Customer Reviews

The Dorama Encyclopedia: A Guide to Japanese TV Drama Since 1953

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
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This is the book that Japanese drama fans have been waiting for. As a fan and also a creator of the online J!-ENT Japanese Dorama Database, it is a real pleasure to see a book not only covering Japanese drama but also sentai and including anime references for the anime fans who have discovered Japanese dramas. Within the last five years, there has been a significant Japanese dorama boom in many countries thanks to the growing popularity of anime, Japanese music and Japanese/Asian entertainment. Although Japanese drama is not readily available as Japanese animation or Asian cinema on DVD, there is a growing fandom for dramas thanks to the International channels, Japanese rental stores, fan-trading/subbing, BT and VCD's. What I like about this book is that it has something for everyone. For fans looking for information on trendy Japanese dramas, the very long duration NHK and TBS dramas (especially those samurai/historical dramas), sentai and of course, dramas within the last fifty years, I was very impressed how the authors handled and included them in this book. What I worried about the most was the translation or the titles that would be used for the drama because what other countries have used as their English title for a Japanese drama has nothing to do with the translated title and thus, I was happy by the way this book handled that. One thing that also impressed me is the author and Stone Book Press's dedication to update the encyclopedia (there are dramas missing and a few errors but they are not as numerous and can be fixed in the next version especially with the input from readers). For a freshman book, it actually surpassed what I was expecting and I highly recommend the purchase of this book. So, may you be the trendy drama fan like me or the fan who just watched the live version of GTO or You're Under Arrest and are hooked and want more! This book is THE ONLY SOURCE that you will find this much information on Japanese dramas.-KNDY

Just when you thought there was nothing new to say about Japanese popular culture, this incredible book rolls off the presses. Riding the "dorama" wave within anime and manga fandom, the authors have opened up an entirely new area in Japanese media studies. Very few cultures have such guides to their TV available -- only the USA, the UK and Brazil have any comparable volumes in existence. The introduction is particularly interesting, demonstrating the earth-shattering effects of the English-language broadcasting industry -- simply by being five years ahead after the war, the USA came to dominate the style and practise of Japanese TV. Superman becomes Ultraman, the Westerns become samurai dramas, and, amazingly, one of the most influential TV shows in Japan *today* is still the all-but-forgotten American "Thirtysomething". An incredible window into the way that English-language culture is transformed when viewed through the eyes of another nation.

This is a well thought out and researched project into the history of Japanese television. Not only does Clements and Tamamuro catalog all available references, they cross-reference them to untold degrees, AND provide a concise overview of the industry's history. There are also amusing sidebars with observations and bits of trivia not found in any other compliation of this type.

This is a MUST for any fan of the Japanese culture and an eye-opening experience for those who equate Japanese entertainment to pop music and anime.

Definitely a comprehensive source of information for anyone in the industry or just needing a pop culture reference.

Thank you for the Dorama Encyclopedia. I am an avid fan of Japanese dorama and have been watching them subtitled in English for over 20 years. I was very excited to find out about this book. It really is the only "hardcopy" reference resource I know of for dorama.

It's true the doramas are listed by their English titles, but the Japanese title is also given and is referenced in the index. I've used this guide to look up descriptions of a show and information like the original broadcast station, year it was broadcast, cast, number of episodes, theme song etc.

True, you can find a lot of this information on the internet, but even an internet junkie like me can look up information a lot faster with this guide. And there are many, many entries in this book that you will just not find on the internet.

One thing I would like to see in future guides are category lists. For instance, shows categorized as comedies, romance, horror, family drama, etc. Or by favorite actor, actress, or producer. It would help someone find shows in a genre they like or avoid ones they dislike.

This book is an interesting supplemental reference guide for the dorama fan.

