Descending Stories: A Life In Rakugo

Kaoru is a 17-year-old virgin who has an SM fetish. He secretly dreams about an SM relationship with his childhood friend Nana. One day Kaoru's mom asks Nana to hide all his SM toys so he'll study for a change. However, Nana finds the leather one-piece that Kaoru bought and tries it on, but she accidentally locks it and doesn't have the key! The beginning of super strange relationship.

Set in Qin Dynasty during the warring states period in ancient China. Shin was a war orphan. He has a dream of becoming a great general Shin has a fateful encounter with young King Eisei. King Eisei aims to unify all of China.

Early summer, Keiichi had just moved to a remote mountain village. As he becomes close friends with a group of girls, he was enjoying his life in the village. However when he starts to become suspicious that his friends may be deeply involved in successive murders that occur every summer, the situation around Keiichi gradually starts to turn into something more sinister.

Matsuchiyo - Life of a Geisha’ is a documentary about one of the last surviving true geisha in Japan. The story begins with Matsuchiyo’s wartime childhood. She and her mother were the only two surviving members of the family. Matsuchiyo joins an “Okiya” (a traditional geisha agency), to pay the family debts and support her ageing mother. In her adulthood, Matsuchiyo becomes one of the top geisha in the city of Atami and experiences romance, tearful farewells, being a mistress of married men, motherhood and tragic deaths. Today, in her 80’s, Matsuchiyo the geisha, is as motivated and inspiring as ever. She still delivers a mesmerising performance on stage. ‘Matsuchiyo - Life of a Geisha’ is narrated by her own son and film director, Ken Nishikawa, and it is adorned by hundreds of beautiful pictures from Japan’s bygone era. This film illustrates the trials and tribulations of the ultimate Japanese cultural enigma that is - The Life of a Geisha.

Mika is a flight attendant on board an airplane scheduled to land at Haneda Airport. On the way to the airport the airplane's engine starts to burn. In order to save the 346 people on board the airplane, sea marshall Daisuke Senzaki and his team are called into action ...

A young girl named Chihiro finds herself trapped in a mysterious world inhabited by spirits and when her parents are turned into pigs, she must rescue them. The movie version of the stage production was filmed during the play’s 2022 run at the Imperial Theatre in Tokyo.

Teiichi Akaba is a student at a prestigious private male high school known for producing important politicians and bureaucrats. His dream is to become the prime minster and make his own country. To help achieve his dream, he wants to become elected as his school's student council president. The elected student president receives privileges and a better chance for promotions later in the political & bureaucrat world. A power struggle takes place surrounding the student election.

In the year 1716 a mysterious epidemic stickens men in the country of Japan, dropping the population of men to 1/4th of its prior state. With the drastic reduction of men, the gender roles have become reversed in Japan. Woman become the dominant members of society and males are sought out for the ability to produce children. A young man named Unoshin Mizuno hopes to marry childhood sweetheart Onobu, but due to class differences realizes this is almost impossible. To raise his social status and also save his poor family, Unoshin Mizuno enters the Ohoku (inner chambers of the Shugun's castle) and attempts to vie among 3,000 other men for the affection of the female shogun. What Unoshin Mizuno quickly learns about the Ohoku is that the men there are all beautiful, but highly ambitious and conniving. In this environment, the 7th shogun Tokugawa passes away and the new shogun Yoshimune Tokugawa takes the thrown and enters the Ohoku.

They find that the person who attracted them to the Tomodachi Game is Tenji Mikasa. Maria Minase, who is a mysterious figure, takes part in the team which Yuichi Katagiri and Tenji Mikasa belong to. Will this test their love and trust for each other, as Yuichi gets deeper into this game of business?

Kikunosuke was born as a child outside marriage and raised by Tatsukichi, who is the female manager of Japanese traditional restaurant. Tatsukichi drills Kikunosuke hard in a Japanese traditional string instrument, Shamisen, and continence. However, Kikunosuke becomes a “man” by a Geisha, Botan when he turns 18, then he becomes a man who do sex for female and compensates for their unsatisfied physical and mental emptiness as his job, called “Saoshi (The rod master).” Also, he sets up for himself as a master of Shamisen. One day, a lonely club hostess, Nami, appears in front of Kikunosuke. Nami cannot get satisfied with sex and comes to Kikunosuke. He tried to make her happy with using various techniques, yet he gives up. With despaired and humiliated, Kikunosuke goes on a trip to become the best “Saoshi.” Then, Kikunosuke meets Yukino, has many struggles, at a bar, and he decides to sleep with Yukino. However, a mysterious man watching at them from outside.

