Asian Drama

The theme of "season 7" is diversity. The members of the Special Investigation Unit, including the team leader Kunikida Seiji, Asawa Naoki, Komiyama Shiho, Aoyagi Yasushi, Yazawa Hideaki, Shindo Ryo, and Takao Yuma all have strong personalities. However, their ages, careers, personal circumstances, investigative viewpoints, and approaches to their work are all very different. Therefore, clashes occur on a daily basis, but based on the trust they have built up over the years, they are a team that can honestly admit their differences in opinion and work together.

On the other hand, the crimes they face are also becoming more diverse with the times. In the new season, they will depict not only cases that reflect the "current" world, but also various human dramas lurking in the background and the detectives who face them with all their might, in a complete episode format.

(Source: Japanese = TV Asahi)

Duration: 54 min.

Aired On: Wednesday

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Episodes: 12

Duration: 40 min.

Airs On: Saturday

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Miura Takahiro & Abe Shinnosuke to star in new movie "Winny" showing in spring 2020; a film director & his buddy make a movie on the developer of P2P software Winny charged for its involvement in illegal activities before being acquitted.

Hiroshi is a seemingly ordinary young man that works part-time at a gyoza shop, but the reality is he’s actually a fortress for a planet! Each of his movements is produced by someone inside him steering, which is why he goes through life without getting entangled with other humans. Due to an incident, Shizuka begins to have feelings for Hiroshi, and Akemi suddenly becomes captain of the fortress and must handle these new complications while trying to find a new future for her planet.

Adapted from the manga series "Cho Ningen Yosai: Hiroshi Senki" (超人間要塞ヒロシ戦記) written by Oma Kuro (大間九郎) and illustrated by Matsuda Kota (まつだこうた).

The "first penguin" is the courageous first penguin that dives into the sea filled with enemies. Iwasaki Nodoka is a young single mother with no money, no house, and no work. While Nodoka decides that she will do anything to eat, she meets a fisherman who offers her "10,000 yen to rebuild the coast". Thus, Nodoka now carries the dreams of the local fishermen whose lives are on her shoulders. Despite her limited knowledge of the fishing industry, Nodoka does her best working with the stubborn sea men, breaks through the old common sense and customs with her boldness, and creates a revolution in the industry.

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Matsuda Anna is a dedicated journalist who doggedly pursues the truth about a government corruption scandal even as powerful enemies seek to neutralize her reporting.

New season.

The novelist Shiraishi Kiyoshi (Yasuda Ken) receives a letter from a mother who has a son with a stuttering problem. She asks Shiraishi in the letter if he would encourage her son to not be daunted by his stuttering. Shiraishi thinks about his own childhood and decides to talk to his editor Nomura (Fuma Kikuchi) about writing his personal story. Muroi (Fukikoshi Mitsuru), an editor who is Shiraishi’s senior, picks up on his intentions. Shiraishi has had a stuttering problem since his youth, particularly the “ka” and “ta” columns of syllables and even stumbled over his own name. He transferred schools a number of times due to his father Kenichi’s (Mashima Hidekazu) work and was laughed at by classmates each time he introduced himself. The strain of transferring schools got to him in the first grade of elementary school. Even when Shiraishi was asked by his mother Yoko (Kanjiya Shihori) what present he would like for Christmas, he could not pronounce the name of the game he wanted because it started with the letter “gi”. Unable to convey his feelings to friends and family in words, Shiraishi wished for friends who could talk about anything. He mistook the hymn Kiyoshi Kono Yoru, better known as Silent Night in English, as Kiyoshiko no Yoru and the imaginary Kiyoshiko was his ideal friend. However, in reality, his Christmas became a day of miserable memories. He eventually wrote about the frustrations that he suffered in Kiyoshiko. Besides the title Kiyoshiko, Shiraishi also wrote about his exchanges with the lonely Occhan (Chihara Seiji) in Donguri no Kokoro, and about his decision to leave both his family and the university student (Fukuchi Momoko) who liked him, for further studies in Tokyo and his departure for the metropolis in Tokyo. Even though he still stutters as an adult, he has a pleasant life with his wife Saori (Nishida Naomi).

