Maiko is an ordinary office worker with a deep hang up about being a virgin at over 30. She obsesses over what she feels is an inability to experience life as other “normal” people do, which haunts her in her work and private life. Then things begin to change when she meets Kagiya, an employee at a copy machine maintenance company. New circumstances propel them both on personal quests for answers as they struggle to overcome life’s many challenges in a poignant love story that explores the human condition.

Distractions are strictly forbidden for the student body leader of a super prep school where 95% successfully get into Japan’s most prestigious University of Tokyo. But then he falls in love for the first time. Turning his back on studies and defying school rules, he now stakes his life on the most difficult challenge of all: winning a person’s heart! But he is so undaunted by repeated failure that his quest soon takes on a life of its own, engulfing the hearts and minds of the entire school! Super elite boys in glasses take on forbidden "love” in this over-the top, no holds barred rom-com!

Yamato and Kakeru are childhood friends. Yamato with his cool demeanor and good looks is a straight A student who is often confronted by girls professing their love.
On the other hand, Kakeru is a typical high school teen with many friends and a cheerful personality.
One day, Kakeru asks Yamato if he likes anybody, to which he mumbles, “Kakeru.” Kakeru responds jokingly that he can’t possibly mean himself, but Yamato has in that moment made his own confession as best as he could in this boyhood youth story about finding direction for unrequited feelings.

Yurika is a top consultant who has restructured countless restaurants, but finds herself on new ground when hired by a local Saitama prefecture host club to prevent its hostile takeover by a large Tokyo outfit called Love 2000. Appalled by the club’s mediocre “hosts” and poor customer relations, Yukari embarks on a new tactic of scouting a rank amateur and country farm boy, Kiseki, to serve as lead host, which rankles feathers but challenges everyone to learn and grow.

Kokoro leads a happy college life dating Sayo who is madly in love with him. Then one day, his ex-girlfriend Ringo shows up. Still seeking some closure after being dumped by her, Kokoro allows Ringo to move in with him without telling Sayo. She learns of it unbeknownst to Kokoro and is wary of Ringo’s motives but her inexperience with romance and fear of getting hurt makes her balk at confronting him. Meanwhile, Kokoro’s heart begins to waver between Sayo and the free-spirited Ringo as things get clumsy in this life-sized, triangle love story.

Sumire is a 26-year-old dress pattern maker who just got dumped by her boyfriend. She responds by joining a lingerie maker run by a female boss, Yuri. When Sumire is again smitten by a captivatingly young man, Soichi, he turns out to not only be a “himo,” a professional mooch, but the very guy who has been living off of Yuri! Enter Morio, a chef who also pines for Sumire, to complicate matters further in this modern love spectacle full of intrigue and tangled romance.

Akari is a college student whose recent breakup has her afraid of taking on new relationships.
That is until love pays her an unexpected visit. She falls for Izumi who surprisingly is not only younger, but also happens to be the kid brother of her ex-boyfriend, Yamato. Akari feels drawn to Izumi for his straightforward honesty. Meanwhile, Yamato comes to realize that he still loves Akari, and sets about trying to win her back. From this love triangle comes a delightfully pure and unadulterated love story sure to set the heart palpitating.

30-year-old Rei quit the real estate agency she started working at after college and bootstrapped a company that offers an art subscription service. She starts dating a younger, handsome freelance photographer named Shuto, whom she met at a shared office. Although she’s on cloud nine with her nearly perfect boyfriend, she’s bewildered by how he won’t even kiss her or give her any after just two months of dating. But Shuto the “Sexy Boyfriend” seemingly has a side to him that he doesn’t show Rei. Just what sort of guy is he? Witness the struggle of a 30-year-old woman trying to change herself into a “new me”!

Miyako is a beautiful salesperson on the fast track at a major cosmetics company earning more than 100 grand a year. But when she begins to question her life, she drops everything to pursue a past dream to become a painter. At a cram school for getting into an art institute, she meets a cute yet younger painter with prodigious artistic talent, but he’s also a penniless jerk. Can Miyako capture both her dream and romance in this newfangled rich-woman-poor-man love story?

A high school girl, Koume, and her working stiff father, Kyoichiro, wake up one day after a traffic accident to find they have switched bodies. The two had been drifting apart, but are now thrown into each other’s lives. Kyoichiro, for example, shows no interest in Koume’s love interest, a classmate named Kenta. Ironically, however, Kenta finds himself more attracted to Koume ever since the swap. There’s plenty of hijinks in this bizarre love triangule style romcom!

Yumeko is a hot-shot business woman recently headhunted by a venture capital firm.
Outwardly, she is brash, confident and self-possessed, but at home, she’s a total slob. Emotionally wounded from a recent 18-month romance in which she was dumped, Yumeko still pines after her first high school crush as her ideal partner. When she encounters a mysterious man who looks identical to him, it sends her life spinning out of control in this reverse Cinderella tale for all women with big dreams.

