How did you discover JDrama?

Jenka · Post by **Jenka** » May 2nd, '08, 01:30

I stumbled onto a few Asian Fan Sub sites while I was looking for anime to download from the net about a year ago. I've downloaded and watched shows from many different Asian countries. It has become an addiction ever since.

Watching Japanese shows helps because I'm also trying to learn how to speak Japanese and am looking forward to visiting my friend and her family in Japan one day in the near future.

Karate-ka · Post by **Karate-ka** » May 4th, '08, 16:44

Well for me i always was an anime fan but last year at some point i didnt watch anime more like i used to do. I still watched Naruto and such, I was always A Kamen Rider fan and when i heard HIro Mizushima will be playing in Hanazakari No Kimitachi e i starded to wathc drama's.

But Hana Kimi was not the first one i saw i already saw Akihabara @ deep but didnt had in mind that it was adrama.

Asperitas · Post by **Asperitas** » May 4th, '08, 17:22

in 2005 when Attention please and kurosagi started, I watched them... I think I stumbled upon this site per coincidense because I was bored.

Karate-ka · Post by **Karate-ka** » May 4th, '08, 18:26

Asperitas wrote:in 2005 when Attention please and kurosagi started, I watched them... I think I stumbled upon this site per coincidense because I was bored.

Kurosagi aired in 2006

xvannie · Post by **xvannie** » May 4th, '08, 18:37

on accident! i think i saw a video on youtube with images from the drama & searched it up.
from then, addicted, haha.

Asellus · Post by **Asellus** » May 4th, '08, 18:59

I got tired of anime and decided I wanted to see real people on screen that speak japanese, so I went looking for it and downloaded something random.

isshoukenmei · Post by **isshoukenmei** » May 8th, '08, 02:11

some years ago i was into anime, then eventually i became interested in Japan and so on.
year or two ago i was exchanging anime with another anime fan and she gave me Nobuta wo produce, in *rm^^.
i was hooked immediately!
now i rarely watch anime, most of my free time is for dorama and nihongo.

xerox0 · Post by **xerox0** » May 9th, '08, 08:10

I've lived here since 1991, and have picked up most of my Japanese from television and in ramen shops. For anything more complicated than a simple comedy, I usually want subtitles (so the local video shop is out-for Japanese material).

N-chan · Post by **N-chan** » May 9th, '08, 08:26

Tokusatsu that helped me discover JDrama ....

liz_crowny · Post by **liz_crowny** » May 9th, '08, 10:09

from a forum in my university . called rileks.comlabs.itb.ac.id
it provides many dorama jmovie and many stuff like that which is easily downloaded from everyone in my university.
then i addicted n search more from internet .

hehe

Ivanavi · Post by **Ivanavi** » May 11th, '08, 14:08

Well, it's partly because of my attraction to tall Asian women... I discovered jdramas because of The Last Samurai. Koyuki's gorgeous. I watched Engine and loved the drama formula of Japan. then I looked for other tall Japanese actresses like Koyuki and found Misaki Itoh and Sachie Hara. Now I dont know which drama to finish first. So little time.

a2a · Post by **a2a** » May 11th, '08, 15:52

Well, like with many people here, I used to watch anime before Jdramas. Then 3.5 years ago my dad, who at the time used to download all the anime we watched (he watched too) told me that he downloaded a live action drama called Great Teacher Onizuka. At that time I didn't know anything about GTO. So me and my sister watched it and we loved it! It also made me cry at some scenes. But we didn't get to watch another drama until Densha Otoko came out! I just so happened to stumble at a jdrama fansite and read the synopsis which moved me to tears and decided to watch it. After that I wanted to watch more but I wasn't sure what to watch.
Then I became a huge Arashi fan and heard that Matsujun was also starring in this drama called Hana Yori Dango with Oguri Shun who was both in GTO and Densha Otoko. So after that I became completely hooked, forgetting about anime in the process. As a matter of fact, thanks to jdramas I was able to learn a lot more Japanese than what I learned with anime and quickly became the top student in my Japanese class (I even scored the 2nd highest grade in my countly at the 3rd level JLPT). 2.5 years and some 150 series later I can say my love for dramas (and Arashi too) still goes strong!

