Musings of the Obsessive Kind

Sometimes a drama happens to have it all - the adoration of the fangirls, the stupendous ratings, maybe even an international mania (East of Eden, Hana Yori Dango, Goong, It Started with a Kiss). Whether said adoration is deserved differs from drama to drama, but there it is.

Sometimes the fangirls lack interest but producers do not mind as they are busy counting the chunk of change they get from huge ratings - whether June and Jane obsess over it on-line as they download it in Canada and New Zealand makes little difference to them as long as ajummas and ajusshis make their drama a phenom crushing competition (think most any Korean period drama - Jumong and Queen Seon Deok might not get much discussion on soompi or lj but their ratings were/are insane. Taiga dramas do quite well without the English-speaking part of the internet paying much attention to them).

Or we get the inverse - the ratings struggle but a dedicated core of fans, sometimes smaller, sometimes larger, are devoted to it with mad love - you can always find discussions of it and soompi threads for those dramas go for pages and pages (think my particular favorites Worlds Within, Mawang, or Capital Scandal with hundreds of pages devoted to them on soompi. Sapuri is something half my flist was watching at one time.)

But sometimes there are unlucky dramas that get nothing of that - no decent ratings, no critical love, no fangirl drool. You do not see them generate pages on soompi, you have to dig through d-addicts to find a mention, and your livejournal friendslist is as silent as the grave about them.

For a lot of them, it is richly deserved (I am quite happy with Tamra's pathetic ratings and barely-existent fanbase, and even if I enjoy Dream, it is nothing to write home about).

But for some it is not. What are the dramas you think deserve to be known/loved/received better?

For me there are two, both jdramas.

1. Utahime - in my top 3 Japanese dramas, it is a CRIME Utahime is so poorly known. There aren't even any fanvideos on youtube and vew people have watched it. But it's brilliant, like a Jorge Amado novel transplanted to Japan - the story of a soldier washed ashore in a small remote village with no memory is everything you want a drama to be but it so seldom is - funny and tragic and romantic and brilliantly written and acted.

2. Tatta Hitotsu no Koi - it is also in my favorite jdramas list. It's an old-fashioned romantic story that I couldn't tear my eyes from. My problem with a lot of Japanese dramas is that I find them oddly unimpassioned - lacking in ability to convey love that transcends, unable to make me swoon. Tattakoi makes my belief wrong - it is gossamer delicate and achingly romantic and it made me cry and it made me laugh. It deserves to be better known.

Do you have any you would rescue from the dust heap?

Sometimes a drama happens to have it all - the adoration of the fangirls, the stupendous ratings, maybe even an international mania (East of Eden, Hana Yori Dango, Goong, It Started with a Kiss). Whether said adoration is deserved differs from drama to drama, but there it is.

Sometimes the fangirls lack interest but producers do not mind as they are busy counting the chunk of change they get from huge ratings - whether June and Jane obsess over it on-line as they download it in Canada and New Zealand makes little difference to them as long as ajummas and ajusshis make their drama a phenom crushing competition (think most any Korean period drama - Jumong and Queen Seon Deok might not get much discussion on soompi or lj but their ratings were/are insane. Taiga dramas do quite well without the English-speaking part of the internet paying much attention to them).

Or we get the inverse - the ratings struggle but a dedicated core of fans, sometimes smaller, sometimes larger, are devoted to it with mad love - you can always find discussions of it and soompi threads for those dramas go for pages and pages (think my particular favorites Worlds Within, Mawang, or Capital Scandal with hundreds of pages devoted to them on soompi. Sapuri is something half my flist was watching at one time.)

But sometimes there are unlucky dramas that get nothing of that - no decent ratings, no critical love, no fangirl drool. You do not see them generate pages on soompi, you have to dig through d-addicts to find a mention, and your livejournal friendslist is as silent as the grave about them.

For a lot of them, it is richly deserved (I am quite happy with Tamra's pathetic ratings and barely-existent fanbase, and even if I enjoy Dream, it is nothing to write home about).

But for some it is not. What are the dramas you think deserve to be known/loved/received better?

For me there are two, both jdramas.

1. Utahime - in my top 3 Japanese dramas, it is a CRIME Utahime is so poorly known. There aren't even any fanvideos on youtube and vew people have watched it. But it's brilliant, like a Jorge Amado novel transplanted to Japan - the story of a soldier washed ashore in a small remote village with no memory is everything you want a drama to be but it so seldom is - funny and tragic and romantic and brilliantly written and acted.

2. Tatta Hitotsu no Koi - it is also in my favorite jdramas list. It's an old-fashioned romantic story that I couldn't tear my eyes from. My problem with a lot of Japanese dramas is that I find them oddly unimpassioned - lacking in ability to convey love that transcends, unable to make me swoon. Tattakoi makes my belief wrong - it is gossamer delicate and achingly romantic and it made me cry and it made me laugh. It deserves to be better known.

Do you have any you would rescue from the dust heap?

Yup, posting my Top 10 list made me obsess over Tatta Hitotsu No Koi all over again.

I found this awesome MV for it.

Gosh, how I love this drama!

If I wasn't about to start Love Story (the jdrama I've been meaning to watch for ages), I'd be so up for a rewatch!

