Asian Drama

Kono Miri is a young lady who moved from Tokyo to Kobe after failing her dream to become pianist. While being depressed about her life, Miri meets Aoki Sora, a man who runs a kitchen car business while suffering from dissociative amnesia, a disorder that causes people to lose their memories.

(Source: DramaWiki)

Episodes: 9

Duration: 54 min.

Aired On: Sunday

Ratings: 7.5

When Ozu’s older sister and her husband suddenly pass away after an accident, 32 year-old Ozu temporarily moves to Fukushima from Tokyo, in order to look after his 12 year-old niece Mei during the summer vacation. He has a modern way of thinking but is lethargic about everything in his daily life. In Fukushima he meets the local residents who have been living positively with the aim of recovering from the Great East Japan Earthquake, as well as the immigrants who have come from outside of the prefecture in order to realize their aspirations.

As he resides alongside his artistic niece, their bond starts to deepen, and through his interactions with Mei and the many residents of Fukushima, he starts to change and grow as a person.

(Source: Drama-Otaku)

Episodes: 10

Gohara Aura, a scout for the Yokohama Bay Golds, is caustic and self righteous but generally regarded as a hotshot. He flies around the country in search of hidden talent to pick the Draft King – the no. 1 among the players chosen for this year’s draft. Kamiki Ryosuke, a former professional player who is now a rookie scout, and the members of the scout division led by the empathetic Shimobe Rikuo engage in a heated discussion with Gohara in their effort to strengthen the team. Gohara’s arch-enemy Busujima Ryuji, a veteran scout for the Osaka White Tigers who would do anything to accomplish his goals, is also fired up to secure talented players and makes a secret move. Can Gohara and his colleagues find a diamond in the rough and pick the Draft King?

Adapted from the manga series "Draft King" (ドラフトキング) by Kuromatsu Tetsuro (クロマツテツロウ).

N/A

Meet Tanaka Maririn, just graduated from college and beginning her life in the workforce… at the bottommost rung. She’s not expected to know much (and she doesn’t) and she’s not expected to last long, but few at first are aware that not only does she have an upbeat attitude, but a sarcastic streak a mile long and a fearlessness to match with it. Sometimes she wears slacks instead of a skirt. She WILL succeed, and she WILL find that handsome man she saw only briefly on her first day of work after her orientation. Don’t even think you can stop her…

Meet Tanaka Maririn, just graduated from college and beginning her life in the workforce… at the bottommost rung. She’s not expected to know much (and she doesn’t) and she’s not expected to last long, but few at first are aware that not only does she have an upbeat attitude, but a sarcastic streak a mile long and a fearlessness to match with it. Sometimes she wears slacks instead of a skirt. She WILL succeed, and she WILL find that handsome man she saw only briefly on her first day of work after her orientation.

Don’t even think you can stop her…

Won the 15th Kodansha Manga Award for general manga in 1991 (tied with Kachou Shima Kousaku).

Kamiya Manaha is a girl with little self-confidence. Her childhood dream was to enter the Miss Seiran Contest, a beauty pageant for high-school students.

Despite seeing herself as an ordinary girl, she enters the pageant.

She then meets Tachibana Keigo, a handsome, self-absorbed boy and Shimamura Sora, a mysterious transfer student.

At contest time, Manaha cannot keep her excitement in, as she is just steps away from the very stage she’s dreamed about for so long.

Akutsu Eiji is a newspaper reporter. He is working on unsolved case that took place 30 years ago. The case involved a group of people extorting several companies for money. The group sent cassette tapes to the companies. Akutsu Eiji comes across a mysterious cassette tape. Meanwhile, Sone Toshiya lives in Kyoto and runs a tailor shop. He discovers a cassette tape among his late father's possessions. He plays the cassette tape and hears his voice from his childhood days.

~~ Adapted from the novel "The Voice of Sin" (罪の声) by Shiota Takeshi (塩田武士), which in turn was inspired by the extortion case "Glico Morinaga case" (グリコ・森永事件).