Ladymercury · Post by **Ladymercury** » May 11th, '08, 19:09

Kanin wrote:I guess most here don't live in Japan and since Japanese movies, dramas, music or whatever is a big non-factor in most countries (due to many factors), except perhaps for some Asian countries I wonder how people got in touch with this genre.

Personally I think it was either Pretty guardian Sailor Moon or You're under arrest that made the way for me. It wasn't some direct genre recommendation by anyone like "watch some JDrama" but a growing interest that later exploded by watching GTO and Long Vacation.

I was hooked in the Morning Musume scene for a few years I think that together with my interest for Japanese movies made my discovery possible. I guess without that I would never have heard of the term JDrama. It's not something you suddenly start google on without information cause to me drama has a bad taste from my experiences of Western standards.

The International Channel, back in 2002, The Wedding Planner.

That drama, is by far, one of the best dramas I've seen. Made me a big Yousuke Santa Maria fan and a huge CHEMISTRY too

I still have yet to actually find it though online since I was dumb and never recorded it like I did Leave it to the Nurses 4 and Fire Boys

..

N-chan wrote:Tokusatsu that helped me discover JDrama ....

AREN'T YOU ON HJU?!

jhepoyski · Post by **jhepoyski** » May 12th, '08, 03:58

hmm honestly i was just watching Korean dramas before... not really into downloading stuffs. just buy them at the local pirates here because my connection would be affected if will be downloading torrents because i was playing online games... but eventually my older sister was watching jdo's and well i was amazed by it because the story/episodes were fast and the ones that i watched are like the ones with comedy on it.. thats why im watching them nowadays.. (both downloading and streaming)

Deebiddo · Post by **Deebiddo** » May 14th, '08, 03:30

I think it was my friend introducing me to Japanese movies that eventually led me to watching Japanese dramas. Being previously a fan of anime though, at first I wasn't that interested in anything "live action", but in no time I had become completely obsessed with with both Japanese dramas and movies. Currently, depending on how I'm feeling at any given time my interest may shift to either Japanese movies, anime, or drama...

Cloudx7 · Post by **Cloudx7** » May 18th, '08, 16:56

My friend told me about Liar Game, and he's also told me about other jdramas and movies. Now I've watched so many different movies and dramas since liar game.

-shichi- · Post by **-shichi-** » May 19th, '08, 07:59

A couple of years ago a network here in our country aired "Gokusen". That's how I discovered Jdramas.

gglibertine · Post by **gglibertine** » May 19th, '08, 16:38

I had a Korean friend visiting, and as we were drinking beer and flipping channels we stumbled upon the International Channel. She wanted to see how well she could remember her Japanese, so we watched for a while. The show was Three Grown Men, and in the scene that was on, a woman was standing in a window overlooking a parking lot, talking on her cellphone to a man downstairs in the parking lot. She was begging him to make her into a fog, according to the subtitles, and it was so bizarre I was instantly hooked.

333free · Post by **333free** » May 23rd, '08, 22:19

I got hooked on Anime when Channel4 a late slot and showed Akira, as well as going to the cinema to see Ghost in the shell. ( Both are being turned into US live action movies. Hrmm, I'll wait and hold judgement on them.)
I've watched a load of Anime and when I finished watching the Nodame Cantabile anime, I noticed the live action version, so I watched that to see how it ended as the live action story progressed further than the anime did.
Since then the amount of anime I've watched has reduced to a trickle, but my HD and backup drive is chocked full with Jdrama.
I also find it a bit of a love/hate thing, as the storylines can be rather similar and predictable, but I love anything that shows the language and culture. If all these were in English then I might as well watch Eastenders. (UK brain numbing soap)
I prefer my Jdrama to be quirky like Suika or ones that deviate from the traditional like Ashita no Kita Yoshio.

sz1266 · Post by **sz1266** » May 24th, '08, 07:38

Googled for Ryokiteki Na Kanojo after learning what it was and then found the site and got introduced.

Te Amari · Post by **Te Amari** » May 29th, '08, 21:44

It all started with anime...so anyway, this is how it went:

anime=>Prince of Tennis=>Prince of Tennis Musicals=>Shirota Yu=>Akanishi Jin=>KAT-TUN=>Sapuri+Tatta Hitotsu no Koi+Nobuta wo Produce (which is what really made me like dramas)=>many many dramas.

