The Best Japanese Dramas | A List of Top J-Dramas

Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO) is based on Fujisawa Tohru's manga and anime (animated series) of the same title. Onizuka Eikichi (played by Takashi Sorimachi) attended a low-rated university and was a biker gang leader. Surprisingly, he aspires to be a school teacher. An eccentric principal hires him to teach at Gakuin School where he is assigned to a class of mischief-makers. Because of his unimpressive background, his co-teachers and students try to bully him out of the school but Onizuka manages to capture their hearts and trust with his unexpected and unconventional teaching methods, one episode at a time.

There are lots of hilarious, laugh-out-loud moments and, at the same time, there are moral lessons told without resorting to preaching. Sorimachi Takashi is perfectly cast as the somewhat dim but streetsmart Onizuka and the bond he forms with his students and the romance with fellow teacher Fuyutsuki Azusa (played by real-life wife Nanako Matsushima) has a realistic, endearing quality that will leave you wanting to watch more.

If you want to watch a high school dorama, start with GTO because it's a classic and has seemingly become the template for succeeding school-based Japanese TV series.

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Photo credit: screenshot from GTO episode 1. Copyright owned by Fuji TV.

Gokusen, short for Gokudo no Sensei loosely translates to "Gangster Teacher". The series, based on Morimoto Kozueko's manga of the same title, is about Yamaguchi Kumiko (Nakama Yukie), a starry-eyed woman who is slated to become the 4th generation leader of the notorious Oedo Yakuza clan but has aspirations to become a school teacher instead. She enters Shirokin Gakuen and gets assigned to section 3-D, a class of troublemakers. The rowdy, delinquent students bully her and attempt to make her quit but her Yakuza ways, her passion and devotion to her job manages to win their trust and hearts in time. She is even given a cute nickname by her students: Yankumi.

This drama is shot as a formulaic, over-the-top and campy school-based TV series which always ends with Yankumi being portrayed as a superheroine -- appearing in moments when her students are in distress, rescuing them and giving their opponents an earful. However this repetitive formula works thanks to Nakama Yukie's charm and hilarious antics. In fact, every episode has a feel-good ending that makes you ponder about life and relationships in general.

Gokusen spans three seasons and has propelled a lot of young actors - including Jun Matsumoto, Shun Oguri, Kenichi Matsuyama, and Mizushima Hiro to name a few - to stardom.

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Photo credit: screenshot from Gokusen ep. 4 season 1. Copyright owned by Nippon Television.

Trick revolves around Yamada Naoko (Nakama Yukie), a talented but unemployed magician and Professor Ueda (Abe Hiroshi), a physics professor who does not believe in magic at all. After solving a cult mystery using their combined knowledge and skills, the unlikely duo find themselves teaming up, albeit unwillingly, and, together with bumbling police officer Yabe Kenzo (Gokusen's Head Teacher Sawatari, Namase Katsuhisa), they uncover and expose even more seemingly supernatural phenomena and cases.

The cases they encounter border on the paranormal and get even more interesting as the series progresses but the funny characters and the actors' great chemistry give the series a light and very watchable flavor and has been described as "X Files meets Scooby Doo". It's no wonder that the series lasted for three whole seasons.

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Photo credit: screenshot from Trick episode 10 season 1. Copyright owned by TV Asahi.

Engine revolves around Jiro Kanzaki (Kimura Takuya), a world-famous F3000 test driver. An altercation while racing in Europe forces him to return to Japan where he finds that he is no longer welcome to race with his old team because they now have younger and faster racers. Jiro decides to do whatever it takes to race again, including working as a mechanic in his old company. He goes home to live with his adoptive dad and sister who, he is surprised to see, are now running an orphanage. At first he doesn't care about home life and the children living there but over time he grows fond of them and even becomes instrumental to their personal success and long-term happiness... and vice versa.

