
In the fictional town of Mahoro on the outskirts of Tokyo is Tada Benriken, a small business which does odd jobs. Its owner is the solemn and level-headed Tada Keisuke, and his unexpected guest, the easygoing but vague Gyoten Haruhiko, a former junior high school classmate who showed up one day and started to sponge on him. The two of them get on like oil and water, and yet are somehow inseparable. They receive queer, dubious incoming odd job requests which they accept, and what comes into view are the friendship between them as well as the backgrounds of their clients.

The series depicts the employees of a security company from different generations and backgrounds facing many difficult questions. It features a guard who survived a suicide mission during the war and his conflicts, rebellion, empathy and reconciliation with the younger generation born after the war.

Successful and married with children, paper-mill owner Jihei knows better than to contradict the strict social and moral codes of 18th-century Japan. But when he meets the lovely courtesan Koharu, he becomes a man obsessed. Koharu returns his love, even foregoing other customers while Jihei schemes to somehow buy her freedom. His efforts yield ruinous consequences for his business and his family life, and Koharu is meanwhile purchased by another client.


Ittōsai, who trained in the Itto-ryu style deep in the mountains of Nara, joins a professional baseball team.

A young man from a family photo studio becomes a newspaper photojournalist, learning the risks and demands of the job through repeated setbacks. His growing dedication strains his relationship with Keiko, and on the eve of their wedding he puts everything on the line to cover a devastating typhoon.

Late entry "Ekimae" feature, about the hunt for lost treasure.



A team of geophysicists investigating seismic activity on the seafloor discover that the islands of Japan, after suffering from massive volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, will be pulled into the ocean, killing millions.

After a passenger ship sinks in 1954, Go Akutsu devises a life-saving project in the form of a tunnel under the Tsugaru Strait. While working on this project Akutsu becomes involved with Tae Makimura leading to his estrangement from his wife.

The Americans are swiftly closing on Okinawa, an island just south of the Japanese mainland. The Imperial command sends top generals and several army divisions to defend it at all costs. The mission quickly degenerates as vital resources and troops are diverted to other islands. After a civilian evacuation ends in tragedy most of non-combatants are forced to remain on the island. Many convert to soldier status. Tokyo sends mixed messages that squander time and resources, as when they order the defenders to build an airstrip for aircraft that never come. The truth soon becomes obvious: the high command decides that the island cannot be held and effectively abandons the Okinawan defenders. When the Americans land many troops are deployed in the wrong places. As the slaughter mounts, a suicidal attitude takes hold. Okinawa becomes a death trap, for civilian volunteers and non-combatants as well.

In 17th-century Japan, two Portuguese Jesuit priests seek their mentor, who is rumoured to have committed apostasy, and to propagate Catholicism.


The Saika clan, that had succeeded in battle against the large armies of Nobunaga and Hideyoshi, had in the Tokugawa era of Ieyasu, been driven into the mountains 7 generations later, forced into subsistence hunting. A man comes to them offering revenge: to assassinate current Tokugawa Shogun Yoshimune. (Made-for-TV movie)