Glass Heart: Even More JDramas for Kdrama Fans

S2 E21 / Japanese dramas are a hot topic lately, so I’m back with a round-up of even more Jdramas for Kdrama fans. 

🏯 I explore some differences between Jdramas and Kdramas.

🐝 And then I list some Jdramas that are getting lots of buzz along with some that are more under-the-radar. 

🟢 Spoiler Free episode. Enjoy! 

⌛ Timestamps: see chapter markers for timestamps. 

🤍 Glass Heart
💒 Marry My Husband: Japan
❓Kururi: Who’s in Love with Me?
💝 Is Love Sustainable?
👰 Full-Time Wife Escapist
🤫 Silent
🌅 Hold My Hand at Twilight
🥗 Tokyo Salad Bowl
🔎  Usotoki Rhetoric

Links:

Previous episode about Jdramas: Ep 16:  https://howimetmykdrama.buzzsprout.com/2435348/episodes/17080470-jdramas-japanese-romance-mystery-and-slice-of-life-stories-for-kdrama-fans

Murder on the S.S. Cleopatra Special Edition: https://sararosettbooks.com/collections/murder-on-the-s-s-cleopatra

Mystery Books Podcast - Murder on the S.S. Cleopatra Behind the Scenes  https://mysterybookspodcast.buzzsprout.com/1311757/episodes/17721380

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

This is the How I Met My K-Drama podcast, and it's all about K-drama origin stories and recommendations. I'm Sarah Rosette, and today I'm doing another roundup episode of J Dramas. Because oh my goodness, there have been a lot of these that are coming out now, especially on Netflix, and so many of them are just fantastic. So leaning pretty heavily into the recommendations today, not so much origin stories, but I've done another episode about this last season, episode 16, and it's called Japanese Drama, Romance, Mystery, and Slice of Life Stories for K-Drama fans. There will be a link for that in the show notes. So if you want to go back and listen to that episode, that can give you a wide range of recommendations in different genres.

Why I enjoy Jdramas

SPEAKER_00 0:47

So today, for this episode, as they would say, K-Drama Land, I'm walking down the J-Drama path, and I want to recap some of the things I've watched and recommend them because I think they really would appeal to K-drama fans. And I will link up. Sometimes there's K-dramas that they remind me of when I watch the J dramas. So I will mention those. So you might think, oh, I enjoyed this. I might want to go try that. Now you might ask, why am I so into these? I think it's two things for me. The episode length just really hits the spot for me. They're usually six to ten, maybe twelve episodes. I feel like that's a really good length you get to explore the characters, the backstory. You get to see the story unfold, but it doesn't feel saggy most of the time. Most of the time it's pretty brisk paced. A lot of times with K-dramas, I really enjoy them, but I do feel like they could have been much shorter. They could have been condensed down a few episodes. So I like that. And then I feel like K-dramas lean into emotion and exploring these different emotional aspects of our lives. And I think sometimes the J dramas do that as well, but they really also lean into social commentary, exploring issues and ideas, thinking about things and what things mean and why we do certain things. It's a little bit step back from the emotion, I feel like, but still very interesting. They still have the emotion. Some of them are way more emotional than others, but I do enjoy the sort of lighter touch on the emotion because yeah, I don't want a gut twisting, deep cry type watch. I like the I'm moved, but not weeping type thing. All right, so I'm going to talk about what's hot right now. There are a couple of J dramas that are getting a lot of attention. A lot of people are watching and talking about. So I'm going to talk about those briefly. Then I'm going to talk about rom coms, mystery and crime, and fantasy. So those last two will be short, but they I do have new recommendations for those as well. So hopefully most people will be able to find something in here that might appeal to them. All

