Winter 2012 Outlook and 2011 End-Year Retrospect

The 2011 year has came and gone. This year was definitely a year that I was not actively watching dramas or doing anything related to them. This year almost was like a self reflection on where I wanted to go — did I want to continue doing this or did I just want to stop? Also, being in my final year of college ( three more months to go! ), I realized that the time I had before was zapped. I had a lot of “real world” obligations to focus on which, in the end, hurt this blog. I tried to make it up with commentaries and random musings but it still was missing what I had established this blog to be, a place for reviews.

2011’s dramas were either great or a far miss. With the few that I saw this year (five), out of them only two were absolutely terrible. Three ended up becoming absolute favorites or decent shows that entertained me thoroughly. I should have watched more, but I was simply too overwhelmed and disinterested to watch anything new. I want to look at 2012 with the hope that the field will change up and offer more great shows.

Now that 2011 is about to end, I look at 2012 with great optimism. Graduation, possibly teaching over in Japan, and starting a new chapter in my life. I have an urge in the back of my mind to start fansubbing again and just doing things that I love to do. Not for anyone else but for what makes me happy. Life is short, I might as well take all that it’s worth.

But enough about me, time to look at the Winter 2012 season. After looking through the list, three shows popped out that interested me enough to watch them. Considering my final project will begin around the time Winter 2012 starts, I wanted to limit myself to some easy shows that I can blog in-between digging my academic grave.

Atonement, WOWOW, 5 Episodes , Sundays @ 10pm

Based off of a book, Shokuzai is a revenge drama, something that I love to watch. The show is apparently about a mother who was unable to forgive her daughter’s friends for the death of her daughter. They were there at the crime but were unable to identify the murder, so the case went unsolved.

It looks interesting and short enough to not seem disappointing. The cast also seems like a very strong group of actresses, having seen a few in previous works in the past. With it being a WOWOW drama, I imagine that finding raws will be pretty difficult as it’s a cable station and not a network.

A 13 Year Old’s Hello Work, TV Asahi, ?? Episodes, Fridays @ 11:45pm

Another drama based off a book, 13 sai no Hello Work is about a guy that basically gets a second chance in life. He wanted to be a detective but has only ended up as a community police officer. After getting dumped by his girlfriend, he goes to a karaoke bar, drinks his pain away and suddenly wakes up in 1990 Japan as a 13 year old in high school, given the opportunity to start life over again and achieve his dream.

I like Matsuoka Masahiro as an actor and I’ve liked every drama’s he has been in since like forever. My fear is Yokoyama Yuu, who has had a streak of bad dramas for the past four years. Though, it seems as if this role will be a return back to his, how would I say this, ” acting roots “. I anticipate seeing a more light hearted character. I also want to have a lot of laughs.

Strawberry Night, FujiTV, ?? Episodes, Tuesdays @ 9pm

And finally, another drama based off of the special that was… guess what! Based off of the novel. A police drama focused on a criminal profiler that can basically figure out a criminal than the criminal can figure out themselves.

This one… I have apprehension. I have not watched the special in fear that I will either get excited and then become really disappointed (ie Quiz Show) or it will be bad and then the drama end up good. I am going to watch this because my stan, Maruyama Ryuhei, is in it and I simply want to erase Freeter, Ie wo Kau from my memory as his last acting role. Though, with such a huge cast, I fear its going to be another Control….

So, there goes my Winter 2012 plans. I am going to try and blog them as much as possible but I can’t make any guarantees.

Happy New Year, guys 🙂