#jina dramas awards 2023

[tytangfei]

Jina’s dramas awards 2023

It’s here! I feel like I say this every time, but truly, this year, I had less time to devote to dramas. Also, there were few dramas that held my full attention from beginning to end, so this year's list will be pretty short! (Check out my favs from 2020 , 2021, and from 2022.)

As usual, these are mostly Chinese historical/period romance dramas. I do have a category for modern dramas but I didn't watch any this year, so I'll be taking it off for this year. :)

Best Overall Drama

Lost You Forever (Season 1): A brilliant first episode played by talented kid actors who just drew you to this solemn, aching world of xiao yao and others. Technically, the drama isn't over, but my goodness, the characters are so good. The actors are chef's kiss.

Most Delightful/Fun Drama

The Starry Love: Knowing xianxia and wuxia genres, I expected this drama to have more angst, but I was laughing more than I was crying. A strong ensemble cast too that made everything more fun. I love this drama so much.

Most Impactful Drama

Lost You Forever: I still mull over certain scenes, cry over the characters' back stories and motivations and what gives them grief. I am still patiently waiting for season 2.

Drama with the Best Soundtrack

Circle of Love: Bangers after bangers. I still play it after all these months. The drama is such a wild intense ride, it was super entertaining.

Best Costume/Design/Set Drama

My Journey to You: Everything felt so elevated and elegant and sharp and mysterious and dangerous. Love it.

Best Short Drama

Butterflied Lover: This director never misses. Adore the two couples, even though the plot slowed down a little bit about 2/3 of the way. Beautifully shot, interesting storyline, happy ending. Nothing else I could ask for from a short drama.

Most Unexpected Drama (aka the Dark Horse) / Drama(s) I'm Enjoying Right Now But Have Not Finished

Mysterious Lotus Casebook, A Journey to Love, and The Last Immortal. For all three, I was surprised I enjoyed them so much. For MLC and AJTL, I know there are some major characters deaths, so I have yet the heart to finish it but I know that I've enjoyed a huge portion of it and I know their endings will not ruin that.

The Last Immortal is still airing and could have a disastrous end since they have to cut a lot to fit the 40-ep max limit, but I am surprised that I really like the characters. Unlike their prequel An Ancient Love Poetry where I did not care for the male lead's God self, for this drama, I care much about gu jin/yuan qi and a yin. I hope this drama ends on a good note.

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That’s all for me! Did we share any favs? Which drama would you in what category? Feel free to let me know. :) Thanks, all! Here's to new and beloved dramas in 2024!

[killerandhealerqueen]

Sass's 2023 Drama Awards

Following in Jina's (@tytangfei) footstep, I too have a 2023 drama award! (I started doing the drama awards after seeing hers, so it's only fair that I give credit where credit is due)

Anyways, without further ado...here are my drama awards! Explanations of each category/drama under the cut!

Best Overall

Best Overall CDrama: My Journey to You

I'm honestly surprised I loved this drama as much as I did. I loved everything about it, from the characters to the plot (we're ignoring the last five minutes), the costumes...just everything. Loved it, loved it, loved it

Best Overall JDrama: Bokura no Sokutaku

I loved the manga and I loved how they adapted this into a live action. I also loved the actors, especially Tane...felt exactly like how he thought he would and Minoru's dad...oh, loved him. Everyone was perfectly casted, the story was well done (with lovely additions that weren't in the original manga)...and the food looked absolutely delicious

Best Overall Kdrama: The Uncanny Counter 2

Gotta love my Uncanny Counter team. I actually really liked this season and the villains...overall, a very good drama. Love my little family

Most Delightful/Fun Drama

Most Delightful CDrama: Order of the Sommelier/A League of a Nobleman

The way I shrieked with laughter while watching Order of the Sommelier...and A League of a Nobleman...I love me some shenanigans and these idiots were full of them (fond)