Set in the late 21st century, an MRI scanner is introduced at the National Research Institute of Police Science's 9th Forensics Laboratory. The machine is able to scan the memories from even the deceased. As ethical questions arise over the machine's use, the 9th Forensics Laboratory members, including rookie Ikko Aoki and Chief Tsuyoshi Maki, struggle to solve cases.

At a certain park, there is a mysterious man, who has red eyes and a black suit, that people can go to and request him to kill someone. His assassinations can never be blamed on him because he takes no illegal action. His strength is in the power of suggestion and the arrangement of events. He accepts these requests, all the while privately mocking the foolishness of those whose unwise wishes he grants.

Madarame Baku is a mysterious gambler. His nickname is Usogui (literally The Lie Eater). Club Kakerou is the top illegal gambling den, where gamblers vie to become the best in their profession. Seeing through the lies of others, Madarame Baku challenges a variety of high stakes games at Club Kakerou.

Yawara Inokuma is a girl who aspires to an ordinary life but due to her innate talent is forced to practice judo by her authoritarian grandfather, Jigorou Inokuma, with the aim of achieving the championship in Japan and the gold medal in the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games. Because of the pressure from her grandfather she has a generally bad attitude about judo, avoiding it as much as she can. However, over time she comes to understand why her grandfather loves judo and appreciates it more.

Upon entering college, Narumi forms the Asunaro Group along with four other boys and girls. In time, she starts to date Tamotsu, whom she felt attracted to when she first saw him at the entrance exam. Although the two are happy together at first, their very different backgrounds cause them gradually to fall out and ultimately break up. Immediately following the break up, a member of the group dies a terrible death, and this brings the group to an end. The members go their separate ways, but Narumi and Tamotsu do not forget each other. Four years later, when the group reunites on the anniversary of the death of their friend, Tamotsu proposes to Narumi. The story follows the Asunaro Group members’ growth into adulthood as they struggle with the boundary between friendship and love, deal with bitter experiences, and find love for the first time.

A story about a talented child actress who wins back her dream after retiring from acting. Keito was once a popular child actress, but she had shut herself away from society for 10 years after a traumatic acting incident. She is now 17 years old and incidentally enrolls to a free school for dropouts where she makes true friends. Together, they build trust and find the meaning of life. --NHK

The story is about the daily life of a 30-year-old new wife, Hana, who cooks “Zubora Meshi”, while her husband is on a job transfer away from home. ”Zubora-Meshi” is the corner-cutting and easy cooking people usually cook only for themselves to eat.

Dance instructor Jennifer Ellison leads her students into competitions against some of the best dancers in the U.K. in this series that shows what it takes to get her girls to the level needed to win at their shows. Ellison cares for the girls as if they were her own, but she also pushes them to achieve greatness. The troupe's ultimate goal is to get to the Dance World Cup in Portugal. Accompanying the talented children on their dance journey are driven, straight-talking mothers who are in search of trophies.

When a certain man is released from prison, he knows exactly where he's heading first. After falling in love with a traditional comic storyteller's rendition of the story called "Shinigami," he is determined to become his apprentice. The performer, Yakumo, has never taken an apprentice before, but to everyone's surprise, he accepts the eager ex-prisoner, nicknaming him "Yotaro." As Yotaro happily begins his new life, he meets others in Yakumo's life, including Yakumo's ward Konatsu. Konatsu was the daughter of a famous storyteller, and Yakumo took her in after her father's tragic death. Konatsu loved her father's storytelling, and would love to become a performer in her own right—but that path is not available for women.

WOWOW brings another Keigo Higashino novel to the TV screen with “ Whose Is the Cuckoo's Egg?”. A medical suspense drama about genetics in sport, family bonds, talents and skills, and what it means to be truly happy. Higashino delves into the lives of those struggling with the conflict between business aspirations and individual conscience in a powerful tale set against the accessible backdrop of competitive winter sports – a tale that is sure to captivate audiences everywhere.

