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

About a 35-year-old office employee named Mukai-kun, who has been single for 10 years now, and still has a lingering attachment to his last ex-girlfriend, Miwako. At work, Mukai-kun starts to notice Nakatani-san, a temporary employee. Caught between an old flame, he cannot let go, and a new encounter, Mukai-kun starts his "spot the difference" love game.

(Source: Mangaupdates)

Adapted from the manga series "Kocchi Muite yo Mukai-kun" (こっち向いてよ向井くん) by Nemu Yoko (ねむようこ).

Enomura Haruka (Mukai Osamu), a brusque writer of erotic novels, has sadistic tendencies while Nakata Miruku (Kitamura Yukiya), a cheerful, feminine artist who draws manga of beautiful girls, has masochist tendencies. A publishing company requests a collaboration between Enomura and Nakata. The two men are fans of each other’s work. However, when they finally meet, they are shocked that the other person’s looks and personality are different from what was imagined. While Enomura and Nakata cannot get along, they have one thing in common – their love for delivery food. It is through this common interest that they slowly open up to each other.

Television news reports that a young woman has been kidnapped and her belongings sent individually to her family. Zaizen Shota, the CEO of Zaizen Corporation, recalls an eerily similar case from 18 years ago. Then, as an investigator at a private detective agency, a man called Tanioka Soichiro asked him to find his daughter, Tanioka Nanae. In that case, Nanae's kidnapper also sent photos and cuttings from her dress, underwear, and nails to Tanioka.

As a result of Zaizen's tampering in the Tanioka case, a suspect was never caught. Now Zaizen’s beloved daughter Mika goes missing and he too receives pieces of her belongings.

Meanwhile, Zaizen's wife and Mika's mother, the beautiful Yuko, is anxiously holding on to a secret that she cannot tell anyone.

As Zaizen investigates Mika’s disappearance on his own, he begins to learn about Yuko’s past while his life spirals out of control.

Former female members gathered at a farewell party for Katsuhito Ando, a teacher of the high school basketball club. Among them, three former captains who wear an aura of unhappiness, Kana Enoki, Yuko Tsuruga, and Akane Miyosawa. Each of them had just been hit by an unexpected event and ridiculed, "My peak was in high school ..." Meanwhile, the situation suddenly changes with a word from her teacher's wife, Kae. "Why don't you live in a basketball dormitory?" In addition to the three who decided to live under one roof, is the son of the teacher, Yuichi, and the daughter of Kana, Tamaki, and six people of different generations. "Pseudo family" life begins. Is there a one-shot reversal in their lives while each is trying to change?!

On Christmas Eve, a TV broadcasting station receives a phone call. The caller warns "I have set up a bomb at Ebisu in Tokyo." A contract worker for the TV broadcasting station and a housewife are accused by the Ebisu police as being the culprits. During this chaotic situation, a mysterious man silently watches as everything unfolds. A video clip is then uploaded to an online video website. The video contains a demand to talk with the Prime Minister during a live broadcast or a bomb will be detonated at 6 pm in Shibuya, Tokyo. Who is behind the bombings and who will stop them?

Goro Akechi is a private detective and his office is located near Omotesando in Tokyo. He is a big fan of gourmet food. It's important to Goro Akechi to eat delicious meals three times a day.

A client visits Goro Akechi’s private detective office. The client is a housewife. She suspects that her husband is having an affair and she asks for Goro Akechi's help.

Born in Osaka in 1937, Kawahara Kimiko is the eldest of 3 sisters. At age 9, she moves with her family to Shigaraki in Shiga Prefecture. Growing up surrounded by the local Shigaraki pottry, she decides to become a ceramics artist. Even though she is passionate, she faces many setbacks as a woman in a traditionally male-dominated industry. This drama follows her life from childhood to marriage to a pioneer career in the ceramic arts.

Born in Osaka in 1937, Kawahara Kimiko is the eldest of 3 sisters. At age 9, she moves with her family to Shigaraki in Shiga Prefecture. Growing up surrounded by the local Shigaraki pottry, she decides to become a ceramics artist. Even though she is passionate, she faces many setbacks as a woman in a traditionally male-dominated industry. This drama follows her life from childhood to marriage to a pioneer career in the ceramic arts.

