TOKYO DRAMA AWARD

2013

MS. ECHIZEN (Kumiko Aso) is a timid, thirty-something single female who pours out her daily stress in a manga (comic) that she draws every day almost as a diary. The main character of her manga is HARA-CHAN (Tomoya Nagase), a man who rambles on about his complaints to his friends in an izakaya bar.
However, one day, Hara-chan's world begins to shake, and he learns "God up above is angry”... In a magical warp, Hara-chan finds himself taken out of his two dimensional world and into reality as a true man. Hara-chan ventures out to find “God” and happens to meet Ms. Echizen who is taken aback by Hara-chan, a strange man who suddenly appears before her. Will Ms. Echizen realize that he is indeed the person sketched in the pages of her daily manga and that she has manifested a man? What will be the fate of the two, when Hara-chan begins to fall in love with his so-called “God”… ?
Carry On! Hara-chan! is a fish-out-of-water fantasy with some unique Pygmalion essence that depicts a character brought into the real world and discovers the beauty of what it means to be a human, to live, and to fall in love.

Michiko Daimon is a freelance doctor. She was dispatched to a university hospital that lost a number of doctors all at once because of harsh work conditions.
When Michiko arrives at the hospital dressed like a fashion model, the other doctors cannot hide their surprise. But more than her appearance, it is what she does in the hospital that creates a major stir.
Shortly after arrival, Michihiko criticizes the surgical techniques of the hospital director that is scheduled to perform an operation. She is harsh and points out things most doctors would easily notice. But no one is willing to confront their superiors because of the deep-rooted hierarchical structure of the hospital. As a result, she is forced to do menial jobs because she upset the hospital director. And just as she feared, something terrible happens during the director’s surgical procedure.
Medical care and money. Medical hierarchies and connections. This drama is about one freelance doctor’s struggles to navigate these ties that cannot be separated.

Late summer 1972. Truck driver, Yasu, is in the highest spirits singing to himself while working and restraining himself from his favorite hobbies of drinking and gambling. The reason? His wife is about to give birth to a son. Yasu himself never had parents to speak of, his mother having died while he was very young, and his father having abandoned him. Yasu's wife, Misako, also lost both her parents when she was young. And so the two spend their days in happiness, protecting and watching their son, Akira, grow. Until an unforeseen tragedy strikes when Akira is only 3. A freakish accident occurs that results in Misako sacrificing her life to protect her son. Yasu loses himself in grief and remorse, but recovers when he vows to raise the son he loves as best as possible even as it tests the limits of his wits and abilities. Though forced to battle feelings of anxiety, confusion and helplessness, Yasu clumsily yet honestly manages to rear his son with the support of friends in this moving tale of ultimate love between father and son.

This drama features the art of eating alone.
Goro Inogashira runs his own little imported goods business and visits many different towns from day to day. The places where he stops to eat are where this drama unfolds. In each episodes he discovers new and surprising gourmet food and we are treated to his unique and peculiar view on the art of eating alone. Though the drama is based on a popular comic book, the eateries he stops by are new, actual restaurants that are located by the crew beforehand.

Galileo is back! The smash-hit drama series aired in 2007 in the 9 pm Monday night slot averaged ratings of 21.9% with the highest hitting 24.7%. That man who created a great sensation now returns for the sequel.

In the previous season, Galileo or Manabu Yukawa (Masaharu Fukuyama) worked together with a female rookie detective Kaoru Utsumi played (Kou Shibasaki) to solve the supernatural mysteries using scientific approach. This time, playing Galileo’s new partner is a novice cop Misa Kishitani (Yuriko Yoshitaka), a character newly created for this TV drama.

Manabu Yukawa is a physics associate professor at Teito University. He is handsome, brilliant, and athletic. However, his studies are the only things he is interested in. Hence he is nicknamed “the Eccentric Galileo.” One day, Kaoru visits Yukawa and introduces him to her young new colleague Misa. An alumnus of Teito and a first-year detective, Misa is Kaoru’s successor as she flies to Oklahoma for training. This is done on orders from Shunpei Kusanagi (Kazuki Kitamura), a senior detective at the police headquarter and also a college friend of Yukawa. Kaoru then starts talking about a strange murder case that happened in Kamata.

