Happy New Year 2025 + Dorama World's Recap of 2024

First of all, a very happy new year to everyone! あけましておめでとうございます！

This year marks the 19th year since I started the blog and honestly, I would never have expected to be still doing this after so many years if you had asked me back in 2006. Regardless of whether you are new here or have been longtime readers, I would like to thank you for your support and hope that this little space will continue to be of value and meaning to everyone who are fellow fans of Japanese entertainment especially dramas and movies.

Without spending any money on ads to promote this blog other than posting through the official social media channels, awareness of this site was probably limited to those who had followed me from the forum days in the beginning. This also meant that people wouldn't have found out about this site that easily unless my posts were indexed on search engines or they happened to come across my PR posts on social media. As such, it was such a pleasant surprise to see that this blog finally crossed the 5 million views' milestone this year even with this lack of publicity (without me realising it). Going by how "fast" the blog is chalking up views, I think it will be another couple of years before the next million milestone is reached though. ^__^

And so, I thought about marking the entry into a new year by looking back at my highlights on this blog for the year 2024.

Compared to 2023 when I watched J-drama series largely on TVer, my source of dramas and movies significantly expanded beyond this platform as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video started adding more titles at a steady pace in 2024 other than their own productions. 

My final tally in 2024 is as such:

* 61 titles compared to 34 in 2023

* 34 dramas + 27 movies

* Watched mostly on Netflix (36 out of 61), followed by TVer (9) and Amazon Prime Video (8)

* Among the key TV networks, watched the most dramas from TBS (10) followed by 7 from Amazon Prime Video and 5 from WOWOW

* Among the titles I watched, I'm glad that most of my picks met or exceeded my expectations (about 80% rated 5 and above). However, it seems that I have a comparatively lower success rate with movies because 8 of the 12 titles I did not like were movies.

* My top 7 highest rated titles this year (ratings in brackets) are as follows:

1) Lion no kakurega (10)

2) Zenryouiki ijou kaiketsushitsu (9.5)

3) Unmet Aru nougekkai no nikki / Yoake no subete / Warau Matoryoushika / Grand Maison Tokyo / Umi ni nemuru daiyamondo (9)

Note that other than "Shin kuukou senkyo" which I did not write a review for, the other titles I watched were all covered here so you can click on the "Quick Review" tab on the right side of the blog for these entries.

The reviews for "Grand Maison Tokyo SP" and "Oshi no ko" (drama version) will be posted in due course in January 2025.

While our preferences may differ, I still hope that my reviews can serve two purposes i.e. allow people to find out more about titles which may potentially be their cup of tea and for those who had watched those titles to read about different perspectives and share their own views and observations. As such, if it just so happens that I didn't like what you thought more favourably of or vice versa, let's not get upset or worked up over this difference in opinions because even the most popular or supposedly hit drama/movie will have its detractors anyway.

With the increase in the number of titles I watched in 2024, this had also led to the number of reviews I wrote as compared to previous years. I hope to be able to stay on course with doing this in 2025 as much as time allows.

In addition, I am happy to note that I managed to write a number of special reports and analytical pieces about the J-ent industry this year. For those who have missed this, you can check out the Analysis/Special Report tab.

To be honest, I am not very happy with using X nowadays ever since how messed up it got due to its new owner but given that Dorama World has a significant following there, it's not easy to get the users to migrate to another platform. However, if there comes a time when I really have to exit that platform, I am glad to note that I expanded Dorama World's social media presence to new platforms i.e. Instagram, Threads and Bluesky. Hopefully, there's one platform which you can use as a backup for now if there ever comes a day when I have to say goodbye to X or even Facebook.

And this wraps up my recap of 2024 on Dorama World. I hope the new year brings good things for you and everyone can stay safe and happy! Take care ~