TBS Program Catalog

The Man Closest to Heaven 1,2 天国に一番近い男 1,2   천국에서 가장 가까운 남자 1, 2   最近天國的男人1, 2

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Broadcast Date

Series.1: 1999.1.8 - 1999.3.19
Special: 1999.9.24
Series.2: 2001.4.13 - 2001.6.29

Episode / Duration

23 episodes and Special Season.1: 60 min. x 11 eps.
Season.2: 60 min. x 12 eps.
Special: 120 min. x 1 ep.

Scenario Writer

Masato Ochi (おちまさと)
Toru Hosokawa (細川徹)

Cast

Masahiro Matsuoka (松岡昌宏)
Takanori Jinnai (陣内孝則)
Megumi Okina (奥菜恵)
Yoshihiko Hakamada (袴田吉彦)

Due to his lack of drive, Shiro has failed the university entrance exams three times and just can’t seem to do anything right. When Shiro starts to contemplate why somebody like him is living at all, a mysterious man named Tendo appears, calling himself an “angel.” Tendo warns Shiro that his death is just around the corner if he does not push himself harder. Shiro takes the initiative and ends up saving someone else from an untimely death. In this way, Shiro avoids one brush with death after another by listening to Tendo’s frustrating riddles. With a lot of laughter and a few tears, Shiro’s trial teaches the secret to living a full life is hard work and confidence.

Black Forceps

ブラックペアン   블랙 페앙   黑色止血鉗

85 min × 2 eps / 80 min × 1 ep / 75 min × 1 ep / 60 min × 6 eps|10 episodes

A medical thriller based on Takeru Kaido's novel, Black Forceps 1988, protagonist Seishiro Tokai is a surgical genius whose perfect operational success rate has earned him the monikier, “The Demon of O.R.” at the Tojo University Hospital, a name that also points to his overbearing and solitary personality. He is countered by a rookie physician, Gonta Takashina, who comes to the hospital from a different medical university advocating hard for cutting edge medical technology that promises to render individual differences in surgical skill obsolete and level the playing field among surgeons. Naturally, a battle brews Takashina and Tokai who is adverse to the idea of machines taking over surgical procedures, particularly with regard to cardiac surgery. Tokai also confronts a powerful university hospital system that is rife with jealousies and political intrigue, and seeks to expose a hidden past and new technology corruption scandal in this highly entertaining medical drama.

Clockwork Planet

クロックワーク・プラネット   클락워크 플래닛   時鐘機關之星

30 min. × 12 eps.|12 episodes

A thousand years after the world was rebuilt with clockwork, machine-obsessed Naoto Miura becomes the master of an automaton named RyuZU. When this beautiful piece of machinery crashed into his apartment, Naoto’s superhuman hearing allowed him to fix her broken cogs—but little did he know it would land him squarely in the middle of a horrific government conspiracy! Teaming up with a pint-sized clock technician and her trusty bodyguard, they set out to fix more than just the broken gears of the world.

Handa-kun

はんだくん   한다군   半田君

30 min. × 12 eps.|12 episodes

Handsome teenage calligrapher Sei Handa is worshipped by all his classmates as an aloof superstar… too bad Sei's inherent negativity makes him believe that everyone actually hates him...?! A youthful comedy of misunderstanding and melancholy unfolds in this hilarious prequel to “Barakamon”!

Know Your Limits

限度ヲ知レ   한도를 알라   尺度知多少

Know Your Limits is a new kind of reality comedy -- a hidden camera variety show that explores the boundaries of everyday life. To find "limits," our hidden camera actors push ordinary people to the boundaries of what is considered normal. The further we can go, the funnier it gets.

Letter to Mom in Heaven

命〜天国のママへ〜   생명~천국의 엄마에게~   在天國的母親

120 min. x 1 ep.|1 episode

Haruki Mizunuma is a workaholic who runs a design office in Tokyo and has left the rearing of his grade school son, Ren, completely to his wife, Kyoko. But she becomes hospitalized for de-terioration health. Treatment fails to work and suddenly, she has departed from this world. Ha-ruki is not ready to be suddenly raising a son by himself, and Ren himself is devastated by his mother’s death and loses the desire to live. And then on the first anniversary of Kyoko’s death, Haruki and Ren pay a visit to her native home in the mountains where the family business of forestry has been maintained for 500 years. Haruki begins to seek the meaning of the “Tree of Happiness”, which Kyoko had written in her day planner. But first he must confront the cold treatment by his father-in-law, Shigeya, who had never approved of their marriage.