This new season of Galileo, which again marked high average rating of 19.9%, is guaranteed to be ""truly interesting""!

"Onagawa Saigai FM", a provisional radio station that provides post-disaster information, was launched in the coastal town of Onagawa in Miyagi Prefecture, one month after northeastern Japan was hard-hit by a giant earthquake and tsunami disaster on March 11th, 2011.
Based on a real-life drama, the story unfolds on senior high school students and locals who have gathered with the urge to pass on needed information to members of their community.

Ten months following the disaster, a senior high school student, "Boh-chan" (or "Name Withheld"), played by Yuiko Kariya, remains withdrawn inside a modest temporary housing unit after her house was swept away by tsunami. Kunieda (Eisaku Yoshida), a fourth generaion owner of a fish-sausage company, who displays brotherly affection towards Boh-chan, is genuinely concerned about her. He succeeds in making her take up volunteer work at the FM station. But she gets tongue-tied every time she sits in front of the michrophone. Boh-chan's father (Kosuke Toyohara) watches his daughter become increasingly desperate. He suggests that she takes up bloggin, saying if she finds it hard to communicate verbally, she could connect with others through writing. By time, Boh-chan begins to express herself through writing.

Some 350 kilometers northwest of Onagawa, Tobimatsu (Lily Franky) happens to encounter rock music Boh-chan plays over webcast. He is curiously drawn to the program, and begins to exchange messages with the teenager. Thanks also to support she receives from fellow teenagers working at the FM station (Sakura Ando, Hirofumi Arai), Boh-chan begins to gradually bounce back from her traumatic experience, and begins to find hope in the future.

Against this backdrop, Boh-chan unwittingly drops a bombshell over an entry on her blog, where she commented on local governments that decided against accepting debris from the disaster-hit regions, due to possible radioactivity. In fact, the response is overwhelming. Usually only about 10 people reads her blog. The readership soared to over one million! What is going on?

Boh-chan and her friends regain their spirits through their work at the FM station.
This is not a TV drama on the post-March 11th disaster. Rather, it's about reconstruction of hearts that were shattered in the once-in-a-lifetime calamity.

Hong Kong?HAJIME (Ryosuke Yamada), the grandson of the prestigious Kindaichi Detective and his childhood friend, MIYUKI (Haruna Kawaguchi) arrive in Hong Kong so Miyuki can participate in a fashion show as a fill-in for Yan Ran, a model gone missing. When the friends are sightseeing the city, Miyuki is suddenly abducted by someone. Hajime soon finds out that Yan and Miyuki are exact lookalikes and that Yan has a tattoo, signifying the location of the “Kowloon Treasure”?rumored to be worth billions of money and guarded by a man known as the “Kowloon Emperor”. Was Miyuki mistakenly kidnapped instead of Yan? In his search to rescue Miyuki, Hajime is drawn into a string of murders connected to the treasure which has been lost for two decades…. What is the truth behind the mysterious treasure and will Hajime be able to save Miyuki...alive?
Filmed on location in Hong Kong, this new The Files of Young Kindaichi is a piece of entertainment suitable worldwide and one that will leave the any viewer completely breathless!

Kyoko Koizumi and Kiichi Nakai star in a special sequel to hit drama, "Second to Last Love"! Drama producer Chiaki Yoshino (Kyoko Koizumi) is feeling distressed about work, failing to make her drama "Mada Koi wa Owaranai (Love will not end here)"a success. On the other hand, Wahei Nagakura (Kiichi Nakai) works at the Kamakura city office. He too, is feeling down due to a change in environment, now having to work under a younger boss. Nagakura's family is comprised of a son and two daughters. The son runs a cafe "Nagakura" at home and is dating Tomomi Ohashi. The younger sister Mariko (Yuki Uchida) works for Chiaki keeping her feelings for Mariko to herself. The eldest daughter Noriko (Naoko Iijima) plans a family trip to Hawaii, but her husband Hiroyuki and son Sho are rather unenthusiastic about the idea. One day Chiaki is given orders by her boss to work on a suspense drama, her least favorite genre. What's more, the script writer is Mamoru Haida (Lily Franky) who is known for being the slowest script writer there ever was. At around the same time, Wahei is given orders to try and persuade writer Midoriko Sakisaka (Hisako Manda) to become a goodwill ambassador to Kamakura in order for it to become registered as a world heritage site...