Glass Heart

SPEAKER_00 2:55

right, what's hot right now? Two shows: Glass Heart and Marry My Husband Japan. Let's take these one at a time. I'll give you a brief overview. Glassheart is a music drama. It is about a man who is a musical genius. He's so gifted. And he's one of those people that he's gifted to the point that his life is almost unlivable because he's so consumed with music and making music. He doesn't have a normal life, but he has this incredible gift of just almost effortlessly making music and creating it, except it's never effortless. He seems to be able to do it well, but it's always a struggle. Just a look at the creative process as well as a look at how he's living. But anyway, he just decides he wants to form a band and he gathers together these people to be in the band. He convinces them all to join. And one of them is a young woman who is a drummer, and she has had a difficult time finding a band to play with. When she's invited in, she is so excited. Not all the band members are on board with her being in at first, but the story is told from her point of view. So it's her perspective as she joins this band, gets to know these people, and their journey as they become a little found family, which that's always high on my list. I'm not musically talented. I took music lessons for ages as a child and cannot play any instrument at all. And I'm not a big fan of any of the K-pop groups that are out that a lot of people really enjoy. I do love the music and the dramas. So this one, I was like, I don't know, I might not like it. But I will tell you that I was sucked into this. And the characters were just so compelling. The story had these over-the-top crazy moments, but I was so into what was happening with the band and the relationships that I just totally went with it. I was able to suspend my disbelief and enjoy it. There's a very slender romantic subplot. Wasn't really a fan of that, but because it wasn't the main storyline, it wasn't very prominent, the story of the band was much more the focus of this drama. And so I was able to go with that with the romantic subplot. It didn't bother me so much that I couldn't enjoy the whole drama. This one, though, when it ended, I just thought that's entertainment. It sucked me in and I just consumed it all. It's all out on Netflix and I binged it over two days, I think. Now I will say that some of these over-the-top moments, I'm sure the music industry doesn't really work this way in real life. There's some concerts that are set up on the spur of the moment. It would be an incredibly complex way to set them up. And I don't think that it would be able to be pulled off in an hour, but I also see that with entertainment about books and writing in the publishing industry, it never works the way it's portrayed. But I still think this was a great story. And I was like, okay, that's probably not going to happen in real life, but I will go with it. I just really enjoyed it. And the thing I really liked about it, even though you had the perspective of the drummer as the POV character that we're experiencing the story through most of the time, the whole theme of this is the power of music and the making of a band and pulling people together. So I feel like that was the main storyline of Glassheart. Gorgeous music, beautiful, catchy music. I would recommend this if you like K-pop, if you like music dramas, if you like found family, if you like ensemble dramas, definitely check this out. It's pretty short. It's on Netflix in the United States. And a side note, the lead in this is Sato Takaru. And he is also in the drama that I'm going to talk about next, Marry My Husband Japan. And he's also in First Love, which I talked about in the other episode about J dramas. So you can go back and listen to that to see if you might be interested in that if you want to see him in more dramas. Marry

Marry My Husband: Japan

SPEAKER_00 6:45

My Husband Japan is up next. This one, I also enjoyed this one a lot. I really liked the Korean version of Mary My Husband up until episode 12, pretty much. I felt like the end of it, I felt like they didn't land the plane well. They got on the ground, but it was a rough landing. And that kind of ruined that show for me. I remember enjoying the first part of it so much. And this one, I feel like it was tight and well constructed all the way through. It had a really good plot. It's not exactly the same as the Korean version. I felt like it was a more realistic storytelling type of drama. And that worked for me. I really like the changes they made, especially the relationship between the two leads. They really filled out the male lead. I had a more complete picture of who he was as a character and what his motivations were. He's an excellent actor, so it was easy to get on board. They really took the time to develop the relationship between him and Misa, but I actually thought the villains were better in Marry My Husband, Korean, the Korean version. There was a moment in that show when I had no idea what the original story was that it was based on. So in the Korean version, there was a moment when Raina is pulling one of her cons, but I really didn't know. I was like, is she telling the truth? Could this be, could she have possibly done this? And I was taken in. And so I thought she's a good actress. And I really enjoyed her performance. And the second male lead in that did a great job of just being, he was clueless and so easily manipulated that he was actually a very dangerous character because he was so stupid in many ways and so easily motivated. So I enjoyed the villains more in Marry My Husband Korean version. And the other thing I really enjoyed about the Korean version was the best friend, the young best friend that she made in the office. I want to see that actress in more roles. I'm curious to see what she will do next. But this one I felt like it was a more well-rounded story. It just held my attention. The end was satisfying, dramatic, of course, but satisfying. I think it just had better plotting, better pacing. And we got to see the main leads fall in love, and they actually had an arc. There were a lot of interesting changes that were different from the Korean version. The use of a turtle and the symbolism around that instead of a cat. I liked. I'm just saying that I feel like the Japanese version fixed quite a few things I didn't enjoy about the Korean version. I would recommend this if you like stories that have a fantastical element to them. And I would recommend this if you like uh light revenge. And this one, the revenge element is there, but I would say it's lighter than the Korean version.

