Whats happening with Japan?

[anisahx]

Hopefully no one will take this post in the wrong way because
I FREAKIN' LOVE JAPAN

But recently the japanese fandom seems to be decreasing and being replaced by korea

Once upon a time ( about 2 years ago )
Youtube was covered in my faveourite japanese variety shows, drama musics videos and music pvs and fanvid

Now i can barely find scraps here and there

I cant find most of the variety shows i used to watch or the people who used to sub them

My fave actors havent been doing any dramas recently and well i cant find any new
Jdramas that are how they used to be
Funny like Hana Kimi and Nobuta Wo Produce
Keepin you on your toes like Majo Saiban, Maou and Saigo no Yakusoku
Awesome like Kurosagi and Ryusei no Kizuna
And beautiful like Hana Yori Dango and 1 litre of tears

Its almost as if Korea is the place for all this now ( i also love korean everything )

I still love japan but whats happened
Please dont bash me
If you disagree please help me find
The japan i love once again

[masaka___]

Japanese Entertainment is Becoming Decentralized and Peer-to-Peer

I think that Japanese people are relying less on corporations and more on themselves for their entertainment. There seems to be a big and growing culture of people taking art into their own hands. Go to NicoNicoDouga or YouTube and check out all the 踊ってみた(odottemita) and 歌ってみた(utattemita) videos. The majority of that content is non-professional but of surprisingly high quality. They're not even covering their favorite artists. They're creating and performing their own art and sharing it among themselves.



http://www.youtube.com/user/Treetopfan

It's a very human expression of the peer-to-peer ideas that have had so much impact in the computing world.

[Myxale]

Among that, there is also the fact that the Korean-Government actively sponsors and endorses the whole K.-Wave.

The Entertainment Industry in Korea has some really impressive numbers and they also merge tourism with the entertainment industry. Many Japanese ( for example ) travel in regular intervals to to Korea to visit fan-meetings and performanes...and whatnot.

There is lots of money involved. All over the globe.

The Japanese don't have the equivalent of it.

[Romance]

A few years ago there werent that much to choose from here on d-addicts, so every drama that got uploaded/subbed got extremely much attention. These days there is way too much to choose from, people dont feel its "special" anymore. The interest is decreasing.

Oh i miss the days where everyone watched the same drama here on d-addicts and the discussion threads were like rollercoasters

[Myxale]

+1 Great post. Rom.

Today most people have access to k-or-j dramas and media, and therefore this kind of hobby has too become mainstream-ed like fast-food.

[Sorvaseven]

this kind of hobby has too become mainstream-ed like fast-food.

haha, nice comparison

My only concern is that the quality of the jdramas will deteriorate due to falling ratings. Just a few years ago I read a lot of raitings over 20% to 30%, but recently there aren't that much of them... With falling rates the sponsorships will be decline too and therefore the invesment and effort of the TV stations will be less i guess. However, this is not the case so far, so we should not worry so much

EDIT: Found something in the New York Times about this topic. It's from 2005, but nevertheless interesting! http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/world ... korea.html

[Keiko1981]

Once upon a time ( about 2 years ago )
Youtube was covered in my faveourite japanese variety shows, drama musics videos and music pvs and fanvid
Now i can barely find scraps here and theren

YouTube is quite fast of taking down copyrighted movies.
There are dozens of other alternatives.
I haven't been into the Kdrama wave that much, but I agree with you that the Japanese dramas popularity seems to be going down a little, but as others have said, it could also be because of the large amount of dramas that is available nowadays.

[ryoko11]

A few years ago there werent that much to choose from here on d-addicts, so every drama that got uploaded/subbed got extremely much attention. These days there is way too much to choose from, people dont feel its "special" anymore. The interest is decreasing.

Oh i miss the days where everyone watched the same drama here on d-addicts and the discussion threads were like rollercoasters

There were actually quite a few shows that didn't get much attention even years ago. People just don't remember the shows they didn't watch. I know that I've watched lots of things over the years that other folks weren't discussing, and some of my favorite shows never got discussion threads even. For example, Bengoshi no Kuzu was popular enough in Japan to garner both best actor and best supporting actor back in spring 2006. It was subbed when it came out, and it was just as enjoyable as Iryu or Kurosagi that season. Still you won't find any discussion thread for it. Probably, because it was a law comedy with no young idols. It just wasn't going to pull in the average female teen or tween, especially since we had much smaller harddrives 5 years ago and more people with slower connections. People had to choose fewer titles because downloading a series was more of a commitment. Anything on the periphery got lost at large.

