This is my ranked list of the best J-Dramas I have watched on Netflix so far. If you would like to recommend me any J-Drama in particular, just leave a comment or get in touch with me on BlueSky or by email! Here are, from least to most favourite, the best J-Dramas on Netflix! Since there are 32 (and counting!) I thought it best to split this up into multiple pages. This page covers places 10-1, click here for 32-20 and 20-11 (links also at the bottom of this page).
10) Rikuoh (2017)
Rikuoh tells the story of a failing tabi manufacturer (a type of traditional Japanese socks) whose CEO is determined to revive the company’s fortunes. His plan is to launch a new line of tabi-inspired running shoes, using the unique skills his workers have cultivated throughout the years.
This show is mostly elevated through its strong central performance from the great Koji Yakusho (recently seen in Wim Wenders Perfect Days), and its endearing supporting cast and positive messaging. It’s a very emotional show, with characters seemingly bursting into tears at the drop of a hat. I have to admit by the end I would laugh a little bit whenever another montage of various characters crying would begin, but the show has a very sweet energy to it that keeps you on board even if it does go a bit overboard sometimes.
There is, of course, a rival company determined to stop our heroes in launching their new shoes, and that stuff is the least interesting part of the show by far, but it’s still not bad. It’s just nice to see people working together towards a common goal and trying to protect a family business. Since I liked all the employees and people involved in making the new shoe, it was quite easy to root for them all and let myself get swept up in the emotionality of it all.
9) Saving My Stupid Youth (2014)
In Saving My Stupid Youth, an all-boys high school and an all-girls Catholic high school sit right next door to each other, and both are falling on hard times. An idea is floated to merge the two schools together, although given the incredibly poor reputation of the boys school, the girls school isn’t particularly enthused by it. In the end, a trial run is suggested, with a class from each school mixed together. Half of a class in the boys school, accompanied by their teacher Heisuke Hara (Ryo Nishikido), swap with half of a class in the girls school, accompanied by their teacher Risa Hachiya (Hikari Mitsushima). If the trial is successful, the merger can go ahead, and the schools could be saved.
Heisuke is extremely pre-occupied with the past, so the show is tinged with a sense of nostalgia for those carefree days of youth, but in the end is also forward-looking and accepts the inevitably of moving on. The show’s strength lies in its large supporting cast of characters, with students and faculty and various family members rounding things out. With the students, it’s fun to watch the more serious girls let down their defences and grow closer to the irresponsible and directionless boys, who in turn start to get their acts together a little bit themselves. There are a number of individual stories within the student body as well, from crushes to identity crises to career ambitions and having to move away, which help move things along nicely. Hikari Mitsushima is also fantastic as Risa, and plays the role with great energy.
One part of the show that I wasn’t really enthused by was Heisuke’s “secret”, his involvement in a devastating fire that ripped through the schools fifteen years before the events of the series. I was much more interested in how the students and staff got along under their new arrangement, and watching characters interact with each other, which thankfully the series itself also puts more emphasis on than Heisuke’s secret (although it does run prominently through the show nonetheless). It’s an enjoyable, energetic, and light-hearted show, and wraps itself up fairly well in the end too.
8) Riding a Unicorn (2022)
Riding a Unicorn is the story of a tech start-up named Dream Pony with a young CEO named Sana (Mei Nagano), which is now in its third year and losing steam. A middle-aged salaryman named Satoshi (Hidetoshi Nishijima) is looking for a change and quits his management job at a bank. Believing in Sana’s ideals, he applies for a job at Dream Pony and is hired in an entry level position. Satoshi’s old-school methods are a little out of place and sometimes cause setbacks in the office, but Sana comes to find his perspective invaluable, and the two work towards accomplishing all of Dream Pony’s goals together.
Now, I’m very much not a work-orientated person, so the success of a company being the focus of a show would definitely not be something that appeals to me. Thankfully, there’s more to Riding a Unicorn than this, and the earnest and idealistic motivations of Sana helps get you on board with the fortunes of Dream Pony as a whole. The various staff members are an engaging bunch, and it’s nice to spend time with them all. The romantic subplots are also worthwhile, and again, the show is largely a comfortable one. I’m not sure that I would seek it out for a rewatch any time soon, but I wouldn’t refuse if someone suggested watching it along together some day in the future.
7) Asura (2025)
Asura is the latest series from Hirokazu Kore-eda (a favourite on this site), and features four sisters who find out about their father’s affair. Each sister has a distinct personality and all are very different people, and the show follows them as they try and unpack the ramifications of their father’s infidelity.
