Japanese Drama Recs: Romance Manga Adaptions

1. Switch Girl!!

Synopsis: Nika Tamiya is the most beautiful girl at school. All the boys are in love with her and a lot of girls are envious at how she does everything so perfectly. However, she has a secret… She is a switch girl! When she arrives home, she “switches off” and transforms into her “true” self: a lazy and unfeminine girl. Arata Kamiyama, a geeky guy at school, finds out her secret. Arata is the opposite of her… He appears to be geeky at school but he’s actually super hot!?

The plot of this romantic comedy shojo series is similar to the popular manga, Horimiya. I like Switch Girl!! more though. I liked this drama because the cast is spot on. Many Seventeen models play the characters, including Mariya Nishiuchi, the main lead. Renn Kiriyama who plays Arata is good-looking too.

I watched this back when I was in high school and I was hooked from the beginning. I ended up procrastinating on whatever homework I had, so fair warning.

If you like this, you might like:

• Horimiya (manga)
• Hotaru no Hikari (Japanese drama)

2. Good Morning Call

Synopsis: Nao Yoshikawa moved into a new place, but she finds that she was scammed because another person is living in the same place as her. The person she has to live with is Hisashi Uehara, one of the most popular guys at school. Uehara is aloof and hard to get along with. Good luck Nao and don’t fall in love.

Good Morning Call is a Netflix Original series, based on the romantic comedy shojo series. I don’t know a single person who did not like this! The “living with the most popular guy at school (or my boss) and he is also cold and distant” trope is done again and again. The ending is predictable, but it’s still enjoyable to watch.

If you like this, you might like:

• It Started With A Kiss (Taiwanese drama)
• Playful Kiss (Korean drama)
• Just You (Taiwanese drama)
• Hotaru no Hikari (Japanese drama)

3. Dame na Watashi ni Koishite Kudasai

Synopsis: Michiko Shibata is a woman in her thirties. She is jobless and just broke up with her money-swindling younger boyfriend. She encounters Ayumu Kurosawa, her former supervisor. Hearing her situation, he gives her a job and a place to stay at his cafe.

You may already be familiar with the actor who plays Ayumu. He is played by Dean Fujioka, the singer who sang History Maker, the opening song of Yuri on Ice. Ayumu is so sweet… Where can I find someone like that?

Personally, high school shows don’t interest me as much anymore. I’m into josei series like this one, because I can relate to their struggles more and we are closer in age.

If you like this, you might like:

• Hotaru no Hikari (Japanese drama)
• Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii (anime)
• Just You (Taiwanese drama)

Korean Dramas I Loved

Korean dramas are really good quality because they have a high budget, especially since they’re super popular in Korea and throughout the world. The actors and actresses are always attractive too.

I do have some problems with them because most of the time, they are very dramatic. Sometimes the drama seems too unrealistic and I feel like I need to take a break from watching them. I also don’t like how so many dramas follow the same storyline: Rich, attractive boy falls for poor, average-looking girl. Now that you know a bit about my tastes, here are Korean dramas I loved!

Thanks Neko Nyan for giving me the idea for this post. These aren’t in any order.

1. Lie to Me (2011)

Okay, this one follows the rich boy, not rich girl trope but Ki-joon (the CEO) is so sweet! I hate Boys Over Flowers because I think that falling in love with a rich guy who bullied you is problematic. It’s different here. In order to impress her friends, Ah-jung (the female lead) lies and tells her friends that she is married to Ki-Joon. Her lie spreads like wildfire and everyone in the country finds out about it through the media and news outlets. I love how he agrees to pretend to be married to her HAHAHA! I definitely think this drama deserves to be more popular.

2. My Girlfriend is a Gumiho (2010)

I don’t have strong opinions about the male lead but I love the female lead, Mi-ho. She is so kind-hearted, funny, and naturally gorgeous. She will defend herself if she has to. Mi-ho is a gumiho, which is a nine-tail fox. She is found by the main lead, Dae-woong, and tries to live life as a human. Dae-woong does treat her well and it’s a good love story. The soundtrack is beautiful – I love this song the most.

3. Cunning Single Lady (2014)

I enjoyed this drama a lot more than I anticipated! It’s binge-worthy and the female lead is so beautiful. The main couple were married in the past but got a divorce because Jung-woo, the male lead, was too poor. Years later, Jung-woo is the CEO of a huge company. Ae-ra starts working at the company for revenge.

Okay, you probably think Ae-ra is a horrible person. She’s actually a really good person! I don’t want to spoil anything so you’ll just have to trust me. I love romance dramas with sweet male protagonists. Even though Jung-woo thinks that Ae-ra is trying to get close to him for his wealth, he’s still so kind to her. T_T

4. 38 Task Force (2016)

I LOVE dramas that involve con-artists or deceiving people. In this show, a tax collector sees injustice because he works for a government agency but the people who are not paying their taxes are very rich and get away with it. The tax collector, Baek Sung-il, teams up with the con-artist, Yang Jeong-do. Yang Jeong-do gets a team of people and together they scam the rich people. It’s super interesting and when it came out, I checked every week if the new episode was out because I was so excited to watch it.

5. Liar Game (2014)

I blogged about this drama before in my “10 Live-Action Manga Adaptations I Enjoyed” post. You can read that here.

In Liar Game, the goal is to deceive the other players. If you win, you will get a lot of money but if you lose, the money lost becomes your debt. Da-jung is tricked into joining the game. She’s very naive, and gets former con-artist and former psychology professor, Ha Woo-jin, to help her. Ha Woo-jin is brilliant.

This drama is based on a manga but they made a lot of changes to it. I usually don’t like it when shows deviate from the source material but these changes were refreshing and pleasant to watch. They made the Liar Game into a reality TV show and so the game is watched by a lot of people. They also changed the games, which was nice because I didn’t know the outcome of the games. The two main protagonists are similar to their manga counterparts but the other characters are very different. I didn’t have complaints about that. It’s a really good remake. The Japanese drama, Liar Game, is more true to the manga but this drama is worth watching.

6. Money’s Warfare (2007)

In this drama, Na-ra becomes homeless after a series of unfortunate events. These events happen early on. Na-ra picks himself up and becomes a loan shark. His job is to collect debt from poor people, but he uses unconventional methods. There are some really funny scenes. Na-ra is awesome.