But now? Mostly just dramas. And J-Rock. I want to try other dramas though...I've only seen three other dramas that aren't Japanese. (Meteor Garden, Meteor Rain, Devil Beside Me).

garnet07 · Post by **garnet07** » Jun 17th, '08, 20:16

I first became an anime addict around 2002 during college freshmen ( meaning total mass downloads of animes via bittorrent). Then in Animesuki forums, someone said there was going to be a Sailormoon Live Action at around 2003 so I kept searching for it online. I found it at a now retired site called JTV or JEM (forgetting the name since it's been gone for 2 years), but they had other dramas which I didnt bother getting since I wasn't familiar with Jdramas that time. I only wanted my Sailormoon Live action. But then one day i got bored so I started watching an episode of the other Jdoramas in that site and eventually K -dramas. Also explored the Extra Links section of that site which had a link to the older 2003-2004 version of D-addicts. After that, all is history. I became a total anime, drama, manga addict.

Recently though, I watch more dramas than animes. I guess it depends on the season.

FYI: yes I'm an older(not old) member of d-addicts but don't post much unless I really feel like saying something profound. Anyways, through the years (4-5 years now) D-addicts has truly grown so much. Before, only 5-10 videos come out everyday, but now, it's like 20+ videos are uploaded by so many members.
I also really appreciate that there are fansubbers who work hard and share the drama love.

Kathstandsalone · Post by **Kathstandsalone** » Jun 18th, '08, 02:13

I started with anime too - Inuyasha. My sister borrowed the DVDs from her friend. While waiting for her to finally get her butt out of the sofa so we can go out, I propped onto a seat and watched with her.

"Ehh, it's quite funny and it has lots of action." i thought. So, I continued watching and completed the 167 episodes. ^_^ That was also my first introduction to Japanese media which I will like in the long run. In the past, i couldn't understand why my primary school classmates would listen to Japanese songs (from SPEED) - which they dont even understand.

Anyway, I went from Inuyasha to D.N. Angel to Gundam Seed ... blahblahblah. Engine was airing on Friday nights 2 years ago, and again my sister gushed about how adorable the kids are, so I gave it a try. LOL. . . it's funny how car racing is only shown in episode 1 and 10... heh. Then, TV was showing a repeat telecast of Pride and Kimura was so charming in that show! So, i gave it a try and i love the simple story with ice hockey and Queen songs setting. I thought the cast gave their best. I love the interaction among the guys.

So, now, I like watching animes and jdramas. Occasionally, I read some manga. currently, I'm reading D.Gray man and Ouran High School Host Club ^_^

KeiserSoze · Post by **KeiserSoze** » Jun 18th, '08, 02:41

mmm how i get into it ????
I have a japanese friend (Ken) and two years ago he told me about a very funny "dorama" (i didn't even know what was a drama

). This drama was "densha otoko".
Since then i've become a drama addict :alcoholic:

tepaj · Post by **tepaj** » Jun 18th, '08, 02:52

Was into the english-voiced over anime (Ronin Warriors) back in high school because they had them on like very early in the mornings. Wasn't really into much in the following years because you don't get much here in the US. Last year, my brother dl Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon so my then, 3yr tom-boy niece who loves Power Ranger and any boys toys, will get into the girls stuff. He happened to also dl HYD. I never got into it until I watched the first episode of HYD while at my sister's (brother gave her a copy of season 1). I was like, "Whoa! She just punched that rich-ass jerk! I wanna see more!" That's how it started and is still going. I do watch a mixture of all J-K-T dramas. They all have their own appeal.

Tensai_san · Post by **Tensai_san** » Jun 18th, '08, 04:13

Glad to c everyone gettin hook 2 J-drama by various ways.

>> Fer me (SG): I was in my poly yr 1: when my friend first started watch his 1st J-drama. Tink was Densha Otoko. At tat time, i was not even aware of J-drama in my entire life, as i juz heard of it. Since then i started lookin into J-drama. Believe me, the rate i see J-drama wasn't enough fer me 2 DL day by day. Upon looking thru my collection of J drama , Shock-o! =) Was there a term 2 describe J-drama Addicts? Tat would be ME!