A high school teacher is dubbed “Tetsuko the Iron Mask Lady” for adamantly refusing to meddle in her students’ lives or socialize with her colleagues. But she is actually a closet computer in love with a character in a dating sim game. Spending her days divorced from real-life romance, she is one day confronted by a bright but hard-to-figure out, long-haired male student named Murai who confesses his love for her. It is a non-stop romantic comedy pitting a female teacher blindly in love with a fictional character against a male student who will stop at nothing to pursue his teacher’s affections.

Nao Kitazawa, 34, leads a busy but fulfilling life as a doctor at a women’s clinic and as fiancee to an elite psychiatric physician, Yuchi Ihara. With their wedding day a month off, Nao is preparing to move into a new home when she meets Shinji Mamiya, a struggling writer who works part-time as a mover and falls inexorably in love with him. The fateful encounter compels Nao to follow her heart and experience true love. Overwhelmed by Nao’s passion, Shinji soon falls for her as well, but their budding romance is threatened by the tragic discovery that Nao has early onset Alzheimer’s. What unfolds is a story of pure love. As Nao’s symptoms worsen, Shinji spends the next ten years giving Nao mental and health support even as she begins to lose the precious memories they both shared.

Shizuru Mikuriya is a Harvard graduate with a 230 IQ, but she languishes in a mental institution for her emotional instability and tendency to inflict harm to herself. Hiroyo Takakura is a highly-trained detective investigating cases involving so-called “Spec Holders.” Mikuriya and Takakura, along with their supervising chief, Kojiro Nonomura, soon find themselves embroiled in a plot to control and manipulate all spec holders.

With a title inspired by “Stomiiformes”, an order of deep-sea ray-finned fish called, this story follows Tomioka, a late-night security guard at a supermarket who laments his drab and solitary life. Feeling it unnatural to exist alone, he wishes upon a shooting star one night for a true friend. Soon, a mysterious woman appears in his life. She is Azusa, a next door neighbor who instantly falls in love with him. But as the kind of social awkwardness, Tomioka is obtusely unaware of her feelings for him. Can love bloom between these two? Especially when compounded by the sudden emergence of a homeless guy, who calls himself a “life wanderer”, and then an enigmatic death threat in the form of a letter that reads: “You will lose your mind within a year and die”. Life is suddenly turned upside down.

Takuto, our protagonist, shares a house with his friends from high school – Kyohei and Hajime. He comes home to find a baby sleeping peacefully in the room. When the other two residents also return, they read a letter that has been left on the desk. “This is your baby.” Although they’re not quite sure what to do, the young men begin to feel responsible and they appear to make a decision to raise it together. However…

The three young men – afraid of learning the truth - take on the task of raising a baby in this slapstick comedy drama.

How would react if you suddenly became a father?

Remi Takasugi is the most popular “item” at the “Rental Lovers” company where no customer request is deemed too impossible, outlandish or difficult to fulfill as long as certain rules and time constraints are observed. The company motto is “The ultimate rental girlfriend” and they guarantee complete satisfaction and perfectly-met requests. Remi is the ideal girlfriend in every way. But she also exhibits a few distractingly different traits. She absolutely refuses to smile once a date “gig” is over, and she wears an odd-looking bandage on her neck. So who or what is Remi? And what’s with the bandage? Cyborg? Alien? Cat? The suspense-filled love story starts here.

Hoshimitsu Kokku is a Criminal 1st Division cop with professional level culinary skills. Nicknamed “Captain Cook”, he brings his own eccentricities and philosophy toward crime-fighting with the conviction that “Food doesn’t lie.” If there is one thing Captain Cook can’t stomach, it is the thought of people getting away with murder and then being able to eat freely and sumptuously. So he recreates the meals of victims in an effort to understand them better in the course of his investigation, and invites suspects to a grand feast where he can smoke out the true criminal. His compassion and unwavering pursuit of criminals in the name of justice make him a new hero in the gourmet world. Meanwhile, constantly stressed to the max is his new partner, Azumi Nanase, who despite having fulfilled her dream of becoming a cop is diametrically different in personality and disposition from her partner. As a consequence, she is constantly stressed out being at the mercy of Captain Cook’s freestyle sleuthing style and having to salvage the peace between her partner and his rival detective, Nekota. Nevertheless, Nanase and Hoshimitsu together make a crack crime solving team.

College student and Economics major, Yuka Minami (19) suddenly learns of the freakish death of her friend, Ikumi, on whose corpse were found reams of 10,000-yen bills. The eyes of Yukichi Fukuzawa, the face on the 10,000-yen note, had all been darkened black. When the bodies of 5 more men and women around Ikumi turn up in the same manner, rumors spread of a “death cash” curse. Frantic over this rash of inexplicable deaths in her immediate surroundings, Yuka one day hits upon a certain “rule” she believes might combat the workings of these fatal deaths. Horror and suspense surround her in this visceral depiction of modern society’s biggest and most terrifying subject: money.

