With the relative success of TV animation abroad, what else can Japan export to the hungry masses overseas? Well, not much, but there is TV drama, quite a lot of it, decades deep and just sitting there.
To help us sort through it, Jonathan Clements and Motoko Tamamuro, authors of "The Anime Encyclopedia," have here described more than a thousand Japanese TV series, giving their cast and credits and showing their peak ratings. These are all indexed and cross-referenced, thus making it a handy guide -- if you happen to be interested in the subject.
The authors certainly are. Imagine, sitting down and viewing over a thousand TV dramas -- home dramas, infidelity dramas, horror dramas, true-love dramas, detective dramas. Such an ordeal must take real dedication.