If you're familiar with Kimura Takuya* and his romance dramas, you will definitely see a different, tender side to him here. The heart-tugging TV series at first looks like it's about racing but it in fact deals more about life and the importance of family. Each episode focuses on one child and how an encounter with Jiro changes his/her perspective and more often than not, demonstrates a moral lesson without being preachy and melodramatic. Popular Japanese actress Koyuki plays Tomomi-sensei, Jiro's love interest.

* While you're at it, make it a point to watch all of Kimutaku's Jdoramas -- aside from Engine, I also highly recommend Long Vacation, Love Generation, Good Luck!, Hero and Mr. Brain. He's not called the King of Jdramas for nothing!

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Photo credit: screenshot from Engine episode 4. Copyright owned by Fuji TV.

Nodame Cantabile, a series based on Tomoko Ninomiya's successful manga, revolves around the quirky romance of two people with contrasting personalities and backgrounds. Noda Megumi, or "Nodame" (Juri Ueno) is an eccentric and extremely gifted pianist whose lifelong dream is to be a kindergarten teacher. She plays music free-form (cantabile) and by ear (oido) and refuses to read the music score. Meanwhile, Chiaki Shinichi (Hiroshi Tamaki) who lives next door is Momogaoka Academy's top student -- straight-laced, talented in piano and violin and has secret ambitions to become a conductor. Nodame and Chiaki meet by chance. She falls in love with him and, although it takes a while longer, Chiaki begins to love and appreciate Nodame for who she is and their relationship causes them both to develop and grow as a couple and as musicians in their own right.

I love this Jdrama. In fact it was the first Japanese TV series I watched in its entirety and to be honest, I blame it for my current Japan drama addiction. It also made me an instant fan of Ueno, Tamaki, Eita, and Naoto Takenaka and got me appreciate classical music. The drama series was so successful that it spawned a 2 part 4-hour special in 2008 and a 2-part movie, screened in 2009 and 2010.

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Photo credit: screenshot from Nodame Cantabile episode 10. Copyright owned by Fuji TV.

Based on the Japanese shoujo manga of the same title by Kamio Yoko, Hana Yori Dango (Boys Before Flowers) is your classic rich heir falls in love with the poor girl story - with a lot of drama and unexpected (and frustrating) twists thrown in between. Makino Tsukushi (Mao Inoue) is the only poor student at Eitoku Gakuen - school to the ridiculously rich ruled by Flower 4 or F4, a group of four boys from wealthy influential families: Domyouji Tsukasa (Jun Matsumoto), Hanazawa Rui (Shun Oguri), Nishikado Sojiro (Matsuda Shota) and Mimasaka Akira (Abe Tsuyoshi). Once a student gets on the F4's nerves, he or she becomes a persona non grata and is driven out of school.

Makino is the only one who brave enough to stand up to the F4, specifically their arrogant leader Domyouji, and as fate would have it, the two end up falling in love. Drama and painful situations ensue when Domyouji's mom opposes the relationship but his sister and the F4 take Makino's side and together, they all take pains to keep the star-crossed lovers together.

This drama series spans two seasons and has been remade into highly successful drama series in Taiwan (Meteor Garden) and Korea (Boys Over Flowers).

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Photo credit: screenshot from Hana Yori Dango ep. 8 season 1. Copyright owned by TBS.

An adaptation of Higashino Keigo's bestseller novel, Ryusei no Kizuna (Bound by Shooting Stars) is part murder mystery, part-family drama, uniquely told through acclaimed screenwriter Kudo Kankuro's imagination.

Koichi (Nino Kazunari), Taisuke (Ryo Nishikido), and Shizuna (Erika Toda) are three siblings whose parents were brutally murdered when they were just kids. The three kids go off in the middle of the night to watch the Leonid meteor shower, not knowing that they will have to come home to a gruesome and traumatic scene later that night. The series takes off 14 years after the incident, a few weeks before the statute of limitations is set to expire. Unbeknownst to the police, the siblings have started working as con artists for fun and for money. In the middle of one of their con operations, an incident involving a cherished hayashi rice family recipe starts a chain of events that brings them back to the murder case which then leads them to their parents' killer.