Ever since high school, Yuriko Busujima has been without several boyfriends. Now into her third year as a political beat reporter for a newspaper, she finds herself in a 4-year relationship with a musician named Midori and courting another guy. “Marriage is hell” and “Betray a guy before he betrays you” are her life mottos as she publicly flaunts her two-timing affair. Professionally, she searches for the opportunity to land a big scoop. And when it comes, fraught also with new romance, Yuriko is vindicated in her belief that “love” and betrayal” are merely two sides of the same coin. A new type of adult-oriented entertaining drama.

Angered by his boss, a strident and selfish production company employee, Takasugi, quits his job as a director and finds himself saddled by a 10 million yen ($100,000) debt. He decides to hatch a plot, conspiring with a former assistant director friend named Sonobe, to kidnap a very rich family’s beloved dog for ransom. But then a mysterious woman, Natsuko, shows up as well as the son of the family whose dog they plan to kidnap, both wanting in on the plot. Then things really take a complicated turn when Takasugi is marked by a real kidnapper to take the blame for a separate child kidnapping in this thrilling, humor-filled and moving suspense.

The setting is the Tsukishima district of Tokyo where the Summer Olympic Games will be held in five years. A small old-fashioned confectionary shop, “Sakuraya” stands as a remnant of the past amid the rapidly changing cityscape. Akiko Sakurai has been running the shop on a shoestring for over 50 years, along with her grandson, Taro (33) whom she raised form childhood after he lost his parents in a traffic accident. With them also is Reiko, a single mother who has returned to Tsukishima with her child. Seemingly left behind by a fast-moving world, Taro appears as something of a “loser” who finds himself reexamining his lost childhood in an effort to move forward. Life takes a strange turn when his grandmother, Akiko, receives a letter that she is being sued for damages because her cat, Mi-chan, allegedly scratched up a neighbor’s luxury car. What should be an easy case to win turns into a fumbling mess at the hands of Taro who can’t seem to win for losing in this wacky yet endearing and slightly heartwarming late-night drama.

Who can resist a good crisis or the scent of a woman?
The panic-thriller/comedy series “Panic In” celebrates all of the classical panic and disaster movie themes and tropes with a high-octane television drama full of suspense, laughter, tears, joy and soul-satisfying human emotion! Computer graphics add a level of scale and impact never before seen in made-for-television entertainment.
Torao Kurumada (43) is a hapless, middle-aged bachelor who is always changing jobs, but every time he starts at new place of employment, he is interrupted by some major incident or disaster such as a runaway bus, an unidentified mysterious animal, or terrorists. Each challenge is accompanied by a fateful encounter with a woman whether a college student, an office lady or a widow with whom he falls helplessly in love and for whom he is willing to sacrifice life and limb to save. It is the classic tale of a guy trying to win the girl amid extreme circumstances. But will it ever work for Torao?

Each episode is filmed by a guest director; Taichi Suzuki, the first ever 4-award winner at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival (“The Brat” ’12), action specialist, Yoshikatsu Kimura (“Karate Girl”, ’11), globally-acclaimed director SABU ( “Bunny Drop”, ’11 & “Kanikosen”, ’09), Munenori Nagano, who while active also as an actor in the popular theatrical troupe “European Project” is an award-winning independent filmmaker, for a total of 4 directors all bringing their own flair and taste to this all new “panic” action-comedy genre.

How to win the greatest love by the worst means! The world of romance is not for the timid. For Jiro Kagami, who has never been popular with the girls, the only way to win the heart of his beloved Yuri is by beating out four rivals with the use of a so-called “dark machine” that he hopes will make up for his lack of a way with women.

A mystery writer and master of-the-trick-ending turns active interviewer in search of answers to a series of mysteries taking place in the realm between the virtual world and reality in an isolated town. Suffering from writer’s block, the author teams with his editor to solve a gothic murder that leads them down a labyrinthine path in this edgy mystery with dark comedy streaks.

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.

Dropping out of high school and joining a bike gang, girl teen Makoto Kiryu's rough-and-tumble life thus far takes a new turn when she meets Rinko Kominato after a motorcycle accident. Rinko convinces Makoto to quit the biker gang and attend evening high school. Nine years later, the fully reformed Makoto is a college graduate and an upstanding physical education teacher who enjoys immense popularity among students. Having finally landed full-time status with her own class in her third year, life seems great until a bombshell drops from school principal. Makoto and her colleagues are being tasked with strengthening the school's dance program, a newly-mandated component of physical education. It is Makoto's worst nightmare come true. And God forbid that her students ever discover the truth: that she can't dance a lick.

