RECOMMENDED/FAVORITE JDRAMAS (ask for suggestions here)

Last edited by apples on Tue Apr 04, 2006 11:45 am; edited 2 times in total

Recommend your favorite Japanese Dramas and/or look for recommended Jdramas here.
Future threads for Jdrama recommendations will be merged here.
All Genres' Recommendations
Kdrama Recommendations
Cdrama Recommendations

--added by puccakiss79

THe first jdorama i watched was Beautiful Life... then a few eps of koukou kyoushi and kimi wa petto. when i started a kdrama, beautiful days, i got hooked to it that i stuck with kdrama for a few months now. i wanna start on jdorama again, but where do i begin? i love romance, drama, romance-comedy, or comedy.. as long as it's a good series, i'll try it. any recommendation?

----EDIT-----
Favorites:
Yoshitsune- taiga (history) ; i really love this drama because it takes you to that era, i believe the heian period. 49 episodes may seem long, but it's enjoyable and not draggy (except for the recap). i love rewatching this again, the only problem is i often have a hard time finding a particular scene with 49 episodes.

Grave of Fireflies - history; i heard it's based on an autobiography.. well, prepare a tissue for this one because it's really sad. the kind of drama that anyone can get attached to.

H2 - high school/ some comedy ; just like yoshitsune, one of the few dramas i can watch over and over again.

Hana Yori Dango - high school; based on my favorite anime and manga. i thought i'd be disappointed because they compressed the 30+volume of the manga or 52 episodes of anime into just 9 episodes. true, there are some things that i wished they stuck to, but the way they fit the story into just 9 episodes was pretty good. as a matter of fact, it left me impressed and amazed instead of disappointed. even if you haven't watched Meteor garden or the anime or read the manga, it's still a rather enjoyable drama.

kizarazu cat's eye - friendship/ comedy ; it's hilarious! still an ongoing project by jtv and i'm so curious how it's gonna end.

Princess Hiro - romance/ history;

Heaven's Coins -romance

news no onna- family/career
Beautiful Life -romance
Pride -sports/romance
Trick- mystery
Love Generation - romance
Love Revolution - romance
stand up! - teens/comedy
Mukodono - family/ comedy
Yanpapa - family
Akimahende -family/ comedy
Hitonatsu no Papa -family/ comedy
Hero - mystery
Waterboys - high school/ comedy
Strawberry on the Shortcake aka SOS- high school/ romance

Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2004 11:18 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

For updated version, please click here.

MUST WATCH

Jyoou no Kyoushitsu(Queen's Classroom) - Akutsu-sensei puts Yankumi and Onizuka into shame. I haven't watch Kinpanchi sensei, so disregarding that drama, I have to say that this the best sensei drama I have seen. It stars grade six kids, but even then, this drama would force viewers of all ages to think and speculate what the writer is hitting at. This is both an emotional and intellectual ride which would keep you at the edge of your seats.
One Litre Of Tears - This is truly a life altering drama. The first episode would probably hint a very depressing mood and most people who favor comedy stop at ep01 without seeing the rest. Big mistake, buddy.
Orange Days - The first ever jdrama I seriously fell in love with.
Tiger and Dragon - This drama and the next one are from the same writer(Kudo Kankuro cheers

). The man with a fantastic sense of humour. T&G is one of the funniest drama I've seen(yes, even more so than Densha). Full of wit, charm, a memorable cast, and scenes that would stick with you and make you smile just from the thought of them.
Kisarazu Cat's Eye - I could have cut and paste my comment from T&G, but this one here has its own special place in my list of fave dramas. A silly comedy (when I say silly, I mean it in an endearing way) about 5 goofy guys, each with a unique character thrown in the weirdest situations. When u read the synopsis at jdorama and see the c-word, don't assume like me and think melodrama...IT'S NOT. I almost had stomach cramps from laughing too much while watching this drama. Man, I miss them already and I feel like watching it again.
Dragon Zakura - Sakuragi-sensei might not be a match against Akutsu-sensei, but he's got his own style. A level above GTO, Gokusen and Gachi baka! coz unlike those three school dramas, this one actually teaches! A good drama to marathon, I mean you have no choice...you would want to see the next episode, and the next, and the next...that's how addicting it is.
Gambatte Ikimmashoi - Personally, I think this is 5 or 10 times better than Water Boys. Don't watch 3 episodes and stop, coz this is one of those type that gets better and better after each episode,
H2 - Among Yamada's dramas that I've seen(yes, including Sekachu), I like his character the most in here. A bit of repetition had killed my interest and at some point I thought it was going nowhere. But overall, it's a feel-good show and the ending is really nice.
Lunch Queen - Oh my...this drama would get you hungy and fall in love with Japanese food--especially OMURICE!
Pride - My first ever Kimutaku drama. Now I know what's the fuss about him.
Engine - There's really no chemistry between Koyuki and Takuya, but it doesn't matter...coz the story didnt center around them. It's mostly about a childish Takuya against a bunch of very interesting kids. Again, the first episode is slow, but the following eps till the end will definitely hold your interest.
Million Falling Stars - This is not for the faint of heart. Try to guess what the big secret is while you witness one of Takuya's excellent performances.
Love Generation - I might be biased on this one...but wat the heck...this drama made my heart twist in pain, literally. Teppei sukebe Laugh

