kittyflumpin

I started out being *really* annoyed with Claire, and initially the show seemed like a laundry list of reasons why I don't watch that many K-dramas anymore. But it sort of grew on me (and Claire calmed down a little, and the leading man was funny if a bit too old for Claire imo) and it was... okay. I think I would've enjoyed this a lot more if I were newer to drama fandom. Like there's a perfect window of time as a fan when you're familiar with the tropes but still find them amusing to play out, instead of boring. This drama is for those fans.

It's a cute show but it's a bit... by-the-numbers? Like, I don't feel any romantic tension in the story at all. And I want Misaki to have more personality traits than, "works hard for her dream" (what drama heroine doesn't), and "pines after Chiaki." And Kanata is so obviously The One so I feel like the story is just a way to connect those dots, with some family drama in between. I dunno, it just feels unremarkable to me.

...Honestly, I think that I'm to the point where I find most straight-up "Romance" dramas less compelling than the side- or "incidental"-romance story lines in dramas of *other* genres (like detective/action/workplace/family dramas, etc.).

Most of these (with the except of #5) are all reasons I'm so bored with K-dramas lately

Try Hana Yori Dango rather than BoF; Makino isn't irritating like Jandi, and even if you combine both series and the movie, it *still* clocks in less time total than the K-drama does (while covering more of the story).

Anyway, my personal "Painful to Watch" K-dramas were City Hunter and School 2013. I only finished them b/c I was watching them with a friend, and quite honestly she lost interest too and we ended up alternating between heckling the screen and just talking about random unrelated stuff while the shows played. I know, I know, should've cut our loses and quit, but for some reason we felt compelled to finish what we'd started.

I've been really impressed so far by his acting in Furenaba Ochin.

I downloaded the raw videos via torrent (not sure I can specifically say where on this site?) and got the softsubs from d-addicts.

A.) I'll believe this when I see it, since rumors of live action JoJo's have been going around for *years* with different actors cast as Jotaro; and, B.) the pic is a fan edit and it's not even of Yamazaki Kento (looks like Kitamura Kazuki to me, who honestly would make more sense to cast despite his age since Jotaro doesn't really look like a teenager anyway.).

I gave this up around ep.02 because I couldn't stand the heroine. She is portrayed as too dumb for me to find her interesting or relatable. I *did* however like the cafe staff consisting of Kurosawa's fiercely loyal former-delinquent friends, and I also *really* liked how they portrayed Kurosawa's ex-gf in those first few episodes (spoiler, she's not just an "evil-b*tch" caricature thrown in as a plot device to keep the romantic leads apart). Quite honestly I wish his ex (or a character more like her at least) had been the female lead, I might've finished the drama then.

Also Dean Fujioka is pretty hot.

Sure! Sometimes they're stand-alone stories (so basically short TV movies) and sometimes they're like an epilogue (or side-story) to a completed drama. J-dramas being shorter overall than K-dramas though, they don't often run into the "not enough story/add filler" problem that K-dramas often run into, so the drama SPs tend to be one-shots or 2-3 episodes max (any more than that, and you may as well just adapt it as a proper drama).

It would be nice if "Korean" were specified in the title...

I kinda want to watch this just for Kamen Rider Wizard here but I don't think I can believe him as a high school boy anymore.

I think this is one of, if not *the* main reason K-dramas are more popular-- they're infinitely easier to find for the average viewer! All you need is Netflix or any of a number of streaming services (which many people subscribe to anyway, regardless of the presence of K-dramas) and there they are. J-dramas, you gotta roll up your sleeves and do a little work to find them but they're definitely worth it (and once you know where to go, it's really not that hard).

AMEN.

The point of a (good) story is that it's trying to convey something or evoke an emotion in its audience. It's not just a record of *everything* that happens to a character (seriously how boring would that be). The creator has to cut out the mundane, meaningless parts of what would be the character's real life experience (unless the mundanity *is* somehow meaningful) and ideally leave only the parts that convey that message to the audience. With this in mind, I think it's perfectly okay to criticize a main character of a work of fiction for being "boring". No one should feel bad if they see parallels between themselves and such a character, because real people have lots of "boring" moments in their lives. It should be taken as more of a criticism of how the character is written and presented to us as an audience.