I think we are seeing more viewers spread out into more genres now, viewers who started years ago are branching out as their tastes change and the ease of downloading increases. That leads to less centralized discussions.

Also, we seem to have less idol following. Some idols (and a few actors) from that time frame were having a meteoric rise so many of their fans were pulled in and not all became longtime drama fans. Idols who pulled in big discussions then just aren't getting the same amount of conversation now, and the newest idols just haven't pulled in the same following as MatsuJun or Yamapi... etc.

Threads like HanaKimi were lots of fun to follow and post on, but many of my favorite discussions were still on smaller threads for dramas that had highstakes to speculate on--like Utahime or Ashita no Kita Yoshio. I can think of one thread that actually turned me off because fangirling and fanboying completely stifled objective discussions, though I did become increasingly dissatisfied with that drama too. On the other hand, I still regret missing out on the discussion for Atami no Sousaken, because that was a title that I kept wanting to discuss while it was running. But the thread wasn't moving and after having had experiences with other shows I wanted to discuss not pulling in any responses... well, I just didn't bother with the effort of a big discussion post. After it finished there were lots of interesting discussion posts about the ending, but I felt too late to the party by then. It's most fun when you have that feeling of comraderie that comes from watching at the same time. It's a shame, because that one could have been fun to discuss in the same way as Utahime or Ashita no Kita Yoshio.

At the moment I'm mostly watching older dramas though to catch up after not having followed for a few seasons, so that still leaves me feeling like there's little point in posting about them.

To get more discussion on a single drama, people could try to get a group together to commit to watching the same show at the same time and discussing it. Maybe have people suggest dramas they're intersted in and vote on one to all watch and comment on. Hard thing there is that for any fussy drama viewers there is the chance of it being a drama that is not in their interests or likes, still if most folks are picking it there should be enough followers to get some good discussion going.

Keiko1981 is right about youtube. The places to look have changed. Subbers have come and gone. It's never the same as it used to be, but it's still around.

As far as the shift to K-drama goes... well, I can understand some of that quite well. K-dramas seem to be more expressive of emotions that J-dramas have become increasingly conservative about. I frequently hear K-dramas compared to older J-dramas where there seemed to be more freedom to express deep emotions and characters had human sexuality. I tend to stick to comedy and crime for J-dramas these days, because flatter characters are easier to accept there. Romance in particular I just don't feel J-dramas are adept at now. I'll still check some out hoping to be proven wrong though.

[Sorvaseven]

To get more discussion on a single drama, people could try to get a group together to commit to watching the same show at the same time and discussing it. [...]

I had to remember the Series of the Week/Month while i was reading your post. Back then it was always great to find new dramas on suggestions and motivated me to read and discuss about the voted drama... That's what i really miss on d-addicts!

[ryoko11]

To get more discussion on a single drama, people could try to get a group together to commit to watching the same show at the same time and discussing it. [...]

I had to remember the Series of the Week/Month while i was reading your post. Back then it was always great to find new dramas on suggestions and motivated me to read and discuss about the voted drama... That's what i really miss on d-addicts!

I was actually thinking of Series of the Week/Month when I wrote that. I miss it too. I discovered some pretty cool dramas that way, but it's a lot of work to organize and seed on that scale, especially when you're looking for seeders who have archived those older titles. It's increasingly difficult with all the different resolutions and formats too. For example, I still prefer to watch on a DIVX player for convenience... so many of the newest titles I've had to convert or simply delete without archiving if it wasn't something I felt invested enough in to tie my computer up for hours converting. Strangely enough, that makes it easier for me to seed older titles, but I'm a bit of a genre viewer so there are certain gaps in my collection.

I used to love posting suggestions on the Drama Rec. Thread... but you kinda get burned out after hearing the same requests so frequently. Can't blame requesters because digging through 200+ pages is a daunting prospect, but eventually the shiny wears off listing so many of the same dramas repeatedly and never getting to discuss them with the viewer afterwards.

