#asadora

The first time, an experience I long for again and again.

Asadora

"Asadora" manga by Naoki Urasawa (20th Century Boys, Monster) will resume in Big Comic Spirits issue 17/2026 out March 23, 2026

The series will publish 2 new chapters in a row.

I tried watching Western shows like I always did for many years since I was a teenager but somehow I could not find solace in them. I tried watching other shows like K-dramas to see what the hype was all about and C-dramas out of curiosity but I still felt empty.

Then I remembered the first J-drama I watched as a kid with my mum, Oshin (1983). She loved that asadora drama that she never failed to miss even one episode out of like 300! It always played on TV in the late weekday afternoons after school so there I watched.

I didn't remember or understand the story then but I remembered the places shown, and I was mesmerized. I was thinking, is there such a beautiful place? Then I started watching Tokusatsu on weekends which was played on TV which showed many similar places.

And for some reason, it was the most relaxing feeling I ever felt. Wanting to feel that again, I started re-watching them and nostalgia started running through my memory. I'm not exaggerating but I really felt at peace watching them, no longer feeling empty.

That's when I started watching more J-dramas of various genres, asadora, taiga (period), comedy, slice of life, crime. I got addicted to every one of them that I felt like I was traveling to Japan in the midst of lockdowns. And watching them made me feel happy.

The stories brought grief and joy but it helps me reconnect with my own emotions or process trauma. It's healing and inspiring. There are times it makes me forget reality and there are times it reminds me of it, but in a good and inspiring way, making me feel there is hope.

Watching the characters going through their lives makes me rethink my own and re-look at them from a different perspective. It makes me think of things I never thought of before, that it helps me to solve my life problems with a different approach. 

The characters and stories may be fictional, but the struggles and problems are relatable and universal. How they react to life changing events, the people they interact with in daily lives, their life circumstances closely reflects the real ones.

Stories told from Asian perspectives, in terms of work life, relationships, anxieties, depression, mental health, struck a chord with me, an Asian, feels closer to home. As the way Asian culture deals with these things is different from the West. 

I never felt such a level of happiness or sadness watching any shows but J-dramas. They showed me that nothing is permanent in life, both the good times and the bad times. They showed me how to treasure the good times and move on from the bad times.

I’ve watched 400 J-dramas in 4 years! They made me start learning Japanese and made me stop watching Western shows ever since (not all but most). I guess you could say it is one form of therapy which makes me able to express and experience emotion again.

This isn't everything,at least one thing still claims it's arriving today