Winter 2010 Drama Lineup

If you’re jumping in late to the current TV drama season, here’s what the networks have to offer. This winter is full of action shows and office dramas, but you also have a few alternatives, such as the romantic comedy of “Yamato Nadeshiko Shichihenge.” Here’s the (almost) complete lineup:

This is the second season of “Hancho,” a police detective series that first aired last spring and is based on a popular series of novels by writer Bin Konno. Like the first season, Kuranosuke Sasaki plays the chief of a new police station in Harajuku. Despite his small team of detectives, he leads them to solve various cases within their precinct.

The popular medical drama “Code Blue” from 2008 returns for another dosage, this time in Fuji TV’s Monday night time slot. The story still revolves around Doctor Heli, a program that uses helicopters to deliver emergency medical aid. Tomohisa Yamashita returns as the protagonist Kosaku, a talented trainee “flight doctor.” Also returning are the other young trainees (Yui Aragaki, Erika Toda, Yosuke Asari) and a young flight nurse (Manami Higa).

After graduation, Miki Tsunoda (Nana Eikura) manages to land a job at the first-rate company that she has been aiming for. But after making a mistake in her work, she starts becoming the subject of bullying by her co-workers. Despite her frustration and pain, she decides to endure the harassment rather than run away.

Kenichiro Matsushima (Ryuta Sato) is an employee at a construction firm. He leads a straightforward life, due to his firm adherence to honesty, but remains a bachelor due to his awkwardness when it comes to matters of love. One day, he meets the part-timer Narumi Kurita (Kyoko Fukada), whose selfish ways are at odds with his own personality. Through his interactions with her, his outlook on life evolves as he changes his mind about what is “right.” At the same time, he also begins developing feelings for her…

Shunzo Waku’s long-running “Akakabu Kenji” novel series gets the live-action treatment in this drama. Shigeru Hiiragi (Baijaku Nakamura) is a kind and humble public prosecutor with an endearing personality, in part due to his Nagoya dialect and love of turnips. In his relaxing manner, he manages to defeat even the best of lawyers in the courtroom.

32-year-old Saki Ogiwara (Miho Kanno) is a paralegal who refuses to compromise on her ideals and give in to the rest of society. Having failed the bar exam nearly ten years in a row, she persists in her dream of becoming a lawyer, despite the people around her telling her to give up and settle down with her boyfriend (Takashi Tsukamoto). One day, she runs into her former high school classmate Riko (Hiromi Nagasaku), who has become a housewife and mother of two children. Leading a wealthy socialite lifestyle, Riko has no qualms about lying in order to get what she wants. Between a proposal from her boyfriend, the appearance of Riko, and a man she meets (Shosuke Tanihara), Saki finds herself confused about her path in life.

Based on the historical fiction manga “Shinsengumi Imon PEACE MAKER” by Nanae Chrono, this drama depicts the life of Ichimura Tetsunosuke (played by teen actor Kenta Suga), a boy whose parents were murdered. Vowing to become strong and avenge their deaths, Tetsunosuke aims to join the ranks of the special police force Shinsengumi, despite the protests of his older brother Tatsunosuke (Yuta Furukawa).

Ten years earlier, Kyoto police detective Shinnosuke Kamo (Yasufumi Terawaki) was punished for mishandling a case, resulting in his demotion and transferral to another station. In addition, his wife divorced him and took their child, leaving Kamo by himself. Now, he has finally returned to his former station, carrying the same passion for his job as before. However, his old-fashioned ways are at odds with the modern police system.

This adaptation of Katsutoshi Kawai’s manga “Tomehane! Suzuri Koukou Shodoubu” stars Aki Asakura as first-year high school student Yuki Mochizuki, one of the top female judo athletes in the nation. At the school’s entrance ceremony, she meets fellow freshman Yukari Oe (Sosuke Ikematsu), who has just returned from living in Canada. The timid Yukari is soon forced to join the calligraphy club, which is on the verge of being abolished due to a lack of members. When Yuki accidentally breaks Yukari’s arm, she takes responsibility by joining the calligraphy club as well.