Kissing the Ring Finger

SPEAKER_00 10:00

Okay, so now on to rom-coms. First up, I have Kissing the Ring Finger. This is a contract marriage, cohabitation drama, and the main characters in this are just so cute, and they have such great chemistry that I was willing to overlook some of the odd shenanigans that happened near the end of the story, but it didn't ruin the whole show for me. The male lead is this cold businessman on the outside, but he's a big marshmallow on the inside, right? As always, but he's paired up with this very practical woman who speaks up for herself. He owns a company that is a marriage services company. You come to them, they help plan your wedding, and the woman works there as a wedding planner. She's very beautiful, and that has caused her problems. And they have some fun with that. But anyway, because of reasons, they end up getting into this contract marriage. And of course, they begin to learn about each other and what's really going on in each other's lives. She has a very warm family, but they're very poor, and she really doesn't want to be poor. One of the reasons she agrees to the marriage is she wants to see what it's like once in her life to be wealthy and enjoy the clothes and things that she can't have now. And the boss has traditional wealthy businessman lead setup where he's got his right-hand man, who's his confidant, and she has her friends and her family that are her confidants. And you see them trying to navigate this contract marriage, but of course they have to live together, and so they've got to navigate that as well. Now, I would say the production values in this are not quite as high as some of the K dramas that I've seen lately. I enjoyed it, despite its kind of um some of the plotting in the beginning, it felt a little rough, let's just say that. And some of the transitions are a bit abrupt, but I really enjoyed it overall, and it was a fun, funny watch. I would say if you like business proposal, this might be a match for you because it's got that workplace setting and you've got the sort of opposites attract type setup, inamusa lovers with the contract marriage cohabitation thrown in there as a

Kururi: Who’s in Love with Me?

SPEAKER_00 12:20

bonus. All right, another rom-com called Kururi, Who's in Love with Me? And this one was really funny, very sweet. It has an amnesia trope in it, which I know is just so cheesy, but I really absolutely loved this drama. The woman wakes up in the hospital after maybe an accident, maybe not, and she remembers all of her basic life skills. She can do her daily life things, but she has no memory of what her life was like. In the beginning, it's very funny because she wakes up and she's trying to figure out who was she? What did she like? What did she do? Initially, she can't find any clue to her personality or connections with people. Her text history has gone from her phone. Her Instagram is only photos of food, and her apartment is super minimalist with no personality, and her clothes are all in these monotone colors, black, white, gray. And she's like, What kind of person was I? And nobody really comes to visit her or check on her in the hospital when she's first wakes up. She has no clue what's going on. And she doesn't have anyone listed in her phone as an immediate family member either. But three guys do eventually show up in her life. She's got a work colleague, an ex-boyfriend, and a stranger who just has this insta-love when he sees her. Or that's what they all say. So basically, it's a mystery, which is always appealing to me. She's trying to figure out who she is, who these people are, and why she has a ring. I looked it up and I believe that karuri means ring in Japanese. So she's trying to figure out who she bought this ring for. And she goes on this journey of self-discovery, finding out who she was and does she even want to be that person again? And who was she in love with? Is she a different person now? Would she still be in love with whoever she was going to give the ring to? Who was that? So I enjoyed it. It's very fun and light, but it has these themes of self-discovery and who are we? And who is telling her the truth and what were her true relationships with these three guys? I would say a good match for this in tone is My Sweet Mobster. This one doesn't have as much goofy humor as My Sweet Mobster. If it were a book, I think it would be in the sweet and wholesome category mostly. It's just got that lighter tone. And if you like amnesia, self-discovery, and a let's see, I guess this would be romance square, not a love triangle, but a love square. Her and three guys, love diamond, something like that. And I've seen it described as reverse harem in a way because they all are very interested in her, but it has a very sweet tone to it.

