Anybody else watching Japanese TV shows on Netflix? I started that exploration as part of my quest to understand what the hell is up with Studio Ghibli films. I cannot claim that I yet understand that, or many other aspects of Japanese cinematic art, but I’m having fun in the meantime. So far, (multipart, not long-running) series I’ve enjoyed include:
** The live-action workplace drama and/or comedy shows with some kind of quirky or specialized setting.
- Atelier: feisty young textile study graduate joins high-end lingerie design company. Warning VERY GIRLY, except no love-story stuff, which is refreshing. I like this workplace-drama genre that’s getting its drama from the business and mission of the workplace itself, rather than treating it as an office-furniture backdrop to the personal relationships of co-workers.
- La Grande Maison Tokyo: feisty middle-aged aspiring chef joins forces with former superstar chef to develop international-status haute cuisine French restaurant in Tokyo. All main characters Japanese, but lots of French dialogue relating to matters culinary. Apparently there’s a 2024 full-length feature-film “sequel”, La Grande Maison Paris, which I am still waiting to be able to see in some subtitled form.
- The Hot Spot: not-very-feisty middle-aged-ish resort hotel clerk finds out about the unusual abilities and background of one of her colleagues, and the situation sloooowwwwly spirals in the general direction of out-of-control, although remaining firmly anchored in mundane-realism details that may strike some viewers as plain tedious, though I confess the series has really grown on me. New weekly episodes still arriving.
- Giri/Haji: I don’t know if this counts so much as a “workplace drama”, given that the protagonist is an LEO coping with a surge in yakuza gang warfare, so more of a police procedural/thriller? Not much comedy so far (um, I’ve seen like 1.5 episodes).
** The anime adventures, generally based on manga:
- Forest of Piano (Piano no Mori): A young student discovers his abilities and aspirations in classical piano, along the way sharing experiences and development with a number of contemporaries who are his rivals and friends.
- Blue Period: A young student discovers his abilities and aspirations in studio art, along the way sharing experiences and development with a number of contemporaries who are his rivals and friends.
- The Way of the Househusband (Gokushufudo): A former yakuza gangster kingpin is now married to a high-powered though somewhat ditzy businesswoman, who has no time (and not many skills) for traditional homemaking activities. The husband, whose impressive violent-crime qualifications aren’t much use to him as a law-abiding citizen seeking legal employment, turns instead to the challenges of mastering domestic duties, a mission that he takes VERY SERIOUSLY, meanwhile instructing a young ex-yakuza apprentice in their mysteries. (Warning: not very “animated” in a continuous sense, more like quickly flipping through successive frames of a manga story.)
- Thermae Romae: A young bathhouse architect in Imperial Rome develops his professional abilities through occasional accidental time travel to modern Japan.
Any other dorama/anime watchers with opinions on these shows? (See also: Blue Giant, anime feature film about aspiring Tokyo jazz trio, similar to the above in some ways but not a series.)