Most Delightful JDrama: Bokura no Shokutaku

Tane was just absolutely delightful, as a child should be, and I really loved him. He brightened up the drama when it got too heavy/serious and it was a good balance

Most Delightful KDrama: The Uncanny Counter 2

Yeah, I laughed a lot with them. They're dorks and I love them

Most Impactful Drama

Most Impactful CDrama: My Journey to You/Stand by Me

Yeah, My Journey to You...it hit me in the feels. Had me crying at fucking 3 am and no drama has made me do that since Killer and Healer, so it goes here. Stand by Me also had me in my feels, just like Killer and Healer so it also goes here

Most Impactful JDrama: Bokura no Shokutaku

I definitely shed a tear or two with drama, especially during the scene where Minoru's dad and Yutaka talk about Minoru's mom and love as well as the scene where Yutaka talks to his older brother about how he made him feel unwelcome when he was younger and how he was hurt by that and what not. This drama had a lot of good, heartfelt and impactful scenes

Most Impactful KDrama: The Uncanny Counter 2/Evilive

The Uncanny Counter always has been an impactful drama and this season did not hold back on the angst. Evilive...jesus this drama was impactful from the first five fucking minutes. But it was a good drama

Most Unexpected Drama

Most Unexpected CDrama: Four way tie between My Journey to You/Pledge of Allegiance/Love is Written in the Stars/Desire Catcher

My Journey to You was unexpected because of all of the twists that you don't see coming...you think the story is going one way and then it turns around and shows you that you were completely wrong

Pledge of Allegiance was unexpected just because of the characters and their backstory and the overarching case (which I love. I love overarching cases)

Love is Written in the Stars was unexpected mainly because of the ending. I enjoyed the drama but the ending came out of fucking left field (but not in a Killer and Healer way)

Desire Catcher was unexpected because of the overarching case and how everything just tied together. It was unexpected in a good way. And I enjoyed it

Most Unexpected JDrama: Gifted

Gifted was unexpected in the way they solved the cases and the backstory of one of the main characters as well as his powers. I wasn't expecting it, but I enjoyed it

Most Unexpected KDrama: The Uncanny Counter 2/Evilive

The Uncanny Counter was unexpected this season because of the villains as well as the stakes...they were way fucking raised as well as how their powers worked this time...very unexpected and very stressful

Evilive was unexpected in how...fucking dark it got. And how tragic it was. My god, we knew the ending was gonna be tragic but holy shit

Best Soundtrack

Best Soundtrack CDrama: My Journey to You

This soundtrack fucking slaps and you cannot tell me otherwise

Best Soundtrack JDrama: Bokura no Shokutaku

Jdramas always have really good osts so I'm not surprised I enjoyed the soundtrack for this one

Best Soundtrack KDrama: The Uncanny Counter 2

Again, the Uncanny Counter always has good music

Best Costume Design

Best Costume CDrama: My Journey to You/Love is Written in the Stars

The costumes in these dramas were just so pretty, especially My Journey to You. I also loved Love is Written in the Stars because they made Patrick Quan look like a fucking fairy and they put Ian in the prettiest green robes I have ever seen, like he looks so god damn pretty

Best Costume JDrama: As Long As We Both Shall Live

Oh yeah, the costumes in this drama fucks hard. The kimonos and the yukatas and the police uniforms? Oh, they fuck severely

Best Costume KDrama: The Uncanny Counter 2

The outfits in this drama were amazing and I'm glad they got an upgrade from their red tracksuits. I much prefer the black tracksuit, honestly

Favorite Drama from Any Year

Favorite Drama from Any Year CDrama: Killer and Healer (2021)

The day this drama gets knocked out of this position is the day I fucking die, honestly. No drama can replace this drama

Favorite Drama from Any Year JDrama: Tsukuritai Onna to Tabetai Onna (2022)

I love this lesbian short drama and I'm so excited that they're making a season two, oh my god

Favorite Drama from Any Year KDrama: The Fiery Priest (2019)

I love this drama, it was my first introduction to dramas and it's just so god damn funny

So, what were y'alls top dramas this year? Let me know! I'd love to hear about them

[tytangfei]

brb, gonna start the ingenious one

[tytangfei]

Jina’s dramas awards 2022

It’s here! I had less time this year to devote to dramas because of a variety of reasons, but I still want to share the love. (Check out my favs from 2020 and from 2021.)

