[Profile created in May 2013. Last update December 2024.]

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My taste in dramas in four pictures:

My ratings measure how much I enjoyed the drama and what makes a drama enjoyable is very subjective. Sometimes I can understand, intellectually, that a drama is very good but I still don't connect with it all the way emotionally and that's what matters most. Rating a drama is not the same as grading student papers; this is for enjoyment! So my rating changes sometimes but for now it's something like this:

10: I've sold my heart and soul to this drama!! 

9: I loved it

8: very good 

7: good 

6: okay, but with flaws/was boring at times/too many things I dislike; still more good than bad 

5: it was watchable but also annoying; barely worth my time.  

4: I disliked most of it but it still had something that made me not drop it 

3: it was bad, I very nearly dropped it - so it's the lowest rating on my list. 2 and lower would mean even more stages of dislike and I don't find it meaningful to keep watching if I dislike it that much, that's why my ratings don't go that far. I also don't rate dropped dramas since I think it's unfair to rate dramas I haven't completed. 

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⚝──⭒─⭑─⭒──⚝  About me  ⚝──⭒─⭑─⭒──⚝ 

I watched my first j-drama in 2013 and I joined MDL shortly after. During my first year, I only watched j-dramas, and little by little I started to add a few k-dramas to the mix (I didn't like the first two that I watched…). I watched my first two c-dramas during the last few months of 2015. The last couple of years I have watched more c-dramas and k-dramas than j-dramas, because they are more easily accessible.

Here are some "firsts":

• First j-dramas: Rich Man, Poor Woman, Last Cinderella, Hana Yori Dango
• First k-dramas: Friends 2002, My Name is Kim Sam Soon, Beethoven Virus
• First c-dramas: Sound of the Desert, Nirvana in Fire, The Disguiser
• First j-drama crush: Iura Arata
• First k-drama crush: Lee Jin Wook (it was long ago... can't like him anymore!)
• First c-drama crush: Hu Ge

 You can see my favourites in the "Lists" section. I don’t know what my list of favourite dramas can tell you about my taste, but I guess it says something! I update that list sometimes - with new favourites, but I also remove a title when I can't remember it very well anymore! I think the list stays more "true" that way. My ratings show how much I liked the drama when I completed it… so my ratings might not always reflect my current taste and thoughts.

I tend to dislike too childish FL's and pointless misunderstandings. I don't really like most romcoms. I don’t like childhood friends to lovers, and I don’t like enemies to lovers, generally. I don’t like jealous and possessive male leads, cold and arrogant wrist-grabbers.... but too perfect ML's can be annoying too! Long story short: I'm picky but there are plenty of dramas that suit my taste, I just have to find them.

I don't limit myself strictly to certain genres or actors, but I tend to prefer main leads who are around my own age. I try to avoid dramas about domestic abuse and/or abused children. I rarely watch crime/detective/investigation dramas. I never watch horror. I don't skip scenes in dramas, except that if a fight scene (especially battlefield) is very long/too violent, I fastforward. Action scenes bore me! 

• Three dramas I loved: A Piece of Your Mind, To Be a Better Man, Gunshi Kanbei
• Three dramas I disliked: Goblin, My Dearest, Goodbye, My Princess

I rarely listen to Asian music (of course, if I like a song in a drama I might listen to it on YouTube later) and I don't know anything about k-pop. If I wanted to learn about it, I could ask a few of my students… but I won’t. They’re happy enough that their around 40 teacher watches dramas. :p In real life, I like opera and classical music, old jazz, and the occasional pop/rock song. I'm the type of person who never listens to the radio and I even tend to forget that I can listen to music. 

My MDL articles: 
In Dramaland, Everything is Mom's Fault!
Currently Watching: Doctor X 2
A Stalker's Guide to Iura Arata <-- my very first  "#1 bias!!" <3 :D 

Dramaland Love Quiz - with this one, I was having a bit of fun with common romance drama chilchés; it's not actually intended as a personality test, you know... :p (I late realised that it contains some mistakes......)

Someone who has made my profile better for years, the absolutely irresistible Fujiki Naohito! ♡ I haven't watched any of his dramas in a long time, though.

My "eye candy list" is not terribly long but I do have actors like that - people that I found attractive in a way that sort of touches my heart and makes it comforting to watch them. So yes, I have my biases - but I'm not biased to the extent of always loving everything this or that person is in. I will give most dramas with my favourites a chance, sometimes even a second or a third chance, but if I don't like the drama I won't suffer because of the actor. I don't like "pretty boys", I prefer mature men (with the late Miura Haruma in Last Cinderella as a very notable exception!) On top of my wishlist every new year is a romance drama with Kim Myung Min, because the sound of his voice makes my knees weak and he is almost always amazing to watch.

(Below:  Iura Arata, Takenouchi Yutaka, Jiang Maggie, Yang Shuo, Qin Lan, Kim Myung Min.)

Most of the time, though, I just want to watch a good drama and I don't care so much who is in it as long as I like it! Well, sure, there are actors whose faces I don't love looking at so much, but I don't have an actual "blacklist" of people whose work I refuse or hesitate to watch.