Dorama World - 20 years and beyond...a big thank you!

20 years ago, I posted for the first time on this blog account. For those who have been following me since then or even from the forum days, this has been a very long journey...in fact, way longer than I expected back then.

The reason why I started writing my reviews of Japanese dramas and movies online was purely for the love of this genre. To share my thoughts on what I watched, perhaps also give some ideas to those looking for their next title to watch and probably with the intention to find like-minded people who loved J-dramas and J-movies but couldn't find English resources to satisfy their curiosity and interest to know more. As such, there was no active and paid promotion, readership growth was largely organic and things just started growing bigger and bigger here. From only reviews to sharing short news snippets and longer translations and later even doing detailed analytical pieces and features of big news and hot topics, the form of this blog has changed time and again - mostly due to my personal circumstances and the evolution of the J-ent scene.

Compared to two decades ago, the J-ent environment has changed drastically. The days of being at the mercy of what local TV broadcasters chose to buy from Japanese TV stations and having to watch only "old dramas" on free-to-air channels are behind us. You no longer have to buy pirated VCDs just to watch your favourite dramas. You can even use a Japanese VPN to watch dramas in real-time on official and legitimate online channels. Almost everything you want to see can be found on the OTT platforms (provided you have a paid subscription) and sometimes, the airing schedule is just hours after the first OA in Japan. What's more, they come in subtitles in a language you can understand. 

Perhaps the only thing which has remained a constant (at least the first thing I can think of) is the exorbitant prices of the dramas' DVD box-sets.

While I had intended to do a series of activities to mark this special occasion, life gets in the way...again. As such, I think I may have to push whatever I intended to do to sometime later this year. 

In the meantime, I still wanted to say...

Thank you very much for continuing to support J-dramas and J-movies despite the challenges for fans of this genre during this time. There was a time when people said that K-dramas and K-movies were "better" than their J-counterparts and were constantly in the limelight. Nowadays, while I won't say that the tables have been overturned completely, I am glad to see that there are more J-titles appearing on OTT platforms and hopefully, this helps to expand the fan base more so than before. Any efforts, be it official or from the ground up to support J-entertainment, I am more than happy to see and support in my own ways.

And thank you very much for continuing to visit this space. Whether you are here for the reviews, news, translations or features, each view on this blog means a lot to me. 

Just in case you are wondering, the total number of page views on this blog (up to the point of 16 August when I am writing this) is a whooping 10,703,612! While this may not be significant to many other bigger and older blogs, I still think this is an achievement that is worth commemorating and this is something made possible by all of you. In terms of the number of posts, I have written close to 8,200 pieces to date and there have been more than 2,400 comments left on these posts. The social media accounts of Dorama World have also grown so much with the "oldest platforms" having the most followers - X (about 9,600) and Facebook (about 7,200) while the newer platforms like Instagram, Threads and Bluesky are still in its early stage of growth (no active and paid promotion so things are growing slowly there). 

Things are going to be the same - largely business as usual here. I'll still continue writing and sharing information about J-dramas and J-movies here. Even if you may not be able to pop by every day or very regularly, I hope that you can still visit from time to time and share your love for this genre with me and fellow enthusiasts through this little online space.

長い間、お世話になりました。

今後ともよろしくお願いいたします。

Thank you for everything over the years.

I look forward to your continued support as usual.