Is Love Sustainable?

SPEAKER_00 14:57

All right. Another rom-com that I would say this one is has a more mature lead to it. It's called Is Love Sustainable? In this one, a widowed dad signs himself up and his 30-year-old daughter up for dating service. And it's very funny, it's very touching, but it's low angst. It has some deep themes about marriage and gender roles. This woman, she's trying to figure out what she wants to do because she was in the rat race. She leaves that and she decides to open her own yoga studio. So she moves in with her widowed dad, who is still mourning the death of his wife several years later, and she's trying to help him adjust to life. He comes to the conclusion that if he marries, it will free up his daughter to live her life. So he signs them both up for this dating service. They both have storylines about what happens with them. And then you have the storyline of her business and her business goals and career goals. I would say watch is less sustainable if you like rom-coms that have a strong family flair, and it is very reserved. The Japanese love stories are often not super passionate at times, but very sweet. And this one definitely falls on the sweeter, less passionate side.

Full-Time Wife Escapist

SPEAKER_00 16:12

Another rom-com I want to talk about is Full Time Wife Escapist. This one I enjoy, but not as much as some of the other dramas that I've watched lately from Japan. But I did want to put it in here because it's got some great elements to it that it does have humor. It's got a great cast. It's about a woman that she really is a hard worker and she wants to be seen and valued for the work she does, but she just can't seem to get ahead in the workplace. And she ends up working as a housekeeper for a man who has a very good job and he just wants somebody to clean his house and cook his food. And she does that and he appreciates it. So it's a cohabitation story. She's living there and they end up forming a contract marriage because that makes more sense to them. He's paying her for hard work, and it's an exploration of the value of homemaking, basically. And I appreciate that. I was a stay-at-home mom, so I appreciate that. Then they both have friend groups, it's got storylines for their friends as well, which is lots of fun. Also has a mature Nuna romance. If that's a draw for you, that's in there as well. A good match for this would be the K drama because this is my first life. If you enjoyed that, this one has the same exploration of how corporate culture impacts people's home lives and the way they live their lives. The stories are similar, but they're not the same. But they do both have the female main character, the contract marriage, and then you've got these sort of friend groups around each one that they begin to interact and their stories begin to merge. So if you like stories like that, I think you would probably enjoy this.

Silent

SPEAKER_00 17:54

Now I have a pure romance for you. It's got a little humor to it, but I would not call it a rom-com. And that is silent. Now, I did not know that this was such a popular drama, but when I mentioned it, several people online were like, oh, I love that drama. So it has a big fan base, but I guess they're pretty quiet or they don't talk about it. That doesn't come up as much as some other dramas that I've seen. It has the same female lead. She was in Why I Dress Up for Love, and that's in that other episode 16. If you want information about that one, she's in this, and it's about a relationship she had with a boy in high school. He loses his hearing and he cuts himself off from his friend group, and their paths cross again several years later. She doesn't realize he's lost his hearing, and she doesn't know why he disappeared from her life. It's about how they navigate, if they want to get back together, what impact it has on him and on their relationship. She's basically engaged to be married to another guy who was the main lead's best friend. The main lead has cut himself off from his best friend. So it's a story of how their lives change once they intersect again. And this one I felt was very subtle. There's drama, there's emotion, there's angst, but it's all sort of muted in a way. It doesn't follow these stereotypical storylines. If you think the story is going to go one way, it swerves into this opposite lane, which is nice. It keeps you on your toes. So I would say this one is emotional, it is angsty, and it is a very heartfelt story.

