I really miss IceCream's drama guide she wrote up last year. It was a really nice way to gauge what was good from their opinions and synopsis, and also provided a rating of difficulty to know if I should SRS it or not. Does anybody have a guide for this season? It doesn't matter if they've ended recently or just started. I want something that I can find subtitles for and that I'll enjoy. Then I'd just like to ask IceCream if she plans on doing one again. They are great, although they also look like a lot of work so I'd understand if you didn't or don't plan to.

In the case that you did make one, I hope I haven't missed it.

I would like to see a list of what others like, too. I need more to watch. I just took a look at Winter 2011 on jdorama.com and I think -might- like:

Control ~ Hanzai Shinri Sousa - Cop drama

Heaven's Flower ~ The Legend of ARCANA - Future, apocalypse, assassin, police, romance. What DOESN'T this have?

LADY ~ Saigo no Hanzai Profile - Police Profiler. 'Nuff said.

Deka Wanko - Policewoman with a really good sense of smell? That's just crazy enough to work.

Misaki Number One!! - Teaching troublemakers. Cliche, but could be good.

URAKARA - A for-hire seductress? Hmm... Maybe!?

Edit:

Fall 2010:

Reinoryokusha Odagiri Kyoko no Uso - She pretends to be psychic, but is actually just a really good detective. Sounds awesome. Hopefully better than the US's Psych.

Marks no Yama - Policeman is ordered not to investigate a murder. Of course, he does!

Thanks for your input. I accidentally found a recent one with Inoue Mao (who I think is the hottest woman alive).

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

獣医ドリトル

"Tottori Kenichi is a foul-mouthed but gifted veterinarian nicknamed Dolittle. His catch phrase is 'pet care means business'. He is the director of his animal clinic and rescues not only 'voiceless' pets but also helps their owners, who lack understanding and caution, with their problems and worries. Working with him is animal nurse Tajima Asuka. Hanabishi Masaru is Dolittle's friend, a charismatic vet and host of a popular TV animal show who is good at making diagnosis but has a secret as he could not overcome his phobia of operating on animals. The drama focuses on the friendship between those 3 and tries to teach viewers about human-pet relationships."

I may not watch it because it'll have a fair amount of medical terms, I believe. Also, as much as I love Inoue Mao I can't help but thinking this will be overly cheesy. Sure it's a drama, but sometimes I'm a bit annoyed by how far they take it.

Just watched half the first Marks No Yama. At first, I thought I was doing really well, but then they started on the police speak. And speaking really fast. And slurring their speech because they think it sounds manly. And at about halfway through, I realized it's really boring. Nothing ever happens... They always show everything after the fact. Guy gets shot, they only show the dead body. Guy gets hung, they only show the dead body. Etc, etc. For some of that, it's to preserve the mystery I'm sure, but... There's got to be SOME action.

wccrawford Wrote:Reinoryokusha Odagiri Kyoko no Uso - She pretends to be psychic, but is actually just a really good detective. Sounds awesome. Hopefully better than the US's Psych.

Nothing to add here except that this show is very funny and that wccrawford best be joking when he says that's US's Psych is bad. You're either too old or too young to get the references, or you don't know good TV. If you don't already watch Psych, you're missing out. It's amazing.

Ryuujin27 Wrote:

wccrawford Wrote:Reinoryokusha Odagiri Kyoko no Uso - She pretends to be psychic, but is actually just a really good detective. Sounds awesome. Hopefully better than the US's Psych.

Nothing to add here except that this show is very funny and that wccrawford best be joking when he says that's US's Psych is bad. You're either too old or too young to get the references, or you don't know good TV. If you don't already watch Psych, you're missing out. It's amazing.

lol I watched it for 3 seasons. The first season was really good... After that, it went downhill. If you're just looking for a comedy, it's probably good. I need more than that.

Ryuujin27 Wrote:

wccrawford Wrote:Reinoryokusha Odagiri Kyoko no Uso - She pretends to be psychic, but is actually just a really good detective. Sounds awesome. Hopefully better than the US's Psych.

Nothing to add here except that this show is very funny and that wccrawford best be joking when he says that's US's Psych is bad. You're either too old or too young to get the references, or you don't know good TV. If you don't already watch Psych, you're missing out. It's amazing.

I love Psych, for the record. The Mentalist, however... so lame how blatantly they ripped off the premise of Psych. Although don't let me deduce this thread to a discussion on an American show.

TheVinster Wrote:I love Psych, for the record. The Mentalist, however... so lame how blatantly they ripped off the premise of Psych. Although don't let me deduce this thread to a discussion on an American show.

Hilarious. Mentalist is everything I wanted Psych to be!

wccrawford Wrote:lol I watched it for 3 seasons. The first season was really good... After that, it went downhill. If you're just looking for a comedy, it's probably good. I need more than that.

Tsk, tsk. You missed most of the Yin and Yang saga as well as Shawn and Juliet finally getting together.

But the show is still hilarious. Particularly the second episode of the christmas bunch (they did two, one normal and one christmas. The normal episode is especially funny). But to each their own.

Hey, no more Psych talk. I need more recommendations!

I dunno if you can take this as a recommendation, but from twitter the other day. XD
"@sprsk: Getting mad lesbian vibes from 美しい隣人"
http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Utsukushii_Rinjin

This isn't really what you're asking for but you can get the details of winter 2011 dramas here: http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Upcoming_JDrama

D addicts forum is also a good place for opinions / popularity of dramas

That heavens flower one sounds starts tonight... looks good, in a ドラマ sense of the word

also found a good summary page here: http://www.tokyograph.com/articles/Winte...ama_Lineup

So I watched 美しい隣人 last night: definitely got the lesbian vibes...but also some pedophilic tones as well...
It's quite easy to understand. They speak slow, clear, and polite. The two main characters just meet, so this could change as the series goes on. I think I'll continue watching -- at least for a few episodes to see how it goes. The titular neighbor is weird, and I'd like to see how it progresses.

Heavens Flower is just finishing up. I kinda like it so far. It's relatively dark, and I'd like to see where it goes. Plus, it's 20 minute episodes as opposed to 40, which I like. It's harder to understand than 美しい隣人, and not showing signs of getting simpler.

I'm also going to take a look at Gou, because I've never given that kind of show a chance. Plus, if Ueno Juri is in it, then it's gotta have some merit.

Iryu season 3 is out now. It's rare for a Japanese drama to have a second season, much less a third, so that's saying something. The show, named "Team Medical Dragon" in English, is about an award-winning heart surgeon and his team of doctors. It has good character development, which is surprising for a Japanese medical drama. It's available in English and Japanese subtitles now. I'm watching it in Japanese subtitles for studying purposes.

I'm going to give 美しい隣人 a shot. For the record I recently finished フリーター、家を買う. I'm still terrible at understanding spoken Japanese, so I can't really grade the story or anything besides what I interpreted visually. Seemed kind of bland overall. He got around 320,000円 on one of his final part-time job checks near the end of the season, yet throughout all of these episodes he is looking for a different job (at an office or whatever). I would be just fine with that much on a check. Okay now I'm just going off in some odd direction.

Just to throw this out there, if you want an old drama go watch 恋ノチカラ. I like this one, but it's from 2002! It's a basic romance story.

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


this show looks awful
i am so looking forward to it



i liked reinoryokusha odagiri kyoko no uso. the beginning was kinda rough but it definitely improves as it goes on. i became a fan of tanihara sousuke and ishihara satomi. didn't like oshima yuko at first but she got a lot better as the show went on, as an akb48 fan the episode with the idol was hilarious. it's not particularly serious, it's more of a comedy, and it comes from the people who did liar game.