Yamada Taro Monogatari

Yamada Taro Monogatari or the Story of Yamada Taro is one of my favorite Japanese Dramas.  Jdramas are kind of like anime with live action people.  I like the humerous ones rather than the historical dramas.  Its funny as I don't normally watch sitcoms in English, but I really enjoy the humor and heart most Jdramas have.  They are a bit campy and over the top like watching a old screwball comedy.

The whole gang!

Yamada Taro has a lot going for it.  First, the story is good.  Yamada Taro attends a prestigious high school on scholarship.  Everyone is in love with him, but all he can thing about is food.  That is because he is dirt poor due to having such a large family and his father not being around.  Each episode is very funny as Taro works hard and is oblivious to everything around him.

A correlation chart, very popular in Jdramas . . . I'm not sure why . . . I can't read it so I don't know if it is an accurate description of the relationships

The casting is good. Jdramas cast tend to pull heavily from Jpop idols, but in this case everyone is well suited to their rolls so no issues.  Jdramas also tend to have very catchy theme songs because of this. 

The only issue is the end is kind of a let down.  I find this is true of most JDrama.  I think the Japanese and Americans may have different ideas of what an ending entails . . . still I highly recommend it!  You can find it ::JDramas::.  You'll need to join the group, but its a really nice site with lots of dramas to watch.  You can also find it streaming at mysoju