Jdrama

[astaroth]

スゴイ

[Sairana]

Hana Yori Dango
I tried watching this show twice and couldn't get past the first half of the first episode... but when I finally made it past that, I watched both series and now consider it one of my favorites. It really is a great series once you get into it. Give it a chance! I'm glad I did.

Awesome drama..... but I liked the Chinese version better. ^_^

Gokusen
A little silly, but a great series. Classic.

I liked this better than GTO. Yukie Nakama is also really good in Trick.

Regarding Orange Days, I haven't seen it, but it sounds similar to Aishiteiru to Ittekure, which aired in 1995. Have you seen both, and is Orange Days better?

[koyama22]

I did watch "Aishiteiru to Ittekure" and yeah, they are very similar. Just the deaf person roles are switched, guy <--> girl, and the environment is different. They were actually both written by the same screenwriter, Eriko Kitagawa, so "Orange Days" has a lot of similarity to "Aishiteiru to Ittekure."

Looking back, I think I prefer "Orange Days," I just liked the characters more. Also, the environment they are in, University, like me, really hit home. For some reason, I don't remember developing as much of a liking to the characters, namely the lesser characters, in "Aishiteiru to Ittekure" as I did the ones in "Orange Days." Also, I have a desire to re-watch "Orange Days" a lot, but not so much with "Aishiteiru to Ittekure." Maybe I should re-watch it, but "Aishiteiru to Ittekure" is definitely a classic JDrama, while "Orange Days" is more recent.

Overall, I think they are both great shows, but "Orange Days" gets the edge.

[astaroth]

I have a desire to re-watch "Orange Days" a lot

I quite know what you mean!
It has some low tones though, but overall it was a very enjoyable dorama. Have you watched Dororo? Completely different story I know, but it sports the same actors. I didn't yet, it's on my netflix queue though.

[koyama22]

I've seen Dororo, it was really enjoyable! Both of them work so well together. The CG was mostly crappy, but the action wasn't bad at all. Definitely can't wait for the sequal(s). It's so nice to watch a movie/drama where the actors are just so fun to watch.

[JaySee]

I've tried watching J-drama a few times, but I somehow never really got into it... and the things I did see I didn't really like anyway. But since almost everyone I know who is interested in Japan seems to love it (and I guess it makes for good listening practice), I figured I should really try to sit down and watch one or two series. The problem is, there's just so much out there, even in this thread alone over 20 different series are mentioned. Most series out there seem to be of the romantic kind with someone bursting out in tears at least once every 10 minutes... and that's really not my cup of tea. I do like historical settings, but then judging from the small bits of the historical dramas that I have seen here and there the themes seemed to be pretty much the same as those of the modern romantic stuff, only set a couple of hundred years ago. I might as well be wrong on this though, because there really isn't any series which I have watched more than 15 minutes.

So if anyone has a good suggestion for something to start out with (preferably something relatively "popular" and not of the extremely romantic kind, if that isn't mutually exclusive)... I'll be happy to know

[astaroth]

I've tried watching J-drama a few times, but I somehow never really got into it...

It could be target. You might have watched a dorama which had a completely different target.
Also the target can be even cultural after all they are written by Japanese for Japanese. That being said I like them a lot, the first dorama I watched was CHANGE which is about politics and speaking of cultural differences the political issues shown there sadly resemble those of Italy. ("Sadly" because I would never want anyone to have a politics resembling Italian even by a bit ... )

So if anyone has a good suggestion for something to start out with (preferably something relatively "popular" and not of the extremely romantic kind, if that isn't mutually exclusive)... I'll be happy to know

The dorama we were discussing オレンジデイズ I personally liked it a lot, but it's probably too much romantic for you
Another good dorama I watched was 雨と夢の後に. It's very good, a bit romantic but not a love story. You might try it.
Also I heard My Boss My Hero is hilarious, and so, but in different way, is Kekkon Dekinai Otoko. Other good dorama I heard about and I'll try to watch are: Gokusen, Nodame Cantabile, and Last Friends.

