Hi guys,
I joined viki for J-dramas so it’s really sad to see there are only such few there.
But one can suggest different TV shows to viki!
There is a section where you can send requests, so maybe if a lot of people send requests, they’ll add more!!
(You will have to request a specific show tho, you cannot just request more J-dramas… 
)
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Yes while i enjoy k-dramas very much i really enjoy j-dramas the most and i am quite disappointed in Viki and if Japan itself is responsible for the lack of access to j-dramas i am very disappointed in them it seems strange that a nation who manga and anime is so widely distributed would be so stingy with their wonderful dramas, come on Viki get with it and work on getting more J-dramas on to your service!!!
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I wouldn’t say that they like keeping things to themselves, it’s just that for Japan, streaming dramas isn’t as common. I’ve seen a few great ones on Netflix Japan (Good Morning Call) or Amazon Prime Japan (Kyoto Love Story), but these were lower budget dramas with lesser known actors/actresses (or the can’t or don’t demand a high pay) -don’t let that deter you from watching them, they’re high quality dramas with laser known actors is all. In Japan where buying the DVD sets are more of a norm, having thousands of people stream their content is more of a loss than a plus for them. They’d hardly be making anything.
did you receive the viki notice that they are adding Nov. 1st, 4 Japanese contents and it’s licensed… I’m sure Jap/Eng subbers will be needed 
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That’s unfortunate. Japanese TV is pretty awful to say the least. I would have preferred more Chinese shorts shows or even Thai shows. Japan is bottom tier quality - down there with Hong Kong.
Hopefully the shows being licensed are good ones or ones that I enjoy. Generally Japanese stuff is too heavily based on anime and silly to the point where it’s annoying and no longer funny. Even the serious dramas are filled with ridiculous and silly stuff.
People, checkout the Nov 1st coming new Japanese content, they will need Jap-Eng subbers:
https://discussions.viki.com/t/announcement-new-japanese-shows-dramas-sub-a-thon-info/17553?u=simi11
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It’s truly unfortunate that you see it that way, as a lot of dramas are quite the masterpiece. Viki doesn’t typically seem to get the license for popular dramas in Japan. If we’re talking about something thats too unrealistic and would only happen out of manga etc. there are a lot of Chinese, Thai, and Korean dramas like that -ones that also happen to be very popular. (When you were sleeping, W, Coffee Prince, My girlfriend is a Gumiho, Scarlet Heart, Scarlet Heart Ryeo, U-Prince //practically every Thai drama…and this is coming from a half thai person. The storylines are generally recycled with one person being rich, one bring poor, an evil underhanded female rival, the caring parents, etc etc.) Still I find dramas from everywhere, except for China and Hong Kong usually just because they do a lot of fantasy genre dramas, and I’m not a fan of those, enjoyable.
If I may, I have some Japanese dramas that I’d like to recommend to you!
Love That Makes You Cry, Koinaka, Pretty Proofreader, H2(which is based off a manga, but it’s realistic), Orange, Code Blue (all seasons), Tokyo Tarareba Girls, Pride, Ace wo Nerae (the live action drama), Tokyo bandwagon, Nobuta wo Produce, Ryuusei No Kizuna, Taiyou no Uta.
Some of them yes, but there are quite a few good ones too.
“Second to Last Love”
Love Affairs in the Afternoon
Jin, and
Ghostwriter.
The thing I don’t like is that they have a tendency to end very badly, with someone getting a terminal illness and dying.
I think as a whole, the Japanese entertainment market isn’t great at or willing to export its products. Just look at Japanese music videos on Youtube. There are very few or they are shortened versions.
I just happened to read an article about Japan’s “Cool Japan” initiative. It’s a campaign with the purpose of spreading Japanese culture. Apparently, it’s been reported as a complete flop and waste of tax payer money. They invested in expensive department stores in foreign countries. I think they can stand to learn from South Korea’s open-policy in regards to media exports. I do miss the Hana Yori Dango days.
