. He is one of the most lauded writers in Japan and won best screenplay in Cannes 2 years ago for Monster. Here's a guide from 3 years ago to the works that have English subtitles and are available out there: https://kisskh.at/article/a-watcher-s-guide-to-the-series-of-sakamoto-yuji.

Since writing that guide, three works have come out. I'd now put Monster as a Must Watch, Hatsukoi no Akuma as, eh, probably a Great though it is one his stranger series, and In Love and Deep Water as part of The Rest as one of his rare pieces that do not quite work.

Yes.

Yeah, no: the usual unlicensed streaming sites including that one only have through ep. 6 at this point in time. However, drama-otaku has all of the episodes - you just have to find the link on the episode page which are on all the anchors.

Is it just me, or does the show really start working in week 4? I mean, I like Nika Riisa and all, but does she really elevate the rest of the cast that much?

Instructions for finding the subs and RAWs are in the spoiler 3 comments down. I just checked, and they still work. The subs are at subdl and the RAWs can be torrented from acgnx.

Not to mention that you're dealing with a lot of Kansai ben and Hichiku ben, I imagine. You did great! The subs for week 1 were excellent.

Plus, you were getting them out daily? I'm more than happy getting a batch per week with a week or two lag, and have literally waited well over a year for some asadoras. This is a marathon, and so take care of yourself, and do not feel any pressure from us.

I meant no critique: I've had far more typos on the subs I've done. (I speak no Japanese or Mandarin but have done English review and timing for subs in those languages.)

Thanks again!

If GS is using machine translation as part of their process, the results are much better than pekochan - all the pronouns are in the right place and almost all of them were correct for week 1 at least (there were 2 or 3 we's that should have been I's, but that's it). Thank you GS!

Agreed. My review is up as well.

I think the big thing is that it just took a while for the subs to leak to the usual unlicensed sites. It would be better for both NHK and the people who would enjoy this show were it to be licensed to a streaming site like Netflix or Viki, or, you know, if they'd create the infrastructure to accept foreign currency subscriptions for subbed versions of their content on NHK On Demand.

Another thing to be aware of about Japanese asadoras (morning dramas) is that they are meant to be watched by the whole family before heading off to work or school. Thus, while romances happen and children are born over the course of a series, you will see rarely even a kiss.

That being said, they are prestige dramas produced by Japan's national public broadcasting service, NHK, which is funded by television fees rather than by advertising. And that means you consistently get the best currently working actors, and frequently young up and coming stars in the industry. This particular one is, in my opinion and among the dozen I've seen, the best in over a decade. (So far I still like 2013's Amachan better, but I'm more into the music and entertainment industry in Japan.)

You're already planning on watching Omusubi and are not watching Tora ni Tsubasa? If both Omusubi and Anpan get subbed I may well on streak of 4 in a row for the Naka Riisa and Kawai Yuumi of them all. 🪦🪦🪦🪦

Kishida Nami (the real person who this series is based upon) posted up multiple translations of one of her essays back in 2020. Here's the English: https://kishidanamicork.wordpress.com/2020/12/19/volvoeng/ . The real Boru-chan was black, but her Mom's wheelchair wheels are red.

You did a better job than I did - I tried episode 4 and could not find the production number. I think I had watched the first episode years ago but no musical number came to mind and so I did not dig deeper.

There are, of course, many other jdramas with diegetic music usually centered around bands, symphonies and groups. But pure musical tv series are really rare in general throughout the world from what I can tell.

MDL has 5 other than this one tagged with "Musical". I'm pretty sure that the two seasons of Lupin no Musume just have a bit of music as the family transitions into their superthief disguises every episode. Koshiji Fubuki Monogatari is a fictionalized biography of a Japanese singer and so it's just going to be diegetic scenes of her singing, I expect. Seishun Musical Comedy Oddboys is currently airing but not being subbed. But again I expect to only have diegetic performances of the high school music club along the lines of those in Glee. No, you're only option would appear to be Babysitter Gin, which does indeed seem to have non-diegetic performances meant to advance the narrative. Having just watched ep. 1 it seems utterly terrible in concept and execution, but the production number was not bad.

It's available through drama-otaku dot com, but I'm never clear when and if they are allowing people to register. DM me if you're still interested and would like a link.

It was hard to access for a long time. It appears, however, that the usual unlicensed sites have finally found the subs and are posting the episodes, and so hopefully more people around here will find this gem.