I think even doing a group drama watch on titles that are currently airing would foster more community feeling, though honestly I wouldn't mind seeding anything in my collection especially if it meant being able to discuss the titles with other fans afterwards. I'd bet lots of us feel that way.

[Sorvaseven]

In the last two or three years the direct download pages for dramas increase dramatically and i guess a lot of fans get their dramas from these pages in place of d-addicts. Specially the older ones, which aren't seeded anymore. Maybe it's a little bit bold to say that seeders are now only "necessary" for uploading and seeding new dramas, because the older ones are on the direct download pages (or sometimes on streaming sites). In some way i don't like this trend, but that's the reality.

[ryoko11]

I know what you mean. I've found myself having to use those for older/unseeded dramas. There are still dramas not represented by DDL (particularly raws), but it does seem increasingly popular. Sometimes Clubbox gets me dramas that I can't find otherwise too. I'm seeding two older dramas at the moment though, and the number of leechers on the torrents is pretty consistent with previous times that I've seeded them.

[el_canuck]

I have been noticing the lack of subbers of JDrama. KDrama has sometimes 3 different groups trying to sub the same drama while the JDrama goes unsubbed. Case in point was Freeter Ie o Kau, won the awards for drama, actor and theme song, but no one picked it up to sub until almost a year later. Most of the dropped subs are for JDrama. JDrama does not seem to have the passionate following like KDrama. I believe JDrama has the better actors, while KDrama has more pretty faces, not as good actors. The teens will be attracted to the pretty faces and not the better scripts of Japan. Boys over Flowers a KDrama had four bad male actors, almost everthing they have done since, proves it out. Except for City Hunter, which I am hooked on now.

[Sorvaseven]

I am not against kdramas, i have watched some of them too (the quality was always behind jdramas!), but i agree with el_canuck and the reason why this happens is total clear when you are reading this article http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/28/world ... korea.html . Freeter, Ie o Kau is one of the best newest jdrama i think and i couldn't understand why this drama is so underrated in the community. Yeah, maybe i beginn to understand the reason while reading and posting in this thread. The kdrama wave could be one of the reason...

[el_canuck]

The Japanese spend or have spent too much time making high school dramas, they also make crime shows like the U.S. The Koreans come up with a totally different concept and the good KDrama like Coffee Prince or Secret Garden spice it up a bit with gender bender plots in Coffee Prince and male female trading of bodies in Secret Garden, which, if you think about it, raises all kinds of questions. The chance of these two shows playing in the U.S. is pretty iffy.
Many KDramas could be done in only 10-12 episodes, some shows tend to drag. The Japanese do it in 10-12 episodes and will pair up the actors again if the chemistry is right or have a second season/movie to end the show. Which is better, who knows.
The bottom line I think is that the JDrama is more of a rip-off of the U.S. style while KDrama which gives you a full hour show (without commercials) seems to be creating a whole new type of drama that is slowly reaching the western world.

[Viande]

I find it childish that people always start complaining how bad kdramas are when topic is about jdrama and its situation. It's all about preferences. For example, I find most of the jdramas pretty boring and dragged even for that 10 episodes but it's just my opinion. It's not like people have suddenly lost their minds went for "bad quality" kdramas instead. And saying kdramas are all about pretty faces is ridiculous, like actors/actresses have ever been ugly in any country.

If you aske me, the thing is that Japan has been trend for quite a long time now and people have recently realized that there are other interesting countries out there and they have something to offer too. Each country has their own flavour in their dramas. Why k-wave may some ask and the answer is pretty simple: because it's well promoted.

Other reason might be overused manga -> anime -> liveaction cycle. And yes, it's all about getting more money from one idea. Maybe people have finally realized it. Concepts are also starting to repeat themselves (idol dramas). Maybe people want some change and try some dramas from other countries instead. Hopefully some new ideas will come up in the meanwhile.

I agree about Youtube, it's not "the place" anymore, accounts get easilly closed these days. Also laws have changed everywhere and almost everything is illegal now, which makes things a lot more complicated that they have been before.

[yyy]

Man, I remember the time when I couldn't find any subbers for Korean shows...