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I know a lot of dramas are based on manga even Chinese, Korean and Thai dramas…
I would say these countries have done a much better job on average (not all the time) adapting the content to a live action show. It’s hard to judge the entire Japanese industry because I don’t watch very much. I usually pick up the ones people are fawning over like Kahogo no Kahoko. I watch them and then wonder “what is it people see in this drama, it’s not bad but it’s not very good”.
Silly, childish and ridiculous come up too often in my mind when I think of a Japanese show or movie I watched. Even the shows I enjoyed I could use those descriptions - Rental No Koi and Million Yen Women. Ridiculous. Silly. Superficial. Sometimes childish. I did like those shows.
I’ll edit to add a show based on manga I really enjoyed: Nobunaga Concerto. It was silly, childish and ridiculous at times but unlike many other Japanese shows - it managed to be serious, emotional and compelling at other times.
I think Japan has done well with anime. I know a lot of people who grew up watching dubbed Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z. You have that niche group that continued to love anime as they aged. But yeah every other cultural export - they have done very poorly relative to South Korea and even China now.
We will see. I’ve seen a progressive increase in Japanese content on Netflix. Viki is now licensing content.
It seems Japan is trying to make their content more accessible and more convenient. They have the 2020 Olympics. It’s pretty much now or never for them.
They have a long and documented history, a royal family, mature cultural industries and a major global event in a few years that gets people to pay attention to them. If they fail to capitalize they have only themselves to blame.
South Korea and China have done much better in different ways. South Korea has exported its culture through a conscious and coordinated effort. South Korea tried to understand what people like and dislike and did some tweaking based on that. South Korean government, companies and entertainment industries all came together.
China has sent and continues to send millions of kids abroad to universities throughout the world. I bet you I could walk on the campus of any university in my city and I could find a Chinese government sponsored language learning center. I could likely find a scheduled “travel to China!” event encouraging tourism to China too. I went to school with a ton of Chinese students. They also seem to be licensing content to Netflix, they have been to Viki for a while. I see a lot of their shows on Youtube and some get subtitles on there.
Part of me wonder if this is an ignorant, bumbling and poorly thought out attempt to counter Korea’s dominance in the region. Every now and then a Japanese politician or entertainer will say something negative about Korean content existing in Japan and call for a boycott or something. If they’re serious they will get a panel of foreigners such as Chinese, Korean, etc… to provide honest opinions that the Japanese government and industries can reflect on. But self-reflection is severely lacking while chest-thumping has been too prevalent.
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i love anything japanese but i am starting to think this whole “japanese relaunch” is just all hot air. if viki is indeed licensing japanese content now they are hiding it well. dont get me wrong i am starving for anything new japanese wise and will eat any crumb they feed me. but i think that claiming they are doing a relaunch then giving us (another) 2 year old drama a 1 year old drama and an 9 month old drama is a bit of a stretch. in the two weeks since the “relaunch” they have announced 10 new korean dramas,4 chinese dramas,2 taiwanese drama , and wait for it…0 japanese dramas. like i said i will take anyhting they give me but i wouldnt call this a relanch i would call it “same old same old” in other words please dont sh*t in my hand and call it chocolate. just give us the 3 “new” shows and dont get our hopes up for some new (simulcast like the other countries) shows and dont brag its a relaunch. its like calling twilight a vampire movie (IT WAS A CHICK FLICK). at this point netflix is giving me more japanese dramas than viki has in the last year and just dropped another one last week with another coming the 28th. i never thought that an american streaming service (netflix) could supply me with newer japanese dramas than a service owned by a japanese company (rakuten).
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I took the “relaunch” message to mean:
“As we cannot have as many Korean shows as we would like to, because of Kocowa, we have to give more shows from other countries. As in the past couple of years there were very few or no Japanese shows, now we’ll start turning towards Japan, and we start with licensing a few, but do expect more in the future, because that’s how we’ll not get out of business”.
