Japanese TV

[schild]

Japanese TV is a sort of double edged sword. It’s fansubbed at an astronomical rate (most groups put out multiple shows a week while the extremely dedicated sub shows days after they air in Japan). It’s growing at the speed anime was about five years ago in terms of popularity and is incredibly addictive. Unfortunately, nearly all of it is utter shit. Out of the 70-80 series I’ve seen (and the 10 or so I’m blowing through now), there are probably about seven that are worth recommending to other people. Due to requests both private and public and the complete lack of licensing (as compared to Korean TV shows which are licensed in America), I’m going to lift my rule of not posting torrent links and whatnot for this thread only. You’ll be free to make requests in this thread for more details if I somehow don’t provide enough and I’ll also respond privately if you don’t want people to know that you share the same secret shame as I. Without further ado – here’s way too much information on a culture subset that still baffles the shit out of me. The following are listed in the order I’d recommend them to people. Basically how one would work their way from being a casual drinker/smoker to full on eight-ball Saturday nights.

**Ok, a couple of bittorrent trackers aren’t working at the moment, so I’m only going to list 4 series, I’ll add more as trackers come up and easier methods (as in, batch torrents), are available for more shows**

-

Great Teacher Onizuka

The ultimate gateway drug in the jdrama world. Takashi Sorimachi (who was the top male model in Japan when the show was released) manages to make the anime, and in turn, the manga look amateurish. One in every three people in Japan watched this show for it’s entire run – 12 episodes, a movie, and a special. Lasting about 18 hours, the first 12 episodes and the special are a self-contained story while the movie is nothing short of fan-service (not the panty-shot anime kind) for the people who loved the TV show. Without a doubt, if you have any intent on enjoying Japanese TV, this is where you need to start (if only because the following series is….well….much stranger and not finished).

Jdorama – Cast info, viewership, etc.
Batch Torrent.

Subtitled by Japan-TV.

Densha Otoko

The show from which my avatar is reaped, quite possibly one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long while. The lead actor, who is new to the whole jdrama thing does an amazing job playing what could only be described as a Japanese Steve Urkell. Densha Otoko is probably best described as a 12 episode version of an otaku Steve Urkell changing into Stefan Urkell (you know, the slick Urkell – right? Right). As mentioned in the other thread, he gets nearly all of his advice from an internet forum. Despite being incredibly sappy, I’ve managed to get a few people who are completely uninterested in such TV addicted to the show. It’s not hard given the premise. Apparently women dig it as well. If anyone was around the whole anime bittorrent thing a few years ago – this show is getting about as popular as Naruto was during its first season. Episode 9 is to be aired this week in Japan and the fansubber who was blowing through the series (would have the subtitles up merely days after the release) had to back off for real life. It’s a damn shame too.

Jdorama.
Torrents
Subtitles Thread – You might need to register to download these.

Gokusen

Nakama Yukie and Matsumoto Jon (who is apparently hugely famous despite Kimi Wa Petto, another one of his series, being unbearable) made this show pretty goddamn successful. It deserved the fame, unfortunately it’s basically GTO with a female lead. If you liked GTO at all, you’d be somewhat insane to miss this. There’s also a sequel which was unfortunately terrible.

Jdorama.
Torrent link

Subtitled by SARS

Beautiful Life and Good Luck

Takuya Kimura is awesome. Just freaking awesome. Beautiful Life is probably one of the most sappy and soap-opera-y shows I’ve ever seen. In any country. But Kimura is just that good of an actor. Good Luck is a show about Kimura being a pilot. Which leads into another phenomenon of Japanese TV – people will try to be the best at whatever job they do. Many of the Japanese drama shows revolve around a character struggling through making lunch, trying to not piss off a customer on a flight, or whatever bizarre monster of the week a jtv scriptwriter can come up with next. We’re not talking George Clooney as a doctor bizarre, it’s much worse. In his time, Kimura has been a talented but unnoticed architect, one of the finest Formula-1 Racers over 30 years old, a hockey player, a pilot, and a slew of other professions that you simply don’t see given an entire TV show. He’s also been a lawyer (in Hero, the show I wanted to post about). Whatever role he’s thrown into, he’s ALWAYS entertaining. Beware though, Beautiful Life may make you stabby and Good Luck may scare you away from Japanese culture even more (particularly if it already gives you the shakes).