Either way, I continue to appreciate d-addicts

[erinoarashi]

I have been noticing the lack of subbers of JDrama. KDrama has sometimes 3 different groups trying to sub the same drama while the JDrama goes unsubbed. Case in point was Freeter Ie o Kau, won the awards for drama, actor and theme song, but no one picked it up to sub until almost a year later.

A team did sub Freeter while it was airing. Although their subs are for members of their LJ community and/or Forum only. And the DLs are DDLs only, mainly because it's quite hard to keep track of the downloads using torrents, especially when you're being careful of not being sued by companies.

The thing with JFandom recently, is that companies are getting more and more strict... Which, by the way, they have the right to be, considering that they don't get paid every time a person watches them online or by downloading. You'll see that while people still post shows in youtube/streaming sites, they don't last a day online -- the videos get removed quickly. It is also this issue that makes the subbers want to be more careful. They lock the communities so that there's less chance that their subbed files get streamed, and, therefore, less chance to be tracked down by companies hounding the internet for copyright infringement. If the subbers get caught, it'll be a much bigger blow to everyone who's depending on them to get their dose of Jdramas/TV shows.

If you're a member of subbing community, then you ought to know that streaming is a no-no for them. No youtube, dramacrazy, mysoju, or other sites who streams the dramas subbed by them. And you can't really blame them, since they sub on their free time.. The last thing they want to happen is to get sued for doing some sharing.

..So yep. While not all shows get subbed, you can still find most of the dramas that do get subbed if you just know where to look. Most of the people/teams who make soft subs are from here, while others who want to be more careful with their releases are in LJ/forums.

[el_canuck]

I am not going to argue subbing of dramas, that was not my point. This discussion is about JDrama and being overwhelmed by KDrama. I was explaining that the passion or fan support is stronger on the Korean side. I can name quite a few Japanese subbers that have quit or are on a longer hiatus than originally planned. Go click on the subtitles index and look at all of the dropped JDrama. Now the KDrama is going strong with many people getting subs from many different groups. I love both J and Kdrama. I lived in Japan and I speak some of the language so naturally I started with Japanese (Pride was my first). Later I was blown away by Coffee Prince and I started to watch KDrama. I enjoy the two episodes a week, I have become spoiled.
The pretty face comment stems from so many Kdrama actors came from KPOP /Idol groups and the Jdrama have some Jpop, but because JDrama has so much school dramas, it gives the younger actors a place to work their way up, build a resume.
Like I said, I like them both, but would love to see Japan go to two episodes a week and 16-20 episodes.
When I was in Japan this last April, I was given a card saying in English how appreciative they were in our coming over and I was ashamed at the lack of North American tourists. Less long lines for us.

[mazels]

for me....personally its not only the Jdramas but Kdramas too.....the quality is lest good than before......dramas theses days are least good than like 4 years ago or more

[Tamaki]

Personally I started off on Jdramas, and I just wondered over to Kdramas. Mind you some might think the acting is bad on this show or that show, but it honestly depends on the thoughts of the persona watching. I watch many different shows be it Jdramas, or Kdramas.

I honestly feel the Kdramas sometimes put more into the stories, or the characters. I feel more emotion, but that doesn't mean I don't still love my Jdramas, they are more feel good for me. I find that I appreciate watching the dramas more than I do American TV. It's all crime shows, reality tv, or medical dramas. I am sick of those all around so for me Kdramas, and Jdramas are a pleasant break in the cycle.

It is sad though to see more and more Jdrama subbers dropping shows. There are a few I would love to watch, but no subs to be found. Where as with a Kdrama, I know I can find subs almost instantly. I wonder does some of it have to do with the whole licensing issue that was going around with Jdramas, and some of the actors? I know some ppl were giving up subbing certain shows just because of that.

