Irasshaimase!

Irasshaimase and welcome to Dorama Suki! This blog is intended to offer information about and my opinions on various dramas. Since I am studying Japanese, most of the things reviewed here will be from Japan; however, I am also a fan of Koran dramas and occasionally watch Taiwanese dramas, so reviews of those may sneak in from time to time, and possibly movie reviews as well.

Japanese dramas in a nutshell:

Just as with American dramas, there are various genres of Japanese dramas, from the “soaps” to those targeted at a younger audience. This blog will deal with the latter, the trendy/post-trendy dramas. These are dramas different from their predecessors. They emerged starting around 1990, often dealing with love, home life, and social issues. They are named “trendy” dramas because they are about people living glamorous lifestyles and doing glamorous things—in other words, these are dramas that target a fairly young core demographic.

Other types of Japanese dramas:
Asadora- lit. “morning drama.” These dramas began on NHK broadcasting channel (similar to PBS, only on a much larger scale). Targeted toward the middle-aged housewives, these dramas run every morning for 15 minutes and can go on for years. A very famous one is called Osshin, which ended after 294 episodes.
Jidaigeki- lit. “period dramas.” These dramas generally take place in the Edo period, from around 1600 to 1868. Sort of like Westerns only with samurai.
Tokusatsu- lit. “special effects.” These are the dramas with superheroes, monsters, and giant robots. Think Power Rangers.

There are four three-month seasons in Japanese dramas: Spring (April-June), Summer (July- September), Autumn (October-December), and Winter (January-March). While Japanese trendy dramas tend to run 9-12 weeks, one episode per week, Korean dramas usually run between 16-24 episodes and air twice a week. Surprisingly, new episodes of Japanese dramas are filmed only two to three weeks before they are aired, which means that scripts for dramas are flexible and often change based on audience reception of the drama. Ratings are important to dramas, and some have argued that the golden age of dramas is over; rarely does a current drama get above 20% ratings. Still, the selection of actors for and the music in a drama play a large role in achieving good ratings. It is rare for a Japanese drama to have a sequel, though this happens more often with dramas from other East Asian countries.

Asian and Korean dramas especially are rapidly gaining popularity not just in Asia, but all around the world. The other year there was even an article in the CSU newspaper about Korean dramas and how more and more people are beginning to watch them. Overall, people find them less violent and racy than American dramas and the like, generally more about true love than having sex every two seconds. With many of these dramas available either on the internet or for sale and the large number of people who volunteer their time to translate these dramas for the rest of the world, it is no surprise that their popularity continues to spread.

If you have thoughts or comments on any of the dramas I review, or would like me to review a specific drama, just let me know! :)

In the meantime, I leave you with a Bobby Lee MadTV parody of Korean dramas: