Hi All,

I've been looking around for some Japanese TV shows that are a little more serious in content, or rather, anything but j-drama, but I don't know what category or genre name such shows would have. It may not exist, and it may not be fair for me to expect to find a Japanese show that's like The Wire, or The Sopranos, but surely some shows out there don't involve the typical jdrama/jdrama-comedy characters and style... right? Interestingly enough, I've seen plenty of anime that seems to be much more serious/philosophical in content than any live film/TV, so maybe it's just a cultural thing to direct that sort of content to the anime medium?

Thanks for any suggestions and apologies if I sound pretentious for dismissing jdrama -- I don't -hate- the genre, I just want to explore something different!

Cheers,

k.

P.S. Feel free to forward me to another forum post where I this has almost certainly already been discussed -- I tried searching but I couldn't find a thread (though I never have much luck with the search feature on this forum).

Now's my chance! The Wire and The Sopranos both suck. I'm sorry to say even people I greatly respect seem to like those shows, so I suppose everyone has terrible taste in some area--theirs is in liking those shows. ;p

Now Spartacus, there's a show!

It seems they like to dub and import a lot of those kind of shows from the States, so your best bet would be to watch the "serious" shows you like dubbed in Japanese.

It's a cultural exchange-- American Dramas to Japan, Japanese Anime to America--which culture will absorb the other? Find out on the next edition... j/k

Yeah, at my local Geo, the section for American Dramas (shows you mention) is a lot larger than any single Japanese section.

However, I may note that I went looking for カバチタレ and 花より男子, and both of them were completely checked out, where seasons 1 to 10 of Stargate SG-1 had not a single DVD checked out. Perhaps it's just that people don't like Stargate *shrug*

So, I can't necessarily think off the top of my head any shows that seem to fit your criteria, because they get their "serious show fix" from American shows.

Asriel Wrote:However, I may note that I went looking for カバチタレ and 花より男子, and both of them were completely checked out, where seasons 1 to 10 of Stargate SG-1 had not a single DVD checked out. Perhaps it's just that people don't like Stargate *shrug*

I never watch TV ever, but one of the few shows I do enjoy watching is Stargate. As soon as I can actually watch Japanese TV and have the slightest clue what's going, Stargate is something I'd like to watch. I also watch Holmes on Homes, which is a Canadian home renovation type show... yeah. No way in hell that'll be in Japanese as I don't think many Americans even know what it is

EDIT: @ the OP, stick with the Japanese game shows! It doesn't get much more serious than Human Tetris!

And Geo has 80yen DVD rentals, so that's 8000yen for the entire Stargate SG-1 Experience!!! I'm highly considering "acquiring" these DVDs for myself.

Watch taiga dramas.

You could try tokusatsu or the crap that comes on late nate.

Either that or take this as a warning of things to come MUHUHAHAHA

Thanks for the comments guys.

As far as watching taiga dramas go, is the language in those series overwhelmingly "classical"? I don't know much about the difference in language style, but I've heard a lot of talk about classical Japanese and what not... Ideally I'd watch a show that I both enjoy and glean phrases from, phrases that don't make me sound like an old-school samurai hehe

k.

If you're looking for something serious/philosophical, then why are you watching TV? Read a book or, at the very least, watch a movie.

vileru Wrote:If you're looking for something serious/philosophical, then why are you watching TV? Read a book or, at the very least, watch a movie.

Thanks for your vacuous opinion.

for me .... there's very few good jdramas but they're pretty good. japan variety/talk shows offer me more for the most part.

watashitachi no kyoukasho && gonzo && JIN are good dramas that hopefully fit what you're looking for.............

i haven't watched the new dramas yet but I heard MOTHER is really good. it sounds mad interesitng to me but i have to watch later

howtwosavealif3 Wrote:for me .... there's very few good jdramas but they're pretty good. japan variety/talk shows offer me more for the most part.

Naive question, but where can I download Japanese variety shows, and can you get them with subs?

Any recommendations??

isn't that a contrdiction with what you wrote.
you want serious/philiosophical yet you want subtitles.

I watch stuff on youtube or veoh depending on the show 'n stuff. and like youtube usually removes all the good stuff
random show:

another random show:

アメトーーーク：　

i hate this show for the most part but when they have a good theme... it's interestin'..

shabekuri 007

i know there's subbed eps of cartoon kat-tun and arashi no shukudai but they are boy-bands (hosting the talk/variety show)... i'm not into boy bands but i like arashi no shukudai kun and the early eps of kat-tun where it took place in the studio with the red couch was it?

Fumo Chitai.

I forgot about Liar Game. that show's fun to watch

From what I've noticed there are 4 things on Japanese TV:

-Drama
-Anime
-Variety Shows
-News

Within these four, there's not a tremendous amount of variation.
As for your problem with normal drama, you could do what I did with Jpop and just try to learn to like it.

esgrove Wrote:As for your problem with normal drama, you could do what I did with Jpop and just try to learn to like it.

WHAT??? personally I never did that. I hate jpop but I love japanese music... just not jpop. For me with dramas, most of them are bad or cliche or the typical blahblahblah but there are goood ones. few but they're good.

ahibba Wrote:Fumo Chitai.

Nice, just read the description of this show, sounds great! I hope I can find it somewhere. Thanks!

http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Fumo_Chitai

You have other options: Keyhole TV (which is free), and you can just spin the wheel and see what you get there. The downside is that when you watch live TV from Japan, it's during JST, so if you're in the US, it'll usually be messed-up, time-wise.

Or you can see if you can get TV-Japan where you live. It's not that cheap, but I pay for the convenience of having an NHK feed right there on my TV set. And since it's NHK, there are some non-brain-dead shows there. (And some brain-dead ones, too. I give you Kawaii TV: killer of many brain cells.)

They have a pretty wide variety of shows on there, though. Everything from infotainment-type shows like Gatten! (random science stuff), Cool Japan! (asking foreigners living in Japan if they think random Japanese stuff is cool-- arguments ensue), NihonGo! (discussions about annoying bits of the Japanese language), etc. as well as a lot of news-y shows. There are also the depressing news documentaries with lots of faces blurred out and voices that sound like chipmunks, all talking about dreary things.

They have regular news, morning news (which is longer, more in-depth), news for kids (great props), which uses easier language, etc. You'll learn a lot of political/econ vocab that way. And there are also music shows, some are pop, some are geared to grandpa.

And of course, there's drama. Even though you don't like it.