[Tai]

Very good postings! I keep blaming japanese media moguls opting for Comix. I' ll call them comix. Not in the way the U.S. film market has taken after Marvel. Everytime I think a good show has come out, it has animae written into the script all the way down to the facial expressions. Don't get me wrong I have a whole closet full of enjoyable paper and ink. But I feel like the whole industry has given over to it. All the great taiga dramas have gone the way of the US western. One day Korean Historicals will face the same, except what Korea is doing with some of it's fusion drama has been quite good. Remember "the Slave Hunters:Chuno. When the boys and girlz in Nippon attempt to "modernize" some old standard they camp it up so much, it is humiliating to watch it.
As far as RC's are going Korean writers and production teams are cranking away like writers back in the early days of movies. They own the Romantic Comedy genre right now! Who else is doing anything close to New Tales of Gisaeng? If you watch an episode of Telemundo's La Riena del Sur, I suppose some might say it is up and coming. But the Hispanic infatuation with Dope and rape scenes frankly pull the Romance and the comedy down.Good family entertainment and Romantic Comedy and Historical Drama, with a reality show thrown in for fun, all were main stays of Japanese TV. I really feel like there are too many screens and way too little in the pursuit of quality from Japan and American film and TV. The great part is I have a new respect for what I believe is the up and comers in the entertainment industry. That would be Subtiters. As wondrful as Korean sounds to my ears, I dont understand it w/out those titles. How do you say "Your grace is immeasurable, oh mighty subtitler! in Saguek drama language? Even my relatives in Iwate are watching Korean. Its just that good right now.

[Sorvaseven]

The pretty face comment stems from so many Kdrama actors came from KPOP /Idol groups and the Jdrama have some Jpop, but because JDrama has so much school dramas, it gives the younger actors a place to work their way up, build a resume.

Additional the japanese entertainment industry growths since the 50's on a natural way and therefore they have a lot of experienced actors, screenwriters and so on. The korean entertainment industry growths in a pretty short time with a lot of money spend by the gouvererment, so there is no natural growth. If i would be a korean producer or director with lack of experienced actors, of course i would recruit "pretty faces" to get more attention with my dramas. I think there is nothing wrong to make it this way. In the next few years the acting quality will be increase while the korean entertainment industry will be more established i guess. But the Korean dramas are still no substitute for me me because the Japanese dramas are much better in quality aspects

[kitty10]

As far as RC's are going Korean writers and production teams are cranking away like writers back in the early days of movies. They own the Romantic Comedy genre right now! Who else is doing anything close to New Tales of Gisaeng?

New Tales of Gisaeng was all kinds of a mess. It had a novel concept but the writing went south halfway through and execution was pretty lame on the whole. As for the rom-com genre, some K-dramas are pretty good - I'm thinking My Name Is Kim Sam Soon and Dalja's Spring - but nothing in the recent May dramas has been particularly interesting (Lie To Me was so screwed up). I'm hoping Myung-wol the Spy will be good for the whole stretch.

I still miss the late 90s-early 2000s Japanese dramas. Generally solid writing and actors/themes I could relate to. The youngsters populating the J-dramas these days are like a big fat huh to me.

[Ethlenn]

This thread is going into "Why j-dramas are superior over anything and k-dramas are crap, cause kdramas are only BOF". Please stick to the topic and not bash each one's liking, OK?
Thank you.

[Sorvaseven]

I still miss the late 90s-early 2000s Japanese dramas. Generally solid writing and actors/themes I could relate to. The youngsters populating the J-dramas these days are like a big fat huh to me.

Have you watched Freeter Ie o Kau, Natsu no Koi wa Nijiiro ni Kagayaku, Massugu na Otoko or Arifureta Kiseki? Maybe you will like them, but of course the "golden age" is something special

[arakira]

I agree with a lot that's been said here before. I also started out with jdrama which I got interested in cause I started learning Japanese for personal reasons. I enjoyed it for a while but there were always loads of silly RLAs which I never managed to get into, but there used to be some well-written well-acted stories that differed a lot from our soap operas or US action packed series...those I miss.
For the last 2 years I dropped almost every jdrama I started cause I either got annoyed by the actors or the story development. Although there still are some gems I enjoy and I like Japanese movies still.
But drama-wise there are hardly any Japanese men to my liking lately. I just don't enjoy watching all those anorexic looking men with shaved eyebrows. This might sound harsh or even racist, but jdrama just aren't sexy.

I switched to kdrama cause I found them refreshing, they draw you into the stories as they're much more emotional.
After a while I found loads of flaws in kdrama, too. The repetitive love-triangle motive, cliches over cliches etc but still most are entertaining and from time to time there are gems and lately I came to like saeguks for their fantasy appeal.

