Asian Drama

The 63rd work of NHK Taiga Drama depicts the life of Murasaki Shikibu, a Japanese female poet who wrote "Tale of Hikaru Genji". This story is set in the mid-Heian period.

(Source: nhk.or.jp)

Episodes: 40

Honda Mami is 36-years-old and single. 10 years ago, she published an essay that became a big hit. She has since become a famous writer. She writes about the value of happiness in the lives of women. Her most recent published books have not been successful. Nevertheless, Honda Mami is still comfortable with her life. She is dating a younger man. People around her worry about her still being single.

In 1995, Takakura Soichiro is a scientist who works on developing a robot. He is also on the verge of completing a plasma battery, following on the wishes of the deceased Matsushita. Matsushita was a friend of Takakura's late father and raise Takakura as his son.

Outside of work, Soichiro Takakura has peaceful days with his cat Pete, his girlfriend, Shiraishi san, and Riko the daughter of Matsushita. He is soon betrayed by his business partner and by his girlfriend, Takakura loses control of his company and the work he has done on the robot and plasma battery.

Takakura then opts to place himself into a "cold sleep" freezing machine, hoping to find a better future. When he wakes up, he discovers that he is in the year 2025.

Adapted from the novel "The Door into Summer" by Robert A. Heinlein.

Follows an aspiring manga artist named Keigo Yamashiro who dreams of making it big. Yamashiro is extremely talented, but what holds him back is his inability to create any villains due to his overtly cheerful personality. Due to this he is currently stuck in the position of being an assistant to a manga writer.

One day Yamashiro receives an assignment from his boss to visit a home and sketch the family living there. When Yamashiro arrives at the house he finds all four family members dead, and a mysterious man. Startled by the incident, the unknown man makes his escape and Yamashiro calls the cops.

When questioned by police Yamashiro lies and says that he did not see the murderer, he does however use the murderer as a villain for his own manga titled “34”. The manga series becomes a surprise hit and Yamashiro quickly becomes a top star in the manga world. However, murders extremely similar to incidents in the “34” manga begin to happen in real life, and Yamashiro is soon confronted by the mysterious murderer.

In the past, a devil’s splinters were scattered across space. Today, the splinters is still causing chaos throughout the universe. While the Ultra Heroes fight to restore peace to the galaxy, a mysterious being uses these items in its despicable schemes to destroy planets one by one.

And now, that evil being approaches the “Land of Light.”

In its way stands the gallant Ultraman Zero and his disciple, Ultraman Zett. At the end of a fierce battle, Zett chases a monster alone, making his way towards Earth…

Meanwhile on Earth, a defense force to combat routine monster appearances, the anti-monster robot force STORAGE, is formed and joined by the hot-blooded youth Haruki Natsukawa. When a monster from space invades Earth, Zett and Haruki have their fateful encounter. Here begins the passionate story of our two young heroes’ battles!

Story depicts the life and love of Yayoi Yuki (Haru) and Taro Yamada (Ryo Narita) over a 30 year period.

As high school students, Yayoi Yuki and Taro Yamada deal with their friend Sakura Watanabe (Hana Sugisaki) passing away from an illness. Yayoi Yuki and Taro Yamada have feelings for each other, but they hide those feelings and live different lives.While they live their own lives, they go through meaningful events like marriage, having children, divorce, and losing a family member in a disaster. Throughout all of this, Yayoi Yuki and Taro Yamada are always there for each other.

Nanase Sakura is a 23-year-old rookie nurse. She met Doctor Kairi Tendo several years ago and fell in love with him. To meet him again, she studied hard and became a nurse. After 5 years, she finally meets Kairi Tendo again, but he has a totally different personality than what she imagined. Kairi Tendo, who is 31-years-old, is commonly referred to as the "Devil" at work. He is a level-headed perfectionist and often makes biting remarks to doctors and nurses. Nanase Sakura works hard to receive recognition from Kairi Tendo and she also expresses her feelings honestly to him. Due to her persistence, Nanase Sakura becomes well known at the hospital and she picks up the nickname of the "Warrior." Meanwhile, Kairi Tendo becomes attracted to Nanase Sakura.

Sawamura Masahiko is a reporter with a local newspaper, Shin Kanagawa Nippo. One day, he gets an scoop on a hit-and-run case. Morimoto Atsukoa, the grieving wife of the man who died, is reportedly the culprit. Masahiko is excited by this scoop which is the first he has had in a long while. However, it is false information planted by his colleague Kirino Hiroshi. Masahiko’s university schoolmate Mitazono, who is now the chief editor of an online news website, points this out. Masahiko pursues Kirino who has disappeared. Meanwhile, Oga Masakazu, a former journalist of a national newspaper and a old friend of Masahiko’s father Ippei, visits Masahiko. Oga has started investigating whether the suicide of a former colleague Kakiuchi Tomonari was due to an incorrect story that Kakiuchi published 15 years ago.

Season 2 of this drama starts off with Machi being married to Dai Yashiro, while Kenji Rusudo is a rival real estate agent.

