Asian Drama

Yaemori Arisu runs a small restaurant named Alice’s Kitchen. She has autism spectrum disorder, which leads her to be stubborn at times and generally poor at communicating with other people. Her condition also allows her to have a phenomenal memory. She became interested in chemistry due to her single father, Yaemori Shingo, who teaches chemistry at a university. With her vast knowledge of chemistry, she understands nutrients and the cooking process from a scientific viewpoint. Her cooking skills are extraordinary, and her food always pleases.

At her restaurant, she works with her childhood friend Mitsumata Kazusa. Even though the restaurant is quite popular, they are the only two employees who work there. While Alice cooks dishes in the kitchen, Mitsumata is in charge of greeting and serving food to the customers.

One day, a young man named Sakae Kosei appears at the restaurant and asks to work there as a live-in part-time worker. Since then, Yaemori Arisu has experienced a big change in her life.

(Source: AsianWiki)

Episodes: 10

Duration: 60 min.

Airs On: Sunday

Yaemori Arisu runs a small restaurant named Alice’s Kitchen. She has autism spectrum disorder, which leads her to be stubborn at times and generally poor at communicating with other people. Her condition also allows her to have a phenomenal memory. She became interested in chemistry due to her single father, Yaemori Shingo, who teaches chemistry at a university. With her vast knowledge of chemistry, she understands nutrients and the cooking process from a scientific viewpoint. Her cooking skills are extraordinary, and her food always pleases.

At her restaurant, she works with her childhood friend Mitsumata Kazusa. Even though the restaurant is quite popular, they are the only two employees who work there. While Alice cooks dishes in the kitchen, Mitsumata is in charge of greeting and serving food to the customers.

One day, a young man named Sakae Kosei appears at the restaurant and asks to work there as a live-in part-time worker. Since then, Yaemori Arisu has experienced a big change in her life.

(Source: AsianWiki)

Episodes: 10

Duration: 60 min.

Airs On: Sunday

Dogai Ryuga, the Golden Knight Garo, has regained his golden glow and destroyed the evil plots of Horror. An encounter with a mysterious knight clad in “steel” leads Ryuga to the next test. Now, the story that approaches the origin of the protector begins!

(Source: Japanese = garo-project.jp)

Episodes: 12

Duration: 23 min.

Aired On: Thursday

Daisuke Daichi, dreams of becoming a passionate teacher at a high school, but all the students in his class, the 3rd grade D, have problems that are a microcosm of today's Japanese society.

One incident leads Daichi to be scouted by the BBT, a professional wrestling organization, and he also becomes active as a masked wrestler, Masked D. Daisuke, while keeping the truth hidden, struggles to save the students. Will he be able to solve the problems of the students by fighting as "Masked D" and facing them head-on?

This socially-conscious school entertainment depicts a teacher who never gives up and puts his body on the line to face his students no matter what, and the students who are facing various problems!

In order to stop his classmates from bullying him, the protagonist, Kamiya Tooru, makes a false confession to a girl in his class, Hino Maori. Even though she knows that the confession is a lie, Maori says yes with the three rules: "Don't talk to me until after school," "Keep communication brief," and "Don't fall in love with each other". The two promise not to fall in love, but as they get to know each other, they find themselves drawn to each other. When Tooru finally couldn't hold back his feelings, Maori's words were unexpected.

"I have an anterograde amnesia, and I forget things when I sleep at night. Everything that's happened in a day". Her memories and experiences were reset every day, and she wrote down the day's events in a diary and woke up early in the morning to review them in order to keep her memory alive. Tooru is devoted to bringing her as much happiness as possible. However, such daily life did not last long. What is the "plan" that Tooru has devised to protect Maori's happiness? The raging climax and the fragile tenderness will wrap the world in warm tears once again.

Adapted from the novel "Konya, Sekai Kara Kono Koi ga Kietemo" (今夜、世界からこの恋が消えても) by Ichijo Misaki (一条岬).