...poor Riko Sad

Brother Beat - I haven't finished watching this series yet, but from what I've seen..it deserves to be in this list.
Kimi wa Petto - Don't u think Koyuki is the most beautiful and stylish Japanese actress? Her smile brightens up the whole screen and her tears makes me wanna weep with her. Her connection with Momo(Jun) is more platonic than romantic. And Jun's character in this drama is the total opposite of his Domyouji. It shows you how versatile an actor he is.
Kamisama Mou sukoshi dake - Kyoko's best performace( if u can call it that) and an excellent OST to go with. Have some tissues nearby.
--Must See dramas based on number of downloads/public opinion. Just jump on the bandwagon, alright...if the majority like it, u might fall for it too--
Densha Otoko - all of us here in d-a could probably relate with the plot since we are all otakus in one way or another. Without watching the anime, I find the humor gets better halfway, maybe because I got used to Yamada as I watch more episodes.
Hana Yori Dango - I'm not ashamed to admit this, but I really <3 this drama with its cliches, insuffucient number of episodes and Domyoji's fur coat. Even if I knew the basic plot from watching MG and the anime, the drama felt brand-new and easy to get addicted.
Nobuta wo Produce - The first half was really good. But at some point, I came to develop an affection for the characters, so even if the story is starting to lose half of its magic, it didn't matter. I'll watch it just to get my weekly dose of Nobuta, Shuji to Akira.
Gokusen - whoah, I'll be amazed if you haven't seen this yet.
GTO- One of the classics, make sure to watch it if u dont wanna get behind.
Sekai no chuusin de, ai wo sakebu - I don't really get the hype with this drama. It's a good drama, it has some breathtaking sceneries, excellent actors, beautiful script but I can't really imagine myself riding the whole thing the second time around. It does have some poignant scenes but it still dragged a lot. But do give it a try, the majority really LOVED it...I ain't one of them.

OK dramas

Anego - I started to watch this drama because of Jin, but my attention shifted to its female lead. Ryoko-san is one of the most provocative j-actress I have laid my eyes on. And from all the Older-women/Young-men pairing, the Jin-Ryoko has the best sizzling chemistry. I didn't care about the 10+ age gap, they fit each other perfectly.
Kindaichi Shonen no Jinkenbo 2(Matsumoto Jun) - I love the Kindaichi series. It's genre is kinda like whodunnit mystery dramas. My eyes and ears are glued to the screen whenever Kindaichi Jr. unfolds the mystery. There is some similarities between the culprits on each case...so it'll get more predictable as you watch more cases.
Kindaichi Shonen no Jinkenbo 2005(Kame Kazuya)
My Little Chef - If Lunch Queen gave you feeling of salivating while laughing, this one would make you cry and salivate over French cuisine while showing how it could alter the life of each of its subject.
Good Luck - Again, I didn't like the pairing between Takuya and Shibasaki Kou. But this drama is interesting because you get to see the works behind Airlines.
Koukou Kyoushi - My only problem with this drama is the ending. Other than that, I would have included this on my Must Watch List.
Itsumo Futari de- very entertaining drama about friends turn into lovers.
Waterboys--I'm not really impress with this drama. For 9-10 episodes, they introduced a number of hurdles just to expand the story into 11 episodes when 2 episodes might have been enough. But the comedy keeps you going and the last episode is totally worth it!
Slow Dance- it's like a contemporary long vacation, but the cast is a lot better/funnier and the dialogue more creative. (speaking as a Satoshi fan).
nowhere. But overall, it's a feel-good show but the ending is corny. Ick. hahaha.
Last Christmas - Same feel(not plot) as Slow Dance, except an older leading man and a better pacing.
Shotgun Marriage - Ahhhh, Ryoko Hirosue is too annoying in this drama. Her cutesy acting came pretty close to Kyoko Fukada's level.
Gokusen 2 - It didn't live to its predecessor's name. It's still entertaining though and you won't miss much even if you skip the latter half of some of the episodes.
Kuitan - A detective drama about food! Sometimes, I get the feeling that its target audience is kids for it simplistic layout and no-brainer mysteries.
Star No Koi - A lot of times while watching this drama, I said, "HAHAHAHA, geez, Sosuke is really geeky(ugly) looking. HAHAHA." Not in a bad way, of course. As the drama progresses, I came to like his character...his way of speaking some words..."Hai~"...his humble and nice personality...and these aspects made him handsome inside and out. They say this is the Japanese take on Notting Hill. IMO, I love this version much better.
Stand Up - I'm not a big fan of Anne Suzuki. I also didnt laugh as much as what others had said about this drama.
Kiken na Aniki - The boys like it because of Itoh Misaki from Densha Otoko. I find her unfit for this role.
--OK dramas that some would categorized as a Must Watch--
Summer Snow - It's not that bad nor it is good. The type of drama you watch and forget...but won't leave a bad taste on your mouth.
Long Vacation- This one is a classic. It didn't really appeal to me though regardless of the high votes at jdorama. The age gap between Tomoko and Takuya didnt sit well with me which ruined their supposedly good chemistry with each other.