But call me shallow but in the end it's cause Korean men are more to my taste cause at least some of them still look like men. Not that I watch only for the fan-service but I enjoy manliness on screen
Waiting for some bashing now

[kitty10]

Have you watched Freeter Ie o Kau, Natsu no Koi wa Nijiiro ni Kagayaku, Massugu na Otoko or Arifureta Kiseki? Maybe you will like them, but of course the "golden age" is something special

I miss the "golden age" so much I keep rewatching dramas from that "era", I think the exception is the Hotaru no Hikari series.

I checked out the dramas you mentioned... the only one I think I'll try is Arifureta Kiseki, since I quite like Nakama Yukie. The first two... I don't like Arashi. I was going to give Massugu na Otoko a shot too until I saw Fukuda Kyoko Maybe I'll still try an episode or two after I get off my Fujiki Naohito high - after all, I've got to suffer through next year's Taiga drama with her and Matsuyama Ken'ichi in it...

But drama-wise there are hardly any Japanese men to my liking lately. I just don't enjoy watching all those anorexic looking men with shaved eyebrows. This might sound harsh or even racist, but jdrama just aren't sexy.

But call me shallow but in the end it's cause Korean men are more to my taste cause at least some of them still look like men. Not that I watch only for the fan-service but I enjoy manliness on screen

Hahaha, I know what you mean, eye candy is always a plus. Some of the Korean actors are pretty hot, the more mature ones at least - I'm thinking the likes of Go Soo, Jung Woo Sung, Lee Jung Jae. Actually some of the older Japanese actors are still pretty awesome, but I think they tend to get overlooked, as is generally the case when younger actors burst onto the scene. For me at least, guys like Fujiki Naohito, Takenouchi Yutaka, Sorimachi Takashi, Osawa Takao, Kimura Takuya and Abe Hiroshi are all pushing 40 or already 40+, but are still so hot

[el_canuck]

My American neighbors can not understand this addiction I have to K & J Dramas. I try and explain to them the difference and I realized it boils down to this: I like to watch dramas that have an ending. Think about it, how many people would read a book knowing that the last chapter is missing? My wife watches more JDrama and I watch more KDrama, the reason, my wife likes the JDrama mysteries and only 10 episodes, while I like Kdrama and shows like IRIS, City Hunter, Chuno and yes Coffee Prince & Secret Garden. The other big plus for my wife is the lack of commercials and I hate the 4 month wait in the Spring each year, hoping your show has not been canceled.

We owe Japan for there wonderful gift of High Definition Television, what JDrama should do is to check back in history and see what NBC/RCA did with color television. Rca invented it and they owned NBC, so NBC put out nothing but beautiful scenery type shows (Bonanza, Disney's Wonderful World of Color).
As more people go HD, Japan should have the big epic type shows. Just an idea.

My wife and I despise Reality shows. To me a good reality show is sports, hockey, football, baseball or olympics.

[arakira]

@kitty10
Yes I agree. I still enjoy watching some of those actors you mentioned but in the below 30 category there's hardly anybody. With very few exemptions like Matsuken or maybe Eita...but even those end up in bad drama like Sunao, Tsuki no Koibito, etc

about the drama Sorvaseven mentioned, I dropped Freeter, Arifureta Kiseki and Massuguna Otoko, I made it through Natsuno Koi but as with Nagareboshi or 10nen Saki or Good Life and loads of others it started out well but then lost steam and in the end made it hard to finish.
I think the only drama I really enjoyed in recent seasons were WOWOW productions, Second Virgin, and Mother.
Btw another thing that bothers me with jdrama is the morale they try to convey most of the time, I wish they'd just stop trying to lecture the viewers about values and stuff and produce some feel-good but not-silly romance.
But even though I'm kinda disappointed I haven't given up on jdrama. I became more selective in what I watch, I leave rom-coms and action to Koreans and only chose jdrama with out-of-the-ordinary stories or if I want something sad and still hope for some change to the better while I enjoy light kdrama entertainment ;)

[kitty10]

@arakira:
I was going to say Tamaki Hiroshi, but I realise he turned 31 earlier this year. How about Mukai Osamu? He's 29. I thought he was pretty decent in Hotaru no Hikari 2. But yes, I agree that the below-30 category is woeful, I'm struggling to think of decent actors. MatsuKen... if you mean Matsuyama Ken'ichi, he's bleh to me.

