SumiTheCat

I've only seen (and enjoyed) Pride from this list, and I added almost all the other ones : thanks for highlighting those dramas.
I don't watch a lot of sports dramas, and my favorite is Tumbling, but I also enjoyed a lot Yowakutemo Katemasu and Water Boys.
It's not really a sport drama but as you mentioned some game dramas, I'm adding I really liked Akagi (still looking for the second season).

Thanks for the article, it was really interesting! I participated in the survey and I really enjoyed it, all the more that it made me realise I'm rating higher than what I was thinking.

I should start by saying I'm a pretty easy to please person, I'm generally enjoying every show I'm watching, and if I've completed a show, it somehow managed to give me enough distraction to forget the bad days at work.

I'm only rating dramas when I complete them, and (almost) never when I drop them. I don't rate dramas when I'm currently watching them. I'm not choosing dramas regarding their score on the drama page, but I might be influenced by high rating from friends on the feeds (for example What's wrong with secretary Kim?). I'm more interested in watching a certain actor (that doesn't mean I would rate it high even if I like that actor) and most of all by plots. I'm avoiding some genres, like horror, so high rating have no appeal to me. I'm more interested in what people I know are thinking of the drama, but I'm not reading reviews (I don't really like it).

I'm not a professionnal critics, so even if I'm trying to be fair by taking into account many aspects of the drama (story, acting, relationships, genre...), I'm totally ignoring some others (more technical ones like editing, cinematography...). I can also totally forget obvious flaws to take more into account the enjoyment : I can rate a tokusatsu higher than some awarded drama. So, as many people stated, I'm rating more based on my enjoyment on the show, what it brought to me at that time of my life, than on some objective aspects.

I don't have a rating system, but as there is a scale, I don't see why I shoudn't use it fully. I've rated some dramas or movies a 1 and I gave many 10s (at the moment 18 including one movie). When I started rating, it seemed to me that 10 would not be possible because a flawless drama would not be possible. Nevertheless, I gave 10 to dramas that gave me a special feeling, that dealt with topics I'm interested in (friendship and human bounds in general), and that are having been able to balance every parts of the show. I wouldn't say all of them are my favorites, I sometimes like more some shows I rated lower. But to me those "rated 10" shows had something special to offer, and I would highly recommend them to any friend (them being asian drama addicts or not).

I was really interested while reading the comments, on how several users are linking their rating system to school rating systems. It is my case, mostly because I only know this way of rating. I'm not from the US, so I don't relate at all to the US system. I'm refering to the french school system (the most widely used at least, at the time I was a student), where works and exams are rated on 20. A 10/20 just means the work is average (in maths, half of the answers are correct, the second half are wrong), above 16 things are very good, excellence is above 18... It also means that below 10, many things are lacking. In the school system you can rate from 0 to 20, so with dramas too I'm rating from 0 (1 in fact because the site doesn't allow you rate lower) to 10. So I'm justing making the ratio to stick to the MDL system. I means to me, dramas rating 5 are average dramas, where I spent a nice time watching them but there are many things that were lacking or bothering me or I was not pleased with the way the story went... For me, bad dramas are the ones below 3.
Recently though, when I'm considering the rating I would like to give, I take a look at my completed list to compare with other shows. I'm wondering if that's not because of that that 40% of my completed shows are rated between 7 and 8.5... which is, objectively speaking, far too much !

On a side note, I'm watching almost only Japanese dramas, and have many friends who are liking them. It seems to me that Japanese dramas watchers tend to use a larger scale of rating than korean drama watchers, but I might be blinded by the prism of my awareness of japanese topics.

To finish (sorry I was not expecting to be so long), I would like to answer to your questions : 1 sometimes yes (I would feel more like castaways), 2 no, 3 no (at least not on rating topic).

Dramacool has the two first episodes (unsubbed) now.

Can't get over this show after several weeks. This is one of the most gentle, subtle, genuine story I've watched. The atmosphere of the drama is so apeasing. I'm wanting more, but honestly, it's perfect as it is.

It's one of my favorite drama of the season, and I just adore how Nino is portraying his character (I had no doubt considering how is he is particularly good at portraying mean characters, even in their TV shows).
It's true it's another of your skilled doctor show, but the mystery around Tokai manage to keep the show interesting. I particularly enjoy the rivalry with Takashina (or maybe it's just because I adore Koizumi Kotaro as well?)

Congrats to the winners!
It was interesting to read everybody's answers on the article.
And thanks dear Admins for the events!

Alas no! But it will be a good excuse to explore once again this wonderful giant city.

Hello!
Hard to decide what I liked the most in Japan because each place has its own flavour. Last summer I was pleasantly surprised by Koya-san.
Still, I'm never as happy and excited as when I'm in Tokyo. I just enjoy so much walking in this endless city (and yes, I'm from the countryside, that's maybe why). Last summer I spent a whole day trying to find a famous alley we can see in many dramas (especially in the opening of Jdrama Hero), and beautifully failed. But it was a lot of fun! (If anyone knows, I'd like to know for next trip -thanks in advance).

