Anime @ Work :Anime scriptwriter Yamanobe Kazuki's Anime and Historical Drama Update - No.17

Today's installment is about the increase in Japanese animations of Korean drama.

Korean stars like Jang Dong-gun, Lee Byung-heon and Won Bin are well known in Japan too, thanks to hits like "Winter Sonata" starring Bae Yong-joon, and the more recent "Jewel in the Palace." The "Korean Pop Culture Boom," centering on the elderly female stratum, has been going on for some time now.

New pachinko machines which use characters from "Winter Sonata" are now in use, and in just about any pachinko parlor in Japan you go into these days, you'll undoubtedly be greeted by faces of stars like Bae Yong-joon and heroines like Choi Joo in the advertising all around you.

This fiscal year, Heewon Entertainment also created an anime spin-off of "Jewel in the Palace" called "Jang Geum's dream," directed by Park Byon-sang and televised on NHK. Although animation as a form of media is generally targeted at children, Studio Cockpit and Studio Cats followed this with an anime adaptation of "Winter Sonata," directed by Nakayama Daisuke and with character design by Hitoshi Ohno.

In light of these events, I expect that producers will also make a film production of "Winter Sonata" and that they'd like to make the "Korean Pop Culture Boom" focused on the elderly stratum the target audience for other anime works as well.
This means Japanese animation will be venturing into a new consumer stratum.

Korean works are not all romantic dramas like "Winter Sonata," but cover a range of genres such as the historical fantasy genre of "Taioushijinki." More anime adaptations based on Korean dramas will probably be made in the future, allowing both Japanese and global audiences to be able to see these. I believe that Korean animation will probably equal and surpass that of Japan in the not too distant future.




Profile of Yamanobe Kazuki
Scriptwriter
Member of the Writer's Guild of Japan
Representative Director of the scenario production company, Edgeworks

Official site of Edgeworks http://www.edge-works.co.jp