If you missed the last train, and had no money to get home by other means of transport, and had to spend the night in and around a particular train station, what would you do? This is how our story begins, with the protagonist missing the last trine. He has no money with him and must figure out how to pass the time until the first train in the morning. Little does he knows of the encounters and "late night adult adventure" that await him and which will cause him to grow. A one-night romance with a mysterious and attractive woman? The suspense and perils of becoming embroiled in a criminal incident? Or an incident of interpersonal connectivity sure to make one smile broadly? Enjoy a brand new type of drama that will leave you thinking about missing your last train tomorrow.

Starring Japan's currently most popular comedian, Yuki "Bananaman" Himura finds himself the central character in an eccentric drama that unfolds in ominibus style with each episode penned by a different writer and featuring an ever-changing support cast. Only Himura appears each time without fail, showcased and accentuated by resplendent actresses. Giving color to all who appear are the prominent globally-acclaimed film directors. Himura versus 10 movie directors and 10 stunning actresses. Witness a wholly new kind of TV drama that can only be seen here!

"Somato" is a term referring to the phenomenon at the brink of death where a person sees their whole life pass before their eyes. Those who are lost and happen to stumble into the Somato Incorporated are guided by Kaminuma by the entreaty, "Take as much time as you'd like to look back over your life" and then are handed a set of DVDs equal in number to each of your age. They contain parts of your life you had forgotten and your life as viewed by others. What's more, you get to learn the shocking truths you were not capable of knowing before, forcing you to face up to facts so shocking they may never recover. After watching every volume, what are people left thinking? Are they left with a sense of despair? Or hope.

A huge fan of the Hiroshima Carp baseball team, you the viewer become the story protagonist, Ryo Kirigamine, vice-president of the Young Detectives Club at Tokyo’s Koigakubo Academy. In the search for truth, each week the school club gets tangled in perplexing local crimes and mysteries, including murder!
Ryo is a self-avowed super detective, but tends to get lost in the maze of clues at critical junctures of a case. But never fear; there are plenty of people to come to get her back on track, including the biology teacher, Hiromi Ishizaki. Take part in an intricately-constructed, hardcore mystery every week.

Osamu Shirato is a timid man and ultra pushover who goes completely unnoticed by women and is devoid of any sex appeal. He’s been searching vainly for employment for two years. But his life undergoes a radical change when he is reunited with a childhood friend named Hitoshi Kurosaki. Following a certain “incident,” Osamu is suddenly a magnet for women as he finds himself embroiled in - and solving - one messy situation after another. Still hoping to “find work” over “solving crimes”, the endearingly awkward Osamu can’t bring himself to refuse requests for help, be it solving a murder, bank robbery or organized shoplifting to stopping stalkers, buggings, and graffiti.

The setting is one of Japan’s most prestigious private high schools, Ouran Academy, with a student body made up of scions of the country’s rich and famous. It is also home to an extracurricular club made up of “beautiful” boys called the Ouran High Host Club. The story begins with the only penniless boy in the school, Haruhi Fujioka, making his way into the school on academic merit alone, and unwittingly stumbling into Ouran High Host Club membership. Having found himself saddled with enormous debt, Haruhi is ordered by the club’s leader, Tamaki, to make his debut as a host. But the problem is… Haruhi’s actually a girl.

By day, Shio manages an aromatherapy salon. But by night, she is the owner of “Striped Sheep”, a business that dispatches men to the homes of women who suffer from insomnia to lie next to them. These “Striped Sheep” in fact represent a brand new profession of so-called “co-sleepers,” whose sole mission is to provide a night of relaxation to restless women. Shio’s four “sheep” consist of Gai, her ex-husband’s brother, Ran, a man with a cool, soothing gaze, the glib Linda and a taciturn book worm named Matthew. As sleep-sharers, these four men find out a lot about what drives or plagues their women clients, and help them gradually discover themselves and the right life pathways. “There are nights when a woman just needs a man at her side.”

In the year 2060, a failed science experiment has brought about a barren, famine-plagued world where “flowers” no longer bloom. While recovery efforts show promise, District 7 - ground zero for the accident - has been left to its own devices, exempt from reconstruction as “an abandoned city.” One resident of District 7 is Ai, an angelic-looking young girl who hides a darker face. As member of a team of assassins called “Last Garden,” she is a coldhearted killer who carries out her assignments with faithful precision. Her life now roiled by a bizarre fate, this lone woman assassin must simply learn to survive.

A young boy with a brilliant mind, a sexy female and two athletes form an unlikely quartet in a game of thievery that calls for cooperation, intrigue and cunning in an effort to steal various treasures ranging from physical objects and data to people’s hearts. But participants must be on constant guard in this thrilling caper lest their prized winnings be stolen away by other players. Under orders from a mystery woman, Yoko Kitaba, brainy protagonist Rei Kamimura teams with the saucy Karen Katagiri, technician Taiga Kishihara and brawny Jack to take on a host of ne’er-do-wells in hopes of recovering treasure and a lost memory.

