Spec me - Japanese TV series

[strumpusplunket]

I'm trying to find some Japanese TV series I can use to practice my Japanese listening/comprehension, and would appreciate suggestions.

I'm open to anime or live action series.

But - I'm not really a huge fan of anime or manga in general. I've tried several of the popular anime series and just bounce of the style, content, language... I just find them ridiculous and unengaging. I had a watch of an episode each of Dandadan and Jujutsu Kaisen recently. Gah! I couldn't get on with Death Note, and a few other series whose names I can't even remember, but which always seem to involve high school students, some weird powers or something, destiny to save the world, and a load of overwrought and overanimated nonesense

Also, supernatural language and vocab is not especially useful. I don't need to learn the words for demons, magic, elemental and made-up fantasy stuff.

On the other hand, I love everything Ghibli, and I thought Shirokuma Cafe was just wonderful. So, there's definitely anime out there that will pull me in. Maybe it's specifically the teen-oriented fantasy anime that turns me off. I love the slice-of-life humour and gentle charm of Shirokuma Cafe.

In terms of live-action TV, I enjoyed Alice in Borderlands, Midnight Diner and Samurai Gourmet. Toyko Swindlers is okay, but not massively loving it. Whenever I search for stuff, I seem to get flooded with the kind of anime I know I am not going to enjoy...

 

[strumpusplunket]

The newish Godzilla film. Great film and all spoken language is in Japanese with English subtitles.

Is that Shin Godzilla? I did see that one, and liked it. Have a feeling there is another godzilla film I am forgetting about, though.

If you want a slow anime, try “monster” is a long slow burn. It's very mundane compared to a lot of more modern anime, but it might give you what you need.

Monster (TV Series 2004–2005) ⭐ 8.7 | Animation, Crime, Drama

24m | 15

www.imdb.com

Yeah, that looks much more like the kind of thing I could get into! And I'd never heard of it before. Cheers.

 

[strumpusplunket]

Godzilla minus one.

That's the fella!!

I knew there was a Godzilla film whose name I couldn't bring to mind.

 

[strumpusplunket]

Shogun?

Ah yes, I watched that one too. Surprised I forget in my post, actually.

Attack on Titan?

I know that's very popular, but I had imagined it would be more the type of anime I am not too keen on - all supernatural, superhero, earnest fighters type thing. Maybe I am wide of the mark?

 

[strumpusplunket]

Spoiler

There are "monsters" but they're giant humans, which do look odd/weird but other than that it's not really super hero although there is a lot of fighting.

I've asked an expert so will return with some more suggestions!

Cheers!

On another note, I just watched the first episode of Monster and think that is looking interesting. Japanese not too hard to follow either, apart from a lot of surgical terms, so that's a bonus.

 

[strumpusplunket]

Apparently in watching Dandadan and Jujutsu Kaisen you chose some of the crazy, zany and over the top animes to watch.

One recommendation is Erased.

Ha, yeah, that figures!

Oh, Erased I had heard of but forgotten about. I read the first book of the Boku Dake ga inai Machi manga it was based on, so will have to look at that too!

Death note is a very well written anime with plenty of talking. Of all the animes I've watched, I think I picked up the most language from that.

Yes, I watched about half the first series, but found myself getting bored and just lost the motivation to carry on with it.

I'm completely out of touch with anime these days, but if fantasy/typical shounen with flashy fights involving powers etc aren't your thing, maybe something a bit more grounded in the real world like Initial D (street racing) Hajime no Ippo (boxing), Berserk (there are smatterings of fantasy later on, but most of it is in a medieval setting, and it was a big influence on Souls games, if those are your thing), or Great Teacher Onizuka (comedy/school drama) might be better.

I'll also shout out the live action series Pachinko, although there's little Japanese (at least early on) - it's more a split between Korean, English and Japanese (in that order of frequency), but it's become one of my favourite series ever.

A bit of a left field suggestion, but whatever hobbies you have, you could maybe try to find a Youtube channel that specialises in that (like a camera review channel, or cooking/sushi/fish prep (quite popular), or game reviews, or a channel that focuses on one particular game you like, etc)., or even browse random Japanese Twitch channels.

These are nice ideas too!

Thanks for the toerh recommendatoins too to everyone. I have a good selection to look through.