NHK Tokushima Station presents “TANUKI　NA　KAZOKU” commemorating its 80th anniversary. The drama is inspired by an old “Tanuki (raccoon dog) legend” which exists in the town of Yamashiro, Miyoshi city in Tokushima prefecture. The story is based on the legend that raccoon dogs deceive humans, but they sometimes can be of help. The drama humorously depicts a story about a man who left his family to pursue his dream to become an actor and his abandoned family trying to reconstruct their emotional ties. “Becoming a family is to deceive and be deceived” is the catch phrase of this drama.


Hatsuko Nakajima (Maki Sakai) lives with her mother-in-law Kikuko (Manami Fuji),her daughter Mami (Kurumi Shimizu) and a strange lodger Shotaro (Yoshiyoshi Arakawa). Hatsuko’s husband, Shinsaku (Ikkei Watanabe) has been away from his family since he left home 15 years ago to pursue his dream to become an actor.
One day, Shinsaku unexpectedly comes back home with a TV crew. He lets them shoot in the house while he pretends to act as a good father. Being utterly shocked his family takes offense at Shinsaku’s behavior.
However, as the time passes by, Hatsuko struggles as she realizes that Shinsaku still loves his family and she could not totally abandon Shinsaku. Then the local “Tanuki legend” becomes a key for their breakthrough…

Setting the scene in Nagoya Railroad, The Last Train to Nagoya celebrates the 50th anniversary of Nagoya Broadcasting Network. The story unfolds on the last train bound for Nagoya station. The four omnibus episodes ￢￢featuring romance, comedy, fantasy, and humanity begin in the wake of the lost items in the train. Each passenger’s stories coincidentally intersect on the last train where a real human drama is improvised. And there will be a heartwarming surprise in the end! Seiji Rokkaku who plays a key character in the four episodes (a service attendant in charge of the lost items in the trains) is a passionate rail fan (Tetsudo Otaku) in his real life. Other cast members include Rena Matsui from the local idol girl group SKE48 as a heroine, and veteran actors Takashi Sasano and Tetsu Watanabe as supporting roles. The drama takes place on Nagoya Railroad’s major routes such as Meitetsu Nagoya line, Inuyama line, and Tokoname line. You may discover a forgotten memory of your life in The Last Train to Nagoya.

©Mizan Production

In the rain and the lush trees, the story of "The Rainbow Troops" series begins. Gantong Muhammadiyah elementary school children are blaming each other because..Harun hasn't turned up. They need to find Harun before an official from the Regional Office of the Department of Education arrives at school. The children remember this commotion as the first incident after they joined the school.
The first day for the new class at Muhammadiyah elementary school is challenging for the two teachers, Miss Muslimah and Mr. Harfan, and for 9 pupils. The school is located in a remote village of Gantong, on the island of Belitong, and the school will be closed unless all 10 new pupils are enrolled. Then finally, Harun arrives. To mark all 10 pupils being present, the pupils give themselves the name, The Rainbow Troops.
Having overcome various difficulties, Mahar and the Rainbow Troops emerge as a driving force to inspire other pupils. But then Mr. Harfan moves to another school for better terms, leaving the school faced with a crisis of existence. Miss Muslimah, the only remaining teacher, feels at a loss, but she is encouraged by the Rainbow Troops to carry on fighting. The Examinations day is drawing near and the Rainbow Troops follow their dreams of getting good results and becoming the pride of the school.

After the highest number of audience in Indonesian film history of 4.5 million people was recorded by the film "The Rainbow Troops", Mizan Production also produced its TV drama series, comprising 15 episodes, which also achieved high ratings. The story is set on Belitong island, off Sumatra island to the east. The island, with its beautiful sea and megaliths, is attracting attention as a holiday destination, as well as being popular among the fans of the story. In Japan, it was screened as one of the Best Asian Films at Japan Foundation, Focus on Asia International Film Festival Fukuoka in 2009, as well as in the Winds of Asia -Middle East- at Tokyo International Film Festival in 2012. The best-selling novel ,"The Rainbow Troops" written by Andrea Hirata was finally published in Japanese this autumn from Sunmark Publishing, Inc..

