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I really enjoyed this drama. I thought it will be a "even if there are obstacles, in the end everything will be back to "normal" anyways" story, but it managed to surprise me. Pretty unique, well acted (except for the romantic scenes. This is still not how you kiss, dear Japanese producers) and except for a few plot points pretty relatable. I especially like how the characters were able to adapt pretty quickly, which is a point why I usually avoid gender/body swap stories because of the lingering awkwardness all throughout.

What I didn't like was the social viewpoint I took from it. It is ok to be together (and show it in a drama) legally, in that case married, and have kids together as two women as long as one of them was a man before and she fell in love while he was still male, but two women falling in love with each other is a no-go? I mean same-sex-marriage isn't even recognized in Japan and, to this day, there's only one JDrama that shows a lesbian couple/romance as the main characters/plot point. Two women in a relationship with each other really must be that threatening to the old dudes in tv stations who have the power to make decisions when their only answer to the diversity and LGBTQ+ question is to show a minimum of 3 BL dramas every three months.

The facts that the Manga is from the same author as Back Street Girls, adapted by Bakarhythm and Hanabie covered Imagine Dragons' "Believer" as the Ending Song makes this a must watch for me. The cast is also pretty incredible for a 15 minute per ep drama that airs on a rather small VOD service. And, according to the trailers, it seems that the two main actors/actresses are pretty perfect together in these roles.

I can definitely understand that. Oftentimes there's no or very little chemistry in romantic JDramas because I think they want/need to "keep it innocent", the characters are basically the same all the time and all that's left are the looks of the actors/actresses that makes you finish a drama. I mostly remember actors/actresses when they played a unique character and/or one I really like/hate. And I think there are definitely a lot more female characters like this in JDrama. They use the same old male character template way too often: cold (or at least cool), collected, handsome, has his life together and is liked/admired by everyone even though he's a total scumbag 95% of the time, while there are a lot more variations of female characters, even if I'd end up hating more than half of those.

I'm rewatching Okaeri Mone at the moment... but some weeks I find hard not to skip the second time around. I really like the topic, the heroine, Tsunematsu Yuri's character, the people from Tome and Tokyo, but I'm not a big fan of her other friends, sister and especially Ryo and his father. Some weeks should come with a PSA, "don't enable depression, seek help", which makes it really hard to watch for me, because that's all everyone does all the time.

I really tried to like Chimudondon and almost all the characters are indeed very likebale, but the story jumps too much from one thing to the next for my taste. And the real bad machine translated subs after week 5 didn't help one bit, especially because I understand the mistakes in the subs, but don't understand enough Japanese to watch without any. Maybe they got updated since I watched at the beginning of the year, which would make me want to rewatch it. Also, why does an Asadora so often need a brother/uncle/family friend to be a complete idiot? Gegege no Nyobo had a gambling/deceiving friend, Chimudondon has the idiot brother, Umechan's uncle is a bit shady, as is Natsu's brother in the beginning, etc.

I didn't watch Gochisousan, exactly because of the same reasons. I evaded The Confidence Man for more than 3 years because I didn't want to watch something with that guy in it.... and those two together as a couple on screen, I don't think I can bring myself to watch it.

I'd love to watch Ochoyan because Sugisaki Hana is another one of my favorite actresses, but it's a real shame that nobody picks up the subtitles after they got abandoned. As did a few other fall Asadoras by the same subber (Warotenka and Scarlet come to mind).

To be honest, I don't really know why I'm only into JDrama and a lot of its actresses. Sure they have some really good ones but a lot of performances, especially in Manga/Anime adaptions, are really forgettable, and worst of all, a lot of the writers and scripts are unrealistic and really fail to stay with the times, mainly in romance dramas and when it comes to female roles/characters in general. Probably my love/hate relationship with the culture and their entertainment industry, because I love the language and because I think they're the masters of the Slice of Life genre keep me stuck to Japan.
I haven't really given CDrama a real try yet (emphasis on "yet") and I can't connect with KDrama at all for a few reasons that make me drop every series I try to start, even though I like Korean movies. I'm also really bad at remembering names in general, even English/Western names, so I don't think I'm even going to try with Chinese or Korean names :D.

I loved everything about Natsuzora, except for "horse boy" xD. It has some of the best characters and relationships in all of JDrama in my opinion. Especially with her foster family and her own family.

The last few weeks of Hanbun Aoi were super draggy at times, yes, but for me the biggest problem was more that I really couldn't care less about the romance in the end because the writer thought it was a good idea to kill the probably most important person in the hardest time of her life before that.