In August, 1918, Matsuura Ito lives in a coastal village of Toyama with her husband and three children. During the summer, there wasn't much fish to catch, so her husband has been far away from home to catch fish. To support herself and her children, Ito carries goods from ships like the other women in the village. Meanwhile, the residents encounter rising prices for rice. The women are unable to feed their family due to the high prices of rice. The women ask a nearby rice store to sell rice at lower prices, but it fails. The price of rice continues to rise daily. Due to an incident, Ito and the other village women step up to the plate.

Ichiko works as a home health nurse. She visits a family where she has become almost a part of their family. Ichiko helps Motoko from that family study to become a nurse. Ichiko is the only person to whom Motoko opens her mind to. One day, Motoko’s younger sister Saki goes missing. One week later, Saki returns home safely, but the person who is arrested for Saki's kidnapping is an unexpected figure.

The Ryusoulgers end up in the Mesozoic Era where they learn the truth of their ancestors' warlike nature as they are forced to fight them and Gaisorg to save the future.

The story revolves around the daily life of Sana Morikawa, a 30-year-old single woman who works in the finance department of a soap maker.

Kaei is a successor to the prestigious Karasuma family. Upon finishing his studies in the UK, he returns to Japan only to be surprised by his strange new butler, Soma Kisaragi. With the help of his trusty butler, he protects his family from a dangerous conspiracy!

When Hikari Morimura was 11-years-old, she dreamed of becoming a musical actress. She was close with a musical actress, but the actress was murdered. Her older brother Kunihiko was dating the actress and he was arrested for her murder. Hikari Morimura left her hometown and changed her family name from Morimura to her mother's maiden name of Kitazono.

Hikari is now 26-years-old. She still dreams of becoming a musical actress, but her life is tough. She works at a bar and also takes care of her mother. She hears that her older brother Kunihiko has been released from prison. She wants to say goodbye to her brother for the last time as he ruined her life. When Hikari meets her brother, he tells her "I am innocent" and disappears.

(Source: AsianWiki)

Episodes: 8

When Hikari Morimura was 11-years-old, she dreamed of becoming a musical actress. She was close with a musical actress, but the actress was murdered. Her older brother Kunihiko was dating the actress and he was arrested for her murder. Hikari Morimura left her hometown and changed her family name from Morimura to her mother's maiden name of Kitazono.

Hikari is now 26-years-old. She still dreams of becoming a musical actress, but her life is tough. She works at a bar and also takes care of her mother. She hears that her older brother Kunihiko has been released from prison. She wants to say goodbye to her brother for the last time as he ruined her life. When Hikari meets her brother, he tells her "I am innocent" and disappears.

(Source: AsianWiki)

Episodes: 8

A story-a-week episodic medical mystery that treats the theme of reality changing when faced with imminent death. Mystery and exhilarating human drama unfold against the backdrop of the “unnatural death institute”, or “UDI”. For example, the body of a young man is brought into the UDI lab one day; his cause of death attributed to ischemic heart disease in which blood fails to be conveyed to the heart. But the victim’s parents are puzzled by the freak nature of their son’s death and turn to medical coroner Mikoto, to find out why. Together with her lab technician partner, Yuko Shoji, and rookie medical recorder, Rokuro, they examine the body for a possible drug poisoning and then learn that another female colleague of the deceased man has just died suddenly.

Sasaki Sachiko works as a literary magazine editor. She is well respected by her colleagues due to her perfectionist ways. On Sachiko'd wedding day, her boyfriend Shungo disappears. Sachiko is dumbfounded by her boyfriend's disappearance.

