awesome thank you kindly! Yeah the straight romance kills me though.

Definetly Densha Otoko.

Odoru Daisousen (subs on DVD)
Ikebukuro West Gate Park (no subs)
Kiserazu Cat's Eye (no subs)
Rookies (subs for 1st 4 eps on d-addicts)
Hana Yori Dango (both seasons have subs)
The first half hour of any Gokusen episode (they're all the same drama on the last half hour, 3rd season has subs on d-addicts)
Change (not on DVD yet)
Tiger and Dragon (subs on DVD, and on my computer after I ripped it, heh heh)
Trick (all seasons have no subs)
Galileo (well, it seemed funny to me).

Actually, I guess the above can be considered dramas or dramadies. Still, I laughed with all of these. By subs, I mean Kanji subs.

My little list:

電車男 - Really funny (and　伊東美咲 is breathtaking) The special is a good piece too.
ヤスコトケンジ - Not so intelligent, but definitely funny if you like an アニメ style in a drama
危険な姉貴 - I enjoyed this one too.
ごくせん１２３ - Really nice but too much repetition in the story. However a lot of situations are really funny.
山女、壁女 - Nice dorama (particularly if you like boobs - the topic of the story). They speak a lot of 青森弁, I like it a lot
タイガー&ドラゴン - Who doesn't know it?
2nd ハウス - Definitely funny!

More serious doramas:
Change - If you like politics and 敬語.
エジソンの母 - About education. Nice dorama too.

Watching now:
ブラッディ・マンデイ - One of the best until now, really engaging.
Trick - Really interesting and intriguing.

Are any of these show social satire? I'd be very curious to see an intelligent and funny send up of subtle Japanese social conventions, current events, etc.

mentat_kgs wrote:

Meh, social satires doramas are hard to find. But in anime they are abundant.
I recommend NHKへようこそ

I second that recommendation! I loved that anime

It is not as popular as mass garbage like naruto, but I know a lot of people who apreciate it.

Last edited by mentat_kgs (2008 October 21, 6:14 pm)

Personally, I just started to watch タイガー＆ドラゴン, a drama about rakugo (a form of japanese stand up comedy, very special) and yakuza. I've just seen one episode and safe to say.... it was odd. The more you know about 落語, the better. Already in the first episode there were lots of reference to known stories etc.

I'd like to watch dramas with young women as main characters. Please recommend me some. I want to get better at speaking female japanese.

Thanks

Last edited by CarolinaCG (2010 November 27, 4:55 am)

Asriel wrote:

カバチタレ!
It might be a bit hard to find, but I absolutely loved it when I watched it. You've got both sides -- the uptight lawyer-type, and the ditzy waitress.

My girlfriend really likes ホタルノヒカリ, but I have yet to watch it.

のだめカンタービレ -- It's pretty good, and pretty famous. They had a movie come out a few months ago, so it was pretty popular in Japan when I was there. I watched the entire series in a day. More because I was invited to go to the movie, but they were like "if you haven't seen the drama, you're not gonna get it..." hence the marathon..

Last Friends -- Also pretty famous. Same actress as in のだめ, but you probably wouldn't notice. There's a lot going on in this one, but the main story is about this girl who's a lesbian, and has a hard time in her life because of it. Definitely recommend this one to everyone!!!

花より男子 is also pretty good. I've only seen a few episodes, but it was OK.

Long Vacation is old (well, so is カバチタレ, IIRC) but it's pretty famous -- it seems like whenever I got in conversations about drama with people, this one came up somehow.

There's probably others that I'm just forgetting right now, but those are the first that sprang to my mind.

本当に感謝です！
If I'm able to see any I'll come here and give my opinion too

howtwosavealif3 wrote:

I second hana kimi,nobuta, nodame.

i found kekon dekinai otoko really boring... basically just decide by ep 1 if you like it or not cause the rest are pretty much the same.
i found densha otoko to be a horrible drama... for this one decide within first 10 minutes or so of the first eps... if you find it boring/irritating then you probaly won't like the rest.
...same applies to gokusen....


last friends is not a comedy ....

ALSO I add to the list MOP GIRL

Similar,  Hana Kimi and Nobuta are good,  I enjoyed Maki's last one  the second time watching it.   Atashinchi no danshi  i think it was. 
Densha otoko i thought was really boring, I got sick of the Main characters constant whining by episode 2.

Just watched that AKB48 drama.. Majisuka Gakuen.  TBH  it was absolutely terrible, but all the more enjoyable for it.  it knew it was shit, and made no pretences for actually being any good.  Cheesy, over the top, horrible acting, dodgy fight scenes... and a few poor jokes in there for good measure.

The first season of Hotaru no Hikari was fun, but the second season seemed to drag on after the first few episodes.

I'm currently enjoying Reinoryokusha Odagiri Kyoko no Uso which (apparently) is similar to Trick, though I haven't seen the latter.