There's no romance at all in Teppan, but they tried (and in my opinion definitely failed) to force some into the story. Thankfully it's only a few eps towards the ending, so it's rather easy to ignore in retrospect.

I think Hiyokko is pretty nice if you want something lighthearted with a fun cast of characters. They keep repeating how unfortunate Arimura Kasumi's character is, but compared to Nagano Mei in Hanbun Aoi she has the most carefree life ever ;).

Of course, not every drama is like I described. It just has a lot to do with the actors/actresses, the genre, the tv stations and agencies and the time slot the drama airs in. To compare, all of the dramas you mentioned have a rather serious aspect to them according to the synopsis and aired in 11 pm/0 am or later time slots with mostly actors/actresses first who do other stuff on the side because it's expected of them in Japan (Nakamura Yurika for example, even though I don't like her very much). On the other side, this drama here is a comedy, main actress Araki Yuko is a model first who does acting and it's an almost prime time drama. I guess it's mostly the hypocritical TV stations and/or agencies who really put restrictions on their talent/actors/actresses and prevent "more flashy" romantic scenes.

If you're looking for characters showing affection to each other, I would definitely not recommend Japanese Dramas. 90+% of the people who star in Dramas and Movies are so-called "talent" not "actors/actresses" (like in this drama), which means they're models, idols, singers, etc besides or even before acting. Kissing, showing skin and a lot of romantic displays are a no-go for them because their fans expect that their favorite celebrities (especially females) are innocent and pure and don't do this stuff. Even if they kiss in JDrama it's 98% a peck on the mouth that looks more like an accident between fish. Japanese TV stations and agencies have a lot to do with it aswell because they are as hyprocritical as it gets when it comes to such scenes, so movies are a bit more realistic in that regard. Of course there are exceptions like Ando Sakura or Matsuoka Mayu for example, but if you see "is an actor/actress and model/singer/whatever" on their MDL profile, you can most probably expect a wholesome performance in which you need to use your imagination rather than your eyes to see any romance ;)

I really don't like Natsu's childhood friend, the guy who's obsessed with horses. He's super gloomy all the time and, at least too me, he gives off this "I'm better than you because I have no desire to ever change myself or my surroundings" aura. But maybe that's just me.
I think they could've explored her being half-deaf even more in Hanbun Aoi, but I liked how not everything works out even after she realized her dream. Only thing I really don't like about it is the last few weeks. I think what happens is one of the two worst things the writer could've come up with and that's saying something for what they already throw at her all throughout the story (the other would be if it happened to Satou Takeru's character). For me it's also the Asadora that gives off the biggest LGBTQ vibes (between Nagano Mei's and Seino Nana's characters) and I would love to see a LGBTQ heroine someday, but that will probably never happen.

I really like Teppan, like I wrote in my previous post. I actually wrote a rather lengthy comment (which is kind of my thing I guess?) on its MDL page on how it's very enjoyable except for a few weeks worth of episodes in which the script tries its hardest, thankfully in vain, to self-destruct and destroy all the character growth it build up beforehand.

Yell is, so far, the only Asadora I liked with a double lead (it's more focused on the guy). I'm not a fan of (pre) World War II settings, but I really enjoyed the story and Nikaido Fumi's sassy heroine.

Coming out of high school and marrying someone is definitely a shoujo manga thing, but the Japanese backwards thinking of "a woman can't be in a leading business position and/or succeed her family's business" is definitely real. 11.4% in 2022 says everything I think.

It was a good special, well acted and written, but compared to the drama, it lacked a lot of the humor and wittiness in my opinion. The case itself was rather small aswell and could've been handled in a 50 minute episode. More like a filler between the drama and the movie with foreshadowing for that at the end.

Cast & Credits should be overhauled aswell. Kuroki Haru was more like a guest role with about 2 minutes of screen time total. This was mostly Kohinata Fumiyo's special with Takenouchi Yutaka as second (and smaller) lead role. Sakurai Yuki and Yamazaki Ikusaburo were only on screen in two photos and a text message with voice respectively.

It's a shame that it's only the beginning of the story. Had a lot of potential, but the rest would probably be too expensive with all the animations and stuff they come up with with their imagination. Maybe Netflix should have a go at it with their budgets.

First is the time progression. They all do and achieve stuff in record breaking speed. For example Soramame breaks up with her idiot fiancee, bounces back, finds a place to live, then a part-time job, realizes she has talent and decides to go for it, quits her job, finds a designer that hires her, designs a dress, gets her own collection , quits the designer's studio and then goes to Paris to participate in its fashion show... and all in what, a few weeks or two to three months at most? Same with Oto, who struggles with his music for years and somehow, after meeting Soramame, gets inspired, signs a major label deal and becomes successful in the same time frame as her. The writers made them achieve way too much for the little time span the drama's set in.