The next day, Sachiko goes to work, but she can't stop thinking about Shungo. She realizes she is more traumatized than she thought. Sachiko decides to go to a restaurant. When her meal comes out, she forgets all about Shungo. Her experience makes her become a connoisseur of gourmet meals.

Akatsuka Detective Agency stands inconspicuously at Shimo Akatsuka in Tokyo’s Itabashi ward, right above a small snack shop run by their landlord. Akatsuka's eccentric chief Kaze Kaoru founded it with her two investigators Goro and Gure in order to take on odd cases that others are reluctant to do anything about. Their motto is "to be compassionate and meddlesome", which leads them to get involved in strange situations with their clients. Sometimes they're motivated by the potential to sell a sensational story to the press, but sometimes they end up working pro bono. They may be rough around the edges and always a little short on rent, but they always find a creative solution by diving into the mystery with their hearts even when they aren't sure if they'll succeed. They're joined by the Ranko, who first comes to them as a client, and other friends they meet along the way.

Manami is targeted by vampires on her 22nd birthday and K, who possesses tremendous power, tries to save her in a raging battle. On that day, young men and women are invited to Hotel Requiem where a huge nationwide matchmaking convention is being held by the mysterious Yamada. He lives and runs this ornately beautiful, palatial hotel with a bizarre empress and Elizabeth Báthory. Then Yamada suddenly declares to the gathered crowd that tomorrow will be the apocalypse and only the people inside this hotel will be saved.

During the Sengoku period, the Ii family governs the Totomi region. Due to many past wars, there are no more male successors left to become a lord. Naotora Ii (Kou Shibasaki), the only daughter of the lord, now becomes a lord. She faces a difficult period. The constant love from her fiance, whom she became engaged with at a young age, helps her to keep moving forward.

Yuri Ishikawa and her team try to crack unresolved cold cases in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan.

The Japanese version of Warner Bros ‘Cold Case'.

Set in Tokyo in 1940, the peaceful life of the Nogami Family suddenly changes when the father, Shigeru, is arrested and accused of being a Communist. His wife Kayo works frantically from morning to night to maintain the household and...

Seibei Iguchi leads a difficult life as a low ranking samurai at the turn of the nineteenth century. A widower with a meager income, Seibei struggles to take care of his two daughters and senile mother. New prospects seem to...

Balsa (Haruka Ayase) is a 30-year-old female bodyguard-for-hire. Her life changes when she saves Imperial Prince Chagumu who is being carried away by a raging river. They then attempt to return the great egg of the water spirit, which is in Prince Chagumu's possession to its source in the sea. Along the way, they are hunted by hired assassins.

Hamazaki Densuke had just landed a job at one of the major construction firm, Suzuki Kensetsu. He is assigned to the Sales Department's 3rd Team, where he reports to Sasaki Kazuo. Densuke is crazy about fishing, and one day, he befriended an old man, Suzuki Ichinosuke, who was just as fanatical about fishing as he is. They exchanged contact numbers, and become fishing buddies. Unbeknownst to Densuke, the old man is actually the President of Suzuki Kensetsu... by TV Tokyo