Hold My Hand at Twilight

SPEAKER_00 19:33

All right, next up is a, I would call this a slice of life. It does have some rom-com elements to it, but I'd say overall it's a slice of life slash coming of age type story. It's called Hold My Hand at Twilight. And it's one of those dramas that I just absolutely loved from the beginning because the female lead is so chaotic. She has this crazy chaotic energy. She plays a role that's very different from she was in Who Saw the Peacock Dance in the Jungle, which I mentioned in episode 16. And there she has a very different character in Hold My Hand at Twilight. She is, especially the first episode. She is emotional, she's crazy, she uh is going through a very difficult time, and she just has no filters for a little while. And it was just a fun first episode. There's beautiful cinematography in this, it has fun, quirky characters, it's got a great OST. I'll give you a bit of a setup. The main character, she comes from the countryside where she's lived, and she had a boyfriend from this village where she lived. He has a big-time job in Tokyo. They're engaged. He goes there to work and she saves money and goes to meet him. When she gets there, he breaks up with her, and she's having an extremely horribly bad day after that. And that is when she meets the male lead, and he basically helps her kind of navigate through this first day and takes care of her and makes sure she's okay. She ends up living in a house chair with him through a series of events. So there is a woman who is one of my favorite characters in this. She's just living her best life. She's got long gray hair in braids, loves cocktails, and loves to encourage and help people, young people, especially. And so she takes in basically boarders who live at her house. And the main character becomes one of her boarders and finds out once she moves in that the lead who had helped her kind of get through that horrible day is also a boarder there, too. And so it's a house share, cohabitation type situation. And that's part of the story. But the main story is her finding her place in the world, how she tries different types of jobs and different things and finds her place and her passion and explores that. And there is romance. End of it gets a little bumpy, it gets a little cliche heavy, but the two leads are great, and the ensemble cast is so much fun. So I would say you if you like chaotic female leads, if you like things that are a hot mess, if you like friends to levers, if you like cohabitation, if you like slice of life slash coming of age, then check out Hold My Hand

Tokyo Salad Bowl

SPEAKER_00 22:21

at Twilight. The next one is a straight mystery. It's called Tokyo Salad Bowl. This one focuses on the world of interpreters and police detectives who interact with immigrants in Tokyo. So there is a police detective, she's a woman, and she is very sympathetic to immigrants who come to Tokyo, and she wants to help them, and she also wants to figure out the truth of what's going on. They have the situation where immigrants come into Tokyo, and if their life somehow touches a crime or some sort of involvement with the police, then the police need an interpreter to help them communicate with people who don't speak Japanese. So that's where our male lead comes in. He's an interpreter. He is very buttoned down, very reserved, very quiet, very restrained. Our female lead has green hair and she is open to new experiences. She loves to try food of all different countries. And she is much more adventurous, much more outgoing. So, of course, they're opposites, and it's fun to see them interact. And she really likes this guy as an interpreter because he's very good at what he does, and she's determined to become his friend pretty much whether or not he wants her to. And the title comes from Tokyo being more of a salad bowl than a melting pot. People come in and they don't melt into the society, they remain a little bit separate, and that's why they need the interpreters. There's tons of food references and symbolism in this. They call the female detective lettuce head. And it's just, it's so interesting. If you love food, then you will probably enjoy this. The odd couple pairing is lots of fun. It's a little bit different. It's not like he is an introvert and she is an extrovert, but there's more than that to it. He's very much a rule follower and she's a rule breaker. He's a loner, she's bubbly and energetic, and she connects with these immigrants and she uses food to connect with them. So the foods of their culture to connect with the people that she's interacting with and investigating. If you like crime dramas that are a bit gritty, then I think you'll enjoy this one. That's Tokyo Salad Bowl.