Beautiful Life Jdorama Entry.
Beautiful Life Torrent Batch.

Good Luck Jdorama Entry.
Good Luck Torrent Batch.

Subtitled by Japan-TV.

-

That’s it for now. I’ve pretty much given up on anime because I’ve gotten sick of clichés, so I’ve resorted to foreign television. Japanese, Korean, Hong Kong, Chinese, Russian*, French, whatever. If the first episode is above average I generally watch the whole thing.

_{*I’m joking. Russian TV is horrible.}

[Cheddar]

Thank you for the in depth post.  I have much love for little blue man!  I to am fond of some foreign shows, though I never checked out Pacific based program.  There was one show (and only one) that was good in Turkey.  I liked it, even if my Turkish was a bit slow.

[Strazos]

_{*I’m joking. Russian TV is horrible.}

I hear they have a pretty cool daily news show.

[Calantus]

Much thanks.

Now I have to get my new router to forward IPs so bittorrent can work again. :P

[Murgos]

I used to love to watch late night TV when I was in Japan.  It seemed that there was always a Sumo Basho on (it's actually a pretty impressive contest, lots of skill and strength involved, even a bit of drama too) and failing that there was always the incomprehensible game shows and eclectic commercials.

Commercials in Japan often have A-List US celebs (I hear they pay in the millions for a day or twos work) doing things that are just, well, strange.

[Strazos]

Yeah....Apparently, doing US ads in the US is embarassing, but it's fine for someone like Jennifer Aniston to go overseas and do Heineken ads in Japan.

[schild]

In Japan, advertising means you've made it. In America, advertising means you're trash. Of course, there are exceptions.

[voodoolily]

_{*I’m joking. Russian TV is horrible.}

Hey, what about Goodbye Summer (Dosvedanya Lyeta)? You can't beat Russian soap opera. Or what about the show about the robot that just walks around saying "Eta robut. Eta reka. Eta most." He's hilarious!

No, you're right. Russian TV is quite teh suck. And their programs are of arbitrary lengths. They don't care about starting and ending on even half-hours.

[Viin]

GTO is awesome, I'll have to check out the other shows you mention - Thanks!

[Yegolev]

Most of my shames are not secret, and so I thank you for the hook-up.

[Sairon]

Picked up a couple of episodes of Densha Otoko. He's a bit to pathetic for my taste, but it's still pretty good stuff. I liked the part where he was fetching a baloon from a tree and got owned by a little girl. :P

[schild]

Picked up a couple of episodes of Densha Otoko. He's a bit to pathetic for my taste, but it's still pretty good stuff. I liked the part where he was fetching a baloon from a tree and got owned by a little girl. :P

Yea, the pathetic part bothers one of my friends here as well. There's a good chance he's watching it now solely for the preposterousness of the entire situation. I almost called this thread "Single Man Rant Thread" but that would have made no sense to anyone but me at the time. The thing you have to remember about Densha is that he is the epitome of Otaku, he's meant to be an uplifiting spirit for all the shut-ins in Tokyo and the surrounding districts. Of course, it also helps that the show is based on a true story that was a book and then a movie and now this - arguably the most successful of the three.

There's also a fantastic reality tv one episode special about them fabricating a situation to lure otaku into an alley to see if they'll save a girl in an argument. Something like 2/3rds did something and the rest tried to be invisible. Was truly funny shit. If it didn't make me cry.

[schild]

Episode 10 of Densha Otoko came out yesterday, along with English subtitles. See original post for linkage (as in, it's at the same place).