Fuse Kyoichi (Kamikawa Takaya) is a reporter who belongs to the news bureau of TBN TV. A roving reporter with no specific beat, he makes fullest use of this position and has scored numerous scoops with his distinctive interviews. Fuse obtains evidence linking the suicide of a construction company’s head of department to the illegal donation scandal of Yamanobe Tetsuo (Ono Takehiko), the secretary general of the ruling party, and confronts Yamanobe himself. However, despite having proof that the other media outlets do not have, he ends up handing the evidence over to Mochida Yutaka (Shoji Tomoharu) of Toa Shimbun just because he does not want it on television. This comes to the attention of other outlets. The bureau editor Hatoyama Akio (Fukikoshi Mitsuru) and bureau chief Yui Taro (Otomo Kohei) are naturally outraged. But Fuse is completely indifferent. Then the news bureau gets information that the actress Sawano Reiko (Shibuya Aki) is involved in a traffic accident. Reiko is an actress who attracts the entertainment media and there had also been rumours of her affair with a movie director called Sakaki who is now deceased. Fuse was the one who exposed this grand passion. When he arrives at the hospital, entertainment reporters have already gathered. Shimazaki Rokuro (Aijima Kazuyuki) is also there. Once he finds Reiko’s mother, Kaede (Lily), he aggressively seeks her comments. Fuse stands up for her and gets her into the safety of the hospital. However, Reiko passes away despite surgery. Fuse has no words to offer Kaede who is bereaved by the sudden loss of her daughter. Kaede soon calms down and tells him about a strange message that she received from Reiko right before the accident. It said, “I want to meet Sakaki. I greatly regret our breakup.” Why did Reiko, who has recovered from the shock of Sakaki’s death and been cheerful lately, suddenly express her desire to meet Sakaki. After returning to TBN TV, something occurs to him from his conversation with Kayama Eriko (Natsuna), who has become the new caster of TBN’s News 11. He heads to the bar where Kuroda Yusuke (Matsushige Yutaka), a Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department detective is at, with the intention of trading information regarding Reiko’s accident for information on Yamanobe. However, the television at the bar is shows Shimazaki reporting the contents of the message that Reiko sent to her mother on another network’s news programme. How did Shimazaki obtain a message that only Reiko’s mother and Fuse knew about? A connection between these two seemingly unrelated cases is revealed … …

Housewife Miyazawa Tomomi, her husband out of a job, loses her treasured home as her family is forced to do with less during the recession. Her one ray of sunshine is her upcoming middle school class reunion, where she hopes to meet old friends as well as old flames. The class reunion, however, turns out to be more of turning point not only for her but for the others as well. Just how will these four people's lives change after their class reunion...

A 19th-century samurai tries to protect a battered wife. Seibei Iguchi, a low-ranking samurai, leads a life without glory as a bureaucrat in the mid-XIX century Japan. A widower, he has charge of two daughters (whom he adores) and a senile mother; he must therefore work in the fields and accept piecework to make ends meet. New prospects seem to open up when Tomoe, his long-time love, divorces a brutal husband. However, even as the Japanese feudal system is unraveling, Seibei remains bound by the code of honour of the samurai and by his own sense of social precedences. The consequences are cruel. Written by Eduardo Casais . In the Nineteenth Century, in Unasaka, Province of Yamagata, in the Feudal Japan, the widow samurai Seibei Iguchi works in the warehouse of the local Commissioner during the day and handicraftsman building cages in the night to have an income of 50 koku (meaning "a quantity of rice, historically defined as enough rice to feed one person for one year"wink.gif. Seibei raises alone his two daughters, the five year-old Ito and the ten year-old Kayano and his senile mother in a simple property, and has a debt of 20 koku due to the expensive funeral of his wife, who died of tuberculosis, imposed by her family and can not afford to have another wife. His colleagues in the warehouse pejoratively call him "The Twilight Samurai" to express his life without glory. When Seibei meets Michinojo Iinuma, his childhood friend tells him that his sister Tomoe Iinuma has just divorced from he brutal husband Toyotarou Kouda. Seibei reencounters Tomoe, for whom he has been in love since he was a child, but Tamoe is member of a family of 400 koku and Seibei believes their difference of classes makes their marriage impossible. When Kouda challenges Iinuma to a duel, Seibei accepts to replace his old friend and needs to use his skills of swordsman again.