Iga Ken works at a family restaurant. He is sincere, but rigid in his ways. He can't even fake smiles for his customers. Kan doesn't have a good reputation with his co-workers or customers, but Kurosu Kanako recognizes something in him. Kanako is a mysterious woman. She tells Kan that she is going to open a French restaurant soon and that "The staff needs originality. You will be a good serviceman."

The French restaurant is located in a cemetery, which is itself away from the busy streets and residential areas. The staff at the French restaurant do not appear suited for such a restaurant. Kawai Taichi was once an apprentice to become a hairdresser. Tsutsumi Keitaro worked as the manager of a rice & beef bowl restaurant for 5 years. Ozawa Yukio worked as a chef, but all of the restaurants where he worked went out of business. Lastly, Yamagata Shigeomi worked as a sommelier after he retired as a bank executive. Why does Kanako gather these people? Will the French restaurant open?

Tachibana Haruka is a rookie nurse with a bright personality. Mihara Natsumi is 34-year-old veteran nurse. She is struggling at work and with her love life. While Tachibana Haruka and Mihara Natsumi work as nurses at a place that deals with life and death, they laugh and cry. The two women grow as persons in the process.

The main character Norimiya who became an adult without having the courage to love depicts what will change as a result of reunion with former Bandman's old friend Sato Takuya and encounter with poetry.

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.

For the past 2 years, Prosecutor Takemura Ririko has worked in the Yokohama District Public Prosecutor’s Office. Ririko, who is a hard worker and has a strong sense of justice, is not good at her job. Ririko grows as a prosecutor and a woman after being in charge of multiple cases.

Itomura Satoshi is back again, but in Kyoto and with a new team. He begins work at the 1st Investigation Division of the Kyoto Prefectural Police Station. The 1st investigation division with deals with the most difficult cases.

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.

Tomonaga Ranmaru, Kamekanbo Hikaru and Miyazawa Kanji, who happened to meet through a strange turn of events, ride in a car to eat and sleep at hot spring inns as they journey across Japan in search of an enigmatic hot spring geisha called Miyabi.

DRAMA

A large real estate company’s social gathering is held on board the cruise ship ‘Poseidon’ as it goes around Tokyo Bay. Then the company president Kudo Ryoko (Nakano Yuta) is fatally stabbed. The ship never once stopped and it is impossible for someone to board from the sea. In other words, the murder scene is a “locked room aboard a ship”. The suspects are three employees Takase Minami (Takimoto Miori), Mitsumine Yoko (Nakagoshi Noriko) and Narita Koki (Tonesaku Toshihide) who were together with Kudo. They unanimously complain of being “put to sleep by sleeping pill” and “waking up after the murder occurred”. Detective Hagami Kyoko (Zaizen Naomi) of the First Investigative Division proceeds to investigate the case together with the young detective Kaburagi (Kiriyama Ren). However, a series of tragedies occur right in front of them. Mystery engenders mystery, darkness sucks in darkness. This is the “punishment” meted by Poseidon, the Greek god of the sea, to those who do wrong. Internal trouble, baffling human resources and gruesome cases that vanish in the vortex of time. Then the perfect crime of a lifetime. Will Kyoko be able to get to the criminal?

The young, genius scientist Takano Ryuzo (Saito Yusuke) has died in his home. He was a leading authority on induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells together with his older wife Misuzu (Shimizu Misa). The cause of his sudden death is determined to be a heart attack, but insurance agent Tomonaga Masahiko (Hamano Kenta) approaches his wife Kuriko (Ueno Juri), who is also researcher in iPS cells, about Takano’s sudden death that leaves questions unanswered. He had been insured for a large sum of money. Furthermore, the crime scene is a perfect locked room. These increases Masahiko’s suspicions that it was a murder. Kuriko, the research geek, corners the “invisible criminal” with a wealth of knowledge unique to a female scientist and feminine deduction.