Stepmom Akiko grows concerned when daughter Miyuki, who is about to graduate from college, seems content to work part-time at Bakery Mugita without looking for a “real” job. After Akiko lectures Miyuki about her tardiness to job-hunting, they begin researching companies together. But no sooner do they start when Miyuki drops a bombshell. “I want to get married!” sending Akiko and everyone including bakery owner Mugita into a frenzy.

With the successful Mobile Emergency Room (MER) slated for nationwide roll out. The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare sends medical technician Aoto to replace MER lead doctor Otowa as “second doctor.” But Aoto has his own agenda on behalf of the ministry. Then when a runaway houseboat collides with a passenger shuttle on the Sumida River, team leader Kitami lays politics aside and boards the boat alone knowing an explosion is imminent but dedicated to defending MER’s "zero fatalities" mission.

Shinya Sugi is an architect who lost his parents at 15, and then his sister to illness. Now, he sleepwalks through life as a water meter reader until a friend takes him to a rice ball shop called Tachibana. There he is dumbfounded to meet the owner, Kaoru, who looks identical to his late sister. Kaoru has a knack for helping customers untangle their life problems and bring a smiles to their faces. Shinya, however, poses his biggest challenge in this miraculously heart-wrenching drama.

Company worker Akiko finds that a business she helped to revive has been taken over by a vulture capitalist, Ryoji, who looks identical to her deceased husband. When Ryoji’s next acquisition turns out to be a beloved bakery, Akiko suspects an ulterior motive and vows to resist. Caught between hatred of vulture capitalists and budding feelings toward her new boss, Akiko finds support from her stepdaughter, Miyuki, who is dedicated to looking out for her stepmom in this heartwarming drama.

Miyama is junior partner to Sada, who has just been named new director of the Madarame Law Office. When a party is held to announce the new director, the president of a major auto maker wants them to hire and train his granddaughter Honoka. A candidate for mayor needs their help clearing him of a bribery charges, which puts them up against a suave bribery lawyer accustomed to operating in “gray” legal territory. Can Miyama and company stay focused on finding truth and justice?

Husband as employer, wife as employee, marriage as a job... That’s how it all began for Mikuri Moriyama and Hiramasa Tsuzaki, working as managing partners in a work place called home, sharing household chores in efficiency maximizing manner, and otherwise leading a peaceful and happy life. Until Mikuri gets pregnant. The two decide to formally marry, but their plans snag when trying to register. More problems ensue from childbirth to parenting as Hiramasa tries to take paternity leave right before an important project. And then, one “incident” arises that threatens to tear the couple apart for good. Will they ever find their way back to “hug day”?

Akiko's back! This special picks up a year after the series ended . When we l as t saw Akiko, an ambitious career woman, she 'd just started work ing again after a long hiatus , but out of the blue she’s been fired f rom her high-powered job. Her stepdaughter Miyuki is now a university student living in Tokyo. Akiko hasn't seen Miyuki for a while, and she's in for a big surprise! When Akiko arrives, Miyuki’s boss is there wearing only a towel, holding a baby! Have these two had a baby together?! It wasn't easy for Akiko as a working person to be a stepmom, but she gave it her all, and Miyuki loved her back.
Don’t miss the new adventures of this loveable family.

The year is 1934. Demand for the automobile is at last beginning to heat up some 10 plus years after the devastation of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 had utterly destroyed shipping and distribution networks. Now, the likes of U.S auto making giants, Ford and General Motors, were looking to carve up the Japanese market for themselves with their foreign-made automobiles. Wataru Yamazaki is sales manager for “Hinode Motors”, a GM dealership in Aichi Prefecture. Resistant to the misguided American sales techniques being forced upon him, he constantly tries to offer suggestions, but who’s going to listen to a salesman at one little dealership? One his way home from Osaka one day, Yamazaki sees a stalled Chevrolet atop the Suzuka mountain pass being fixed by a mechanic in a suit: Saichiro Aichi. It marks the beginning of a long and rich relationship between two men who would go on to launch the first Aichi Motor Automobile Dealership.

Office worker Mariko is flustered to learn that her boyfriend, Junichi, has suddenly left the country to work overseas as a volunteer educating children in developing countries. He’ll be gone for 2 years, and made his big decision without having consulted her and even his own family. The reasons are unclear, and he is unreachable by phone. All Mariko can do is write a letter to him expressing her anxieties. Then one morning, the burnt body of a woman is found in a lumber warehouse. Visiting the crime scene, a detective named Kameyama recalls a similar arson related homicide that occurred 15 years ago at the same warehouse. Flashback 15 years. Mariko was in middle school when the warehouse fire broke out, trapping her and one of her classmates, Kazuki inside. Thankfully, she was rescued at the last minute by Junichi who rushed to save her, but alas, Kazuki perished. But the incident was investigated as a homicide, and another of Mariko’s classmates, a boy named Yasutaka, had been named as a suspect. The day after the fire, however, he committed suicide. With the truth never having been revealed, the investigation broke off much to the remorse of detective Kameyama. Mariko is therefore astounded 15 years later when she learns that the woman recently found burned to death was Yasutaka’s mother, Ayako. Years ago, the shock of the tragedy had led to Mariko's amnesia about the incident. Now, Mariko finally receives a letter from Junichi overseas, and it contains a confession by Junichi spelling out things Mariko had never known. Gradually, Mariko, overcome with anxiety finds bits and pieces of her memory starting to return.

