In Scripted Affects, Branded Selves, Gabriella Lukacs analyzes the development of a new primetime serial called trendy drama as the Japanese television industry s ingenious response to market fragmentation. Much like the HBO hit Sex and the City, trendy dramas feature well-heeled young sophisticates enjoying consumer-oriented lifestyles while managing their unruly love lives. Integrating a political-economic analysis of television production with reception research, Lukacs suggests that the trendy drama marked a shift in the Japanese television industry from offering...

In Scripted Affects, Branded Selves, Gabriella Lukacs analyzes the development of a new primetime serial called trendy drama as the Japanese television industry s ingenious response to market fragmentation. Much like the HBO hit Sex and the City, trendy dramas feature well-heeled young sophisticates enjoying consumer-oriented lifestyles while managing their unruly love lives. Integrating a political-economic analysis of television production with reception research, Lukacs suggests that the trendy drama marked a shift in the Japanese television industry from offering...