As usual, these are mostly Chinese dramas and they’re typically historical or period costume or VR-historical dramas but I do have a category for modern dramas specifically. Also, this is based on dramas that I finished. So, if I started but didn’t get through it yet, it won’t show up on this list.

A new addition this year: best short drama! With cdrama entertainment really putting more money and time into making their mini dramas, I think they deserve their own category.

best overall drama:

love between fairy and devil: no surprises here. it’s a devil x fairy drama aka brooding man x bright girl dynamic and it’s so so good. it really took all of us by a storm and we enjoyed it so much. the cgi is pretty good, the soundtrack is fantastic, and just everything hits my fangirl’s heart so well.

most delightful/fun drama:

night of love with you (modern short drama): i was seeking more short dramas to watch and am so glad i came across this. it’s funny, it’s well paced for a short drama, the couple’s chemistry is amazing, and their visuals look great too. also, the tinge of tragedy? love it. obsessed. 

most impactful drama:

rainless love in a godless land (Taiwanese modern drama, technically aired in 2021 but finished in 2022 so it counts!!): i love this kind of modern fantasy stories and i especially loved that this drama incorporated indigenous beliefs and myths and had all these larger questions. i probably watched this all in like three days (the eps were so long!) and was captivated. 

most unexpected drama (aka the dark horse):

sassy beauty: i don’t think i had any specific expectations for this drama, I was just looking for VR-historical drama and came across this. It also happened to have Yan Zidong as the ML, who I adore, so I gave it a chance and I’m so glad I did! Especially letting myself get past the first 4 episodes because the female lead’s growth was so so gooood. and again, the tragedy of it all?? yeah yeah, it’s everything.

drama with the best soundtrack:

love between fairy and devil: do I need to say more? it’s got all the bangers.

best costume/design/set drama:

love in flames of war (republican era): disregarding the story/plot, i really liked how this drama looked. maybe they looked a little too pristine for a republican era? but the male lead’s a warlord and rich and stuff so i didn’t question it too much.

best short drama:

a familiar stranger: cdrama ent is finally putting money and time into short series! this year we really saw an improvement in this genre and several other dramas did really well, but this drama had my heart because of ryan cheng. he’s my boy. but really, this drama had solid acting, story, with strong cinematography and soundtrack. just chef’s kiss.

favorite modern drama:

be my princess: granted, I didn’t watch many this year, but this is the only one I finished and actually spent VIP money to watch the last few episodes. I really adored this drama and the questions it asked and I was pleasantly surprised by this couple pairing. 

favorite drama from any year not aired in 2022:

dreaming back to the qing dynasty (2019): I haven’t watched a drama based in qing dynasty (with some time-traveling) in years! I fell in love with so many of the princes but especially wang anyu as 13th prince. it’s the first drama i’ve seen of him and i’ll be keeping an eye out for his future historical/period dramas!

drama with a soft spot in my heart:

lost track of time: i’m obsessed with this drama greatly thanks to jing chao but yeah also obsessed with irony and revenge and the fight against fate and doomed endings. yeah, this drama had me buying VIP. the production and cinematography was just okay but the acting? the tragedy of it all? i’m kissing jing chao.

favorite scene from a drama:

a familiar stranger: this is a random category just so that I can say I absolutely love the fireflies scene. it’s so so good, so soft, so tender. he saved her and then she saved him in the most beautiful way.

That’s all for me! Did we share any favs? Are you obsessed with bits of tragedy too or are you normal lol. Which drama would you in what category? Feel free to let me know. :)