MegaTokyo Forums

Have you seen dramas that are better than the anime?
Any other thoughts on the topic?

I prefer the Gokusen drama over the anime. Something about it is more compelling and positive compared to the anime with the blue dog character added.

Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon the drama seemed more enjoyable to me. The original is classic, but I just couldn't get into it. But the live action show with an anime like stuffed cat made me marathon it years ago.

The only live action film I've seen is Ping Pong. As I recall, it was pretty good, but not anything stylistic like the anime, which I preferred.

I feel they serve very different audiences. My only real good comparison point is GTO. And maybe densha otoko (I kinda cringe at both tbh). A lot of the dramas are actually pretty easy to watch and good binge things, since they're largely meant for that and aims at a mainstream audience, where as anime is more for hardcore fans or otaku.

I do think sometimes anime adopting a "drama" style storytelling do fall short. Like Wotakoi last season--i couldn't really bother with it because it feels like watching a generic j-drama, but without all the good stuff live action tv offers. I mean, just go watch Nigehaji and see what I mean.

I'm overall not that big on Japanese acting, it just seems exaggerated and kinda fake. But then my experience with that is mostly tokusatsu. The only J-dramas I've watched are Bartender and Densha Otoko. I've watched a few random movies on planes and stuff that I largely I don't remember. So I might not be the best judge of it.

Bartender would be the only thing I've watched which has an anime and drama. And it's hard to compare them at all - the anime adopts a completely different approach from the source material and goes for an episodic show without really exploring the protagonist much. The manga and drama are much more about the characters.