A school psycho suspense that depicts classmates, students, and their families being involved in a whirlpool of suspicion and confusion when a mysterious and beautiful high school girl, Kiritani Sara, suddenly transfers to another school.

Ishizawa Hajime works as a sales department chief for a trading company. The younger employees complain about the company, including having to work overtime and a lack of innovative working methods. Ishizawa Hajime looks at them with an intimidating glance and the young employees run away from him.

One rookie employee, Mugita Ayumi, begins to work in Hajime Ishizawa’s sales department. Mugita Ayumi tries to adjust to her new work environment, but it isn't for her. The only time she can feel comfortable is eating her lunch box at her desk alone. One day, while she is eating her lunch box alone as usual, Ishizawa Hajime appears in front of her.

Adapted from the web manga series "Imadoki no Wakai Mon wa" (今どきの若いモンは) by Yoshitani Kouhei (吉谷光平).

Matsuda Anna is a dedicated journalist who doggedly pursues the truth about a government corruption scandal even as powerful enemies seek to neutralize her reporting.

“Try stopping my murders with words.” This is the line in a letter delivered to Ippongi Toru, a roving reporter for Taiyo Shimbun’s local news desk, and the random serial murders which have shaken the Tokyo metropolitan area are described in detail. The criminal designates Ippongi and demands a public debate in the newspapers. Using a journalist’s power of words, Ippongi goes head to head with the criminal who warns of another murder. The unprecedented dialogue between the serial killer and newspaper reporter eventually rocks society.

Prodded by a friend request, a feckless forty-something recalls his past relationships from the 90s onward, looking for his vanished hopes and dreams.

Hisashi Tanaka is a medical student in Hokkaido, Japan. He does volunteer work at a hospital. In his time there, he gets to know the upbeat Yasuaki Kano, who has suffered from muscular dystrophy since he was 12-years-old. Yasuaki Kano is a little eccentric, doing things like running out of the hospital and wanting to eat a banana late at night. Yasuaki Kano develops a crush on a new volunteer at the hospital...who is also Hisashi Tanaka's girlfriend...

The story is based on the life of a japanese composer named Yuji Koseki from Fukushima in the Showa Era.

In 1909, a long-awaited baby boy was born to a family which has run a dry goods store for generations in Fukushima Prefecture. He would later become the talented composer Koyama Yuichi who wrote many famous songs. Although Yuichi was brought up as the heir of the business, he was rather dreamy and considered a child with no redeeming traits by the people around him. However, when he encountered music, it sparked joy and unleashed his gift in composing music through self-study. As a youth, Yuichi secretly put his name down for an overseas songwriting competition. This would change his destiny. He won runner-up for the song he entered for the competition. As a result, he got to know a female student who wanted to be a singer. Despite the long distance between them – Fukushima and Toyohashi – the two of them tied the knot. When they came to Tokyo, they met all sorts of people and weathered a dark period to produce a number of hit songs. However, war broke out and Yuichi had to compose wartime songs at the army’s request. It pained him that young men died in battle after singing the songs he had written. After the war, the country began to recover amid the chaos. The couple made a new era of music in an attempt to encourage the wounded through the power of music.

Yukisuke, a young, leggy bio-archeologist, gets to know Koyomi, a young land, selling Taiyaki on the street, similar to Korean fish-shaped bun. He is fascinated by her and visits her stall often. The two talk together and often hang out, but Koyomi gets in a car accident and is hospitalized. In a coma for days, she finally regains consciousness but suffers from temporary amnesia. Yukisuke tries to stay closest to her as before, but her past memories give him a hard time.

Adapted from the novel "Shizukana Ame" by Natsu Miyashita.

Ozawa Hiromi, a second-year high school student, lives with her strict grandmother Takako who deprives her of all freedoms. One day, Hiromi faints and wakens to a new personality named Yumi who is the opposite of Hiromi in all ways. Can Hiromi stop Yumi?

Adapted from the manga by Miyawaki Akiko.

