Why has no one every told me about Taiga dramas!!??

[21%]

For the uninitiated: these are annual period dramas produced by and aired on the Japanese national tv channel NHK.

I love historical fiction. I love long series. I can't believe it took me this long to discover the existence of Taiga dramas.

Basically, each year they come out with a drama series that follows the life of a historical figure in Japan history. Most of them tend to be political, patriotic, a bit educational, and since this is a national thing they usually have a great cast and amazing production value. The best thing about it is that each drama is around 50 episodes, so that's A LOT of hours.

A few of them are available with English subtitles from gooddrama.net. I've been watching Shinsengumi! and this is exactly my kind of thing. They do take a few liberties, but for the most part it's extremely well-researched and historically accurate, which is something I really appreciate. On top of that they manage to add in a healthy dose of good drama elements. Characters feel real and relatable. A very decent script with engaging political intrigue. It keeps a good balance between accuracy and good story-telling.

If you don't know any Japanese history at all, you might be a bit lost, but if you like historical fiction, this might be just the thing for you!

So, I feel like I've struck gold!

Anyone else?

 

[Flâneuse]

Looks interesting. I'm going to watch the first 3-4 episodes of Atsuhime over the next week and then decide if I want to see the whole thing.

 

[21%]

Looks interesting. I'm going to watch the first 3-4 episodes of Atsuhime over the next week and then decide if I want to see the whole thing.

I've actually seen a few episodes of Atsuhime a while ago on cable, not realizing that it was a Taiga drama. From what I've seen it's very good!

I'm planning to watch Atsuhime from the beginning once I'm done with Yae no Sakura

 

[Qlip]

I watch a lot of old-school slice-of-life anime, and they're usually watching these on their cartoon TV's, now I get to watch. Thanks for bringing this to my awareness.

 

[21%]

I watch a lot of old-school slice-of-life anime, and they're usually watching these on their cartoon TV's, now I get to watch. Thanks for bringing this to my awareness.

They're usually (very) slow but absolutely awesome!