Nagisa, a high school girl who has been given three months to live. Without telling her widowed father where she is going, she sets out from the city to the small town where she was born. She recalls her childhood memories, and her love for Satoshi begins to grow stronger. However, she is shocked to discover that Satoshi is having an affair with Eriko, a married woman. One day, when Nagisa meets Eriko’s daughter, Madoka, she ends up taking her away…

Tanaka Tamako had been working for a male-dominated restaurant business but was betrayed by her boyfriend who was hired as the chef. In addition, she is taken to the police as a result of an incident she caused because her friend Fujimura Satsuki was subjected to sexual harassment. Tamako resigns from her unreasonable company and starts a bistro selling homemade pot-au-feu on a rooftop in an alley in Jingumae, Tokyo. This is the story of females who are labelled “write-offs” and the restaurant they have established in order for them to get out from life’s abyss. They battle difficulties and search for ways to change their lives as they experience the joys of work. This is a problem restaurant because they are all females with problems, but it is certainly not lousy. The women who have a common enemy – men, and the restaurant unites them in a fight to the death.

Detective Mizunuma Shouzo (Terajima Susumu), his younger sister Rie (Nishida Naomi), who works at a firm of judicial clerks, and Kamijo Masato (Horibe Keisuke), a psychiatrist who runs a mental clinic, are each saddled with enormous debts of 200 million yen for a variety of reasons. These three people join hands and commit fraud to strip money from rich people and pay off their debts.

A lady works at a lingerie shop. Females of various ages visit her small shop, from elementary school students to those in their 40s in this five-part omnibus series. Each stands at a crossroad as a female.

Aoishi Hanae is a plain, inconspicuous office lady who has had no experience in love and no boyfriend. On her 30th birthday, she happens to end up drinking with Tanokura Yuto, a cool university student nine years her junior who is also a part-timer at her company, on the way home from a welcome party for new employees. Hanae gets drunk. When she wakes up the next morning, she finds a naked Yuto sleeping next to her. She has her first experience and first boyfriend out of the blue. Even when Hanae and Yuto go on to date, it is a daily process of trial and error because everything is a first for Hanae, including an amusement park date, a sleepover, Christmas Eve or a couple’s trip. To complicate matters, she also gets a proposal from Asao Yu, the CEO of an Italian food company who is popular with women, and a love triangle develops.

The members (Watase Tsunehiko, Inohara Yoshihiko, Taguchi Hiromasa, Tsuda Kanji, Fukikoshi Mitsuru) of the First Investigative Division’s Ninth Section each have personal problems and troubles as individuals before they are police officers. Although these overly individualistic members may even oppose each other in investigations, what unites them is their strong sense of justice. They appear uncoordinated in their actions, but each of them will channel all energies to the arrests of criminals and grapple with difficult cases.

July 1590, Odawara. Toyotomi Hideyoshi's army had surrounded the Odawara Castle for over three months, hoping to conquer this last obstacle to his dream of the country's unification.

Standing at the gate of the castle, a lone man facing the menacing guards shouted out: "Do not throw your lives away. Treasure living!". Not long after, the castle gates opened and the reigning lord surrendered. The name of that man is Kuroda Kanbee. An excellent military strategist, he worked hand-in-hand with Hideyoshi to unify the country.

Kanbee's family had fled to Harima, and were relatively poor. As the protege of Kodera Masamoto, Kanbee was very much trusted and relied upon by his lord liege. However, Kodera was suspicious of Kanbee's father, Mototaka, thinking that he was trying to usurp his power. One day, Kodera decided to match-make Kanbee with the daughter of Kushihashi, another one of his vassals. Kushihashi's son, who was of the same age as Kanbee, intensely disliked Kanbee and objected to the match. Since this was the order of Kodera, they had no choice but to marry the youngest daughter, Teru, to Kanbee. On Kuroda clan side, in order to assuage their lord liege's suspicions, Mototaka decided to step down, and made Kanbee the head of the clan. Kanbee was but 22 years old. Kanbee and Teru were married, and they were blessed with a son soon after, but when many years had passed and yet Teru couldn't seem to conceive a second child, Kanbee decided to adopt the young children of his vassals as his proteges who became known as "Kuroda's warriors".

