mokudekiru

Now that 2007 is over, I would just like to look back and reflect on some of the great jdramas of the year. As the primary thief of my free time (besides school, of course), I certainly spent several days in 2007 JUST watching jdramas, and when I couldn’t, I wish I could have. Many were actually on-air this year, but I managed to go back and rewatch some old classics I’d never seen. Below are some blurbs on the three most recent I finished.

Dramas I watched in 2007 (in somewhat chronological order, links go to the D-addicts Wiki):

Hana Yori Dango 2
Sekai no Chuushin de, Ai wo Sakebu
Nodame Cantabile
Stand Up!!
Gokusen
Tiger & Dragon
Dragon Zakura
Propose Daisakusen
Bambino!
Kekkon Dekinai Otoko (second viewing)
Hanazakari no Kimitachi e
Papa to Musume no Nanokakan
Hotaru no Hikari
Life
GTO
Orange Days
Yamato Nadeshiko
Manhattan Love Story (second viewing)

And for the most recent three, which I started over Thanksgiving and finished during Winter Break:

Orange Days (2004):

A cute story about five college students trying to find out who they are. The main character is Kai, a guy who falls for a deaf girl named Sae. She was a musician before (violinist) but is now struggling with what she should do now that she is deaf. She has a strong, defensive personality, and communicates solely through sign language, much of which is angry and rude. Kai is able to help her get over her insecurities, but the whole friend group is supportive and represents an idyllic time of youthful happiness.

The best part of this show is by far the sign language conversations. They’re subtitled in Japanese, but since you’re seeing it, it’s a lot harder to ignore than purely verbal subtitles, and as a result you pick up some signs as you watch. Japanese sign language is fairly closely related to the spoken Japanese language (I think), and unrelated to American Sign Language, etc. So unfortunately, I’m not sure learning would be particularly useful, but as of now, I have a vocabulary of commonly used phrases, including: “Really”, “Good,” “That’s wrong,” “But,” “Are you ok?” “Yummy,” “Go together,” “I love you,” and my personal favorite, “I’ve said too much.”

Great Teacher Onizuka (1998):

GTO is a classic hit; manga, anime and drama. It focuses on this slightly gangster guy, Onizuka, who decides to become a high school teacher. His teaching methods are more forward and direct than the other teachers (and students) would like, but soon after, he finds a group of loyal followers among his students, and eventually wins over the hearts of everyone. It’s a little cartoonish (due to its manga roots), but there’s actually less fighting than I expected. This drama is the forerunner to an entire genre of gangsters-in-school dramas — the insanely popular Gokusen is essentially the same story, but the lead is a *female* gangster (part of a yakuza family), Dragon Zakura (which features another gangster teacher, but this time the focus of the story was on academics, surprisingly enough), and My Boss My Hero, in which a gangster poses as a typical high school student. This almost seems to be a fantasy of the Japanese entertainment world — that in a completely normal school, a fellow teacher or student could be a gangster. The juxtaposition of the carefree gangster type, the proper schoolteachers (particularly the female lead, played by Matsushima Nanako), and the cutesy, silly schoolkids, is amusing. Bonus: GTO features a REALL young Oguri Shun (like, his voice hasn’t changed), playing one of the students in Onizuka’s class.

Yamato Nadeshiko (2000):

Another classic drama: a romance about gold-digging stewardesses. Matsushima Nanako is a flight attendant from humble roots, completely obsessed with finding the richest man she can, and marrying him. She is engaged to a doctor, and yet goes on group dates with the other stewardesses (actually, she arranges them), looking for status symbols like designer suits, pins, keys of expensive cars, etc., spending an evening on a date with them, getting some kind of expensive gift out of the situation, and then never calling the guy back. She mistakenly falls for a guy who she believes to be rich (he’s borrowing clothes from some rich friends, etc.), who actually is a former mathematician who has taken over his deceased father’s corner fish shop. Once she hears the truth, she begins to hate this guy, and yet they seem to keep being involved in each others’ lives. In the end, she’s not as shallow as even she thought she was. Her shallow, gold-digging moments are some of the drama’s best though — she likes to tell everyone, particularly younger flight attendants, that “Yes, money CAN buy happiness.” The line she uses on every rich guy she sees is, “I have the feeling I’ve met that special someone tonight.” It’s cheesy, and yet it works. One of the best scenes is when her apartment is burning down, she wants to run back into it to gather up some expensive clothes she’s spent so long collecting. Shinichi (the main guy), runs in for her, almost dies in the process, but brings back one dress of hers. He’s coughing on the ground outside after being rescued by firemen, and her reaction is, “this is the ONLY thing you got?? What about all my other clothes?!” Another great thing about this show is that the fiance, who is an important character throughout, is not a bad guy. He fails to notice her running between dates with him and several other men, always accepts her excuses, and allows her to push him around with threats of canceling the wedding, but aside from being a little bit naive, he’s a good guy, and eventually comes through in the end to help her out.

It’s been a great year for dramas. Based on the fact that most shows are 11-12 episodes long, and are basically 1 hour long, I can safely say I’ve spent over a week total just watching Jdramas. Here’s to 2008 is just as drama-filled!