I think that the Japanese are the only ones who actually know how to make a gripping, bingeable drama without evil characters and murder subplots. I don't know how they manage to do it? Maybe solid writing?

Sleeper Hit is a drama I just finished watching and it has left me with a huge, happy and silly grin on my face.

It is a story about a weekly manga magazine, the editors working there and the mangakas providing the content. The whole set up is shown from the point of view of Kokoro, nicknamed Bear Cub by her coworkers, a former judoka who turned editor, as she learns the ropes of the trade and as she wins the tough editors over with her sincerity and inspires others to be proactive.

What puts this drama above the rest are the characters not plot. And they are a quirky lot. There is Kokoro with her eternal smile and optimism, open-mindedness and ingenuity. She is fearless and kind. Her mentor is Iokibe, always ready for a constructive advice while being mysteriously aloof, the chief editor Wada who is a baseball fan but has an incredible eye and instict for manga, striped T-shirt wearing cynical but with a heart of gold editor Yasui, there are also a group of mangakas of all ages and attitudes....The whole drama is character driven and it is so much fun to watch. The editor's work is explained to the minute details through production of weekly manga episodes: how the mangakas work and the input the editors give.
We do not know much about the characters' private lives or their background stories: only the details important to the drama plot are given and they are scarce. The important is the present!

It is also a story of books and how they are losing their place faced with internet onslaught: bookshops closures, book shredding, magazines not published anymore. "Books made me human!" How true!

The writing is perfect, the acting also, the music was nice but... Actually that is the only problem I had with this drama: the music. The soaring orchestral music at crucial moments made me think of those western movies when the leads reach the top of the mountain and the music just soars to heavens. It was a bit too much here! And the songs sounded very much like rearranged well known western songs (could not think of the name but they sounded extremely familiar! NB I do not listen to japanese music so it is not that I might have already heard them before!).

Each episode except for the last one, was told in a voiceover by one of the characters and that character is featured in the opening credits' animations (too cute)!

Just go watch this and have some fun! If you need a pick-me-up, this is a perfect solution!