Usotoki Rhetoric

SPEAKER_00 24:30

Then my last one, this one is Usataki Rhetoric. And this is 1926 Japan. It's a cozy mystery with a dash of paranormal. So the female lead, she can tell when people are lying. She just gets this sort of jarring auditory sound. And visually, when we're watching the show, there's a little kind of jagged light around the people. It's like visually they get a little distorted when they're telling a lie. So she's a human lie detector, basically. And it's always been a problem for her. It's been a thing that has caused her no end of heartache to the point that she leaves home in her village and goes to the big city where she meets this private detective. And he is a huge green flag, like the greenest of green flags, so green. He's very perceptive and realizes the struggle she's going through. And he's very sensitive to her and helps her navigate this, what he thinks is a gift and what she thinks is a curse. He's a bit of this charming rogue, and that's one of my favorite tropes is the charming rogue. So I love this for this interaction between these two characters. If you need something low stress, it's episodic. So you can watch one episode in the evening and things always work out. They always solve the case. There's a really strong found family, and it's her coming of age story. I guess I should say that when they meet up, he realizes almost immediately what her gift is. And he says, You have this gift to tell when people are lying. I'm a private detective. Let's work together. This is a match made in heaven, work-wise. No, hardly any romance in this. It's much more just a crime story. So there's different types of crimes. There is a murder in a couple one or two episodes, but there's other types of crimes that they investigate and solve. It's very low-stakes type stuff. Oh, and he is always broke. He really doesn't have any clients. And so that's a bit of a problem. And he that's one reason he takes her on because he thinks, oh, this will help me get my business off the ground. So yeah, I would recommend this one if you like sweet, wholesome type shows, found family, very light. It's historical drama. So you get the beautiful clothes, you kind of get the mix of the people wearing traditional Japanese kimonos, and then you have the modern, or what for that time would be the modern Western clothing of the 1920s, lots of fun characters, there's that tinge of fantasy. And let's see, the other thing I liked about this was that almost all the cases revolve around the theme of lying. People are lying in some sort of way. And since that's her ability to distinguish that, I just thought that was a very clever use of the plot and theme to hold it all together. It was a very heartwarming type show.

Summary of Where I Watched the Shows

SPEAKER_00 27:14

I'm gonna do a quick summary of what I went through and where I watched it to help you find them because they're not all on the same streaming platform. These are where they are in the United States. So you may have to track them down if you're not in the US, but this will give you a starting point. Glass Heart is on Netflix. Marry My Husband Japan is on Amazon. Kissing the Ring Finger is on Vicky. Karuri Who's in Love With Me is on Netflix. Full Time Wife Escapist is on Netflix and Vicky, I believe. Silent is on Vicky. Hold My Hand at Twilight is on Vicky. Tokyo Salad Bowl is on Amazon. And Usataki Rhetoric is on Vicky.

Get in Touch

SPEAKER_00 27:55

All right. If you want more J Drama podcast episodes, please let me know. You can tap the Get in Touch link in the show notes and tell me what J dramas you recommend. I would love to hear which ones you're enjoying. And if you have any K-dramas that you really love and you want me to talk about, let me know about those too. If you enjoyed this episode, please take a few minutes to rate or review it wherever you listen to podcasts. That will help K-drama fans find the podcast.

My Special Edition 1920s Mystery Book

SPEAKER_00 28:17

And also I want to let you know if you're a mystery reader, you might be interested in my new book, Murder on the SS Cleopatra. It's a murder mystery that takes place on a 1920s Nile steamer. And you can see the special edition. It has marble and endpapers, sprayed edges, color interior, character photos, maps, and a ribbon bookmark. And that is at SarahRosettebooks.com. There's also an ebook and audiobook version available right now in August 2025. It's all exclusively at SarahRosettebooks.com. In the fall, the regular edition with no fancy end papers or sprayed edges will be available wherever books are sold. And the audiobook will also be available. And if you want to learn more about that, you can check out my behind the scenes bonus episode on my other podcast, Mystery Books Podcast, and I'll put a link to that in the show notes. So I hope this has been helpful. I hope if you're a mystery reader, you'll check out Murder on the SS Cleopatra. And if you want to be on the podcast and want to share your origin story and recommendations, please tap at Get in Touch link and let me know. Let me know your name and your email and just say you're interested in sharing your story, and I'll get back with you. So thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time. Bye.