I think J-dramas have become quite conservative in recent years - the lack of skinship, the preaching etc... I wonder how and why it really started.

Oh how was Nagareboshi? I keep meaning to start it but have been reluctant to, for some reason.

[Drazic]

I have been noticing the lack of subbers of JDrama. KDrama has sometimes 3 different groups trying to sub the same drama while the JDrama goes unsubbed. Case in point was Freeter Ie o Kau, won the awards for drama, actor and theme song, but no one picked it up to sub until almost a year later.

A team did sub Freeter while it was airing. Although their subs are for members of their LJ community and/or Forum only. And the DLs are DDLs only, mainly because it's quite hard to keep track of the downloads using torrents, especially when you're being careful of not being sued by companies.

The thing with JFandom recently, is that companies are getting more and more strict... Which, by the way, they have the right to be, considering that they don't get paid every time a person watches them online or by downloading. You'll see that while people still post shows in youtube/streaming sites, they don't last a day online -- the videos get removed quickly. It is also this issue that makes the subbers want to be more careful. They lock the communities so that there's less chance that their subbed files get streamed, and, therefore, less chance to be tracked down by companies hounding the internet for copyright infringement. If the subbers get caught, it'll be a much bigger blow to everyone who's depending on them to get their dose of Jdramas/TV shows.

If you're a member of subbing community, then you ought to know that streaming is a no-no for them. No youtube, dramacrazy, mysoju, or other sites who streams the dramas subbed by them. And you can't really blame them, since they sub on their free time.. The last thing they want to happen is to get sued for doing some sharing.

..So yep. While not all shows get subbed, you can still find most of the dramas that do get subbed if you just know where to look. Most of the people/teams who make soft subs are from here, while others who want to be more careful with their releases are in LJ/forums.

And when was the last time a fansubber actually got sued? Oh right, never. Even in the anime fansub community they always get asked to remove their files first. That's happened a few times at d-addicts as well.

Not that it really matters, even if people did get sued do you really think limiting your sub to be downloaded only from your site and slapping your name all over it will make you safer? If you really want to be safe you should release subs anonymously and without any credits at all. If you don't do that then you don't care about not getting sued at all. You just want e-peen.

As for anisahx's post. I haven't really watched most of the drama you mentioned mainly cause of the cast (I don't really like drama with Johhnies) but for me there's usually at least 1 or 2 drama per season that I really like. Some of my favorite drama at the moment are still fairly recent so no, I don't think the quality of drama is getting worse at all. Stuff like Atami no Sousakan, Guilty, Shukumei 1969-2010, Keibuho Yabe Kenzo and while a bit older Arifureta Kiseki were all excellent drama.

I wouldn't know if k-drama is getting more popular than j-drama and I honestly don't care. I tried a few k-drama and I don't really like them. Just because the k-drama community grew a lot in the past few years doesn't mean the j-drama community got smaller. I think we're just at a point where unless we see another drama that's crazy popular like Densha Otoko we probably won't see much growth any time soon either.

And as for k-drama getting 3 subbers per shows while there are still j-drama left unsubbed. Aren't there a lot more koreans in america and other english speaking countries? This means that there are just a lot more koreans/americans that speak both english and korean.

[Sorvaseven]

I wish they'd just stop trying to lecture the viewers about values and stuff and produce some feel-good but not-silly romance.

YES! This is exactly my point of view too. For my luck, i'm enjoying those dramas which want to lecture the viewers (i see them more like a "drama with a message"). Nevertheless i'm really missing those feel-good but not-silly romance jdramas. Maybe this is one of the reason why a lot of jdrama fans are now moving with the kdrama wave?? I didn't see so many kdramas so far, but i felt those feel-good but not-silly romance feelings when i saw the kdrama Resurrection. As kiiity10 mentioned the old love-romance-guard like Kimura Takuya, Tokiwa Takako, Matsushima Nanako, Yamaguchi Tomoko and so on are now a little bit too old to play those roles authentic in these days * (move to Tokyo with no job and future, find a lovely girl blabla...^^). So where is the new replacement? Didn't find it so far...

[SSpiegel]

I don't think this should be a discussion about jdrama vs kdrama.

