What dramas are you currently watching?

Just finished watching Hotaru no Hikari. It was kinda cute and definitely light-hearted.
I'd love to start Replay & Destroy but I can't find it anywhere with english subs :(

:good: I'm hooked on "99.9 -Keiji Senmon Bengoshi". Fast-paced, good script....but i am still bothered by the thick cake of make-up wore by the male cast. :shocked:

Anyone try Good Morning call with Moe Arai on Netflix?

Sanada Maru episode 19 was pretty good. This one focuses on Takeuchi Yuko's character, chacha. The plot/theme is nothing new but the storytelling/acting was well done.

...started on Juhan Shuttai too.....i thought it was an Asadora. It just makes me wanna run to Kinokuniya to grab all of Shigeru Mizuki's autobiographical works.

Started Neko Zamurai 2. The feels, I'm lovin' them! Kitamura Kazuki is still a hoot as ever in his role, and I love that the drama has so many cats :hehe:

Waiting for subs on some of the 2016 stuff so watched "Sanbiki no Ossan":http://jdorama.com/drama.2166.htm

It's good but not great. 3 retirees decide to do crime prevention night patrols. Funny at times, especially the going back and forth between Yoshiko Nakada as Kinya Kitaoji's wife and their daughter in law played by Naomi Nishida. Every episode ends the same with the 3 guys coming out of the dark before they whoop ass on the bad guys. Didn't know there were tumbleweeds in downtown Tokyo. :hehe:

There was a second season in 2015 so will probably check that out next.

Juhan Shuttai episode 7 was great, probably the best episode so far. The story centred around a senior manga assistant, his inner conflict and struggle with regards to his professional future and dream. Nagayama Kento's character has a special charisma, even if there's not a lot of screen time. He could easily be the central character in another drama.

Sanada Maru episode 20 felt like a filler episode. I wish this phase and the siege of Hojo is over soon so we can see new stories.

I wonder if writers of Japanese dramas have watched a lot of American TV from the '60s.

There's an episode in "Aibou 14" where they are dealing with a supercomputer and Sugishita realizes the computer has been tampered with when he is able to beat it at chess the second time he plays it. There was a similar scenario in an episode of the original Star Trek where Spock gets Kirk out of jam by being able to beat the ship's computer at chess.

And shades of the old "Patty Duke Show" in episode 7 of "Our House" we have identical cousins.

Is there a time/geographical limit on plagiarism?

Also watched the first two episodes of "Good Partner". Too early to tell so far, but for right now all I can say is Takenouchi makes a better taxi driver than he does lawyer.

Finished Neko Zamurai 2, as funny as ever. Love it!

Started Shinya Shokudo 3, and the feels are still there. So far so good.

Just watched Juhan Shuttai episode 9. Rather moved by the end. Only 1 more episode left. This is quite a good series but I expected more after the promising beginning. It didn't focus much on the main character Kurosawa. She is kind of a gateway to find out more about manga publishing and all the people associated with it. The content/stories felt a bit scattered as a result.

Sanada Maru episode 23. We are almost at the halfway point in the series and Sanada Nobushige is still a low-level soldier who is ordered around to do some minor tasks most of the time and lead no man of his own. He is known and trusted by some of the most powerful daimyo at the time but it's hard to see how he is to become one of the most feared and respected general. I thought the seige of Hojo would offer some insight into the siege of Osaka in future, but that's not in the picture either. The episode itself is watchable and entertaining in a way, but sometimes it's a bit puzzling. We learn more about Ishida Mitsunari(sp?) but that's it really. When are they going to develop the character of Nobushige...

I recently downloaded some taiga dramas from 20-30 years ago, maybe I should watch that and give up on this.