The performances in this are all great, each sister does a fantastic job and the supporting characters all play an important part too. There’s independent eldest sister Tsunako (Rie Miyazaki), second sister Makiko (Machiko Ono), a housewife who may have to face up to the reality of possible infidelity in her own marriage, bookish third sister Takiko (Yu Aoi), and the youngest sister, outgoing beauty Sakiko (Suzu Hirose). The sisters range in age (from 20s to 40s, roughly), and have very different relationships with each other, but the show is at its best when we see those relationships in action. It’s fantastic to see them interact, whether it’s in different pairs, threesomes, or when the four of them are all together. Each actress brings their best stuff, and it’s great to watch. The production design is also particularly worth noting, as the series is set in the late 70s, and everything looks top-notch in terms of fashion, set design, locations etc.
The story itself isn’t my favourite in terms of Kore-eda (I generally prefer the cosier stuff), but the performances were more than enough to keep me engaged all the way through.
6) Stay Tuned! (2019)
The focus of Stay Tuned! is a local TV station in Hokkaido named StarTV, and in particular a group of new hires in their first year at the station. The members work in different parts of the station, from reporting to production to marketing to on-screen talent, so even though the series is short (only five episodes in total) we still get to see a lot of the station and get a nice sense of its ecosystem.
The star of the show (no pun intended) is Hanako (Kyoko Yoshine), a clumsy but endearing and energetic young woman who has been placed in the journalism department, tasked with investigating leads and reporting on stories. She seems unsuited to the role, but the accidents and mischiefs she inadvertently causes always seem to result in something positive for the station. Although we spend the most time with Hanako, we also get a little bit of time with each of the other rookie employees, allowing them to show off their talents and/or the intricacies of their particular department.
Stay Tuned! is fun, goofy, low-stakes, fairly comfy (again!) and charming. I liked it a fair bit. One issue I did have though was that captions and other on-screen text would often appear in Japanese and was not mostly not translated, so I probably didn’t get to enjoy as many jokes/asides as a native speaker would. The Netflix translation only really covered the spoken dialog, for the most part. Despite this, there was still enough going on that I didn’t feel I was missing out too much, but it would have been nice to be let in on those untranslated jokes/asides too.
5) Quartet (2017)
Quartet is another series with an emphasis on music, like Nodame Cantabile and another show yet to come. As the title suggests, the series is concerned with a string quartet, four musicians who meet by chance and decide to play music together. They move into a holiday home belonging to one of the member’s family to live together and practice full-time, hoping to make music a profession. The series follows them in this attempt as they practice together, try to book gigs and play shows, and interact with each other. Through all this we learn more about the characters and their pasts, as well as getting to the bottom of one or two mysteries.
My favourite thing about this show was just watching the characters interact with each other. The wonderful Hikari Mitsushima is probably the best thing about this show, but the other three members of the quartet are not without their own charms either. The more mystery-oriented subplots weren’t really my thing, but thankfully that was a very small part of the show. It’s another show with quite a comfortable feel to it, but also not without its own moments of sadness as well. There are also a fair few instances of a character disappearing away down a conversational tangent that isn’t really a part of the plot as such, but tells you a lot about the characters and how they view the world. For example, in the very first episode, one of the characters speaks at length at the dinner table about how they don’t approve of the other characters squeezing lemon over a communal plate of fried chicken without checking first. It seems like a trivial thing, but what it represents in terms of differing manners and outlooks is something that persists throughout the series.
This is another one I plan to revisit in future, they were a very pleasant bunch of characters to spend time with. There’s one episode in particular that I would like to see again, which at the time felt like a very affecting and realistic depiction of a one-sided, failing relationship.
4) Orange Days (2004)
Orange Days follows a group of university students and their inter-connected relationships. The leads are Kai, in his final year and trying to determine his career path, and Sae, a talented musician with severely impaired hearing who communicates solely through sign-language. Kai had previously learned sign-language himself through a volunteer program at the university, and the two begin to get to know each other and grow close (after meeting by happenstance). The series is primarily concerned with their growing relationship, but their mutual attraction also brings together their two disparate friend groups: Kai’s friends Shohei and Keita, and Sae’s friend Akane. The five form a sort-of friendship supergroup, and as the series goes on we learn more about each member, both individually and in relation to each other.
The series has a nostalgic, reflective feel to it, which makes sense given its character are all about to close one chapter of their lives and move into working adulthood, but it’s probably also partly because the series itself is twenty years old by now. The music is very good, and it’s a pleasure to spend time with these characters and learn more about who they are. The romance is endearing and also frustrating (but believably so), with engaging and enjoyable performances all around. There are sweet moments, sad moments, moments of fun and levity, but overall it is a comfortable and fairly easy watch. It’s definitely a show I can see myself revisiting at some point in the future.