It's funny: Kame is so not my type, physically, but I have yet to see him in anything where he wasn't completely excellent and made me fall for his character. I really do think he is my favorite actor among the younger Japanese ones.

You know that I did "Top" lists for My Top 10 dramas: Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese. But what's the fun in separating them, the fun is how they compare, right? So I bring you my Top 10 overall dramas, which consists of 3 kdramas, 2 twdramas and a whopping 5 jdramas. And yes, it's a threeway tie for the first place.

Also, if you know me, it's unsurprising that there are only two dramas on the list which may be classified as "light" and one of them is Capital Scandal, which involves assassinations, freedom fighters and torture, and the other is Utahime, which starts out light and funny only to STOMP ON YOUR HEART. I really should do a Top 10 Best Pick-You Up Dramas, too.

Anyway, without much ado, here is my list:

( List with pics and reasons behind cut )

You know that I did "Top" lists for My Top 10 dramas: Korean, Japanese, Taiwanese. But what's the fun in separating them, the fun is how they compare, right? So I bring you my Top 10 overall dramas, which consists of 3 kdramas, 2 twdramas and a whopping 5 jdramas. And yes, it's a threeway tie for the first place.

Also, if you know me, it's unsurprising that there are only two dramas on the list which may be classified as "light" and one of them is Capital Scandal, which involves assassinations, freedom fighters and torture, and the other is Utahime, which starts out light and funny only to STOMP ON YOUR HEART. I really should do a Top 10 Best Pick-You Up Dramas, too.

Anyway, without much ado, here is my list:

( List with pics and reasons behind cut )

Nothing is as good as a good jdrama, so favorite jdramas are my favorite dramas of all.

I did a Top Jdramas list some time ago, with reasons and vids, but time to update. Why? Well, for one, current dramas number 3-5 weren't even on the list then, because I haven't seen them.

Same rules as earlier apply: it’s all about which are my favorite jdramas? And why? Here is the list of my favorite dozen, with reasons, vids, and pics. Note: no drama that I haven't finished completely is on this list, because who knows how it will turn out. Beautiful Life might end up on the list once I have enough courage to finish it, but am not done yet. Also, I have a 'favorite scene' from each drama, and I described it very briefly, if at all, to make it as unspoilery as possible.

( List behind cut, with reasons, caps and vids )

Since Powerful Opponents made me think about drama endings. Now, we all know about those infamous ‘last minute unhappy endings’ which seem to be tacked on to inflict utmost misery (Glass Slippers’ infamous ending, I am looking at you) or those dramas which would pretty clearly end happily as are giggle-fest or unhappily, as they involve hot people with terminal illnesses.

But how about that rare yet delightful category of dramas: surprising happy endings. Not ones that could have gone either way (Smile Again, QSS) but ones you did not expect at all. Behind the cut are Dangermousie’s Top Dozen Most Surprising Happy Endings.

( My Dozen Here )

Since Powerful Opponents made me think about drama endings. Now, we all know about those infamous ‘last minute unhappy endings’ which seem to be tacked on to inflict utmost misery (Glass Slippers’ infamous ending, I am looking at you) or those dramas which would pretty clearly end happily as are giggle-fest or unhappily, as they involve hot people with terminal illnesses.

But how about that rare yet delightful category of dramas: surprising happy endings. Not ones that could have gone either way (Smile Again, QSS) but ones you did not expect at all. Behind the cut are Dangermousie’s Top Dozen Most Surprising Happy Endings.

( My Dozen Here )

You know how I did a list for my favorite kdramas, here (even if it already has to be revised, seeing that The Legend is my fave kdrama ever, and actually my fave drama, period). Well, this is my Top 10 jdramas list.

Same rules apply: it’s all about which are my favorite jdramas? And why? Here is a Top 10 list, with reasons, vids, and pics. Note: no drama that I haven't finished completely is on this list, because who knows how it will turn out. Beautiful Life might end up on the list once I have enough courage to finish it, but am not done yet. Also, I have not yet seen a lot of famous jdramas (Friends, Million Stars, 1 Litre etc), because of a recent kdrama binge, which is about to give way to a jdrama one, so my list might be very different a few months from now ;) Also, I have a 'favorite scene' from each drama, and I described it very briefly, if at all, to make it as unspoilery as possible. Except for the Top 3, the places within Top 10 get reshuffled quite often. A drama I rank number 8 this week might be number four next ;) But the content of Top 10 stays the same.

( List behind cut, with reasons, caps and vids )

ETA: Yes, I plan to do the same list for Taiwanese dramas as well. But I need to finish a few twdramas I am currently watching first (Romantic Princess, Corner with Love, My Lucky Star) so as to know whether they should be included.

I have realized this morning that in three jdramas I’ve seen the male protagonist’s father killed himself. Seeing that I haven’t seen dozens and dozens jdramas, I think this is a curious concentration of that theme. So being me, I decided to blab and meta about it obsessively, to compare and contrast the treatment of this topic in Tatta Hitotsu No Koi, Kurosagi and Taiyou No Kisetsu.

Hmmm, maybe I should do a scholarly paper or similar, ‘The abandoning father in Japanese drama’ Heh.

( Thoughts on the issue )