Nagumo is a social studies teacher at Mie Prefectural Etsuzan High School. A former baseball player in college who had to retire due to injury, he worked as a sports trainer before turning to his “other dream” of becoming a teacher at 32. When he is made advisor for the high school’s weak and disbanding baseball team, his life begins to come full circle, and strives to produce a miraculous turnaround for the team in this uplifting tale of love and baseball.

Kokoro Kurosawa is a musclebound judo athlete who upon graduation from university joins a major publishing company and is assigned to the editing desk of a weekly comic magazine called “Vibes”, full or very unique individuals and oddly-named senior editor, Iokibe. She becomes enthralled with the world of comic publishing with all of its meetings with serial cartoon writers, discovery of new talent, negotiating of issue volume, and working to secure second print runs. Despite her enthusiasm, Kokoro comes face to face with the hard realities of publishing as more content goes digital, and the days of the printed page appear numbered. If a comic book series doesn’t catch fire by its 3rd volume, it is doomed. Hoping to resuscitate fading “manga” artists on the cusp of oblivion, Kokoro and her colleagues strike upon a unique plan to produce a big hit, but must contend with their marquee writer being headhunted by a rival magazine, and the constant threat of discontinued publication. It’s one crisis after another for this plucky editing team.

A TBS 60th anniversary commemorative project, “The Emperor’s Cook” depicts the life of Tokuzo Akiyama, head chef of the Imperial Household Ministry’s Imperial Cuisine Division during the Taisho (1912-1926) and early Showa (1926-1989) eras. Based on a true story and book by Hisahide Sugimori “The Emperor’s Cook” follows the life of country boy, Akiyama, who arrives in Tokyo in pursuit of the culinary arts. Driven by a deep love for his wife and family, a great reverence for his teachers, strong reliance on friends and an abiding love for cooking, Akiyama eventually rises to become “the Emperor’s cook”. Producer Akihito Ishimaru, director Yuichiro Hirakawa and teleplay writer Yoshiko Morishita form the core of an elite production staff responsible for such seminal works as JIN (’09), Crying Out Love in the Center of the World (’04), Into the White Night (’06) and Tonbi (’12), spinning this grand romance and quintessential human drama full of laughter and tears, struggle and triumph.

Yugo Hachiken flees from the high expectations and stress of an elite cosmopolitan education into the vast and fertile fields of Hokkaido's Obihiro highlands, enrolling himself in an agricultural high school because it offers him dormitory life and a hopeful "escape." But flanked by peers who all seem to harbor clear goals and dreams of the future, Yugo finds the harsh, hands-on reality of working a dairy farm to be no picnic. It is the perfect place for a discouraged and aimless youth to embark on a journey of self-discovery through toil, friendship and young romance.