Toko Ikuta lost her parents in a car accident at the age of 3. Afterwards, her uncle, who ran a barbershop in Morioka, raised her and she had a happy childhood. Toko Ikuta was active as a local idol and she dreamed of becoming an actress. At the age of 19, she is set to take an audition in Tokyo. The day before her audition, on March 11, 2011, the great Tohoku earthquake and tsunami hits Japan. In the autumn of 2011, Toko Ikuta works at a cafe. She goes with her Korean co-worker Han to do volunteer work in Kesennuma as the area recovers from the devastating tsunami. There, Toko Ikuta meets Kiyotaka Shimizu who is a university student from Tokyo and a member of a student volunteer group. While spending time together in Kesennuma, Toko Ikuta and Kiyotaka Shimizu develop feelings for each other.

Kamishima Michiko has been married for 20 years. Her husband Shunpei is the son and chef of a distinguished family which runs a traditional Japanese restaurant and they have two children. She leads a peaceful life as a full-time housewife. But one day, Yahagi Tae, a woman who identifies herself as Shunpei’s lover, appears in front of Michiko all of a sudden and tells her, “I’ve come to get your husband”. Tae says they have been in a relationship since six years ago. She presents divorce papers that Shunpei has signed to Michiko and reveals that Michiko’s late mother-in-law had welcomed their relationship. Furthermore, Michiko discovers that her husband’s restaurant is heavily in debt and on the brink of bankruptcy. Confronted with a series of unexpected truths, Michiko has Tae buy out her marriage papers with Shunpei for 60 million yen and decides that she will become the proprietress of the restaurant and put it back on track.

Yuri Ishikawa and her team try to crack unresolved cold cases in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.

The story is about a reporter Kayama Satoshi searching for the truth of the death of his 2-year-old son in a tragic accident which also involves his wife, Kayama Mitsue.

Based on the novel "Ranhansha" by Tokuro Nukui.

A young man spends the summer with his new girlfriend and his roommate, drifting through clubs in Hakodate. While they slowly form a ménage à trois, they realize their unusual bond will not last

In the year 2012, three delinquents including Atsuya discover that their hideout, a run-of-the-mill general store, was owned by an elderly man who gave free advice to worried people through letters. Something weird happens during late hours of the night and Atsuya realizes that a letter will be thrown into the mailbox at midnight. It is a letter asking for advice addressed to the Namiya General Store written by a person 32 years ago. Incredibly, the mailbox was connected to the past, in the year 1980. While confused, Atsuya writes a reply in place of the shopkeeper. The group keeps replying as another letter is sent, then another.

40 years old Tachibana Yuzuki has just taken on a job as a mountain climbing guide. While on her first solo guide job to climb Mount Myoko and Mount Hiuchi, she meets the female members in her group: Yumi and Ritsuko who work in a departmental store and Mitsuko who works in a welfare facility. With various reasons and issues, these first-time climbers try to scale the mountains while led around by the nose by Kijima who is Yuzuki's senior but younger than her.

Based on the novel "Yamaonna Nikki" by Minato Kanae and features the booming trend of women climbing mountains as a hobby and the issues and feelings they have.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department creates a new division which consists of 5 female detectives. The new division is called Higanbana which is a flower with a poison root. The 5 female detective have their own specialties and sensitivities. The women try to solve a murder that took place at the wedding of a female doctor.

Detective Nagisa Kinomiya is a member of Higanbana. She has the special ability of sensing a criminal’s murderous intent and ill will.