With dreams of becoming a Naoki Prize-winning author, Tomeji Kosuge is a widower who ekes out a living as a reporter for a trade newspaper while caring for his young daughter, Noriko, and living with his mother, Takie around 1963. Based on the true story of writer, Shuhei Fujisawa, Simple is Best traces the half life of protagonist, Fujisawa, up until his winning of the Naoki Prize in 1973 as seen through the eyes of his beloved daughter, Noriko.
A moving and poignant depiction about a man’s abiding love for family and passionate pursuit of a dream.

A human relations drama with a comedic touch set in a small “izakaya” tavern that caters only to regular patrons, The Tavern centers on the daily life of its chef owner, his family, the clientele and a new female customer.

One of the hottest selling tickets in town is to see the hugely popular “rakugoka”, or comic storyteller, Danshun. Danshun himself was inspired as a little boy to become a rakugoka after seeing the legendary Danshi. He had found his calling. After his resistant parents relented to their son’s pleas, Danshun at age 17 became an apprentice of Danshi, the man dubbed a “wunderkind” and “genius” of the rakugo world. He soon realized however how hard the training was, and embarked upon a rigorous existence in which he had to deliver newspapers to earn a living. Living with hardship and joys, Danshun and his fellow apprentices would eventually rise in the rakugo world. A resplendent cast comes together to depict the rough and tumble world of a man who loved rakugo above all else and was destined to fulfill a dream.

Iku Kasahara joins the ‘Task Force’, the special unit of the Kanto Area Library Defense Force, in search of her ‘prince’, a Task Force member who once rescued a book about to be seized from her by the ‘Betterment Squad’, the paramilitary arm of the Censorship Enforcement Agency. She does not remember what this man looks like, and is attached to the Dojo Squad, where she is trained to within an inch of her life by its martinet of an instructor, Atsushi Dojo.
She meets a Deaf woman, Marie Nakazawa, a childhood friend of an older member of the Task Force, Mikihisa Komaki, who is advising Marie on books she should read. Iku senses that Marie is in love with Komaki. Meanwhile, the librarian Asako Shibasaki is meeting frequently with a curator who has introduced himself as Shuji Asahina. Hikaru Tezuka, also of the Task Force, is fond of Asako, and is not sure what to think about all this.
Now Komaki is arrested by the Betterment Squad. A book he recommended to Marie had not been approved. Komaki is taken away, leaving the other members of the Task Force enraged at his detention on these dubious grounds.
To make matters even worse, Iku’s parents show up. They were strongly opposed to her joining Library Defense, and now her secret—the fact that much of her job involves armed combat—is revealed.
Will Komaki and Marie be torn apart? What fateful decision will Dojo make as confusion engulfs his unit? And how will Iku get through this?

Yamakura of the Kobe Fire Department aspires to wear the vaunted “orange” uniform of an elite rescue force that only 3% of all firefighters can attain. But to do so, he and his fellow trainees must suffer through the most rigorous training. As Yamakura and his fellow trainees grit their teeth and complain, their superior officer, Sakurai, impresses upon them the lessons of the Great Hanshin Earthquake (Kobe Earthquake) 20 years ago as “the only time we ever lost.” What hap-pened on the front lines of rescue that day and in the aftermath? What raced through the hearts and minds of rescuers as they tried to get a handle on unimaginable disaster? The shocking facts pour from Sakurai’s mouth in hopes of preparing the recruits for the unforgettable event that awaits them.

Based on the writings of a true life, vision-impaired lawyer comes a story about a blind man who manages to pass the extremely difficult bar exam and earn his lawyer’s license. Long desiring to help the weak, Kensuke Okochi gets a job at an attorney’s office while he and his wife, also blind, look forward to their first child. When a plaintiff in a divorce case decides to withdraw from litigation, Kensuke worries at first that it has to do with his own perceived inadequacies as a lawyer, but a few days later, he is visited by the female plaintiff, Satomi, showing injuries to her body. While it appears an open and shut case of domestic violence with an audio recording as proof, Kensuke detects a “certain scent” coming from the plaintiff which gives him pause as to her real intentions.