This drama is a pure love story that depicts the miracle of love over 10 years. Kitazawa Nao (Toda Erika), a 34 year old doctor with juvenile alzheimer's, falls in love with Mamiya Shinji (Muro Tsuyoshi), a 41 year old novelist who works part time with a moving company one month before her marriage to Ihara Yuichi (Matsuoka Masahiro). Shinji keeps her bright and healthy, but Kitazawa's illness has her fearing she will one day forget.

Nami is a 40-year-old housewife. She meets her high school friend Serika for the first time in many years, but Serika now has terminal cancer. Serika tells Nami that she wants to meet her old friends from the "Sunny" club before she dies. Nami attempts to round up their friends for a reunion.

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

25-year-old Moriyama Mikuri graduated but had no job offers. She became a temporary employee but was even laid off. So while she is taking a break right now, Mikuri feels unwanted and displaced. She starts work as a housekeeper for bachelor Tsuzaki Hiramasa by chance. One day, he proposes a contract marriage to her. The two of them get married in secret, but will their married life work out?

Mikuri Moriyama (Yui Aragaki) is 25 years old. She doesn't have a boyfriend and doesn't have a job even though she holds a graduate degree. Everyday, Mikuri Moriyama has a feeling that she is not needed. Her father, unable to see her suffering anymore, arranges for her to work as a housekeeper. Her employer is 36 year old Hiramasa Tsuzaki. He is single and works for a company. A series of events leads them to marry as a working condition.

55-year-old Kanji Washida (Koichi Sato) has worked as an attorney for the past 25 years in Hokkaido, Japan. He has lived alone all that time. That was his punishment that he gave to himself 25 years ago when he worked as judge.

When Kanji Washida worked as a judge in Tokyo, Saeko (Machiko Ono) appeared as a defendant in a drug possession case. She was his girlfriend when Kanji Washida was a student. After, Kanji passed his bar, Saeko suddenly disappeared. 10 years later, Kanji and Saeko meet again in his courtroom. Even though Kanji was a married father at the time, he began a relationship with Saeko again. A few months after their relationship resumed, Saeko is gone. Kanji wondered to himself why she left him again, but he also realized his sinned. Because of this, Kanji threw away his job as a judge and also left his family. He settled down in Hokkaido, Japan. He has since lived a lonely existence.

Now, defendant Atsuko (Tsubasa Honda) appears in front of Kanji. She reminds him heavily of Saeko. Atsuko begins to have feelings for Kanji.

In the late 1930's (Show Period 14), two sides in Japan are conflicted between joining Germany and Italy in a military alliance. At this time, Isoroku Yamamoto, who strongly opposed the alliance, is appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Combined Fleet. The following year, on September 27, Japan, Germany and Italy form the Axis alliance.

Isoroku Yamamoto leads the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The attack's main purpose is to gain an early peace settlement. The surprise military strike appeared successful and caused massive damage, but US aircraft carriers were not damaged in the assault. After the attack, the Axis alliance initially saw advances without any defeats.

By April 18, 1942 (Show Period 17), formations of U.S. B-25B bombers, flown from an U.S. aircraft carrier, attacked the Japanese mainland for the first time. The Japanese military responded by carrying out their Midway operation, but the mission failed, and the Japanese military lost 4 aircraft carriers.

The U.S. army were encouraged by their victory at Midway and proceeded to carry out a landing operation on Guadalcanal. The Japanese and U.S. military fought fiercely. Besides the toll from fighting the U.S. military, the Japanese military suffered from starvation, dehydration and diseases while on Guadalcanal. The Japanese military were nearing collapse on Guadalcanal before Isoroku Yamamoto gave the order to withdraw to save more lives.

After the completion of the withdrawal from Guadalcanal, Isoroku Yamamoto flew on an airplane to make moral boosting visits to soldiers on the front line. His plane would be intercepted by the U.S. military.

Inspector Sugishita Ukyo, head of the Special Missions Division, returns from London and goes home in the sports car of Assistant Inspector Kanbe Takeru, who has come to meet him at Narita Airport even though Ukyo did not ask him to. However, on the way home, Ukyo notices police officers from the Metropolitan Police Department conducting a crackdown outside the agency’s jurisdiction in Chiba Prefecture and gets suspicious. The police officers that Ukyo had seen were riding motorcycles. He lies in wait in a street with a dead end, but the motorcycle police have vanished into thin air. Ukyo is mystified and begins a thorough investigation. The Head of the National Police Agency’s Secretariat, Onoda Koken, appears before Ukyo, who has a bad feeling about what is going on. He tells Ukyo that Honda Atsuto, a revolutionist and senior leader of the leftist radicals “Red Canary”, has secretly returned to Japan.

Ooka Echizen is the commissioner of the two-acre Minami-machi Magistrate’s Office, located in Edo Castle. He keeps order within the town.

Ooka Echizen is the commissioner of the two-acre Minami-machi Magistrate’s Office, located in Edo Castle. He keeps order within the town.