Following the death of their mother Kyoko (Nakamura Yuri), three sisters Chiaki (Dan Rei), Haruna (Kimura Midoriko) and Natsui (Watanabe Makiko) gather at the home where they were born and raised for an all-night vigil. Third sister Chiaki recalls memories of the time she was a girl when she sees something that was inserted into the coffin. After the end of the war, their father Hiroshi (Mashima Hidekazu) brought Toru, their youngest brother who is not related by blood, home. Then one day, Toru suddenly disappeared as if he had been spirited away. Who was responsible and where did he go? As the three sisters begin to trace back distant memories, a young man (Nakajima Ayumu) comes. He greets them with the words, “It’s been a long time since I last saw you, sisters …” The sisters piece together their memories and what starts to emerge is their father’s betrayal and mother’s secret. The 40-year-old truth that their mother had kept to herself is about to be revealed.

The treasure of the company Teikoku Shinju, a natural pearl called the ‘Golden Star’ is stolen. The ‘Golden Star’ is said to be expensive enough to buy a New York skyscraper. The theft is made public and Teikoku Shinju’s share price plunges. This incident triggers an internal struggle between the company’s chairman Iwakura Jusaburo (Nishida Toshiyuki) and president Iwakura Tsuneko (Zaizen Naomi) for the company president’s position. Tsuneko, the daughter of Teikoku Shinju’s founder and Jusaburo’s stepsister, is forced to take responsibility and step down. Learning about the fmaily’s infighting from media reports, Sawaguchi Nobuko (Yonekura Ryoko) hides her beauty with black glasses and loose, disheveled hair, and goes into the home as a housekeeper. She has a specific objective to fulfil at the Iwakura household. Nobuko had gone to see the ‘Golden Star’, which was displayed in a department store, and encountered an enigmatic man (Yokota Eiji) who suddenly appeared in front of her. The man seemed to have a connection to the ‘Golden Pearl’ and the Iwakura family. He had encouraged her to try wearing the pearl like the ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ painted by Vemeer. As customers and news reporters swarmed around them, Nobuko had fled the place without thinking. But in doing so, the precious pearl earring was lost. According to store personnel, that man had taken it out. Nobuko’s intuition tells her that the man is involved in the theft of the ‘Golden Star’ and she guesses he will show up at the Iwakura home some day. There is a portrait in the Iwakura home of a man who resembles him as if in confirmation of her conjecture. What is this man’s true identity? After that, the more the battle between the chairman and company president heats up, the more the share price of Teikoku Shinju continues to mysteriously rise. Why did the pearl disappear? Nobuko who has peeked at the secrets and conspiracies in the mansion, takes action … …

Kurogane Shinobu is a roving reporter for the Local News Section of the Kyoto Times. During her time at the Kyoto Shinpo, she wrote numerous hardline exposes and even won awards. Although many reporters have left the Kyoto Times because they hated the change in policy, she stayed. Because Shinobu is tenacious and fearless in interviews, she is not scared of any interview subject and would make a beeline for the person without a thought for the inconvenience she might cause. This is the reason why she is banned from going in and out of many places.

Uno Meiko is the daughter of parents who run a western style restaurant in Tokyo. She marries and moves to Osaka with her husband. Meiko experiences cultural differences between Tokyo and Osaka, as she lives as a mother and wife in Osaka.

Hasumi Kayoko, the rookie investigator at the all-female Hasumi Detective Agency, always observes people and cases in a level-headed manner. She detests lies and secrets and has a strong sense of justice. Her late father worked at the city news desk of a newspaper but committed suicide 7 years ago. However, the truth lies in darkness and Kayoko’s mother, Kyoko, the agency’s director, has been secretly pursuing the facts. An incident becomes the catalyst that entwines Kayoko and the people around her, and she closes in on the truth behind her father’s death.

The drama tells the story of a hostess turning 30 years old.

After graduating from college, Yuuji lands the job of his dreams at the company that manufactures his favorite running shoes. The complete sincerity and selflessness that Yuuji shows everyone he meets causes many to dismiss him as naive or simply stupid. But when his good deeds start paying off, his co-workers begin to come around to the idea that nice guys don't have to finish last.Theme song: Serori (Celery) by SMAP, adapted from manga "Ii Hito " by TAKAHASHI Shin.