PS: 2 every1 watching J-drama, hope to share ur interesting views of J-drama @ anytime and anywhere!!

ackirom · Post by **ackirom** » Jun 21st, '08, 21:20

I was on irc, and @ the time, I was still only watching anime. I dl-ed something off a bot that I thought was an anime movie 699mb. It was called Hito ni Yasashiku (Be nice to people) [1st ep]. I was surprised it was real people, acting like anime characters!

It was new to me. Back then, I always stayed away from asian dramas cuz I hated the RAW sound... like how the soaps here in America sounded. The sound footage bothered me. Luckily, 3 Peace was one of those family-oriented, quirky, funny, left-you-feeling-good kinda show and from there, I started watching more and more j-dramas.

snoopypal · Post by **snoopypal** » Jun 21st, '08, 22:10

My introduction to j-dorama was kind of on the geeky side. A friend showed me his Sailor Moon Live Action DVDs. I was into anime but I never watched the Sailor Moon cartoon and I was never into things like the Power Rangers. For some reason though, watching it was like eating potato chips (mmm....potato chips). And within a week I had gone through all 50 odd episodes and was hungry for more live action versions of anime.

So the first one I came across was Taiho Shichauzo which was the live action version of You're Under Arrest. It starred a young Misaki Itoh and I immediately fell in love with her and started digging around for anything I could find on her. This led me to Gokusen where I immediately dumped Misaki Itoh as my favourite actress and replaced her with Yukie Nakama!

Following Yukie around led me to Trick and Hiroshi Abe. I didn't fall in love with Abe

but I thought he was great and because of him I watched My Little Chef. My Little Chef led me to find more shows with Akiko Yada and Aya Ueto.

And from there, my life spiraled out of control.

Yeah, so thank you very much Sailor Moon.

danchemistry · Post by **danchemistry** » Jun 29th, '08, 03:42

it started with anime and tokyo love story

Chaerin · Post by **Chaerin** » Jul 1st, '08, 04:57

I was searching for the Hana Yori Dango anime and came across the live action. I thought it looked kinda funny so I watched the first episode and fell in love. It is still my favorite drama of all time. I've watched many dramas since then.

fatmouse · Post by **fatmouse** » Feb 10th, '09, 06:21

I stumbled into this website from another website.

paragonikal · Post by **paragonikal** » Feb 19th, '09, 11:09

back in 2005, my friend asked me to download h2 for him cause his friend it was good or something along those lines..

anyway i downloaded it, left it on my hard-drive for who knows how long since i was occupied watching anime and other stuff

then one day i got really bored (probably exhausted my anime) and thought to myself i'll try watch the first episode to see what the heck h2 actually is..

that's when i got hooked! after the first episode, i quickly went to watch the second one straight away.. then a couple of episodes later, i checked the number of episodes and began thinking.. only 11!?

i didn't want it to end so soon basically.. but i wanted more of this kind of stuff so when i finished h2, really good drama by the way, i googled for h2 to find out more in it's genre, found out its called jdorama/jdrama..

found this website, then got hana yori dango via here.. also one of my favourite dramas..

ever since then, i've been a damn jdrama addict!! '05 - this very moment and still going strong! =]

even stopped watching anime for about 4 years (to this day pretty much), but thinking of starting again soon though.. i'm gonna wait for bleach to finish, then watch bleach and the first naruto series from beginning to end!

whoa, i didn't plan to write an essay..

kuro570 · Post by **kuro570** » Feb 19th, '09, 11:17

AZN TV, I miss that channel ; ;

Milkywaychen · Post by **Milkywaychen** » Sep 2nd, '09, 01:05

It was when I grew tired of Anime, but was still very interested in Japan. I looked around and took a peek here and there. Then I found one interesting Drama after another, discovered new sides of the culture and found favourite actors and actresses.

lismarie · Post by **lismarie** » Sep 25th, '09, 17:40

On an anime-related website... I'm not exactly sure how I came across it, but I started becoming interested as I'm a huge J-horror movie fan. But it wasn't until a couple years later that I would sit down and watch a Korean drama (100% Senorita, I believe); I ended up disliking it. A lot.