I've seen a lot of great Japanese dramas, and I haven't even seen anything from the golden 90's! What attracts me to Japanese dramas is their unique stories, interesting cultural aspects, pretty Japanese men!, and the fact that the stories are usually compact with a real intended ending, not something they just coughed up in a hurry or changed for fan service.
The reason I don't watch that many jdramas anymore is that the quality has declined a lot. It's not because I watch kdramas, too. There simply aren't that many interesting stories anymore. There's a lot of manga/anime live action drama that just stars the current pop idols and not actual actors. Which is really fine with me, since I've read manga and watched anime, and not all idols are bad actors. But it is getting a bit old. Like others have said before me, ideas get recycled a lot. I'd love to watch more jdramas, but I feel like I've seen the same thing many times before and the innovative stories that first brought me to jdramas just aren't there anymore.

ETA
@ arakira & kitty10
I think there are quite a few good and charismatic actors under 30. On the top of my head I can think of Oguri Shun (who really needs to get better roles!), brothers Matsuda (Ryuhei and Shota), Okada Masaki and Hongo Kanata. I do think most of them have had more bad roles than good, but they have good potential if they were just casted in more diverse roles. If you require manlier looks, tho, they might be a bit too boyish. Eita is lovely by the way, but he's gotten typecasted so badly, he keeps playing the same role again and again. Which really is a shame.

[Sorvaseven]

By the way, there was already a lively discussion with the topic "Quality of Jdoramas dropping?" last year http://www.d-addicts.com/forum/viewtopic_81392_0.htm

[mazels]

oh and i forgot to say but theres still a couple of good Jdramas i watched and stil lwatch now...some of thoses i prefer like marumo no okite , don quixote , IS ~Otoko demo Onna demo nai Sei~ , zenkai girl thoses are the only Jdramas im watchign right now and i cant stop watchign them but for the rest i only watch Kdramas right now so sure theres less good Jdramas than in the past....but from tiem to time theres a couple of good ones that come out.....personally its the same for Kdramas its just i dont know maybe theres more Kdramas taht come out and that get subed....so maybe thats why i watch more than Jdramas....and its the same for Kdramas i still think that the ones from the past were better.....

[arakira]

ETA
@ arakira & kitty10
I think there are quite a few good and charismatic actors under 30. On the top of my head I can think of Oguri Shun (who really needs to get better roles!), brothers Matsuda (Ryuhei and Shota), Okada Masaki and Hongo Kanata. I do think most of them have had more bad roles than good, but they have good potential if they were just casted in more diverse roles. If you require manlier looks, tho, they might be a bit too boyish. Eita is lovely by the way, but he's gotten typecasted so badly, he keeps playing the same role again and again. Which really is a shame.

Yep there are some good actors, never doubted that, but hardly any appear in good drama and most are not half as attractive as your average kdrama face for me...I agree about Oguri, but it's his choice to do stupid drama... love Matsuda Ryuhei, Ashita no Kita Yoshio and Hagetaka were great, but he doesn't seem to be interested in acting in drama...maybe cause there are no scripts that are interesting enough, who knows ;). I don't like his brother nor Okada and Kanata ruined Gantz for me but well tastes are different. There are some good young actors, I'm sure but the only one below 30 I can think of right now would be Kora Kengo...and maybe Yamada Takayuki...

Honestly in the end I think it's a combination of mediocre scripts, production, lack of funds and substitution of actors with idols. And there are hardly any that can really act. Even though some have enough charisma to partly make up for it *cough matsujun cough*

Also I think it's not true that jdrama fandom is dying, it's just not as popular anymore, but well fashion changes and now kwave is on top. Who knows, in 5 years it might be taiwan or india...and about the subbing, i always felt that there were nice drama left unsubbed and that actually more drama are getting subbed now that there are captions etc... Actually nowadays we're spoiled by kdrama subs that are available within hours but that was never the case with jdrama in the first place.

@soraseven, thanks for the link. Reading some of the posts I guess the situation has not changed much since =)

[Sorvaseven]

We discuss about this topic since a few days, but nothing will change when nobody put ideas into action. Therefore i want to contribute a part of strengthen the jdrama fandom: Project: NEW START of Japanese Series of the Week 2011! If you are interested take a look: http://www.d-addicts.com/forum/viewtopic_97598.htm