NHK Drama Series “Chimu-Dondon” Gains Support from “Morning Drama Lovers” Amidst Bad Reviews

The People Who Can’t Stop Watching Morning Dramas.

NHK’s TV drama series “Chimu-Dondon” has received many poor reviews.

On social networking sites, “ #ChimuDonDonReflections ” are being actively tweeted every day. On the other hand, there is also a hashtag ” #chimudondonsuru ” that has been created by people who are enjoying or trying to enjoy the drama, although they are outnumbered.

“At first glance, the “#ChimuDonDonReflections” and “#ChimuDonDonSuru” may appear to be at odds with each other. However, in fact, I feel that both of them are interested in this show.

Of course, in the tweets, there are also simple snide remarks and fried words. However, looking at the comments, most of them are actually looking at the works and pointing out the parts that do not add up, lack of explanation, abrupt developments, etc., but are also looking for ways to make the drama better by supplementing and correcting them, as well as ways to enjoy the show.

On the other hand, the latter group includes those who genuinely enjoy the show, fans of the main cast, those who are not comfortable with criticism or negative comments in general, and those who say, “In any case, the best thing to do in the morning is to be cheerful and happy.”

 

Others say, “If you’re going to complain, don’t watch it.”

In fact, in the case of general dramas, those who are not into them often drop out after one or two episodes, but morning dramas alone have a large number of viewers who cannot put aside and cannot be divided, even after daily “reflection meetings” and even when their eyes turn white.

Why are morning dramas so special?

Are they similar to fans or supporters of a favorite team?

One reason for this is the long-standing habit of watching “Gegege no Nyobo”. The change in broadcast time with Gegege no Nyobo (The Wife of Gegege) in the first half of 2010 reset the clock and inertia habits, and some viewers began watching morning dramas for the first time after Ama Chan (first half of 2013) and, most recently, Come Come Everybody (the previous episode).

However, many of these viewers are fans of individual dramas, and they quickly drop out when a drama is not to their liking. This is a normal way of viewing drama.

However, “morning drama lovers” are not the same as so-called “drama lovers.” Morning drama lovers have a complicated and troublesome nature that makes it difficult for them to stop.

I myself, for example, have watched every drama for more than 40 years since “Ama Chan” when I was 5 or 6 years old, but of course I have not watched every episode. There are many that I have watched in intervals, some that I watched but can barely remember, and many that I almost left but returned to temporarily in order to witness the milestones in the heroine’s life.

Whenever I have interviewed various producers and directors of morning dramas and talked about them, I have often been told that it is unusual, that it is odd, or that I have not watched that many myself.

In fact, however, I am by no means an unusual case, and there are probably many people who have watched most of the same productions for 30 or 40 years.

Drama critics and drama writers often say, “Morning dramas are troublesome. For some reason, there is a tendency in morning dramas to say, ‘If you haven’t seen them for a long time, you shouldn’t discuss them, and you shouldn’t act like you know everything about them.’”

When discussing a work by itself, it is not so important to know “how long you have been watching it”. However, for “morning drama lovers,” morning dramas are a part of their daily lives, and the distance between them and their favorite teams may be similar to that of fans and supporters of their favorite teams.

They watch over the team in good health and in sickness, on sunny days and rainy days.

Sometimes they are in good shape, sometimes they are in bad shape. When you are fighting for the last place every year, you think how easy it would be to become a fan of another team, but it is not so easy to do so. Because I have a history of rooting for the team, and even if the team does not do well, I may be able to win individual titles such as the defensive rating or the stolen base title.

If we cheer patiently,  it is precisely because we hold out a glimmer of hope that we may be rewarded somewhere in the future that we say, “Why are you making a substitution there?” “Why do you have to make a pitching change here?” and so on, and while discouraged, they continue to watch.

I also feel like I am close to a familiar neighborhood restaurant that I have been going to for a long time. Sometimes they are popular, sometimes they are deserted. When a restaurant is covered by the media, it attracts more attention. It can be a joyous occasion, but at the same time, it can also be a temporary situation in which the neighborhood’s familiar customers cannot enter the restaurant.

 

Even if there are no customers at all whenever you go there, there are times when you feel at home and prefer the taste there.

In the long history of morning dramas, there have been some very good ones, and there have also been some haphazard or unmemorable ones. Each person may like some of them and some of them may not.

Nevertheless, regardless of whether they like it or not, the people who can’t stop watching morning dramas who have watched them in good health or in sickness, on sunny days or rainy days, and who have shared their struggles and joys with them, feel as if they have fought each other through many battles in their careers.

In other words, the “morning drama lovers” are strangely “people who get along well” and “people who are reluctant to give up.” They are very difficult people to deal with.