Hanaoka Nao’s mother Yuriko is a single parent and a live-in confectioner at Kogetsuan, a traditional Japanese confectionery shop of long standing. That is how Nao meets Takatsuki Tsubaki, the 6-year-old son of the owner of Kogetsuan, and they become each other’s first loves. However, Tsubaki’s father is stabbed to death by someone. Nao’s mother is arrested as the suspect based on Tsubaki’s statement. Nao is kicked out while her mother passes away while under interrogation. Now daughter of a murder suspect and son of the victim, Nao and Tsubaki separate with ill feelings for each other. More than 15 years later, Nao and Tsubaki are reunited at a competition on Japanese confectionery. Tsubaki takes an interest in Nao’s creations and asks her to marry him at their first meeting without realising that she is his childhood friend. Nao hides her true identity and decides to get into Kogetsuan through her marriage to Tsubaki in order to prove her mother’s innocence. Little does she know that all sorts of adverse circumstances lie in wait. Despite being made sport of by cruel fate, Nao and Tsubaki are drawn to each other. What is the truth of the case 15 years ago?

Adapted from the manga series "Watashitachi wa Douka Shiteiru" by Natsumi Ando.

Shogo Kai is a partner at a law firm in Marunouchi, Tokyo. He brings back Daiki Suzuki to his law firm from Boston. Shogo Kai then assigns Daiki Suzuki to a case. The case involves a large publishing company as they are sued by a former contract worker. The former contract worker insists her idea for a novel was stolen by the publishing company.

(Source: Asianwiki)

Remake of the American TV series "Suits" [2011].

Episodes: 15

Ryoichi Yoshimori is a university student. His girlfriend Kyoko Sawada is older than him, but he enjoys his time with her. After Ryoichi Yoshimori proposes to his girlfriend, she suddenly disappears one day. Several days later, he finally sees her again but she has no memory of him. Ryoichi Yoshimori is stunned, but he suspects her memory loss is related to the Kiokuya rumor. A person named Kiokuya is reputed to erase the memories of people. He talks to Chiaki Takaharu, who is a lawyer and attended the same university as him, about his situation. Ryoichi Yoshimori searches for the cause of Kyoko Sawada’s memory loss and gets help from childhood friend Maki Kawai and Chiaki Takaharu’s assistant.

Takeuchi Kaoru is a young man with a special ability. He can experience the thoughts of others, just by copying their writings. Kaoru lives with his mother with Alzheimer's disease. He wants to become a writer, but, due to his special ability, he has a hard time writing his own work. Taking care of his sick mother also doesn't help his writing. One day, his mother gets into an accident.

Fujiwara Tomomi, who went to same school as Kaoru, appears in front of Kaoru. Tomomi is a young yakuza and he makes an offer to Kaoru. The deal is if Kaoru takes a university entrance exam for someone and that guy gets into a top university, then he will make a lot of money. But, Kaoru gets involved in something unexpected.

Shino Sakuragi is an OL. She attends a wine party recommended by her boss, even though she isn't comfortable at such a fancy get together. There, Sakuragi meets Kazushi Oda. He is knowledgeable about wine and he doesn't show off his success as a businessman. She becomes attracted to him, but Oda gets arrested for accounting fraud later. Sakuragi is confused by the situation, but she keeps attending the wine parties and becomes hooked on wine.

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.

One day, Nobuo Harada starts work as a Japanese language teacher at a high school. He is gay and dresses like a woman. He sympathizes with the lives and worries of his students.

Hasumi Kyoko is a former lawyer who quit her job when she became a mother. Her husband is an elite prosecutor who works as the leader of a special investigation department at the Tokyo District Prosecutor's Office. However, he is charged with corruption and gets arrested. A scandal with another woman is also revealed. Kyoko's life as a "good wife" begins to change. To protect her children, she decides to work again as a lawyer. She is hired temporarily at a law office and begins to work as a lawyer for the first time in 16 years.

29-year-old Kuroki Sayaka is a writer working for a magazine at a publishing company. She's engaged to her long-term boyfriend and will have her wedding in three months, so resigns from her job. But that night, she discovers that her fiance Kazuya, who was her first love from high school, has actually been cheating on her. When she confronts him, he breaks off the engagement saying he felt pressured by her to get married.

Broke from all the wedding expenses, Sayaka tries to return to her old job only to find out she's already been replaced. Her boss feels bad for her, though, so he finds a way for her to get reinstated in the company with a much higher caliber fashion magazine. However, there's a catch: according to her eccentric new boss Usami, Sayaka must meet his strange conditions. She must find a better man to marry within six months, and as embarrassed as she is, she must write an ongoing column about her experience, from broken engagement to wedding. But first, Sayaka has to figure out why she doesn't value herself enough to believe it's possible.

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

The Japanese version of Warner Bros ‘Cold Case'.

