Asian Drama

This is the true story of Ryoma Sakamoto, considered to be the architect behind the downfall of the Tokugawa shogunate. He was considered an outlaw by his own clan, hunted by his government, and was despised by supporters of the Shogun as well as the Loyalists for desiring the opening of Japan to the West in order to learn its technology, in the hopes of one day defeating the West with a modern army and navy.

The 41st NHK Taiga Drama is Toshiie to Matsu. During the turbulent Warring States Era, one man's life and career intertwined with the three great generals of Japanese history-Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and Ieyasu. With political savvy and the support of his fiercely loyal wife, Maeda Toshiie rose to second in power in the shogunate and built up a fiefdom that encompassed Echizen, Noto and Kaga.

The villagers in a beautiful remote area of Japan are divided into the woodsmen, who worship the mountain goddess, and the fishermen, who worship the goddess of the sea. These traditions are threatened by a planned marine park. Tatsuo is a macho lumberjack who hunts boars and monkeys with the young Ryota. Tatsuo is married with two children, has four elder sisters, and is under pressure to sell the family land to the developers. When the fish pens are deliberately contaminated by oil, the fishermen suspect Tatsuo. Kimiko, an old girlfriend of Tatsuo, returns to the village to find money to pay off her debts. During the annual fire festival, Tatsuo becomes angry when the old traditions are not preserved.

Set in the fictional mountain town of Matsugane, the film opens with what appears to be the dead body of a woman lying on an icy, snow-covered road. The only passerby is a young pre-teen who, rather than calling for help, stops to feel her breasts and undergarments. Some may find that funny, some not. When Miyuki, the female victim, turns out to be alive while being examined in the morgue, we discover that she was the victim of a hit and run accident and that the driver, Hikari, was the simple-minded twin brother of Kotaro Suzuki, one of the town's two police officers. Uncooperative with the police, Miyuki cannot explain the presence of an ice pick wound in her hand but the police are unable to charge her with any wrongdoing. When she is released, she returns to the company of her gangster boyfriend Nishioka, and they proceed to make life miserable for Hikari, beating him and blackmailing him with nude photos so that he will not tell the police of their criminal activity which involves a stash of stolen gold buried under the ice. Based on a novel by one of Japan's greatest writers, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, Nobuhiro Yamashita's The Matsugane Potshot Affair is definitely of the black variety and contains a decapitated head, kinky sex between unequal partners, family members shouting at one another, blackmail, rat poison, and other oddities that may make you simply shrug and say, “alrighty then”. Unlike the novel which merely indicted the ineptitude of twin brothers, “Matsugane Potshot” convicts an entire town of gross stupidity.

Set during the Bakumatsu (final years of the Edo period). Banshiro Sakai (Koji Seto) is a lower-class samurai. Leaving his family behind, he works at the lord’s castle. He consoles and solves worries of the people by making food from recipes sent from his wife.

Due to family circumstances, high school student Miko Sonoda is forced to live at her uncle's boarding house. However, before she can arrive there, Miko is already met with a bad omen: while trying to find the place, she suspects that someone is following her! When her uncle comes to her rescue, the assumed stalker happens to be one of his tenants, leaving Miko embarrassed on her first day.

Miko learns that she will be living with five unique adults, including the accused man. Additionally, it turns out that he is Jun Matsunaga, a 29-year-old designer who seems to lose his temper easily. Having made such a humiliating first impression, Miko believes that only a miserable life awaits her. But in the presence of Jun, she comes to realize that living with adults is not so difficult after all—and there may even be enough room for romance.

(Source: MyAnimeList)

Adapted from the manga series "Living no Matsunaga-san" (リビングの松永さん) by Iwashita Keiko (岩下慶子).

Episodes: 10

Duration: 30 min.

Aired On: Tuesday

In 10 days, the world will be destroyed by a meteor. To spend his remaining time as comfortably as possible, bad-luck magnet Masumi decides to visit the library of his alma mater and read as much as he wants until the end comes. But in this hellish world, he meets a devil there: the one man from his past that he never wanted to see again, Ritsu. And if things weren't bad enough, Ritsu has a favor to ask, a favor that Masumi could never have expected—Marukido Maki weaves an eccentric tale of human connection in a world on the brink of destruction in this emotional journey that will take its readers on a wild ride.

Adapted from the manga "Bokura no Micro na Shuumatsu" (僕らのミクロな終末) by Marukido Maki (丸木戸マキ).

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Episodes: 5

Duration: 20 min.

Aired On: Tuesday, Friday

In commemoration of the 30th anniversary of WOWOW, Matsuo Suzuki, the artistic director of Bunkamura Theatre Cocoon and the leader of Otona Keikaku in Tokyo, will write, direct, and perform in an original omnibus comedy drama. Each episode is 30 minutes long and is performed with an actress (Yoshida Yo, Kuroki Haru, Aso Kumiko, and Tabe Mikako).

"Ooku" is the story of the picturesque lives of the women living in the hidden, maze-like inner structure of Edo Castle. Inside, the women wielded their beauty and knowledge: some of them to win the Shogun's love, obtain political power, or to climb the ladder of the Ooku hierarchy. Their lives were filled with romance, hatred, anger, envy, tears, and persecution. Of the three-century history of the Tokugawa Ooku, this drama focuses on the last several years. It tells the story of the collapse of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the Ooku, and also the lives of the women who lived through these times.

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A trilogy that commemorates NHK's 90th annyversary.