Hope you'll find something you'll like. A good thing about dorama is that they are short: the entire story is no longer than 11 episodes.
And I think it's true: they're a good listening practice.

[Sairana]

So if anyone has a good suggestion for something to start out with (preferably something relatively "popular" and not of the extremely romantic kind, if that isn't mutually exclusive)... I'll be happy to know

GTO isn't romantic. There might be some romantic tension between Onizuka and his hot female co-worker, but it's not the teary-eyed kind.

Trick, linked in my post a little ways up, was a good one. It's not historical, but it's not romantic, either. It's about a decent stage magician (played by Yukie Nakama) who ends up working with a detective investigating a cult. The plot basically revolves around magic tricks and Yukie explaining them to the detective... but it's fun, the dialog isn't particularly deep, and one of the magic tricks involves a little play on words unique to Japanese. ^_^

For historical, I heard Yoshitsune was good, but I haven't managed to get my hands on the episodes to speak from experience.

Do some experimentation on your own, too. Crunchyroll.com has a lot of dramas you can watch for free. The quality isn't great, usually, but you can get an idea from there if a series is one you like and you can find it elsewhere. However, he doesn't carry anything that's been licensed for US distribution, so a lot of the dramas might be the "less popular" ones.

Once you start watching dramas, you may find you like some of the actors, so you can use that as a springboard for finding the next one you watch. Jdorama.com cross-links all the actors and dramas in their very comprehensive database, making that kind of lookup extremely convenient. Enjoy, and don't forget to report back what you found and what you like. ^_^

[koyama22]

JaySee,

I would definitely recommend that you try out CHANGE, I saw it recently and it is an incredibly interesting and uplifting political drama that stars Kimura Takuya, a prolific JDrama actor. Actually, pretty much any of Kimura Takuya's dramas are a safe bet, though many veer towards the romantic stuff. HERO and Pride are both very good as well (and star very cute ladies alongside KimuTaku).

I'll have to recommend one more for you, and that is "Ikebukuro West Gate Park." It is just so unique. And hilarious. And strange but in a good way. And...Kubozuka Yosuke is in it!

[JaySee]

Thank you all for the suggetions! I've decided I'm going to give Trick, GTO and Change (if I can find it) a go. I'll let you know what I think of them once I've seen a few episodes

[astaroth]

koyama, are you a big fan of Tsumabuki Satoshi? I just looked for Ikebukuro on d-addicts and Tsumabuki Satoshi is starring also there
I'll give it a try. It sounds quite fun.

[lastlife]

IWGP is fun. Probably the only drama I can watch over again without being bored

[koyama22]

Haha, yeah, you can say that I'm a big fan of Tsumabuki Satoshi. He brings a lot to the screen and is always fun to watch. I guess since I saw "Waterboys"(movie), I've been a fan--he's pretty funny and is really good at the "forced smile" haha. It helps that he's really popular in Japan and has starred in a ton of films (less and less dramas nowadays).

I forgot Tsumabuki was in IWGP, when I think of that drama I think Nagase Tomoya and Kubozuka Yosuke. He had a supporting part.

[nauki]

Hmmm.....if you want something that is going to make you laugh, I would go with Hana-Kimi(JP version). I just got done watching the series and it is srsly funny! Each episode is about an hour long and there are only 12 episodes but it is well worth it. The best place to watch it at would have to be veho.

[FrozenFlame]

I recommend you watch

1.Mr.Brain

2.Bloody Monday

3.Team Medical Dragon

Those movies are awesome, and those what I watched before ^^,, also :

4.Papa to Musume

5.( teary drama ) One liter of Tears

btw, I'm a big fan of Takuya Kimura and that old 'ji-san' I forgot his name.
Also the main actress of Papa to Musume I forgot her name