When Kanbee turned 30, a revolutionary young lord was slowly laying siege to all the various shogunates, aiming for a unified Japan. Harima became the place where the clash between Oda and Mori Terumoto was set. Kanbee was very attracted to Oda's unification plans, and had gone to Gifu Castle to meet up with him. There, he became acquainted with Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and soon became Hideyoshi's right-hand man, marking the birth of Gunshi Kanbee.

Rookie detective, Sahara Natsuki, is assigned to the Investigation Division of Ginza police station. Here he has an unexpected reunion with his father and veteran detective, Akimura Shimao, whom he has been estranged from since his parents' divorce. They find themselves unwilling partners, butting heads repeatedly. Over time, however, Natsuki learns more about how to be a good detective from his father and possibly how to let go of their past as well.

Amano Aki goes with her mother Haruko to her hometown in Kitasanriku during a summer vacation. There, she meets her maternal grandmother, Natsu, for the first time. Natsu is a woman diver aka "ama", and Aki thinks that is just so cool. Aki is a second-year high-school student, and she struggles to keep up with the fast-paced life in Tokyo. Having been confined indoors most of the time, everything she sees in the rural town is exciting to her. But most of all, seeing her grandmother diving under the fierce surf along the coastline, leaves a huge impact on her. "I think I would like to be a diver too..."

The plot revolves around a young man named Nagashima Kyohei who has felt emotionally detached due to a traumatic incident in his high school days. However, when he takes a job sorting through the personal belongings of the deceased, he's forced to face the concept of life and death. He eventually develops a relationship with a co-worker named Yuki Kubota, which allows him to open up a little more, but he soon discovers she has a dark past of her own.

~~Adapted from the novel by singer and writer Sada Masashi.

A man inadvertently kills his uncle. A woman witnesses this act. These two people fall in love and flee to Tokyo. A detective investigates their past.

Episodes: 8

Duration: 54 min.

Aired On: Sunday

17 year old high school student Rio is always the center of attention due to her beauty. Yet, Rio has never cared about anyone but herself due to her traumatic past. Her friends and boyfriends exist only so she can use them for her gains. Rio is only interested in money.

Then one day she meets 35 year college professor Kouki and falls in love for the first time. Rio feels confused by her emotional change and expresses her love to Kouki honestly. Although Kouki becomes interested in Rio there is a reason he can't pursue the relationship.

Based on the popular cell phone novel of the same name.

The story alternates between the past and present, linked by a fateful song. During World War II, Japanese submarine I-77 battles an American destroyer off the coast of Okinawa. Before heading to war, the captain received a final present from his lover, the score to a song titled Manatsu no Orion. Sixty-four years later, his granddaughter discovers the score and the significance behind the song.

"100 Tales of Horror" is the follow-up to "Onmyoji Abe no Seimei" in the Tuesday night "Super Jidaigeki" time slot. Computer graphics and special effects bring a new face to these stories of horror that have been told for many years.

The story is about a set of twin baby boys who were created/cloned in the laboratory as a part of gene altering/gene therapy experiment. Because of the nature of the project, the twins were born with superior physical strength, supernatural powers and extremely high IQ. Unfortunately, the twins were separated at birth. One of the brothers, Sei, grew up to be an elite bio-chemistry scientist in America. He was assigned to a project where he has to travel to a small island in Japan to investigate an unidentified virus that is spreading on the island. By a freak of nature, he found out that he has a twin brother, Rin, whose evil, dark personality is entirely opposite of him.

What is going to happen when they finally meet face to face? WHat are their true identities? Why were they separated at birth, what other secrets are hidden from them? Does the fast spreading virus has anything to do with the twins? Who created them? And why?

Episodes: 11

Duration: 45 min.

Content Rating: 15+ - Teens 15 or older

Aired On: Friday

Ratings: 7.6

Tokage and his assistant help the First Investigation Division of the Metropolitan Police Department with difficult and unresolved cases. He used to be a normal police detective working at the First Investigation Division, but one day he lost his partner because of a grave mistake. After this incident he quit his job and got hired by a private detective bureau that helps the police with secret undercover investigations.