©2012-13 MBC

Set in the Joseon Period in 17th century, this is a story of a man's checkered life as he faces the twists of fate, a fragile and wistful romance, and all kinds of valued existences to the best of his ability.

There were three youths, including Kang Do-joon, pursuing medical careers. Despite coming from different walks of life, they were bound by friendship. The trio learned from each other and followed their dream together until they got caught up in a conspiracy in the Court. Kang Do-joon was accused of being involved with the assassination of Prince So Hyeon and executed by a false charge due to a betrayal of his best friend.

Kwang-hyun was born soon after his father, Kang Do-joon, was executed. He was destined for execution as soon as he was born. However, a slave, who had his baby daughter saved by Kang Do-joon, learns that Kang’s baby will be spared if it is a girl, and so he switches the baby with his own daughter.

Kwang-hyun grows up on a cattle farm as a slave, and becomes a good veterinarian specializing in treating horses. He realizes that his skills can be transferred to help people. So he decides to become a doctor despite many obstacles and pursues the medical career he believes in.

Baek Kwan-hyun is a historical figure who rose from a horse doctor to become a royal doctor. This historical medical drama portrays his life in a dramatic development, alongside the mystery of assassination of Prince So Hyeon during the Joseon Dynasty. Latest work by a great master, Lee Byunghoon, who has created a number of blockbuster dramas including "Dae Jang Geum", "Lee San" and "Dong Yi". Starring the top star of the Korean musical, Jo Seung-woo, who won 2012 MBC BEST ACTOR in MBC Drama Award for his solid acting skill. This is his first drama appearance.

Blu-ray Box Ⅰ & DVD Box Ⅰ: To be released on November 20
Rental: Vol.1 and 2: Available to rent from October 25
　　　　　Vol.3 to 5: Available to rent from November 29
(Published by NHK Enterprise, Inc., Distributed by Pony Canyon, Inc.

The story takes place in 1584. Prince Naresuan has won the independence of Thailand from the Hongsawadee Kingdom.
Sema, the son of a blacksmith, is an excellent swordsman and becomes adopted by his father's soldier friend, Pan In, who recommends Sema to his superior, Khun Ram, to be taken on as a soldier. Sema wins a sword match against a squad leader and a skilled swordsman, Kan, and becomes a soldier, leaving Kan holding a grudge against Sema.
Sema falls in love at first sight with Rayrai, the only daughter of Khun Ram. Rayrai also has feelings for Sema and they fall in love. This fuels Kan's hatred and jealousy against Sema even further as Kan also likes Rayrai. Kan conspires with his friend Put to drive Sema's sister, Jumriang, into debt, and when she is unable to repay the debt, Kan forces her to become a slave for his family.
Khun Ram fiercely opposes his daughter marrying Sema, who is now in poverty and in a lower class. Instead, Khun Ram wants Rayrai to marry wealthy Kan.
In the meantime Sema meets Somboon and Sin, who become like is his brothers. Sema is rapidly promoted for his excellent sword skills and his contribution to victory in a battle, and he finally becomes "Khun Seuk", the General. .
Time passes, King Thammaracha dies, and Prince Naresuan ascends to the throne. Prince Akatossarot becomes the Vice King, and Sema becomes Praya who works directly for the Vice King. With his reward money Sema repays his sister's debt.
Now that Sema is Praya, Khun Ram approves of him. Sema finally marries Rayrai and the pair live happily ever after.
The leading actor, Atichart Chumnanont, is one of the leading actors in "Roy Mai (Silk Trace)", which won the Special Award for Foreign Drama at the International Drama Festival in Tokyo 2012. In this drama, Atichart is highly praised for his true-to-life performance which was all done by himself without the use of a stuntman. This was produced as an epic blockbuster drama, and its broadcast is said to have contributed to the Thai people's spirit of loyalty to the country.