In April 1997, Yamaichi Securities’ Executive Managing Director Kajii Tatsuhiko becomes the general manager of the Business Supervision Department. Although the department conducts internal audits, it occupies a separate building from the headquarters, and is called the “outskirts” where demoted employees are relegated to. Then, on the first day of Kajii’s move, the Finance Ministry’s Securities and Exchange Surveillance Commission (SESC) comes in to investigate. There has been an upheaval in the financial industry over payoffs to corporate racketeers at this time. Kajii instructs his subordinates and secretary on an internal inspection. Meanwhile, Takimoto Toshio and Yoshioka Joe of the Audit Division find documents which show the relationship with a corporate racketeer in question. On the other hand, the chairman, Arihara Taizo, and others wear relaxed expressions in response to the SESC’s investigation, but only deputy president Katase Hirofumi, who is the internal control supervisory manager, looks uneasy. Kajii as well as his peer, Hayashi Yukihiro, harbour suspicions that the top management maybe hiding something. In November, Yamaichi Securities, one of Japan’s four largest brokerages, announces that it will voluntarily close down. This is due to approximately 260 billion yen in undisclosed debts. When and how did 260 billion yen of losses off the balance sheet come about, and how was it kept hidden? Yamaichi Securities is too big and without financial strength as well as bank support, the Finance Ministry has deemed that it will not file for bankruptcy protection, but seek the brokerage’s “voluntary closure” instead. While even the board of directors are bailing out of the sunken ship, there are employees who stay on in the company until the end and continue to seek the truth as well as pay off customers, inspired by their sense of mission. These people are the “rearguard”. ~JDrama Weblog~

Set in the same world populated by Yokai, demon spirits with supernatural powers - Wentz Eiji of WaT reprises his role as half-human, half-yokai hero Kitaro, who takes it upon himself to resolve the problems that arise when human and Yokai collide in modern-day Japan. This time Kitaro and his friends are investigating a series of mysterious disappearances. They stumble upon a yokai conspiracy and a cursed cycle that dates back 1000 years.

In 1966, a factory employee, Iwao Hakamda was arrested for murdering his boss and his wife and two children. Despite his continuous denial, he eventually confessed under duress and was sentenced to death. The youngest among the three judges, Norimichi Kumamoto convinced he was innocent but his vote was over ruled and the worse, he was tasked to write the verdict. A year later, Kumamoto quit the bench in protest and after 40 years, he broke his silence to denounce the verdict. This is the story about two men who were born in the same year and go through the extreme hardship on the opposite ends of the world. Hakamada is now believed the world longest serving death row inmate.

Saburo (Hiroki Hasegawa) works at a medical office on The Izu Islands, which has seen its population dwindle over the years. Even though Saburo doesn't have a medical license, he performs operations under the instructions of Dr. Muraki (Kohei Otomo). Because of his gifted dexterity and sincerity, people call him the Young Doctor. Saburo becomes conflicted over his position, but he convinces himself that what he is doing is helping people. Saburo becomes is also loved by nurse Akiko Suzuki (Izumi Inamori) and Akiko Tasaka (Fumino Kimura), who is the daughter of the director of a general hospital in Tokyo.

Sakura Tsugumi, 28 years old. Nickname: Ofukou-san (The Unfortunate One). Anyone who comes in contact with her will meet with bad luck too. With her sister's upcoming nuptials, Tsugumi leaves home for Tokyo to find work, but mostly to avoid anything bad happening to her beloved family in the celebrations. Tsugumi tells herself, "I will be happy!" and in trying to make that come true, she starts working at "Anew", a new company founded by an optimistic young entrepreneur, Sakae Konosuke. At the welcome party held for her by her boss, it soon becomes apparent that her "jinx power" is still going strong... ~ NHK

A hit-and-run incident occurs in Tokyo Kabukicho. The wrong man was arrested. Hamamoto Junpei, Kabukicho bartender, witness the incident, and knows who the real culprit is. In order to make some quick money he decides to blackmail Minato Keiji and his younger brother. However he gives up easily when confronted with Minato's manager En Yuko. Yuko becomes intrigued by Junpei's character, which everyone seems to love. Unintended encounters occur between Junpei and Yuko. These two come from two different worlds. Meanwhile, Yuko's nemesis Mizuki, emerges. Kosaka, the original gangster and several other people around Miki get involved in various incidents.