I never thought Stone Bridge could improve on their wonderful Anime Encyclopedia, but then again, I never thought that there would be several hundred live-action manga adaptations I had never heard of! Clements and Tamamuro have a clear love of Japanese television and a witty sense of humor that makes me laugh out loud, but they have also constructed this 440-page edifice with hefty academic tools. The bibliography cites a majority of Japanese-language sources, and an appendix gives Mandarin titles to help fans in the Chinese-speaking world. As an unexpected gift, the book lists an additional thousand TV shows from America, including details of their Japanese broadcast dates and retitling. An introduction gives a succinct outline history of television broadcasting in Japan, with fascinating tangents about globalisation in broadcast media, the appeal of rubber monsters, and the overseas effects of America's 2nd Golden Age of TV broadcasting. The Dorama Encyclopedia is an amazing resource for anyone interested in the effect that the likes of Steve Bochco, Mary Tyler Moore, George Reeves and Gerry Anderson had in the distant land of Japan, and I'm pleased to see that Bayside Shakedown, GTO and Kimpachi, my favorite shows of the 1990s, receive giant entries that detail just why they were so important in the Japanese TV world. Sadly, the book went to press before the release of the awful Sailor Moon dorama; a crying shame because I would love to have heard what the authors made of it.

While being far from being complete, Jonathan Clements' "the Dorama Encyclopedia" is none-the-less an invaluable resource for those wanting to know about Japanese TV Dramas since 1953. Clements and his staff of researchers should be commended for their valued efforts. I was very much pleased and surprised by many of their inclusions. Many shows which I thought would be overlooked are included. Such obscure shows like "Private Eye Story", "Unbalanced", "Buska", "OL Police" and "Uchu G-Men" are given very good entries. Tokusatsu Fans will be especially pleased by the inclusion of most of the Super Sentai Shows from "Go Ranger" to the current "Aba Ranger" as well as perenial favorites such as "Zone Fighter", "Kikaida", "Ultraman" and even the Toei/Marvel Comics version of "Spiderman". Trendy Drama fans will also rejoice at the inclusion of many favorities including "Tokyo Love Story", "Love Generation", "Love 2000" and "101st Proposal". Even cult shows such as "G-Men '75", "Sukeban Deka", "Sign Is V", "Sure Death", "Kamen Rider", "Seibu Police" and "Zatoichi" are covered. As is to be expected, with this amount of coverage, there isn't much room to put any detailed information in but for the most part, the entries are sufficient to give the reader a general idea of plot and storyline. My only complaint is that the promise of photos from the various shows never materializes. In many instances we are given line drawings and black and white artist sketches of some of the shows in question, which I found to be a bit of a letdown. In one silly instance the entry for "Kamen Rider" shows a toy (Kamen Rider Black RX on a Motorcycle). Another nitpick is that some notable omissions are found. Such shows such as "Playgirl", "Big City", "Resolved! Zubat", "Stewardess Story" and "Doberman Detectives", and "Zero Zero Kunoichi" are not included. All in all however I was very much impressed by the scope of the entries. Kudos to Stone Bridge Press for another great and well-researched resource!

I recently purchased the book after hearing about it the last couple of years. A little about myself... I'm an active drama researcher and contributor to the English-speaking Japanese drama community on both the Internet and in my home state of Hawaii. I'm very active on the DramaWiki, a drama-specific wiki system where we try to document as many trendy and other types of dramas as we can. This DORAMA book is a great resource if you're looking for detailed information on a given drama. But, I find the book very weak when it comes to retaining the original Japanese feel. For example, virtually all the drama titles used are the English versions. It would be much more valuable to the purists like myself if the writers at least included a cross-reference appendix listing the Romaji and English names (ex: "Hoshi no Kinka" is "Heaven's Coins".) Also, the book is very weak on NHK dramas, such as the Asadora and Taiga dramas. And, I really don't know why tokusatu and sentai shows were included in the book. For me, I'd rather have a separate book focusing on kids shows, and keep this book's focus on the REAL dramas you would coin the phrase DORAMA with. To be honest, you'll find much more accurate and complete data on the Internet, via systems like JDorama.com or D-Addicts.com, rather than reading 2nd-rate collected data from two anime writers.

This book has a summary of over 1000 doramas so it is a valuable reference for us couch potatos. However, there is no listing for "Kimi No Nawa" (1991) which is one of the best doramas. How did they miss this one?

This is an interesting concept. I'm a big drama fan, and I never thought there'd be an English language book about them. I like how detailed and comprehensive this book was. The main gripe I have is that series are listed under the English translations of their titles. You can look up the original Japanese title (in romaji) in the index, but it's an extra step you shouldn't have to take, especially since translations of the titles can be inconsistent. I rarely see series listed by their English translations online too.