It occurred to me recently that perhaps I was giving Japanese dramas a bad rap. That I wasn’t giving them enough of a chance, just because stuff like Tokyo Love Story was dry and wooden and terribly, terribly acted doesn’t mean all j-dramas are equally terrible. I mean, Oshin was good (bloody good), Sensitive Samurai was good too. Who knows, I might chance upon something else I liked.
That’s what I was thinking when I started downloading j-dramas from the fansubbing group JPSEEK. If you’ve ever been to their site, you’ll know they sub stuff…in Chinese. Which I speak very little of. I can’t even find my way around their website; I have to use Tokyotosho. Why get the Chinese subs and not just raws, you ask? Simple, because raws are HUEG LIEK XBOX. Even English subs average about 400mb per episode, as against around 250mb for jpseek subs. I don’t have the internet speed for that, I average about 20kb/s IF I’m lucky, so huge files are a luxury I don’t have. Plus I’m only going to delete them when I done, so no need for super-high quality or anything.
And so, with that established, I started with Last Friends. I consciously stayed away from any reviews/previews/summaries. In fact I didn’t even know what the series was about, and I liked it that way. So with one episode out of the way… it’s pretty bad. Yah, cheesy, pretentious, overly melodramatic, badly-acted… pretty, though. I think I could get through this. I think I’ve built up some immunity over the years by forcing myself to sit through crappy anime like Shuffle!, Maburaho and School Days (guilty pleasure, but I couldn’t do it again), and if I can watch those then Last Friends should be a breeze, right? The actors are plastic enough that I can pretend they’re just anime characters anyway. But seriously, what is it with j-drama and long, dramatic pauses in the dialogue? It makes things really awkward, if you ask me.
Anyway, a j-drama episode a day on top of my reps, sentences, reading and radio-listening is just what I need to kick my Japanese learning to a new level. It’s been 10 weeks since I started All Japanese All The Time* and I’m definitely seeing results!
*and over 6 years since I started learning Japanese…
There are so many good dramas to pick from. If you haven’t seen them, I recommend: Dragon Sakura, Nobuta wo Produce, Hana Yori Dango, Kimi wa Petto, Gokusen 1, Summer Snow
I’ll skip on Hana Yori Dango cos I read the manga, but thanks for the other suggestions!
Does that mean you read the manga and didn’t like it? Sometimes j-dramas can be completely ridiculous, which is one reason I like them. They don’t take themselves too seriously. Another fun thing to watch is “D no Arashi,” which is a variety show hosted by some people from a pop-band. It’s hilarious, plus it is good Japanese practice because a lot of time when people talk, the text pops up on the screen like a subtitle.
No, I meant I read it and liked it (though I could read it again) so I don’t see the need to rehash the story. About D-Arashi, are you talking about D no Arashi? I’m definitely leaning more towards watching variety shows instead of dramas. The dramas are easier to understand, but variety shows are more spontaneous and they talk more like regular Japanese people do.