Asian Drama

An unpopular idol, Kurobara Junko, pretends to be innocent, but in reality, she is an absurd girl who is jealous of her rival. She volunteers to work as traffic safety and security awareness in a parade to increase her popularity, but ends up discovering a murder scene and being accused of being a serial murderer who called himself a "justice". She then works with police detective Todo Shusaku to solve the murder and clear her name.

Himekawa Reiko became an assistant inspector with the Tenth Homicide Section at the young age of 27 even though she was not on the career track. As the only female section chief in the First Investigative Division, she leads Team Himekawa, armed with her intuition, dramatic ideas and energy, and has solved many challenging cases. Her older subordinate Kikuta Kazuo , a sergeant, is initially skeptical of her when he is transferred to the team. However, he gradually comes to realise her competence and charm, and special feelings begin to grow. Reiko’s nemesis is Katsumata Kensaku , an assistant inspector with the Fifth Homicide Section. Although he boasts an overwhelming lead in the number of arrests, his illegal investigation methods have also drawn suspicion.

Rekihiko Tokiya is an excellent detective in Kyoto. While chasing a suspect, Rekihiko Tokiya falls into a water storage pool at an abandoned factory. He wakes up in a hospital room, stunned that he cannot remember anything from the last 20 years. Although he is 51 years old, he cannot recall anything past the age of 31 when he first started working as a detective. He is a divorcee, but he does not remember his ex-wife. His personality also changes, once confident but now meek and timid. His sense of justice is still strong. Rekihiko Tokiya resumes work as a detective, but he deals with cases differently than in the past.

Endo Kenichi is rumoured to have announced his retirement from acting. Staff head somewhere to uncover the truth, only to see a shocking sight. Endo has concealed his identity and been working at little-known as well as famous hot springs in various regions across the country as a male attendant. He pokes his nose into the affairs of the imperfect beauties he encounters there and runs around trying to solve their problems. However, he loses his heart to them and gets involved in trivial incidents. Why on earth is he doing this?

Teenage girls Azami and Rie are leading a lifestyle full of delinquent behavior. One night, when they find a good hiding spot after being chased by mobs, Rie points out Tsukumodo, a place where they serve free food. There, they meet other people from various backgrounds with all kinds of personal problems, and the owner, a 52-year-old woman named Tsukumo Sakura. They discover that Tsukumodo, a secondhand bookstore which stands alone in Tokyo's Ota district, is a shop where people of all generations can enjoy manga, but also find comfort. At the back of the bookstore is a room called Tamariba, where people with nowhere to go gather and eat the delicious oyakodon Sakura cooks for them. She serves them for free without prying into their backgrounds or circumstances. Her meals fill stomachs and also seems to warm hearts. With their hunger satisfied, the people “with nowhere to go” slowly start to talk to Sakura about themselves and she listens to them. Sometimes she encourages them with a smile. At other times, she cries with them. She loves to say, “It’s all right to cry when you want to. The teardrops that fall will simply burst into flowers of happiness.” Meanwhile, Sakura herself has to face a tragic past. An incident 16 years ago spurred her to make oyakodon for free. When Azami and Rie visit Tsukumodo and Sakura decides to cook them a meal, time starts to rewind.

Based on the same-titled novel, the drama is set in the year 1964, the year the Olympics were held in Tokyo. A nation trying to rebuild its economy post world war II, Japan was eager to show the world what it had to offer. Amidst all the excitement and enthusiasm, two fires had broken out consecutively; at the private residence of the Chief of Police, Suga Shuichiro, and then at the Nakano Police Academy. However, both incidents were hushed up, and even Detective Ochiai Masao, from Division One MPD (Metropolitan Police Department) had to find out about it from his fellow colleague. Ochiai was puzzled as to why no investigations were being carried out and it soon came to light that prior to the first fire at the Chief's home, a threatening letter had been sent to the MPD. In view of the upcoming Olympics, everyone at the MPD were feeling jittery over the letter and the arson, and thus a team was set up to ensure the safety of the public during the event. Ochiai and his team mates were to carry out the investigation secretly. Information came to Ochiai, that some 25 tubes of dynamite were stolen from a gunpowder factory. While questioning the owner, Ochiai was introduced to Shimazaki Kunio, a poor student from Akita prefecture, attending Tokyo University and working part-time there. Suspecting him of the crime, Ochiai started digging around into Shimazaki's life and was surprised to find out that his own sister, Yumi, was actually dating Shimazaki!