30-year-old Kamata Rinko is single and a struggling scriptwriter. She has no boyfriend and keeps having night outs at drinking spots with her girlfriends Kaori and Koyuki. “If I become beautiful, a better guy will appear!” “If we grow to like each other, we can get married!” They will not stop talking about these hypothetical questions. Then a younger, handsome, golden-haired guy suddenly utters, “These “what if” women!” and the trio have to face the harsh reality that they are no longer girls. Rinko enters her 30s while still immature, seeking happiness and struggling with romance and work.

Junko Harumi was once a model student during her middle school and high school days. She failed to enter prestigious Tokyo University and her life has not gone smoothly since then. She has a hard time finding a job and having relationships with men. Now, at the age of 31, she works as a teacher at a private institute. 3 men, who vary in type, appear in front of her. Masashi Yakumo is smart and a cousin of Junko, Kyohei Yuri is a disorderly high school student and Kazuma Yamashita is Kyohei ’s teacher in high school.

Seto Ichitaka, a second year high school student, has liked his classmate Yoshizuki Iori since the first year. Then the two of them become committee members of the welcome party for freshmen. When Ichitaka gradually opens up to Iori, his childhood friend Akiba Itsuki shows up all of a sudden.

Nao spent her formative years living at Kogetsuan, a well-established Japanese confectionery shop, where her single mother worked as a pastry chef. She is the same age as Tsubaki, heir to the store, and they become each other's first love. One morning, Tsubaki's father and head of Kogetsuan is stabbed and found covered in blood. Nao's mother is arrested based on the six-year-old Tsubaki's testimony and the little girl is kicked out of the shop. Nao's mother died while the investigation was going on, preventing the truth to emerge. Fifteen years later, the case is still shrouded in mystery. Is she really the culprit?

Two assassins face off at a certain "workplace." The cool bounty hunter Chateau and the mysterious and powerful Ryang-Ha. Chateau and Ryang-Ha become enemies after this fight—at least, they should have, but for some reason Ryang-Ha takes a liking to Chateau and begins following her around. Little by little, Chateau develops a cooperative partnership with Ryang-Ha, which gets her caught up in the struggle against the organizations hunting him down. Furthermore, that battle is related to her past as well. Why did Ryang-Ha approach Chateau? What is Chateau's secret past?

Mameda is a tanuki who was born in the wrong era - all she wants is to trick humans, but that age of tanuki shenanigans is over. But one woman, a rakugo master named Bunko, shows Mameda it's still possible to cast magic on humans...only with words, not illusions. Mameda is determined to become Bunko's apprentice, but can she convince the stoic master to take her on...?

This drama is the tale of one high spirited, strong-willed young woman and her struggle to fulfill her lifelong ambition of becoming a carpenter and building homes. The story takes place from the later part of the Showa era to present day Heisei rule. The heroine of the story, Kawashima Urara, lost her father at the tender age of seven and this drama depicts her life as she grows from a young school girl, through puberty and adolescence and on into her adult years as an independent woman who owns her own carpentry business. As Urara grows into a beautiful and strong woman and a talented carpenter, her family around her goes through many difficult and trying times. This story of becoming an independent businesswoman in the male-dominated world of carpentry accurately reflects the lives and struggles of the young women in present day Japan who are trying to make a career for themselves in addition to balancing the demands of family obligations, friends, and lovers.

Yae, an unremarkable girl working in a café and living with a friend, finds herself unable to afford rent when her friend suddenly gets married, and she loses her job in the same day! It’s only when her boyfriend dumps her that she finally hits rock bottom.

Plain-looking Tanaka-san from the accounting department is around 40 years old. She has no friends and no love life, but she does have a secret side... a super sexy belly dancer! Akari, a temporary employee, appears to be a lovable lady at first glance. Truth be told, she is increasingly anxious about marriage as she believes her “market value” depends on her youth and cuteness. Life is starting to become a struggle for Akari, who feels empty despite the slew of matchmaking parties she attends. One day, Akari learns of her colleague Tanaka-san’s true identity, which inspires her to live life in her own way. They are polar opposites, but their chemistry empowers them to blow off those who judge them. In the process, they discover their new selves.