I didnt like...

Strawberry on the Shortcake--Maybe the reason that made me dislike this drama lies on how the characters were written and acted out-especially Takky and Kyoko's characters. Nevertheless, it wasn't draggy at all, just corny and sometimes irritating. No need to say who makes it irritating. Heh.
Forbidden Love- great beginning but it goes downhill halfway through.

Posted: Sun Dec 12, 2004 11:20 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

hmms...i thought mother and lover was pretty good. but so far only 3 episodes are posted up. however, there are i think 10 RAW episodes up, too?

umm.....Taiyou no Kisetsu i think is good, too. but then, that's probably because I'm a Takizawa Hideaki fan!! SOS was okay....not the best....but not the worst.

Nanisama is pretty funny and Cheap Love is also funny, too. Laugh

Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 8:55 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Check out www.jdorama.com and click on the top 50 and see if you seen any of those around. Ie., its an availability * goodness (times) type of decision. With more emphasis on current availability if you know what I mean.

on that note PPL please cast your ratings good OR bad for a few dramas on that site as often as possible.

conflict of interest: none listed, no connection to outside parties regarding above.. (this is a bad habit I got into when I started writing research papers, I'm trying to get rid of it I"m on step 6 I think)

Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 11:07 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

apples: take pepelepiu's suggestion and check out jdorama.com

then, come back to this forum, click on 'general discussions' and 'completed drama projects'. you'll see what has been completed.

then, you can click on 'seed req' section and click on MoerkJ's 'index of requests'. you can see an overview of what's being seeded, etc.

Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 11:25 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

umm i recommend PRIDE with takuya kimura Wub

just finished watching it this weekend and i think you should definitely watch it!

Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 11:35 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2004 12:30 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Pride is the most satisfactory Kimura drama I have yet seen and I have seen a lot of them. I loved Millions Stars Fell but that was a very dark drama. Great mystery and good actors with him. However for a nice warm 'squooshy' kind of romantic story I loved Pride. He is so mature and sure of himself now. Also has Kenji Sakaguchi as his sidekick ...and that ain't all bad. Takeuchi Yuko is a wonderful choice for leading lady for Kimura. They had that marvellous kiss which is the most normal and passionate kiss I have seen on jdrama or kdrama. Do watch it if you haven't and watch it again with English subs. Sigh..so good... and not bad icehockey games either.

Peggy

Posted: Thu Dec 23, 2004 2:47 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

I'm currently watching pride... after hero and kimi wa petto.. i actually enjoyed hero.. and i'm really loving pride! No wonder Kimura is lead in many drama.. he's a really good actor.

Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2004 3:58 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

I dont know how popular it was with other people, but i really enjoyed "Story of One Century" Smile

...short and sweet Big Smile

Posted: Sat Dec 25, 2004 4:10 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Hmmm, jdramas eh... well, my top vote would be Pride, but since you're already watching it, I guess you already know it's good Cool

... how about Family Values? It's only 5 episodes and has a young and spunky Noriko Sakai in it... Suprise

, just realized that's all the jdramas I watched so far... gak.... gotta find time to watch more this holiday break... Crazy

Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2005 7:24 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

hehe this is about the 5th time I am writing this..Here we go! Must watched:

Romance/Relationship:
1)Tokyo Love Story
2)Long Vacation
3)Koibumi
4)Aoi Tori
5)Koukou Kyoushi

Detective:
1)Sleeping Forest
2)Million Stars Fall From the Sky
3)Hero

Teenager related:
1)GTO
2)Strawberry on the Shortcake

Disability/Health related problem:
1)Beautiful like
2)Hoshi no Kinka
3)Kamisama mou sukoshi dake

Posted: Thu Jan 13, 2005 10:11 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

xiaryx: great list, and by genre too!

i wonder if you saw any of the 'investigator mariko' series or 'odoru daiso sassen' series? i think they could go under your 'detective' category. Big Smile

Posted: Fri Jan 14, 2005 8:51 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Recommended: (the ones that were exceptionally good to me are highlighted):

