One of my roll in this past 3 years is dorama distributor. Dorama shortly is a serial drama made in Japan, well what interesting about dorama? Well we will get to that part later
. But anyway, a week ago, my friend, well now you can say my costumer
, Mia is not like my any other costumer. My many other costumers, well can be said to quite know about this stuff, so for this special friend of mine
, I have to selected few of my best dorama (according to me, of course)… I don’t want to be a spoiler, but I will give you a link to the reference from quite reputable site so …. this is the list of my very…very selective Freddy’s must see Dorama List
- Byakuyakou (journey under a midnight sun), this dorama is the best one to me. A romantic tragic (very tragic even) plot, with superb acting by the actors and actress. Can’t find any weakness in this dorama, except a little confusing about little details, but after doing a little thinking time, this little details indeeds not a weakness but show the depth of the story (this is what makes this dorama number one to me). Even the ost support the dorama very well, good lyrics, good rythm, and well just perfect ost for this dorama. For this dorama I give 9,5/10+.
- Karei naru Ichizoku (The Grand Tribe), this is my second best dorama. Like byakuyakou, I didn’t find any weakness, everything very perfect, the plot is great, acting is supreme, the ost is suitable for the dorama, the story is unique, and the theme is supreme. A tragic dorama, and full of inspiring for people like me. Plus this dorama is based on the real event. Well I give 9,5/10.
- Ichi Ritoru no Namida (1 Litre of Tears/A Diary of Tears to be more precise translation), yup this is the most famous (maybe?) dorama. This dorama have a superb plot, great acting, best (one of the best if you argued) ost, and what best is this dorama is inspired by true story. This dorama have a unique story in Indonesia, because the story is been “hijacked” and give other ending by one of house production, for more information see in here and here, … shame on you, shame on you Punjabi, this is what makes me even hate you!!! But why I put this dorama in my third best? Well there is a little weakness, first of all, the present of the male character (Asou Haruto) is made by the production house to give a good plot, eventhough it make a great dorama, but the addition of character that doesn’t exist in the real event, well give this dorama a little disadvantage to me. The second and last intriguing weakness is the effect. I maybe a few(if there is another person) that take this dorama not just a tissues dorama (because you must use many tissues in each episode
) but I see this dorama is more about the struggle of the main character against it’s incurable disease. So to me, the home producer gives very bad mistake by give the different image then it should gives. Eventhough, I didn’t failed to catch the main message in this dorama, but other my friend is failed to get the message. But still, this is a great dorama, and I will give 9,4/10. - Kekkon Dekinai Otoko (The Man who Can’t get Married), this is the best comedy dorama so far. Every episode gives me good laugh. But what give this dorama a plus plus, is the theme, the theme is very unique, and to me it so… is kind of stabs in my heart
. Why is that? Because what the man thinks, in some ways, really resembles my way of thinking… hey maybe I included in this kekkon dekinai otoko club? Well, I don’t feel interested in give my deffend in this case
. But one weakness in this dorama (and any other comedy dorama) is the the story is shallow. Well I more like a deep story, an unguessed story till the end. But still great comedy dorama, the point is 9,4/10. - Nodame Contabile, another great comedy dorama, hilarious, funny, and entertaining. What gives this dorama a plus is this dorama gives new knowledge about the classic musics. And because I one of the classic music fan, so I give this dorama a credit. But several weakness in this dorama are eventhough the dorama talking about music, but the ost is not very special maybe because the influence of the comedy genre? And the second not like kekkon dekinai otoko, this dorama is kind of anime scene taking, but maybe to other this is not weakness but power, but to me I prefer the human scene taking
. But still a good dorama indeed, the point is 9,3/10. - Iryu (Team Medical Dragon), great action dorama. Gives new knowledge about doctor environment well maybe in Japan but still gives me a new perspective. But a little weakness, is a little to over exaggerating on the plot. Well just doesn’t like the super doctor is kind of superman
and the plot it self doesn’t to great. But overall, this is the best action dorama I have ever seen so far. The point is 9,3/10. - Nobuta wo Produce, easy watching dorama (compare to easy listening music
). But the plus to this dorama are the theme is good, talking about lies to make other people around you happy but it doesn’t make yourself happy in the end and talking about true friendship. But because I not a great fans of easy watching dorama, this dorama placed in number 7, but nevertheless this is my best easy watching dorama so far. The point is 9,3/10. - Dragon Zakura, another great comedy drama. Few weakness in this dorama are the overall theme is not special enough to me, try to achieve something beyond your wildest dream is quite like common Japanese story stereotype, isn’t? The plot is not special either but nevertheless quite interesting to make me finish the whole dorama. To me, the point is 9,3/10.
