2008 in review: doramas

[meganbmoore]

This was a very light year for me as far as dramas go. I only watched 10 full dramas (one of which was a two part special) and 4 episodes of another (included for the crack), far fewer than I did the first two years I watched them. This isn’t deliberate, as I think I’ve been slightly “myeh” on watching things in general the last 6~ months. That is

Comments

[danbi]

I'm glad to hear Nodame Cantabile was good! I'm all caught up with anime and manga and was thinking of giving the drama a look, so this is encouraging.

[meganbmoore]

I love the drama, but i haven't seen thew other versions. I do know, though, that most fans of the mangas dramas are based on end up disappointed to the drama adaptations because of changes. But the few I know who have seen the drama and like the anime and manga seem to really like it in this case.

[melengro]

Absurdly enjoyable, fluffy crack.

This is the best description of Nodame Cantabile I have ever seen.

[meganbmoore]

And insane.

[salimbol]

Oh yeah, Hotaru no Hikari! I'd totally forgotten about it, but that was actually one of the better j-dramas I saw this year. I really liked the fact that it wasn't about her having to sharpen up her act and re-make her image to get a guy; if anything, it was more about her boss/flatmate learning to accept her, flaws and all (and maybe find his own inner mackerel). Of course, it helped that the boss was played by the lovely Fujiki Naohito...
Your description of Jikou Keisatsu sounds veerry tempting; I do like Japanese crack. And if you like the Nodame drama, you'll probably like the manga well enough; as j-dramas go, it's a very faithful adaptation of the story and characters. I've got to get my hands on the anime version myself, actually.

[meganbmoore]

HoH: EXACTLY! And it also had her learning that just because society at large judges you, that doesn't mean the important people in your life will be the same, which was a bit I really liked.

[salimbol]

I get massively irritated when stories seem to insist that a woman should conform to society's ideal images, so this was a major point in its favour. I also liked how it showed that, even though she was a bit of a flaky slob at home, she was resolutely competent at work. I'd actually quite like to read the manga of this.
Hmm, come to think of it, Around 40 was another j-drama we watched this year that was about how three women in their late 30s define themselves, when the options offered by society are so very limited. And interestingly enough, they all made somewhat non-standard choices, and came through it with a stronger sense of self and purpose. That might be one you'd like to check out at some point, too. (The fact that it also had Fujiki Naohito in it was just icing on the cake for me :-)

[windxalchemist]

The k-dramas of this year were all a trainwreck. When I say trainwreck, I don't mean the little ones where everyone ends up okay in the end because the train just kind of ran over a cow or something. I mean, like the rain wreck where everyone ends up dying or injured because the dude who was supposed to change the tracks ended up forgetting to and so your train bumped into another guy's train. YEAH. That sort. It was a slow year in the entertainment world.

[meganbmoore]

I'm extremely picky about my kdramas (too many make me want to hurt things) but usually at least a year or two behind everyone else in watching them.