The settings from the 1980s onwards are demonic, and few men look good… Explore the features that even emerge in morning dramas.
Xiao Linwei
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From the cover of NHK Publishing “NHK Drama Guide TV Serial Omusubi Part 1″(Wai Kobayashi: Broadcast writer/university professor)
Audiences are good, but…
“Omusubi” is NHK’s 111th drama series (commonly known as morning drama) which started airing on September 30.
It’s still in the early stages, so I think it’s a little early to comment, but so far, the reception from the audience seems to be weak. In terms of viewership ratings, the average so far has been over 15% (the average household viewership in the Kanto area). The average for each episode of the previous work, “Wings for a Tiger,” was well received, which was only about a 1% drop, so it’s not that bad , but viewers have strong opinions on social media etc. That’s for sure. For morning dramas that are broadcast every day for six months, losing viewers in the early stages of broadcasting is a big blow.
Therefore, as a broadcast writer, I composed a special program called “Delicious Tokodori! Morning Drama Famous Scenes Special” (NHK General / Broadcast on September 23) just before the beginning of “Omusubi” The theme of this time is to explore ways to to do this.
Let’s start with the reason…
Candidate reason 1: Are works set in the “modern” era inaccurate?
When you think of period settings for morning dramas, you might get the impression that most of them come from the Meiji to Showa era, or pre-war to post-war (around 1955). Looking at the 111 works so far, over 60% of the total corresponds to these eras. By the way, the earliest time the story begins is in 1857, in the 93rd work, “Asa ga Kita”. Surprisingly, this is the only morning drama that depicts the Edo period.
Now, it’s hard to decide when a period setting qualifies as “modern”.
Considering that the morning drama slot started in 1961, if we assume that the story starts around the time of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, then there will be 43 out of 111 works. From the 1980s onwards, there are 31 works. By my choice, I have selected 31 works whose stories begin after the 1980s, when most viewers live in the same era, as “modern morning dramas”.
Some interesting details were found while setting this up. Looking at the 10 works with the lowest average viewership ratings for each episode, all 10 were set in the 1980s or later! I think the audience prefers episodes that show the poverty and hardship of life in the turbulent times of the background.
However, there are some “modern dramas” such as “Chura-san” and “Ama-chan” that became huge hits.
“Omusubi” is set in the “Heisei” era and is a very modern drama. On social media, there are comments like, “The historical background is too close, so there is no particular nostalgia,” and “I don’t like it because I often think, “That doesn’t exist” ‘ because we live in an era where we already know about modern things.”