3) Beach Boys (1997)
In Beach Boys, two twenty-something men with wildly differing personalities but a similar lack of conviction in the direction their lives should take end up meeting in a small seaside town, and take up part-time work in a guest house by the beach.
Kaito (Yutaka Takenouchi) is an “elite”, who was in an upward trajectory working for a large company in Tokyo, while Hiromi (Takashi Sorimachi) is more of a free-spirited drifter, just seeing where life takes him, who has recently been kicked out of his girlfriend’s apartment. The two’s personalities clash in the beginning, but quickly they begin to develop a powerful and potent friendship as they try and work out what path they want their lives to follow. The other main characters include the owner of the guest house, his teenage grand-daughter, and the young woman who owns the local bar. Each of the characters gets their time in the sun, and we learn more about each and every one of them.
Beach Boys is a warm, comfortable, but also quite affecting show about friendship, family, and trying to find your way through life. I was quite taken with the powerful sense of nostalgia it manages to imbue itself with. I don’t have any personal connection to the time period, or place, but still I feel that sense of nostalgia very acutely. The reason is because it evokes a yearning for simplicity, where everything comes easy and your responsibilities are clear, straightforward, and readily achievable. A yearning for a life lived in summertime. Of course, summer always has to end, which gives the show a much needed bittersweetness, to balance its warmth and comfort.
I thought this show was great, and particularly enjoyed its music, the above-mentioned sense of nostalgia, and the performances of all the main players. Hiromi and Kaito in particular have an infectious, winning chemistry, but they are not alone in being incredibly endearing to watch.
Beach Boys is one I’ll be sure to revisit in future, whether it’s in the height of summer or on some cold night where I need a little extra warmth.
2) First Love (2022)
First Love is about those intense and passionate feelings of romance that just the right person can instil in us. The series follows two characters in their 30s, Yae (Hikari Mitsushima) and Harumichi (Takeru Satoh) living separate lives in Sapporo, on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido. The pair seem to be drifting along, not really happy, in drastic need of something (or someone) to make their lives complete.
Through flashbacks, we see Yae and Harumichi in their teenage years (played by a different set of actors, Rikako Yagi and Taisei Kido) and learn that they were each other’s first love. By cutting between the past and present, we come to understand how the pair went from wide-eyed, care-free lovers with grand ambitions and the world at their feet to their rather mundane, separate presents, as well as seeing them finally reconnect.
Even though this series is really just about the love of two people, it feels absolutely monumental and all-encompassing. It covers a period of more than twenty years and reaches into the depths of the solar system, all the while never straying from the orbit of its central pairing. The show also looks fantastic with great cinematography, wonderful music (with the series itself inspired by two Hikaru Utada songs), and perhaps most importantly some absolutely electric central performances. Hikari Mitsushima is great in everything, and this is no exception, and the actors playing teenaged Yae and Harumichi have amazing chemistry too. One subplot involving a secondary character is a little bit dull, but thankfully is only a very small part of the series which is otherwise exemplary. It’s a show that feels very wintery, and one that I’ll be watching every year alongside my number 1 pick for this list…
1) The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House (2023)
Given my glowing review of this series elsewhere on this site and love for Hirokazu Kore-eda in general, it’s probably fairly obvious I’d choose this to take top-spot. For a more in-depth explanation of what I loved about this series, you can check out the full review linked above.
The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House follows two teenage girls and best friends Kiyo and Sumire who, after a trip to Kyoto, dream of moving there to become geiko (the word for geisha in Kyoto specifically). The pair move into a house for maiko (apprentice geisha) in the Gion district of Kyoto and begin their training. Sumire takes to the training like a duck to water. Kiyo however has much more trouble with it, but finds her place in the house through her skills in the kitchen, becoming the house’s makanai (basically its live-in cook and housekeeper).
The series is very warm and comforting. The relationship between Sumire and Kiyo is incredibly charming, it’s a very pure and loving friendship, and it’s an absolute delight to watch it grow as the series goes on. The cast of supporting characters is also fairly deep. Even characters we only spend a short amount of time with feel fleshed out, and each has their own moment to shine, from other maiko to the house mother’s teenage daughter to the quiet and perceptive barman, and beyond. It’s a rich and satisfying series, and one that I’ll no doubt come back to every winter.
Links/Added Bits
As mentioned in the opening blurb, I will be updating this whenever I watch another J-Drama on Netflix. If you have any suggestions or recommendations, feel free to leave a comment or get in touch via my BlueSky or email! There was one J-Drama that I started but didn’t include on this list, as I only made it about an episode and a half in, which was called Dearest. The show seemed fine, but it was a crime/murder type show which isn’t really my sort of thing, so I gave up.
I also have a full ranked list of J-Dramas I have watched, which can be found on Letterboxd here.
2 Responses