The three idols give surprisingly excellent performances and the serious story is given a lighter touch by having their con operations played out like movies within a movie. This unique approach gives the heavy story an entertaining and extremely watchable mood.

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Photo credit: screenshot from Ryusei no Kizuna episode 1. Copyright owned by TBS.

Osen is a drama series about Handa Sen (Aoi Yu) - fondly called "Osen" - who is the okami (proprietress) of Isshouan, a long-standing traditional restaurant in the lower part of Tokyo. In this world of fast food, konbinis and take-outs, Isshouan is one of the few restaurants in Tokyo that still serve Japanese food in the traditional slow-cooked style. While the rest of Japan seemingly goes through modernization, Osen takes great pains in preserving traditional methods of cooking which is demonstrated by the high quality of food she serves. Together with her able kitchen staff including an eager-beaver novice cook Ezaki "Yocchan" Yoshio (hilariously played by Japanese actor / idol Uchi Hiroki) and skilled but under-appreciated chef Takeda Tomekichi (rising star Mukai Osamu), they fight the pressures of commercialization and stand firmly for what they believe in.

I watched Osen without knowing what to expect and was pleasantly surprised to see an entertaining TV series with touching and, at the same time, funny situations excellently played by a delightful cast. If you want to learn all about traditional Japanese food and how they are customarily prepared, watch this drama. I guarantee that each episode will make you want to run to the nearest Japanese restaurant!

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Image is a screenshot from Osen episode 7. Copyright owned by NTV.

Dragon Zakura revolves around Sakuragi Kenji (veteran actor Abe Hiroshi), an ex-motorcycle gang member and now out-of-work-and-broke but brilliant lawyer who comes up with an idea that he thinks will solve his money problems. He proposes to elevate the reputation of Ryuzan High School, a school known for having the lowest grade point average, by grooming 5 of their students so they can enter the prestigious Tokyo University (Tokyo Daigakou or Toudai for short). Everyone from students in neighboring, higher-rated schools to Ryuzan's own faculty and student body scoff at Sakuragi and his crazy proposal, deeming it impossible. Sakuragi however manages to entice a group of kids to join his class, to the faculty's dismay. The students -- ably played by Tomohisa Yamashita, Nagasawa Masami, Aragaki Yui, Koike Teppei, Nakao Akiyoshi and Saeko -- go through a special year-long special training session under Sakuragi where they not only learn techniques about how to pass the Toudai entrance exam but also about life and their approach to education in general.

Students struggling in school will benefit from watching this show because of the fun methods Sakuragi uses to educate the special class (for example, treating mathematics as a ping-pong game, learning English by dancing and singing along to an English-language song, etc). I completely enjoyed watching this drama and even learned a lot of facts and studying techniques myself -- I just wish I was young enough to apply them in class LOL.

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Photo credit: screenshot from Dragon Zakura episode 8. Copyright owned by TBS.

Nobuta wo Produce is about Kiritani Shuji (Kamenashi Kazuya), the most popular boy in school, Kusano Akira (Tomohisa Yamashita), an annoying outcast who happens to be the son of a wealthy businessman, and Kotani Nobuko (Maki Horikita), a reclusive girl who hides behind her hair and is often bullied in class. Shuji absolutely can't stand Akira but in an effort to make their last year in high school unforgettable, they secretly make a plan to "produce" Nobuko - whom they call Nobuta - using their resources (Shuji's popularity and Akira's money) and make her popular. The three who, at first, have absolutely nothing in common nor anything to do with each other, grow close and form a special friendship that otherwise wouldn't have happened given ordinary circumstances.

If you want a school-based drama that goes deeper beyond the usual high school shenanigans, make sure to watch this one. The storyline and superb cast performances gel together to bring you a high school drama you won't easily forget. Where others preach moral lessons, this one lets the story flow naturally and shows the lessons, allowing the viewer ponder.

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Photo credit: screenshot from episode 1 of Nobuta wo Produce. Copyright owned by NTV.

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