As for "pathetic" characters (esp. female ones, and let's face it in dramas it's usually a woman)-- how I feel about them depends *a lot* on how a show lets (or doesn't let) them develop. It often seems used as a kind of shorthand, to get the audience to relate to and/or empathize with a character, and I'm fine with that, at least initially. What I can't stand is when it is just used as a defining character trait and that's the end of it (for example, I honestly cannot watch any version of Itazura na Kiss/Playful Kiss because as far as I can tell the female lead never stands up for herself *insert vomit noises*). Worse yet is when it's foisted on the audience and expected to be seen as somehow "romantic" (seriously, nothing kills a romance faster for me-- it's why I couldn't finish From 5 to 9).

However, if a character starts out "pathetic" but eventually changes over the course of the drama (I don't mean a superficial makeover, but actual character growth), then I accept it as part of the story and I'm fine with it.

Yes, I *love* that Japan doesn't require all its actors to have cookie-cutter "model" good-looks or weirdly perfect teeth (which often look fake as hell to me, btw). It's the little individual "imperfections" that make people visually interesting and not just palette-swapped anime characters, differentiated only by their hair. I wish K-dramas could likewise allow for more variety in casting but imo they're too interested in trying to appeal/sell to the Western audience, since they rely on that income.

Wow I am loving this so far (at ep.07 currently). I mean, I like the more kid-friendly KR series too but I would not complain if Toei also did one of these more adult-oriented (and shorter) shows every year from here on out. *crosses fingers*

Water Boys is such a good drama-- if you'd told me before that I'd get choked up over a synchronized swimming performance of all things, I never would've believed you and yet the show's finale is AMAZING.

And MILOCRORZE is... certainly not boring.

Well, MatsuJun will always be *the* live action Momo to me, but I'll definitely be watching this. The manga is fantastic, and maybe with 16 (16!) episodes they'll be able to adapt more of the story and not leave it dangling like the 2003 drama does (since the manga wasn't finished yet at that point).

Great to see an article on Japanese content! I wouldn't have picked many of the same "starter" shows (I thought Rich Man Poor Woman was dreadfully dull, and Bitter Blood ridiculously overrated) but I appreciate that you included some pre-2010 shows too. And Legal High is BRILLIANT.

I just wanted to add, another reason that hasn't been mentioned as to why J-dramas aren't as popular (lately) is that most of them require a viewer to make some sort of effort to watch them and a lot of newer fans are used to having K-dramas handed to them, officially subbed, within a day or so via Hulu (or Netflix/DramaFever/wherever, I don't use streaming sites but you get the idea). For a vast majority of J-dramas though, one has to roll their sleeves up and actually look around sometimes (esp. for the fansubs) which, though not a terribly high barrier to entry, is high enough. Especially when a potential viewer is alternately presented with umpteen currently-airing K-dramas courtesy of whatever regular service you use to watch Western shows & movies (i.e. requiring zero effort). Back in the day (omg listen to me) it seemed like J-dramas were actually *more* popular, due to their association with other Japanese media (like anime/manga), and the fact that watching K-dramas was equally dependent on finding fansubs. Korea licensing their shows to legal streaming sites changed all this.

I had first watched Kamen Rider W and then worked my way forward (though I did indefinitely pause KR Drive at ep 17). After catching up to current day (about halfway through KR Ghost, ep.27, at time of this post) I started KR Decade but realized that it maybe better appreciated by those who are familar with the Riders whose world's AUs Decade would be visiting. So I reluctantly put Decade aside and decided to start the Heisei era from the beginning.

So-- would KR Kuuga deliver the same good stuff I'd come to expect from my favorite Neo-Heisei (a.k.a. post-2010) Kamen Riders? The answer, for Kuuga at least, is YES. A slightly more "adult"-themed show than latter KR entries (there are actual references to death/massacres and it's made clear that large numbers of innocent bystanders actually die in the Gurongi attacks) and as such it almost seems a bit more like a regular police/procedural J-drama, just with a toku element added, than later KR series (which, though I love them too, obviously have more toys/merchandise to sell).

All the more genre-specific drama qualities aside, I'm just gonna be frank: If you're looking for a shippable M/M couple then have no fear, this show delivers in spades. So much so that I think in such regard I consider it second only to Kamen Rider W. So in conclusion, if you're a fan of that Kamen Rider Goodness, please PLEASE don't discount shows due to their vintage. You may be very pleasantly surprised!