Since losing his beloved wife 10 years ago, Keisuke vows to never remarry. He wants happiness for his only daughter, Mai, but struggles to make a good living and their communication suffers. That is until the appearance before them of a mysterious young girl carrying a schoolbag who claims to be Keisuke’s wife. Reincarnation? An offbeat family life ensues comprised of devoted husband Keisuke, his former wife (now a grade schooler) and a daughter who won’t grow up.

Kota Kitami, a brilliant young ER doctor, has been handpicked by Mayor Azusa Akatsuka to head a new emergency response team dubbed TOKYO Mobile Emergency Room, or MER, outfitted with leading-edge medical technology and a large mobile operating theatre to respond to major accidents, natural disasters, and other emergencies. Their mission is simple: Save every life. Team member Nao Otowa, sent by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare on a secret mission, ends up forming a close professional bond with Kota, and together the two men put their lives on the line every day to rescue others. But perhaps there’s more to Kota’s superhuman bravery and self-sacrifice than meets the eye...

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”?

Mikuri is a young woman with a graduate degree. But when no offers of employment come her way, she’s forced into taking on temp work and confronting “the painful realization that nobody needs her.” That’s when Mikuri lands a job as a professional homemaker for a strait-laced bachelor named Hiramasa. Mikuri’s perfectionist work ethic wins over Hiramasa’s complete trust, but unfortunate circumstances result in the loss of this job, too. Feeling anxious about the future, Mikuri makes Hiramasa a strange offer. “Would you consider employing me through marriage?” He agrees, and a nuptial agreement is signed, making the two legally betrothed in a somewhat falsified life as husband/employer and wife/employee.
Can the couple function in a strictly professional relationship like this without the truth becoming known? Is there any chance of a chemical reaction between a pure company man and a dreamer woman thrown together for mere convenience?

The setting is the opulent “Hibarigaoka” hilltop district coveted by anyone with dreams of wealth. The story revolves around three families: the Endos, the Takahashis and the Kojimas. Mayumi Endo has scrimped and saved to at last build a small house in the district, fulfilling a long-cherished dream. But reality proved much different. The Takahashis across the street seem to Mayumi a model family leading a blessed and happy existence. That is until the same type of trouble that the Endos are experiencing with a violently rebellious daughter, occurs tragically at the Takahashis, destroying Mayumi’s picture of an ideal home. The husband, Hiroyuki, is murdered, and the second son, Shinji, goes missing, making him the prime suspect in the eyes of the police, the Endos, the Kojimas and among the remaining children at the Takahashi home. But in a moving climax, “a painfully beautiful ode to familial love” awaits!

Full-time homemaker, Serina, is madly in love with her elite securities manager husband, Takefumi. But ever since they got married two years ago as two incurably infatuated lovers, her husband has changed. He has begun to find her unmitigated affection towards him to be “over the top” and “irksome.” As a result, he has begun to avoid her. Then one evening returning from a dinner party, Serina finds herself caught up in a little incident where she encounters a private detective named Haruki. She ends up taking a job working at his office. Though somewhat clumsy and wielding no particular talent to speak of, Serina gradually realizes that she was made for detective work. And in the process of striving for the affection of the husband she loves, she too finds herself changing and growing into a beautifully strong and independent woman.

Keisuke Kisaragi’s career as a pianist is abruptly cut short when he jumps in front of a bullet fired by a crazed gunman to save the life of a young girl named Chiori. The tragic incident takes the lives of Chiori’s parents, and Chiori is left traumatized and mute from the experience. Keisuke becomes her guardian and soon discovers that Chiori has a musical gift. Keisuke begins to live vicariously through Chiori as the two travel the countryside providing piano concerts for residents of nursing homes.
At the invitation of a social worker named Mariko, they travel to a beautiful island to perform. All seems well when a sudden electric storm occurs, and Mariko saves Chiori from falling debris. Mariko is seriously injured, but Chiori miraculously awakens unharmed and able to speak with the clarity and composure of a full-grown woman. She decides to only reveal her new identity to Keisuke; and for the next four days, as Mariko’s life flickers, Chiori, Keisuke and others experience a miracle that brings salvation to them all.

At 55, Kan-ichi Kanzaki is the old-fashioned and overbearing father of the Kanzaki family: his wife Miyako, his son Tadashi, and his two daughters Sayuri and Suzu. Being an “oyaji,” a stubborn middle-aged man that cannot keep his opinion to himself, Kan-ichi is particularly bothered when he views what he believes to be a failure in the public’s morals. But unlike the occasional stranger, his kids have to live under his scrutiny every day, and there are plenty of family crises to draw his ire. Although he can be strict, his actions are driven by his love for his family, and one can’t help but be touched and amused by the loving efforts of such an “oyaji.”

When an eager young man gets an elementary school teaching position as his first job, he finds a school staff and student body stricken with apathy. He vows to find a way to invigorate his students and co-workers, but his tendency to burn a straight path toward his goals, while failing to consider any obstacles in his way, may be his biggest fault. Or it may turn out to be his greatest asset.

Mayako, a married woman, finds her life of comfort and casual affairs thrown into disarray when she unexpectedly falls in love with a younger man. Here is a modern fable of the moral dilemmas facing today’s women, in a time where the expectations of love, marriage, and divorce from earlier generations no longer seem true.

This heart-wrenching drama brings together a bill collector, whose past as a promising young boxer was ended by a false charge, and a gambler, whose future as a brilliant intern was smashed when his jealousy drove his girlfriend to suicide. Forced from the world of their dreams, they now struggle to forge a new path of survival.