Prior to the start of World War II, Saichiro Aichi witnessed firsthand the technological prowess and industrial strength developing in the automotive industry of the US and Europe. Under Saichiro’s strong visionary leadership and the efforts of his team, a do-mestic passenger car is finally built just as the march of war is heard approaching. Saichiro’s group bides its time through a devastating war by building military trucks and machinery only to confront a dire depression upon war’s end, due to a financial re-trenchment policy by the Bank of Japan. Short on capital and troubled by labor strife, as well as personal illness, Saichiro and his men refuse to give up. Here is an inspiring tale about visionary men who through blood, sweat and tears and the spirit of “monozukuri” battled back from the brink of bankruptcy to build a Japanese auto company that would be the pride of the world.

Three years ago, obstetrician Rin Izumi had a miscarriage, losing the child she and her husband, Keita, had finally conceived after 10 years of trying. It resulted in the removal of Rin’s uterus and estrangement with her husband who as a chocolatier left to work in Paris. They hadn’t seen each other since. “We need to talk about the future,” he says one day informing her of his plans to return home. With confusion in her own life mounting, Rin encounters challenges at work including a pregnant woman formerly treated elsewhere whose baby is born premature. When DNA tests reveal the child to be neither hers nor her husband’s, something is terribly amiss.

The hit drama “Newcomer ” returns for a new season of Kyoichiro Kaga's latest adventures, drawn from the hit series that sold over 10 million copies. Famed inspector Kyoichiro Kaga’s biggest weapon is his unrivaled perception and eye for detail. No mystery is too complex for his sharp mind and penchant for action. But Kaga doesn’t just catch criminals: he has a way of unravelling emotional wounds, leading suspects to bare all . In this season of “Sleeping Beauty,” we get some clues to Kaga’s past as watch his composed manner erode when a beautiful woman steals his heart. Captivated by the talent and beaut y of the lead ballerina , Kaga finds himself anguishing over his own unraveling in this detective drama that grownups can relate to.

Yuki leads a comfortable life as an illustrator with her doctor husband, Kenzo Tamukai. But they have yet to be blessed with a child. The story begins with the arrival next door of a new neighbor, a woman named Sachi Tachihara, whom Yuki gradually befriends. But Sachi plants seeds of doubt in Yuki, informing her of an alleged love affair her husband is having. One by one the lies and realities surrounding Kenzo come to light, erasing treasured memories of their marriage. Just as an anxiety-ridden Yuki finds she has no one to rely on except Sachi, a police detective enters the scene to turn her world on its head.

The year is 1972. Fumiko is a very ordinary college student working a part-time job translating English literature where she meets university professor, Shintaro Katase and his wife, Hinako. She finds herself “enamored” with them. But the appearance of a young man named Katsuya Okubo leads to the destruction of those feelings. On one fateful day, Fumiko shoots Okubo to death in a violent incident that renders Professor Katase paralyzed from the waist down. His wife had witnessed the scene, but never speaks of it, allowing Fumiko to shoulder the blame. Fumiko does so willingly to keep a certain secret. 40 years later, in 2013, a reporter named Mit-suhiko Torikai is reexamining the case, trying to find out what really happened. Finishing a long sentence, Fumiko, who now suffers from terminal cancer, decides to bare her soul at last and reveal the secrets she’s kept locked away for so long.

Television serialization of a bestselling novel series called “SRO”. Japan’s Prime Minister has just launched the Special Research Office for Extensive Investigation (SRO) akin to the U.S.’s FBI to conduct wide area investigations of spreading crime. It is a groundbreaking new organization designed to free operatives from the “jurisdictional” restrictions of prefectural police departments. But the reality is that the SRO is not at all welcomed by the police organization. In the course of in-vestigating a dead body reduced to bones along the border of Kanagawa Prefecture, SRO members realize that police spies are in looking to torpedo the fledgling organization.

Kayo Otahara, known affectionately as “Dr. Mom”, pours heart and soul into providing medical care to her local community. For roughly two months each summer, the rustic Gifu Prefecture village of Gujohachiman is transformed into a bustling center of activity, swelling to 30 times its normal population during its “Gujo Odori” festival, a folk dance where people clack wooden clogs on the ground in rhythmic cadence, also known as the “clog dance.” Against this bucolic backdrop, a story unfolds between Dr. Mom and a village clog maker’s family working to preserve the town’s tradition. She finds herself unraveling a family in-cident while serving as the only hope for rescuing their suddenly infirm daughter.

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.

This prequel to the hugely popular SPEC act ion series, delves into the story behind protagonist Saya’s loss of her left hand. Saya’s parents are supposedly killed in a plane crash when she’s in high school. But later Saya is approached by Kondo, a Metropolitan Police Agency detective, who tells her it’s likely her family was murdered by a SPEC agent. Five years later, Saya is a cop at the Public Safety Department’s Section 5 Task Force for unresolved cases. Meanwhi le, Saya’s brother blames Saya for their parents’ death, setting out to destroy her under the pseudonym Ninomae. He’s guided by Saya’s jilted ex-boyfriend, Satoshi, who’s poisoned both Ninomae and Saya’s minds so that they can’t recall being close.