Send in Tenma!

天魔さんがゆく   텐마씨가 간다   天魔來了

30 min. x 10 eps.|10 episodes

An extremely fearful youth, Tenma Hokai, grudgingly runs a ghost extermination agency only because he hails from a long genealogy of those with special abilities to communicate with spirits. When a request comes in, he and his company colleagues strap on special devices and head for the haunted sites in what is a Japanese version of Ghostbusters. Or so one would hope. But alas, the weak-nerved Tenma can hardly bear the thought of encountering ghosts and tries instead to hear their grievances and rectify the problems that keep them in the corporal world, even through gentle persuasion. Meanwhile, Tenma must contend with a lady who follows him around, speak to his deceased father through dreams, a bothersome detective, a parade of quirky clients and spirits in what is far from a tale of horror but rather a hilarious comedy with comical interplay that also delivers a serious treatment on the meaning of "life" in a completely original drama.

The Reason

宮部みゆき『理由』   이유   懸疑小說-理由

140 min x 1 ep|1 episode

Based on a novel by Japan's premier suspense novelist, Miyuki Miyabe. Four people are found brutally murdered in a luxury high-rise condominium populated by the rich and famous. But none are residents and nobody knows who they are or from whence they came. Why were they found dead here? The investigation only uncovers increasing layers of mystery with everyone that appears in the story hiding something in what amounts to a thrilling, top-shelf mystery about knotty human relations.

The Snark Hunt

宮部みゆき『スナーク狩り』   스나크 사냥   懸疑小說-獵

120 min x 1 ep|1 episode

Entitled after a poem in Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland", about a hunter who was supposed to be hunt down and destroy a legendary monster called a Snark, but finds himself ruled by the thirst to kill, this vivid tale of suspense explores the frightful region of the human psyche that resides within us all. A man whose wife and child were brutally murdered loses all manner of reason and composure when the murderer gets of scot-free . Burning with homicidal anger, he himself transforms into a "monster" and plots an elaborate scheme which he is sure will exact perfect revenge.

The Stork Nest

こうのとりのゆりかご   황새의 요람   小鳥的搖籃

120 min x 1 ep|1 episode

May, 2007. The Jikei Hospital is a small clinic in Kumamoto Prefecture operating out of a pri-vate dwelling that begins accepting anonymous “deposits” (“Baby Post”) of unwanted infants abandoned by their parents for various reasons under the operational name, “Stork Nest.” Based on a true story, this moving human drama, fictionalized to protect privacy, depicts the passion and dedication of hospital staff as they rescue 92 abandoned infants over a period six years, all the while overcoming public criticism.

TIME IS MONEY

THE CELEBRITY LIFE HACK SHOW

Time is Money is the hilarious celebrity Life Hack show where your favourite stars share the time saving secrets of their success – and where viewers with the best life-hacks go home with a fat cash prize, proving once and for all that: Time is Money.

We live in increasingly pressurised times where much of our time is spent trying to save time! Take a quick look at your phone – just how many ‘time-saving’ apps have you got on it right now? Now ask yourself how many of them actually work? Right… then delete them then… I guess… how long would that take?

Time is Money is the show that really saves you time in your day to day life to free you up to do the things that you should be doing, like horse-riding, skiing, or something else you might see other people doing on the TV. Playing polo, maybe.

Time is Money is fiendishly simple. Our hosts introduce a panel of funny and crazy celebrities that show us their favourite life hacks. Little tips and tricks from the stars that have helped them get along and can now improve our lives by making things so, so much simpler. Some are fun, some are silly, some are extremely messy or dangerous, but most of them have the ultimate in ‘take-home TV’ – they can improve your life!