Profession-Based Dramas:
1.) GTO - Sorimachi Takeshi/Matsushima Nanako
2.) Gokusen - Nakama Yukie/Matsumoto Jun
3.) Good Luck! - Kimura Takuya/Shibasaki Kou
4.) Yamato Nadeshiko - Matsushima Nanako/Tsutumi Shinichi
5.) Shomuni 1 and 2
6.) Koukou Kyoushi 2003 - Fujiki Naohito/Aya Ueto
7.) Dragonzakura - Abe Hiroshi/Hasegawa Kyoko/Koike Teppei/Yamashita Tomohisa
8.) News no Onna - Suzuki Honami/Takizawa Hideaki/Nagatsuka Kyozo
9.) Shota no Sushi - Kashiwabara Takashi

Sad Dramas:
1.) Summer Snow - Dohmoto Tsuyoshi/Ryoko Hirosue/Izumi Chizuru/Oguri Shun/Imai Tsubasa
2.) Beautiful Life - Kimura Takuya/Tokiwa Takako
3.) Taiyou no Kisetsu - Takizawa Hideaki/Izumi Chizuru
4.) Hoshi no Kinka - Takenouchi Yutaka/Noriko Sakai
5.) Shin Hoshi no Kinka
5.) Kamisama mou Sukoshi Dake - Takeshi Kaneshiro/Fukada Kyoko
6.) Majo no Jouken (Forbidden Love) - Takizawa Hideaki/Matsushima Nanako
7.) Sekai no Chuushin de, Ai wo Sakebu - Yamada Takayuki
8.) Itoshi Kimi E - Fujiki Naohito/Kanno Miho

Romance:
1.) Boku Dake no Madonna - Takizawa Hideaki
2.) Long Vacation - Kimura Takuya/Yamaguchi Tomoko
3.) Love Generation - Kimura Takuya/Matsu Takako
4.) Love Revolution - Fujiki Naohito/Oshio Manabu
5.) Kimi wa Petto - Koyuki/Matsumoto Jun
6.) Orange Days - Shibasaki Kou/Tsumabuki Satoshi
7.) Itazura na Kiss - Kashiwabara Takashi
8.) Tokyo Love Story - Suzuki Honami/Oda Yuji

Mystery:
1.) Million Stars Falling from the Sky - Kimura Takuya
2.) Files of Young Kindaichi Series - Dohmoto Tsuyoshi
3.) Trick Series - Nakama Yukie/Abe Hiroshi

Sports-Based:
1.) Pride - Kimura Takuya/Takeuchi Yuko
2.) Water Boys - Yamada Takayuki
3.) Ganbatte Ikimasshoi - Suzuki Anne/Nishikado Ryou/Uchi Hiroki
4.) Ace wo Nerae - Aya Ueto
5.) H2 - Yamada

Family Dramas:
1.) Otousan - Ryoko Hirosue/Fukada Kyoko
2.) Oyaji - Ryoko Hirosue
3.) Hotman - Sorimachi Takeshi/Yada Akiko
4.) Engine - Kimura Takuya/Koyuki

Serious/Darker-Themed Dramas:
1.) Seija no Koushin - Noriko Sakai/Hirosue Ryoko/Ando Masanobu/Towa character
2.) Ikebukuro West Gate Park - Tomoya Nagase/Kato Ai/Koyuki
3.) Tentai Kanzoku - Itoh Hideaki/Koyuki/Sakageuchi Kenji

Comedy:
1.) Kisarazu Cat's Eye - Okada Jucichi/Tsukamoto Takashi
2.) Tiger & Dragon - Nagase Tomoya/Okada Junichi/Itoh Misaki/Tsukamoto Takashi
3.) Mukodono (My Husband) - Nagase Tomoya/Takeuchi Yuko
4.) Stand Up!! - Ninomiya/Oguri Shun/Yamashita Tomohisa
5.) Antique Cake Store - Takizawa Hideaki/Fujiki Naohito/Shiina Kippei
6.) Densha Otoko - Itoh Misaki

Taiga Dramas:
1.) Shinsengumi!
2.) Toshiie and Matsu - Matsushima Nanako/Takenouchi Yutaka/Sorimachi Takeshi
3.) Yoshitsune - Takizawa Hideaki/Aya Ueto/Maki Goto

Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2005 2:58 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Hmmm, recommendations?

1) GTO - I think this is arguably one of the most all time popular dramas around. Funny, yet occasionally with its moments, you can't go wrong watching this show. And Takashi Sorimachi ain't bad to look at either! Laugh

2) Gokusen - Another school drama like GTO, with just as much hilarity!

3) Trick - For all those ex-X-Filerswho love a mix of sci-fi and mystery, without all the dramamtic seriousness (atleast for the most part).