Hey there. I’ve watched tons of anime and I want to move on. I really want to watch some J-Dramas as a part of my japanese learning journey.
So today I went on Rakuten viki and checked the J-Drama section. But to my surprise, I could almost only find dramas that were about Boys Love. And the other couple were about “straight” romance.
To be clear – I’m not homophobic. That’s just not the genre i’m interested in as a straight male. So I have to wonder.. can you reccomend me J-Dramas in the gernes comedy, thriller, horror, slice of life?
Greetings from Germany.
14 comments
You can try some Tokusatsu like kamen rider or super sentai. Though they are made for kids it has some elements of anime if you are into it.
Some of the shows I watched that I liked, mostly comedies (they’re probably not all on Viki at all tho):
Kyou kara ore wa!! (Yankee comedy)
Confidence Man JP (comedy)
Legal High (comedy)
逃げるは恥だが役に立つ (rom com)
Dragon Zakura (comedy/drama)
Gokusen
Trick
Arimura Kasumi no satsukyuu (really good honestly, every episode is a different setting/genre)
結婚できない男 (kekkon dekinai otoko) was extremely amusing and is by far my favorite Jdrama, gotta love me some Abe Hiroshi.
Princess Jellyfish is good if you like over the top acting.
If you have Netflix and know how to use VPN I recommend it for live action Japanese tv and film.
Just watched 日本人が知らない日本語 in YouTube with jp subs.
Can recommend if you are around N3.
These can be found on Netflix (at least in the US region). These are just of few I remember off the top of my head that are not specifically about love/romance
今際の国のアリス (based on a manga but it is classified as ドラマ)
愛なき森で叫べ
泣く子はいねぇが (movie)
Not sure where to watch it these days, but I remember really enjoying Kisarazu Cats Eye
深夜食堂 Midnight Diner (shinya shokudou)
野ブタをプロデュース is an eternal favourite of mine- a high school drama with a lot of heart and character growth. it’s about a gloomy girl who transfers to a new school, and the most popular guy and… a *really* quirky guy in her class try to be her ”producers” to make her more popular. it focuses a lot on friendship and personal growth and it is very touching, with a lot of comedy sprinkled in.
Not a show but this movie fs was interesting it’s called ちひろさん (English name: Call me Chihiro)
Really heartful movie. slice of life purely but I watched it and was surprised how much I understood since they talked relatively slowly compared to other movies/shows
I’m a beginner, would you recommend English subtitles or no?
Unnatural and MIU404 are both crime procedurals with good scripts. I think MIU404 is even on Netflix
ブラッシュアップライフ, the new 日曜ドラマ that just ran on Nippon TV, (also on Hulu Japan) was great; script written by バカリズム. Most episodes were also available on TVer, which is a handy free app.