The second thing is the ending. We struggle, cheer, laugh and cry at/for/with them for 9 episodes, even with above written problems, and then it skips 3 years, all problems and miscommunication of 3 and a half years get resolved in a matter of about 10 minutes and we get a 100% clearance achievement happy end. They at most glossed over why Seira chose to apologize even though she liked Soramame, what happened in Paris, why she gave up designing and didn't want to return to Tokyo at that time and nobody even mentioned how they all knew that she was back in her hometown. I wish they would have explained and cleared up at least some of the reasons why things are happening the way they are. As it is, the first 9 episodes were really good even though the time of progression was messed up and the last episode was a bit frustrating and I couldn't really enjoy the ending because of it.

Very likeable characters, both the main characters and the supporting cast. The two mains are independent, intelligent, have their own opinions, are on equal terms and can stand up for themselves throughout the drama, which is, unfortunately, still pretty rare in a romance JDrama. Good chemistry all around, especially when it comes to the friendships, a nice sense of humor and well acted. So much so that it overshadowed the not so small story progression problems and plot holes (see the spoiler reply to myself) and got an 8.5 from me.

Based on a sauna-themed manga-essay by Mankitsu, Tomosaka Rie stars as a manga artist who is told by her younger brother that she doesn’t look too well and should go to a sauna to detox. Through visiting various types of saunas for women, she begins to learn a lot of new things.

copypasted from another site

Overall I liked Umechan. I think it was a bit... too easy (?) because I think there weren't really any challenges for the FL, it had quite a bit of downtime and I wasn't a big fan of the tsundere father, but it was an easy watch, the story of how females were slowly more and more accepted in medicine after the war and the FL herself grew to be accepted by her surroundings was pretty interesting and I liked most of the characters.

I'm a bit conflicted when it comes to Hanako to Anne however. I didn't find it bad at all, but it felt like a pretty big let down because it's one of the best Asadoras here on MDL and I couldn't really see why it was that highly rated. I really liked the FL and the story itself was well written and executed, but the first half felt a bit like a high school play at a school festival production wise and the supposedly best friendship in all of Asadora (some comment I read), which was the main point I was looking forward to, between the FL and Nakama Yukie's character didn't feel close at all and not even like a friendship sometimes for me. A nice sidenote would be that Yoshitaka Yuriko's English (pronounciation) was really good when she translated stuff to the principal or teachers. It's also one of the few Asadoras where I liked the city part way more than the hometown part (Hiyokko is another one for example).

Asa ga Kita and Natsuzora are probably two of the objectively all-around best Asadora (and JDramas for that matter) since 2000 at least. Natsuzora is my favorite so far and one of the exceptionally few JDramas I watched where I can't really think of any criticism except for one character that really annoyed me (I get really into details, so I unfortunately always find a lot of stuff I don't like even though a drama is overall really good). Ohisama was pretty good, especially because the style of the storytelling was different and fun. Churasan hasn't really entered my radar yet and I'm a bit afraid to watch Massan because of my bad experience with married couple leads (Gegege no Nyobo and Manpuku), even though I think Yell was really good.
My favorites beside Natsuzora are Amachan, Hanbun Aoi, Okaeri Mone and Hiyokko. I also enjoyed Teppan (at least about 23 or 24 of the 26 weeks) and Toto Nee-chan, both of those mostly because of the Heroines however.
Edit: sorry for the novel, didn't even think of how long this comment is going to be...

I'd add Okaeri Mone in that list. But that's mostly because of Kiyohara Kaya. Probably the best Japanese actress when it comes to characters with a bit of baggage at the moment.
The Heroine's least worth watching in my opinion were the one from Gegege no Nyobo (that was a shitshow if I ever saw one...) and Manpuku. Those two's hobbies were mostly apologizing for and especially to the men around them, even if they themselves did nothing wrong whatsoever, and trying to fix their idiotic decisions.

It's the title that's used in most searches and on most non-official platforms. If you search the English title it'll pop up anyways here on MDL because of the AKAs. Also, the English translations are dog crap 9 out of 10 times because they have nothing to do with the original name. This one here's a big exception.

Just my opinion, but I don't think you need permission to reupload hardsubbed videos as long as you don't monetize them and leave them as they are. I think people who hardsub stuff and only upload them on their own/some unknown site should be happy if someone preserves the files and reuploads them if they go inactive and the site gets shut down. It's a pity that so many JDramas aren't available anymore because it was common practice to do that for a long time.

They're gone. At least from all the better known pages you can download subs and/or raws.