Earlier this year I stumbled across Arifureta Kiseki and decided to try my hand at J-drama, and, naturally, I've become addicted.

bmwracer · Post by **bmwracer** » Sep 25th, '09, 18:56

I discovered J-Dramas while looking for socks in my laundry basket.

zzzzzzzzzzzy · Post by **zzzzzzzzzzzy** » Sep 25th, '09, 19:10

I started with Death Note the movie and became a big fan of Erika Toda =]
So I tried digging her stuff on wikipedia and found out that she actually acted in a few dramas, eventually started watching Nobuta wo Produce and discovered yamapi and kame, liked both of them till now and Jdramas had never failed me since then.

ssih · Post by **ssih** » Sep 25th, '09, 20:29

I download all my tv from Usenet. One day, my wife saw the last ten minutes of a show called something like "Grooming your pet with Kim", and asked me if I'd search on Usenet so she could watch the entire show.

I didn't find it, but what did show up was the entire series "Kimi wa Petto". This intrigued me, as I had no idea what the Japanese watched on TV, other than martial arts films and semi-pro sumo wrestling.

My wife and I really liked the show, so I started looking for more. And the rest, as they say, is just more tedious rambling on my part.

pn0yb0i · Post by **pn0yb0i** » Sep 25th, '09, 20:35

I was watching Tokusatsu stuff @ Tv-Nihon and stumbled uon AKihabara@deep and Densha Otoko. A cousin then hit me with Gokusen then HYD S1. From there I found D-Addicts and SARS Fansubs and whadduya know... Heck, check out my first few posts on my profile since registration over 2 years ago (lol)

Peggy · Post by **Peggy** » Sep 25th, '09, 22:17

I just read through all of this thread. I was trying to find a clue to tell me when I first found Jdramas.
I really think it was about ten years ago at least and it was a Takuya Kimura early drama 'White Paper' It was not thrilling but I liked Kimura san. Anyway I started to search around and a friend in Sngapore sent me a huge amount of stuff about TakuyaHe was soyoung then but very attractive. I guess I have watched everything he has done and he and his group SMAP certainly were the beginning of my Japanese drama viewing. I love the taigas. I would like to see many of the early ones again. Especially Hojo Tokemune.

It has become almost fashionable to scorn SMAP and especially Kimura, but having watched him for so many years I have seen his growth as an actor and it is quite amazing that he is still number one in Japan and still as charming and attractive as ever. I just adore him.

I also found alot of other actors like Abe Hiroshi and Sato Koichi and Santamaria. they are all fine actors and have enjoyed acting with Kimura many times.

I found a great interest in the Japanese culture and history through watching the dramas. I became really keen on Oda Nobunaga and his life. What a warlord he was.

You could easily teach history classes with dramas about various countries.

Peg

flyrogue · Post by **flyrogue** » Sep 25th, '09, 22:51

My wife is Chinese from Malaysia, and her Mom has always been crazy about dramas, and her friend trade japanese, chinese, and korean dramas. We would watch them late at night in Borneo, drinking and eating snacks. I guess they bring up good memories.

I never liked the overly romantic "chick" kind, but al ot of the others are great, I guess my all time favorite would be Queen's classroom.

I was googlling and found this site. Now my wife and I are losing sleep watchin so many.

- Flyrogue

Jayme8me · Post by **Jayme8me** » Sep 25th, '09, 23:24

Well I'm a crazy Japan-loving Otaku.I was at this forum for a manga and someone said "wow this manga is alot like this Dorama" then posted up a link for Dramacrazy.net. I've been a JDorama addict from that day onward.

aznlilboiz · Post by **aznlilboiz** » Sep 26th, '09, 00:32

i found this site when i did a google search on japanese drama and i found it at the last page of google result.

taylor · Post by **taylor** » Sep 26th, '09, 01:02

Me, I started to watch Hana Kimi and there I saw Shun in w/c I like since Azumi. Then I saw Toma, my friends like him so much but when I came across his pic with Yamapi, I became a yamapi fan. Since then, I have been following his dramas and promotions. I began to like Kame too and the rest of the JE boys.