Based on the heartwarming debut picture book from well-known manga artist Saibara Rieko (‘Everyday Mom’). Popular child actor Fukazawa Arashi (Helen and the Baby Fox) stars as a boy who enjoys an affectionate relationship with the strange little creature Ike-chan in this touching drama. Good Bye, My Secret Friend marks commercial director Oooka Toshihiko’s feature film debut, for which he also wrote the screenplay. Able to change color and shape at will, Ike-chan is warmly rendered with the latest CGI techniques, creating a fantasy world touched with the bittersweet pain of real life. Yoshio (Fukazawa) is a very impressionable 9-year-old boy who’s always accompanied by a strange little creature named Ike-chan (voiced by Aoi Yu) that only he can see. Ike-chan comforts Yoshio when he’s bullied at school and gives him courage when he’s scared of being alone at night. On the other hand, when Yoshio becomes friendly with girls, Ike-chan turns bright red with anger. Ike-chan helps Yoshio overcome the problems of childhood, but as Yoshio gets older Ike-chan gradually disappears from sight.

The story focuses on a group of mothers who all have children around the same age. These women form a bond through sharing their anxieties about raising their children, each coming from a different background. However, the friendship between the five women also turns to jealousy and betrayal, due to the fact that their children are all taking similar entrance exams for elementary school.

Anne plays the protagonist Yuko, whose set of values as a woman, wife, and mother have been overturned, and she struggles to climb back from her fallen state.

Meanwhile, her four fellow mothers are hiding serious problems at home, despite their appearances. Ono Machiko plays a woman receiving verbal abuse from her husband on a daily basis, Kurashina Kana plays a “yankee mama” who got pregnant as a teenager by a truck driver, Ryo plays a capable woman running her own online shop, and Kimura Yoshino plays a popular reader model for a women's magazine.

The story begins with the disappearance of a school bus and four high school girls. Still unsolved three years later, the case gets revived when one of the girls reappears. Odagiri plays a sharp national investigator searching for the truth behind the incident, which leads back to a seemingly peaceful town.

A tire comes off a moving truck and becomes a deadly weapon, hitting a mother and child. The problem was caused by the vehicle manufacturer's failure to recall the vehicle, but the blame falls on the head of the delivery company who, despairing, searches for evidence that the recall was suppressed. Crossing paths with banks, police, weekly magazine writers, the victim's family, and various others, he eventually gets to the truth of the matter.

Kurosaki is a young man whose family was destroyed by swindlers. He gows up and become a swindler himself, known as Kurosagi. He swindles other con artists and returns the money to the original victim. He works with the master swindler Katsuragi Toshio even though Toshio had a hand in the destruction of Kurosaki's family.

He's life begins to change when he meets Yoshikawa Tsurara, a young law student who disapproves of his disrespect of the law.

This documentary-style film recreates the infamous Asama Sanso Incident of 1972 wherein an extreme faction of the Students Allied Red Army holed themselves up in a mountainous cabin in the dead of winter. By the time the police finally caught up with them, it was discovered that they had murderously turned upon themselves in a bizarre extension of their radical philosophy. This event virtually marked the end of the Student Revolution.

This series depicts a group of young people searching for their own directions in life. 22 year-old Tetsuo repairs cars and looks after his little sister after the death of their parents. Around him is a circle of close childhood friends, all with different dreams and different realities. Takeshi used to be Tetsuo's closest friend but they fell out after an accident. One day Tetsuo and the others come across Takeshi again...

This series depicts a group of young people searching for their own directions in life. 22 year-old Tetsuo repairs cars and looks after his little sister after the death of their parents. Around him is a circle of close childhood friends, all with different dreams and different realities. Takeshi used to be Tetsuo's closest friend but they fell out after an accident. One day Tetsuo and the others come across Takeshi again...

Natsuko lives her dream as a copy writer for an advertising company in Tokyo. But when she hits a slump in her career, she returns to her family's sake brewery in the countryside. There she discovers her older brother has been hunting down a phantom rice called tatsunishiki, believing it to be ideal for creating a new sake. He finds the rice seeds he needs to begin his new sake, but right after Natsuko returns to Tokyo with her spirits renewed, he passes away suddenly. Despite new success at her job, she decides to quit and return home to continue her brother's dream. What begins is a several years long journey, first to cultivate the notoriously difficult to grow tatsunishiki, and then to perfect the brewing process of her new sake.