Asian TV Dramas

Discover some of Asia's best guilty pleasures. Just as manga is gaining huge popularity in America, the next wave of Asian imported obsession is about to hit: TV Dramas.

Asian TV Dramas could be compared to American soap operas. Unlike American soap operas, Korean TV dramas last any where from 1 to 50 episodes. These dramas have become popular throughout Asia, and are part of the "Korean Wave". South Korean dramas seem to be most popular Korean, though North Korean dramas have become popular in Japan.

Some internationally popular Korean dramas are My Lovely Sam-Soon, Winter Sonata, Full House and Stairway to Heaven. The majority of the plot lines in these these shows usually involve conflicts dealing with relationships, money, and most often, with in-laws (usually between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law). Issues that are universal no matter what culture you are from.

Touching, comical and at times heart breaking, Korean and Asian TV Dramas are a great treat to anyone wanting to break out of the mold of American TV offerings .

Kamakaze Girls and NANA

The latest manga to movie adaptions are real treats!

Kamakaze Girls and Nana are both highly popular mangas in Japan. Recently these two mangas are being released in their translated form to the US. Both manga titles are being released through VIZ, Entertainment.

Kamakaze Girls
(summary taken from Viz.com)

"Momoko is a Lolita stranded in the boondocks of rural Ibaraki prefecture, although she'd much rather be living in the Palace of Versailles. Ichigo is an impulsive member of a girls-only biker gang who firmly believes in honor, loyalty, and fist fighting. Together this unlikeliest of duos strikes out on a journey to find a legendary embroiderer who might just be able to make their dreams come true. Inspired by the cult-classic novel by the same name, this exclusive manga edition of Novala Takemoto's Kamikaze Girls contains several brand new stories, including a continuation of Momoko and Ichigo's misadventures that was approved by the author himself!"

NANA
(summary taken from Viz.com)

"Nana Komatsu is a young woman who's endured an unending string of boyfriend problems. Moving to Tokyo, she's hoping to take control of her life and put all those messy misadventures behind her. She's looking for love and she's hoping to find it in the big city. Nana Osaki, on the other hand, is cool, confident and focused. She swaggers into town and proceeds to kick down the doors to Tokyo's underground punk scene. She's got a dream and won't give up until she becomes Japan's No. 1 rock'n'roll superstar. This is the story of two 20 year-old women who share the same name. Even though they come from completely different backgrounds, they somehow meet and become best friends. The world of Nana is a world exploding with sex, music, fashion, gossip and all-night parties."

Both of these big screen adaptions can be purchsed via YesAsia.com. Through Nana has yet to be widely released in the US, Kamakaze Girls is readily availiable online.

The Beginners Guide to Scanlation

(Orginial Japanese version) (Licensed Americn version)

Within the last year in the U.S. an interesting new phenomenon has emerged: wide spread interest in manga. Even more interesting is the availiability of manga at your local book stores, such as Barnes and Noble and Borders Books (which is partnered with Amazon.com)

For those new to the genre, manga is the Japanese word for comics. They are considered graphic novels in the U.S. However, if you are reading this you already know what manga is. You have probably read through your local book stores entire english translated department. Now you are ready for more. However, you don't know where to get new titles.

Unfortunatley, all the titles that sit on your book store shelves are really all that are available in the American market. Though that may be the case, there is still a way to get your hands on some unreleased manga.

That's where a scanlation group comes in. A scanlation group basically takes untranslated and unlicenced (in American markets) manga comics and scans, translates and edits the manga. They then post it via various outlets to other manga fans through the internet. Though 'scanlating' still floats in the grey area of copying licensed material, most manga artists and/or their publishing houses give these groups a little pass. No one is really sure why these publishers seem to turn a blind eye to scanlation. Many believe it's because these groups help to promote thier manga and their artists to a market that they would otherwise not be exposed to. There are even some American publishing houses that admit that they take their que from the popularity of what they see among these scanlation groups as to which manga to try to license in America.

Due to the fact that scanlation is still in the somewhat grey area of the law, direct links to specific scanlations groups will not be listed here. However a simple search for scanlation, scanlation groups, scanlators on the internet and some patience will guide you to what you may be looking for.