Melissa100 · Post by **Melissa100** » Sep 26th, '09, 02:06

In one of my online groups, a couple of people were talking about Absolute Boyfriend. I was intrigued, so I downloaded the first episode. I've been hooked on Japanese shows ever since.

br4nd0n · Post by **br4nd0n** » Sep 26th, '09, 03:54

I wonder how many people got into jdrama because of Hana Yori?

My story, similar.
I read manga and watched anime. One day I decided to start reading some shoujo and I read HYD, and Mars. Some after that I heard there was a drama of it so I picked it up and I've been into drama ever since.
I like jdramas, however I've only watched a few. (HYD I and II some others and Anmitsu Hime, Mop Girl)
I mainly watch Korean, Taiwanese, and Chinese dramas. (Taiwanese and Chinese I usally bunch up in the same folder)

cocomonk22 · Post by **cocomonk22** » Sep 28th, '09, 04:59

I was flipping through channels and saw a taiga on tv, so I decided to watch it.

Ender's Girl · Post by **Ender's Girl** » Oct 9th, '09, 14:30

Was exclusively a K-drama nut since 2003 before giving Hana Yori Dango a try early this year. I liked it a lot, but I wasn't J-hooked.. until a few months later, when I tried watching Pride on a lark (well, hello there, Peggy...

). Heh heh heh. And it was all J-Ent from that point onwards, heh heh heh.

I also have Peggy (scroll down) to thank for my initiation into all things J-Ent.

If it weren't for her *ehem* avatar of a *certain* J-actor in a K-drama forum that we frequent, I prolly never would've given Pride a try, heh heh heh. Peggy, banzai!

Peggy wrote:I just read through all of this thread. I was trying to find a clue to tell me when I first found Jdramas.
I really think it was about ten years ago at least and it was a Takuya Kimura early drama 'White Paper' It was not thrilling but I liked Kimura san. Anyway I started to search around and a friend in Sngapore sent me a huge amount of stuff about TakuyaHe was soyoung then but very attractive. I guess I have watched everything he has done and he and his group SMAP certainly were the beginning of my Japanese drama viewing. I love the taigas. I would like to see many of the early ones again. Especially Hojo Tokemune.

It has become almost fashionable to scorn SMAP and especially Kimura, but having watched him for so many years I have seen his growth as an actor and it is quite amazing that he is still number one in Japan and still as charming and attractive as ever. I just adore him.

I also found alot of other actors like Abe Hiroshi and Sato Koichi and Santamaria. they are all fine actors and have enjoyed acting with Kimura many times.

I found a great interest in the Japanese culture and history through watching the dramas. I became really keen on Oda Nobunaga and his life. What a warlord he was.

You could easily teach history classes with dramas about various countries.

Peg

Sou ka...

I always wondered when your... Kimura Enlightenment occurred, but was just too embarrassed to ask.

White Paper - When was this aired, Peg? I don't think it's listed on his DramaWiki page.

Heian · Post by **Heian** » Oct 9th, '09, 16:57

I was allready watching a bit of anime, and really liked the few asian movies I had seen. Then one day a friend suggested I should try Jdrama. I decided to give it a try and dl GTO, since I had allrdy read the manga. I really liked it and then I tried another drama, and another and another ...

tunix_2008 · Post by **tunix_2008** » Oct 9th, '09, 17:56

Our rediscovery of jdramas began with Gokusen. My sister was keen on the anime version and when a local network dubbed and aired the live action, she started watching that too. It was the same with GTO, anime first then live action. The first jdrama she watched independent from anime was Hanayori Dango. I, on the other hand, got hooked on Hanazakari no Kimitachi e and started a downloading rampage that lives on today.

I said "rediscovery" because I used to watch a jdrama series when I was a kid called "Sa Wakas" (In the End). It was dubbed and aired on local tv. It was about the end-of-the-world scenario that followed a guy who moved from city to city trying to outrun disasters that tolled the coming end. It was mostly earthquakes of course.

We did grow up on Star Rangers that was more like Power Rangers than Kamen Rider. My sister grew up on Shaider and thought Shaider and Annie should've ended up together.

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