The drama is based on the same-titled manga which showcases a very unorthodox hero that uses every dirty little trick to resolve the open cases. Kurokouchi Keita is the black sheep of the police force. He works alone, and doesn't think twice about extorting money from the dirty politicians by getting hold of their achilles heels. Using the money and whatever bits of information acquired through underhanded means, he gets closer and closer to the ultimate unresolved crime of the Showa era; the 300 million bank heist. One day, the new rookie Seike Mayo, is assigned as Kurokouchi's partner. Excellent, but naive, she is the exact opposite of Kurokouchi, but nonetheless, the duo combi relentlessly chase down the criminals.

The drama is based on the same-titled manga which showcases a very unorthodox hero that uses every dirty little trick to resolve the open cases. Kurokouchi Keita is the black sheep of the police force. He works alone, and doesn't think twice about extorting money from the dirty politicians by getting hold of their achilles heels. Using the money and whatever bits of information acquired through underhanded means, he gets closer and closer to the ultimate unresolved crime of the Showa era; the 300 million bank heist.One day, the new rookie Seike Mayo, is assigned as Kurokouchi's partner. Excellent, but naive, she is the exact opposite of Kurokouchi, but nonetheless, the duo combi relentlessly chase down the criminals. --TBS

Hanzawa Naoki works for Tokyo Chuo Bank as the head of the Loans Division at their Osaka Nishi branch. The overbearing branch manager, Asano, forces him to award an unsecured loan of 500 million yen to Nishi Osaka Steel. On the surface, Nishi Osaka Steel seems like a very reputable company, but in actual fact it is a company in deep trouble. Debt-ridden, the company accountants resort to window-dressing the financial statements in order to hide the truth from the public. Three months after the loan, Nishi Osaka Steel goes bankrupt and the ambitious and power-hungry Asano makes Hanzawa the scapegoat for the 500 million loss. Hanzawa is called to Tokyo to answer to the internal investigations team, where he vehemently denies responsibility for the loss, and swears to recover the 500 million yen. That is the only course of action for Hanzawa, if he wants to survive in the banking industry.

“A completely undetectable poison that kills 24 hours after consumed.” It is the rumour that has spread on the internet of a lethal drug that makes the perfect crime possible. It has even become a topic at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s Special Crimes Unit which Sasamoto Naomi has been transferred to. The background of Professor Matsui Toichi who invented this poison at an East European university is obscure. What is known of him is a fuzzy picture on the internet and the digits inscribed on the back of his hand. Matsui has disappeared but starts to appear before people who are trapped by their problems and hands them the poison. “You are free to use it as you will,” he would tell them. Meanwhile, magazine journalist Akimoto Shunji who is engaged to Koide Reika, the daughter of the president of his company, learns of this poison too. He has a problem. It is the existence of Otsu Mayumi, a former high school classmate with whom he has been carrying on a relationship for half a year. She poses an obstacle to his marriage to Reika. And so, he attempts to broach a breakup with her, but is told that she is two months pregnant. On the way home, a troubled Akimoto is hailed by Matsui who passes him a small bottle with the poison. Later, Akimoto is invited to a meal at a posh restaurant by Reika’s father and forced to vow marriage to Reika. He puts a drop of the poison in Mayumi’s cup in order to protect his bright future even as he struggles with himself. Mayumi unsuspectingly brings that cup to her lips... On the morning two days after the incident, her dead body is found at an unexpected place.

Adapted from 1981 novel "Doku" by Akagawa Jirō.

Episodes: 13

Duration: 40 min.

Aired On: Thursday

Ratings: 7.0

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.