- Densha Otoko (Train Man), how can I not mention this dorama. Officially, this is the first dorama I watched. Great comedy with splendid acting, specially by Densha
. What makes other plus point to me is this dorama gives new perspective about otaku, and this dorama has succeed to achieves it’s goal, from forum I read, this dorama has changed the perspective of most Japanese people about otaku. But still few short of details, and a little “make me sleepy” plot got in the way of this dorama to be perfect. I give 9,3/10. - Tsubasa no Oreta Tenshitachi (Angels with Broken Wings), to me this dorama can be defined by film drama. But this is a great experiment by the home producer. Theme and acting is superb (about woman who have loss their ways). But to me this dorama is kind like too short, and to me this is the biggest weakness. But overall this new approach should gives 2 thumbs
. I give 9,3/10.
That is my must see dorama list, but there is a few other good dorama such as: Taiyou no Uta, Tatta Hitotsu no Koi, H2, Gokushen, My Boss My Hero and soon (If you have time to watch all of this dorama, I recommend to do so) but this list unfortunately can only contain 10 best of my best version dorama so far. But still this list is influence by my taste of story (I prefer deep story than shallow one, that’s why I prefer tragic genre than comedy), that’s why great to me doesn’t have to great to you
. But still may be this list can give you clues about what dorama to watched first
, just suite your prefer genre to my list
From when I was a child, I remembered that when first launching of Indosiar (one of public owned TV channel), one of the TV channel best program was Tokyo Love Story, a legendary dorama, but not quite “dorama” like these days dorama. But from that moment, I already like dorama, and because I hated most of Indonesian drama (namely sinetron), dorama, korama and west drama are my only source to drama world. But keep in record I like few not “usual” sinetron such as: Bajaj Bajuri because I think eventhough many weakness but still this sinetron is the best Indonesian drama so far I have seen, not to mention hilarious one either :p . Back to new dorama concept, what I like most about dorama system is, the sponsorship concept. One or many company be sponsor of dorama. This means that the income for home producer is not from (mainly) television. This kind of symbiosis (if I may called it symbiosis :p ) between sponsor and home production gives several effects. The first is sponsor only will donate to good dorama, imagine if big sponsor (such as: Toyota, NTT DoCoMo and soon) sponsorship bad dorama, this will affect directly to the image of the company, and this effect also hit the dorama producer, the dorama producer will have to give their best because if they give away bad products then no sponsor will sponsorship their dorama ever again. The second effect is the length, not like any other drama, dorama only consist of (most of them) 11 episodes, eventhough lately the number is decreased to 10 episodes. This is what main strength about dorama, we know if a drama last too long, then the audience will feel bored and dorama it self will lost it’s track to the theme (like what’s happen to Indonesian drama), and if too short, the audience will think it’s better if the story is made into movie instead of dorama, and the length (number of episodes) is on the right number. 11 episodes times 45 minutes (mean length one episodes) will give right time to finish the dorama in one day. Just the right amount of time to keep the dorama on the track… The last but the most significant advantage is the god damn good stuff is FREE!!! Yup dorama has the same license as anime, which is fansubs. What is fansubs, well shortly, you can say that in fansubs, the raw material is license free, except if the anime or dorama is already distributed in your country (in case of Indonesia, almost none
). But the problem is anime and dorama is raw material only used Japanese language, to common people like me, this is where the fansubs take their role. The community, majority foreign people (not Japanese people), try working together to translate the raw material, into English. The best part is, the translate cost is zero, which means you can get it for free, but still the translated raw material can’t be sell, rent, or anything involving commercial activities. This is community based activities, so you must respect the license. So as another fans, I gladly to borrowed my collections to my friend with no cost at all
, eventhough I may be remembered as “bandar dorama” for this kind of role :p . Another obligation to the fansubs community
. I just hoping I have fulfill my obligation as a part of the community