Since in the past couple of years there has been such a scarcity of Japanese dramas on viki, and we surely missed quite a few good ones, I wouldn’t want them to skip those two years. I don’t mind at all if it has been aired a year ago if it is good. So much the better, there won’t be the nerve-wracking wait every week!
I watched the first six episodes of “Kimi Wa Petto” (elsewhere), and I wasn’t convinced there was any reason to re-do a very good show. They did it almost exactly as the previous one, only the actors in that one were slightly better. I thought it pointless. However it is a pleasant watch.
As for the romantic comedy taken from a manga, I watched a little of it, skipping here and there, and it seemed to be a very silly, low quality thing, with cheap laughs and basic cheesy romance.
So for now I’m not impressed. But they seem to be very popular titles, and it’s a start.
Let’s wait.
By the way, where are those new 10 k-dramas? I visit Project Finder every week, I was there a couple of days ago and there was nothing new, the same titles that were there two months ago. I am very happy to hear about new ones, but where did you get the info?
I was refering to the "coming soon " section from nov 1 til the 14th. 10 different korean shows appeared in that section as well as the 4 chinese and 2 taiwanese. but nothing for japanese.
Ah, OK. I always look at things from the perspective of a potential moderator/channel manager, and the ones you’re talking about were announced more than a month ago.
Yes, thankfully there are some right now to look forward to.
Japan shows may be slow to pick up but, as I said, the situation looks much better than it did six months ago.
I echo the disappointment of the other members above. The main reason I joined rakuten Viki is because I want to watch live-action Japanese drama, but it seems the number of show available is very limited, and Viki is adding very little or none at all. If nothing is forthcoming in the next two or three months, I’m inclined to cancel my subscription and just buy the J-drama and movies I like on eBay as DVDs for binge-watching.
It’s definitely misleading what they did… it’s technically Japanese owned. They made a huge deal near the end of 2017 “we got a bunch of Japanese stuff coming!” and then it was all old stuff and as of now it was a 1 time deal. No new content since.
Personally I’m not really a big fan of Japanese shows but why re-brand to feature Rakuten prominently and why promote “oh look we got all this Japanese stuff coming” when it was a one off thing… it gets people’s hopes up only to disappoint them.
Rakuten is a strange company. I don’t know what they do when you count all together, but as far I noticed they have an online store where you can get Japanese goodies and stationary, a German (or maybe internationel, but I don’t know cause I only saw the German one on my TV) app for renting movies (like Avangers, Star wars, Batman, The intuchabels, The smurfs,…) and than there is Viki …
I am just wondering all the way around. If one has a problem then the other has a problem one is on the east coast the other on the west coast. so J dramas are far and few between, but theres more problems too. and is licensing the only issue?? well I read some of the comments, I don’t know much about those animes, have seen just a couple, well hope everything works out.
Rakuten is a large company. Like many companies in Japan it doesn’t stay within one field of business. They own a famous baseball team in Japan, one of the largest net shopping malls, online banks, viber, etc. they also own shares from companies like lyft and pinterest. They’re an incredibly wealthy company.
Much like how Mitsubishi outside of Japan is only known for it’s cars, but actually makes quality stationary, owns a pharmaceutical company, owns a large sum of shares from Nikon, and has invented many of the technologically advanced parts of Japan’s railway system and trains. (And a lot more that would need a whole page of it’s own)
A lot of companies are like this in Japan, and though it’s common knowledge there it’s not so much the same case anywhere else unless you’re in a specific field that whatever company also has subsidiaries in. Hope this explained a little!
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I think perhaps the most relevant for Viki is the fact that Rakuten owns and is developing an AI designed to translate from one language to another. Such as from Chinese to Japanese to English to French to Polish (a representative of the Slavenic languages) etc. And they’re using Viki as AI’s personal playground and testing area.