Thanks a lot for this review.
I took some glimpses at all the shows you mentioned except Tunnels... but I don't really watch Japanese shows except if there is someone i'm interested in it, and if I can find subs, which is rare. That "this is MJ" segment with Kame and Yamapi was indeed great, but it's one of the few I've watched. I just don't like food shows, so...

I'm only watching VS Arashi on a weekly basis, so it's easy to say it's my favorite japanese show. It's in fact the only show I can understand without subs, and I'm just sooooo happy to watch the five of them fooling around and with the guests. The show is a little bit repetitive at the moment, I liked it better some two years ago... but well, Arashi members are aging, so I guess we can't expect as much as before. I like all the games except Korokoro Vinking (can't stand the music anymore). Sho in cliff climb is a must see for me!!!

Such a sad news, it was so shocking to read the headlines earlier.
I was looking forward to watching him again in Byplayers 2. He was one of those actors we, drama fans, are just glad to see on the screen, because we can expect enjoying the acting.

It's not easy to describe this drama, it has such a unique atmosphere. So far (episode 4), the story is unfolding in such a gentle way, it could seem slow paced, but it's not, and you never get bored. Strong acting and strong writing, you clearly see it' on another level compared to "ordinary" dramas.
It's so realistic, yet so poetic at the same time...

By the way, is there a way to hide or lighten that VIP logo, it's too bright (for my taste) , especially compared to the logo of the staff members.
(sorry, i don't mean to complain because I'm super happy with this new feature, it's just I think it's not fair because on my screen it's more obvious than the staff logos).

Finally a way for those who want and can help (financially) to do so ! Yeah!
And it's nice to be able to customize some things, even if that's just extra bonus for me, cause the site is already a wonderful place!
Thanks for all the hardwork, it's really appreciated.

First of all, thanks for the results ! (I was about to ask if results would be out soon...).

I don't know if I'm surprised or not by the results. Can't say we didn't see it coming, but frankly, it's disapointing considering the wide range of nominations this year (I don't know if it was just my personal delusion, but it seemed to me there were more diversity in the nominations this year). I don't disagree with some awards, but... (Quartet T-T)

Then I took a look at the previous Best of Japan awards... Finally it's the same old story with this poll. So rendez-vous next year to see which romance(or rom-com) drama will steal all the awards from the japanese gems's hand!!! ;P

Nevertheless, I want to thank the staff for organizing this poll every year. I had a glimpse of the amount of work (and time) compiling the nominations is needing, and didn't realise it was that much. And if I may sound sarcastic and bitter, don't be too bothered by that : I definitely enjoyed voting this year, because all the fun is in the process of nomintaing and voting more than in the results. So I'll be there next year if the poll is done too!

Thanks for the article! I'm not really familiar with asadoras, so it's a very good introduction, and straight to the point.
The only asadora i've tried is Mare and unfortunately, i'm stuck on episode 66 since almost two years. I've put it on hold but can't bring myself to continue it. Guess it's because i don't really like the main actress, despite the great cast. Don't really enjoy the side stories too.
That being said, I'd like to try another one because I really enjoy slice of life and family dramas. I'll probably give Hiyokko a try though i was not that attracted to it from what I've seen of the Kouhaku special episode... i got Carnation on my ptw list for long too. . Las it's difficutl to embark for such a long journey, maybe I need to find the right one.

There were too many dramas nominated in each category. I think the admins just took the ones with the highest occurences. Otherwise we would have had polls with dozens of choices : for examples, the best up and coming actress had 22 different nominations, the OST ones 31 (in which 23 had only been nomintated once). And yes, most of OST nominations were nominations of a song only.

If you don't see the different questions, you should probably take a look at your adbolcker or other parameters regarding the tracking. I personnally can see the poll on my tablet, but I needed to change the tracking setting on my computer, especially on my ... search bar? (sorry I'm bad with English terms regarding internet). I'm using Qwant and it has an extension which is blocking not only ads but also the polls and probably other things I'm not even aware that are supposed to be there. It's blocking ads even if the site is whitelisted on my adblocker. Hope someone could make a better answer.

Voted!

Thanks for the poll. I'm looking forward to the results.
Of course it's always frustrating when our favorites didn't remain, but considering the range of answers given during the nomination round, it's to be expected.
I'm also wishing Quartet to win some categories, but I'm mostly hoping this poll would give people the envy to watch some dramas they haven't spoted at first, like I personnally did with Boku dake ga inai machi that I only watched because several people have nominated it.

If I'm not mistaken the submission of registration is what makes the marriage legal in Japan, so it doesn't matter if there is no ceremony yet. If the registration is submitted, they are married no matter what. But the websites don't say much about this.

Arama Japan said last week it they were supposed to marry on December the 24th. That being said, that doesn't mean they are right.
Thanks for the article.