During the past year my interest in Korean Dramas has waned. At the same time my interest in Japanese Dramas has waxed significantly.
Is it because more and more KDramas are appearing on Netflix, I wonder? Back in the days of DramaFever and Viki—before Netflix began airing KDramas—only a few KDramas were duds. Now it seems that they are nothing but tropes—one after another. They struggle to stretch out to a full 16 episodes. Netflix subtitles are definitely substandard ... and they flash by way too fast. (They "disappear" sooner than necessary, requiring that I pause and replay to read them.)
Japanese Dramas, on the other hand, have improved dramatically during the past couple of years. They are much more original, and rarely have annoying tropes. (Yes, I still have to screen them carefully to avoid R-rated-ness ... but once they pass that filter, I tend to enjoy them much more than KDramas.) I am glad that Viki is offering so many new Japanese Dramas.
Let's see where Asian Dramas go in the coming months/years. In general, they are still orders of magnitude better than American television.
