Searching Through a New Season of Anime and J-drama
Just when you’ve had your fill of new anime and J-drama, one TV season ends, and the next begins. There’s always a string of new TV shows coming out. Some bad. Some good. Some great. However, when you have a dozen or so new shows released every few months, you have to do some sorting. You can’t watch them all. You wouldn’t want to watch them all. Maybe a handful of new ones you really like.
How do you wade through the new-season waters?
The common method many of you use is to do a Google search for “new anime” or “new j-drama.” You then probably go to a site like MyAnimeList, which neatly arranges all the new shows for you, with a picture, a blurb, run time, ranking, etc.
There is nothing wrong with this method. Except… it’s English.
I know, I know. This is just a little English to a gateway of Japanese. But why not do it the Japanese way, and make your anime/J-drama search also count as study time?
Anime New Seasons
The 2 major options I’ve used are:
1. Matome
Matome is the massive Japanese website that gathers information and creates articles on every topic imaginable. They have a roundup of the new and upcoming anime for every season. However, it’s a bit simple, and only gives you a title, official website link, and a short description.
I prefer あにぽた (anime portal?) as this specifically caters to anime. First you get everything a lot bigger and brighter.
You usually get a longer and better description, with links to the voice cast.
You get news-related links to the anime as well as links to the manga, if you want to buy/read it.
You get Japanese comments (more practice!)
Finally, you get a number of preview videos of the anime. Usually a trailer, an anime song, or some other promotion. Occasionally it’ll be Japan-restricted (which I think is ridiculous to put on an anime trailer), but you know… Japan.
J-drama
I haven’t found as good a specific site for J-drama, so I usually just use the Matome website for J-drama.
Similar to anime, you get the title, picture, description, and link to official site.
From there, if you like the picture and/or the description, you can click on the official site, and usually you can find a trailer for the J-drama. I wish they would just include the trailer on the Matome site, but J-drama trailers are weird. Sometimes they don’t exist. Sometimes the site makes them only available through their site. It can be a little frustrating.
Enjoy the new season!
Make the search be fun and part of your studying.
And what am I watching this new season? So far the following have piqued my interest.
J-drama
1. 明日結婚します
2. 就活家族〜きっと、うまくいく〜
3. 下剋上受験
Anime
1. 政宗くんのリベンジ
2. 亜人ちゃんは語りたい
Do you have any other (Japanese) sites you use to search for new anime/J-drama? What are you watching this new season?
Founder of Jalup. iOS Software Engineer. Former attorney, translator, and interpreter. Still watching 月曜から夜ふかし weekly since 2013.
Cool I will definitely check the あにぽた site out
Yeah, it’s a really useful site.
Thanks for the tips! I guess I got a few new bookmarks. Not yet sure what I’ll watch this season. I was a bit disappointed with what I’ve tried so far, so I’m still on the lookout…
I admit, this season is a bit on the lackluster side. But there are still a few gems to be found. I hope the sites help you find them.
I’m watching these.
東京タラレバ娘
突然ですが、明日結婚します
There’s another I’m watching too. Anyway, the ones I’m watching definitely have a different feel this season.
突然ですが、明日結婚します has been fun so far. I hope it continues that way till the end.
Does someone knows if there is a site like Crunchyroll but for dramas? I’m having a hard time finding dramas without English subtitles.
I have found a few dramas on Crunchyroll. There are actually quite a bit of them. You go to crunchyroll. Click on “Shows” which is next to the CrunchyRoll icon. Then immediately below the “Shows” (after you click on “Shows”) you will see An “Anime” tab and a “Drama” tab. Naturally, you will want to click on the “Drama” tab. And there you have it. A bunch of dramas that you can turn the subtitles off of.
The way those streaming sites work is they download the raws, then they download the subs and put them together. So if you didn’t want the subs, you’d have to use google and find the raws. However, I strongly recommend to just use Crunchyroll. You don’t have to download any large files and there is nothing shady about it. Another option, is to use a physical object (with tape) and cover the bottom part of the screen.
Amazon Prime Japan also has a lot of J-dramas.