JDramas for Beginners

This is my first JDrama i watched to the end. Before stumbling over Pride i tried to watch JDramas but never got into them. They were weird and i didn't get them. But with this i got used to them. Pride has the advantage of giving of a western style feeling in certain aspects (for example: the sport theme) and at the same time introduces you to the strength of JDramas (writing, especially the relationships and the well written characters). Following this i watched a lot of Kimura Takuyas other works and got more and more used to weirder JDramas. I even got back to the ones i couldn't watch before and found them amazing.

This drama is a typical romance story like you can see in western romance series too. It reminds you of those movies. The strength of this drama lies in the portrayal of the life of the characters and how they fit themselves in the other ones life. And that isn't always as easy as it seems. I loved the characters in this with all their flaws.

At the beginning this is a typical Cinderella Story just with a little gender switch because here the boy is poor and the girl is rich. The drama focuses not only on this lovely pairing but also on their friends and the friendships that form around them. It's a light watch with likable characters and realistic problems.

This is also a romance and adds themes like high school girl prostitution in Japan and HIV. It is a slow and sad but well acted drama. My third JDrama. I loved it a lot.

My first crime JDrama. It has some of the special weirdness JDramas can pull off (especially the main leads often odd behavior). So this is a perfect start to get used to the humor of JDramas.

In certain aspects this is a lot like Kamisama, mou sukoshi dake and that's why i put it into this list. It has a melodramatic feel to it but is filled with positivity and great acting. The emotions here really get to you. Loved it.