35-year-old Morioka Kotaro is the son of a distinguished family and the next company president of Morioka Group which has annual sales of 6 hundred billion yen. He lives a life of comfort and believes marriage has no merits. In addition, he is not a good judge of a woman’s character. Because of that, he has set his mind on remaining single forever. In order to convince his parents that he will not marry, Kotaro holds an unconventional matchmaking party with the following unreasonable conditions for participation: “Never going to divorce; 500 million yen penalty for breach and no division of property too”. Contrary to his expectations that no one would apply, three women have joined: 29-year-old Shiraishi Sachiko who is aiming to turn her life, which has been a series of misfortunes for the last three years, around; 23-year-old Maekawa Aya who wants happiness and has a strong need for the approval of others; and 39-year-old Tachibana Chiemi who regards this as her last chance to get married. A battle between the women who are prepared to get married at any price and the man who does not want to marry begins. In the middle of this matchmaking party, an enigmatic Sakurai Miu shows up and says to Kotaro, “Do you remember me?” … … Who will be chosen in the end? ~

Serizawa Yusuke works at a law office. He gets into a car accident. A woman helps him and she looks familiar to him, but he doesn't remember who she is. Yusuke Serizawa looks back at his past romances.

Serizawa Yusuke works at a law office. He gets into a car accident. A woman helps him and she looks familiar to him, but he doesn't remember who she is. Yusuke Serizawa looks back at his past romances.

Set in a small restaurant in the corner of a shopping district. The unusual eatery is only open after midnight, and its standard menu consists of just a single choice. However, the customers still come for the amusing chatter and the proprietor's willingness to cook any dish that they request. This drama depicts the lives of the restaurant's patrons, including a yakuza, an unsuccessful actor, a group of office ladies, a newspaper delivery boy, and a stripper.

Rookie investigator Shoko Kazuki has just returned from the U.S. after being trained by the FBI in the art of criminal profiling. Recruited by a newly-formed Crime Profiling Support unit (CPS) within the Metropolitan Police Department, Shoko gets to work cracking the department's most frustrating cases which offer only scanty clues and no apparent motives. Still, she must apply all the behavioral and analytical tools of her trade to painstakingly build the criminal profiles that will lead her and her team on the right trail. A realistic depiction of the profiling process and forensic analysis, LADY exposes the sinister underbelly of society and sheds light on the murky landscape of the criminal mind

The ST team at the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department consists of eccentric members. Akagi works as an analyst on the ST team. He won't appear in front of others, but his colleagues trust him as a leader. Yurine is tasked to manage the ST team. He experiences difficulties in dealing with the team. Meanwhile, the ST team come into conflict with other detectives at the police department over an indiscriminate gun firing case and a grotesque murder case. This forces Akagi to appear in front others. Akagi and Yurine work together to solve the case.

When Kibou Minase wakes up, she finds herself wearing a sailor suit and lying in a white room. She is in a spaceship. Planet Earth was hit by a meteorite and all living creates perished except for 11 people who were saved by an alien. Those saved include a man who claims to be part of the Earth Defense Force, a pilot who can't speak, a pregnant woman and elementary school student. Those left are faced with the choice of living with aliens in a faraway place or escape the spaceship and build a new city on Earth.

Aoyama Saori, working as an office lady at an MNC, gets into trouble with a drunkard on a train. She's saved by Yamada Tsuyoshi. As a form of appreciation, she sends him Hermes teacups. Having no experience with the opposite sex, Tsuyoshi decides to ask for help on the Aladdin Channel BBS on how to interact with Saori.

(Source: TVDb)

Adapted from the novel "Densha Otoko" (電車男) by Nakano Hitori (中野独人). ~~ Based on a real online conversation on the Japanese forum 2channel.

Episodes: 11

Duration: 45 min.

Aired On: Thursday

Ratings: 7.5

The Special Mission Task Team is not considered as important as it might sound. It's positioned in the lowest section of the Metropolitan Police Department and headed by Ukyo Sugishita. Together with his partner, Kaoru Kameyama, this team is Japan’s version of The Odd Couple, solving clueless cases in original and outrageous ways.

Pathologist Dr. Andou Mitsuo gets tangled into the web of the video tape and Yamamura Sadako by pure luck. Unbeknown to the circumstances of discovering the tape, Mitsuo resumed the search to find the real 'truth' that was left hanging from Takayama Ryuuji and Asakawa Kazuyuki as Sadako continues to lurk, killing more people faster in another way than by watching the tape.