Finished Juhan Shuttai. Last episode was really cheerful, crowd-pleasing. Nice ending to a good series. Despite the story being a bit too scattered, it was well-written, directed and acted. I enjoyed it.

xploring wrote:Finished Juhan Shuttai. Last episode was really cheerful, crowd-pleasing. Nice ending to a good series. Despite the story being a bit too scattered, it was well-written, directed and acted. I enjoyed it.

really? thank for let me know. yes i like Juhan Shuttai

Sumika Sumire...very sweet drama about an aging woman who is given a 20-year-old body so she can experience romance...

Ghostwriter...sooo many unlikeable characters in this drama...

Partners in Darkness...this one is sooo dark and freaky...

I need something cheerful and romantic now...and I don't mean candlelight dinner with a clown...

Finished Shinya Shokudo 3. Pretty decent overall, but I prefer the earlier seasons.

Started Seirei no Moribito. Solid opening episode and the fight scenes were pretty good. Ayase Haruka looks nothing like a bodyguard, but she's thrown herself into the role, which is always a good thing to see.

So I'm watching episodes from season five of Kodoku no Gurume, a series which is basically about a guy (Matsushige Yutaka) eating meals at local restaurants around Japan (though in this season he travels to Taiwan and pigs out there as well).

Anyway, in one episode I was pleasantly surprised to see Asano Atsuko playing a waitress. Asano, along with Yamaguchi Tomoko, were the two queens of dorama back in the 90's when good actors and good scripts were more prevalent. It's nice to see she is still working.

xploring wrote:Finished Juhan Shuttai. Last episode was really cheerful, crowd-pleasing. Nice ending to a good series. Despite the story being a bit too scattered, it was well-written, directed and acted. I enjoyed it.

Finished this one as well. I liked it a lot, but I agree, they spent too much time on some of the minor characters and subplots. If they had concentrated more on the main manga artists and Kuroki as their editor it could have been even better.

We finished Dame na Watashi ni Koishite Kudasai and it was very charming. Between that and 5-9 it was back to back lovey-dovey dramas. Namida had some cute moments too, but that was more serious in tone (and a terrific show, to boot--Renbutsi Misako is so good and it's great to see her starring in shows!).

I've been watching Hanzawa Naoki whilst exercising and enjoying it a surprising amount. I found the first episode very very dull and the second a bit better but not super compelling, so I was delighted to see how much it improved in 3-5 and I'm partway through 6 and now really digging it.

Oh, we also watched the first 18 subbed new Terrace House eps on Netflix. Dang! It's so good. So addictive. I think a lot of you would really enjoy it. Are there any subbed previous seasons?

gaijinmark wrote:And shades of the old "Patty Duke Show" in episode 7 of "Our House" we have identical cousins.

How did you like Our House? We watched first ep but thought it was just ok. We're big Mana Ashida fans though so hoping it gets better.

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Anyone watching/watched any of these...?

-Yutori desu ga
-Watashi Kekkon Dekinai Janakute, Shinain desu
-Kiseki no Hito
-99.9
-Outosan to Yobasete (more subs finally coming on this one)
-Never Let Me Go
-Love that Makes you Cry
-Omukae desu
-Kamoshirenai Joyutachi
-Sumika Sumire

maxcriden wrote:
How did you like Our House? We watched first ep but thought it was just ok. We're big Mana Ashida fans though so hoping it gets better.

It was just average at best. As you probably saw from the first episode, Ashida plays a totally selfish brat. Her character pretty much stays the same until the latter parts of the drama. The fact that she was convincing enough that I wanted somebody to smack her and tell her to get over it is probably more a testament to her talent than the script.

One of the best scenes of the whole drama was in one of the middle episodes where Takashi Tsukamoto (Koji Yamamoto's brother in law that runs the yakitori place) gets to meet his son from his first marriage. The ex-wife hasn't let them see each other and she's getting remarried and moving away so the little kid on his own looks up Tsukamoto. They had a nice touching scene between the two of them. I guess that's a pretty good indicator of how good a drama is when the best scene is between two minor characters.

I'd say, watch it if your an Ashida fan, but don't expect anything remotely close to "Mother" or "Marumo".