Trading company employee, Tetsuya, lives alone with his only daughter, but is busy preparing to remarry a Vietnamese woman named Lien. One day, the president of a Vietnamese trading company promises Tetsuya a contract if he will help solve a mystery. But there is a time limit that, if not met, will cause the dissolution of a big project in Vietnam his company has been working on for years. Tetsuya pours his energy into cracking the mystery, but the key to solving it lies in Japan. A hundred years ago, under harsh colonial rule by the French, a Vietnamese hero fighting for independence took an incredible risk to find passage to Japan, where he forged a strong bond with a nameless Japanese doctor. Now, a century later, a long-hidden truth is re-vealed in this epic story about love and friendship between Vietnam and Japan.

Ataru Returns!
Tasuku, the young brother of Ataru who never appeared in the television drama emerges here as the lead suspect in a serial killing case.
Ataru flies from New York to rescue his brother and discover the truth behind the murders which bear a strong resemblance to the "Crucifixion Murders" that shocked the United States in 1997. He is joined in the effort by 1st Crime Division investigator, Sawa, and ex-cop and current private detective, Maiko, for a reunion of the "Ataru Trio." But their movement is checked by Ataru's arch rival, who received the same special skills FBI training as he, and who seeks a final showdown.

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.

Yuichiro Sawada is an elite company man with a blue chip trading company, in charge of a major overseas infrastructure building project. Supported by his beautiful wife and talented cook, Yoshino, his son, Daichi, a graduate of Tokyo University now employed at the Ministry of Economics, Trade and Industry, and daughter, Mariko, a student at the University of Washington, Sawada's life seems the picture of success with talk of a major promotion to executive status close at hand. But then Yuichiro is diagnosed with cancer, and before he has a chance to tell his family, they have become estranged from him. Forlorn, Yuichiro resolves to use his remaining time on Earth helping his family fulfill their dreams, and it becomes his driving passion and wish as a father and husband. Yuichiro's passionate pursuit soon begins to transform his family, too, realizing how the ability to dream can create new and lasting bonds between people, and in their relationship to society.

It happened all so suddenly. Sugako Hashida had urged her husband to be examined after he complained of chest pains. She had never given any thought to a major illness from the way her husband deftly went about fulfilling his long-cherished dream of becoming a farmer. But the verdict from the doctor, given first to Hashida before the patient Iwasaki himself, was cruelly unexpected. He has terminal cancer that cannot be operated on, and only six months to live. Knowing that her husband cannot fight the disease and that the time remaining is all they've got, Hashida elects not to tell Iwasaki. How to prepare for that inevitable "day of parting" becomes the central theme of this autobiographical drama written in the first person by screenwriter Sugaoko Hashida the author of numerous masterpiece dramas who confessed, "Of all the things I've experienced in my life, nothing could compare with the pain of this."

Just where is Level 7 and what is it? Two completely distinct plot lines ultimately cross paths and converge on a heinous murder. A man and woman wake up in a condominium room but have no memory of anything. The only clue they have to their identity is a tattoo on their arms that reads, "Level 7." Meanwhile, in a separate location, a solitary elderly lady goes missing having left the message, "Once you arrive at Level 7, there is no return," prompting her granddaughter to begin a search for her whereabouts.

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.

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.

An epic rags to riches story, Kimiko Tomikohji grew up poor, amassed an incredible fortune during Japan’s miraculous period of economic growth and then, right before the asset bubble burst, she passed away. What she left behind were major romances carried out simultaneously with three different men, to whom she each later said had fathered her child. Here is the story of an unfettered woman of incredible mystery as depicted mainly through the lives of the three men who couldn’t resist her seductive power.

Do you have a teacher you will never forget?
An ordinary looking school and a typical classroom. So many students have passed through it over the years; as have many battle-scarred teachers. A message on the blackboard embodies three dramatic periods in Japan’s postmodern history. There was the time just after World War II, the economic miracle that followed, and the recent devastating earthquake and tsunami. Viewed from three fascinating and iconoclastic teachers living through these three revolutionary milestones moments, here is a story that drives at the heart of education. What did these children learn? What were the adults able to impart to them? What does it mean to be Japanese? And what are the hopes and dreams of people of all ages?

A year after his last big fight, Takeru Sebumi, returns to the Metropolitan Police following some time off recovering from medical treatment on his eyes. But he is immediately confronted with a very strange murder case involving a machine gun shootout that took place in the middle of a street in broad daylight where only one high school female survived. But the girl's testimonial is that the shooter was dressed all in black and could move by instant teleportation. Photos taken by a combatant in the firefight revealed the presence of Satori, who had been badly knifed and held The Empress tarot card in her hand. Saya Toma views the incident as a blatant showdown between "spec holders" of specialized powers. Thus, a new challenge is thrown down for former special forces cop, Sebumi, and the quirky Toma with her 201 IQ.