“Angel Bank” is based on a manga by Norifusa Mita. As a loose sequel to Mita’s “Dragon Zakura,” it focuses on Mamako Ino, originally an English teacher at the Ryuzan High School depicted in that manga. Kyoko Hasegawa, who played Ino in the “Dragon Zakura” drama series, reprises the role here. After years of teaching, she finds herself out of a job, so she attends a seminar by “occupational change agent” Yasuo Ebisawa (Katsuhisa Namase), who specializes in advising the countless people looking to switch careers. When Ebisawa unexpectedly offers her a part-time job, she begins her career as an occupational change agent.

Koji Bokumoto (Kazuma Ikeda) has just joined Marumaru Communications, the advertising company that he has been aiming for… but he gets a rude awakening on the first day when he finds himself assigned to work under division head Konosuke Kinoshita (Itsuji Itao). He quickly realizes that Kinoshita is an unreliable and whimsical guy who certainly lives life at his own pace. Kinoshita has a reputation for being late, leaving early, falling asleep at work, and acting unpredictably, leading all the other employees to wonder how he ever became the head of a division…

Elite financial bureaucrat Takashi Arikawa (Kazuki Kitamura) is the son of the head of one of Japan’s largest medical corporations. With his intelligence, looks, wealth, and status, he was naturally meant for power in the political arena. He senses an opportunity when he receives a proposal to marry the daughter (Misa Uehara) of an influential politician (Eiji Okuda), so he breaks things off with his longtime girlfriend (Eiko Koike). However, the engagement sets in motion a “cursed destiny” that traces back almost half a century.

Tomoko Hayakawa’s popular shojo manga “Yamato Nadeshiko Shichihenge” comes to life in this series, which stars KAT-TUN’s Kazuya Kamenashi. University student Kyohei Takano (Kamenashi) is unable to hold a job, due to his quick temper and the problems caused by his good looks. He struggles to pay the rent for the mansion he lives in with three other handsome students – Yukinojo Toyama (Yuya Tegoshi), Takenaga Oda (Hiroki Uchi), and Ranmaru Morii (Shuntaro Miyao). Because of his lack of money, he quickly agrees to the mansion’s owner’s offer of free lodging. In exchange, the four men must transform the owner’s niece Sunako (Aya Omasa) into a proper lady. However, Sunako has low self-esteem and is anti-social, and her initial appearance seems straight out of a horror movie.

Masaru Nagai returns for another season as the titular character Kintaro Yajima, a construction company salaryman who was once the leader of a gang. This is the second season for the show on TV Asahi, continuing to tell the story of Kintaro’s new path in life. TV Asahi’s version is separate from the earlier “Salaryman Kintaro” series that TBS ran for four seasons between 1999 and 2004, though both are adapted from the manga by Hiroshi Motomiya.

The members of the massive pop idol group AKB48 star in this school drama, though Majisuka Gakuen is no ordinary girls high school. Completely full of rival yankee groups, fights are an everyday occurrence here. A quiet girl named Atsuko Maeda (played by Atsuko Maeda herself) enters the school as a new transfer student, though she appears to be quite out of place. Meanwhile, the loud Daruma Onizuka (Nachu), another new student, quickly becomes a target in the fighting. But when things start getting out of hand, Atsuko finally shows her true colors.

In this historical drama, Riko Narumi plays the role of Koi, a young girl living with her mother, who runs a tsukemono shop. She doesn’t like attention, but she inadvertently gets when she joins a competition for a game she loves to play: Hyakunin Isshu. Also known as “uta-garuta,” the game involves players competing to grab cards based on partial poems read aloud. Koi has a talent for it, and she continues to win in the competition. Meanwhile, she also meets and falls in love with the young ronin Yura Shindo (Yuta Hiraoka), though he has mind on plotting revenge against those responsible for his father’s death.

The first season of “Bloody Monday,” based on Ryo Ryumon’s fast-paced suspense manga of the same name, was a success when it aired in late 2008. Now, the story continues with genius hacker Fujimaru Takagi (Haruma Miura) still battling against deadly terrorist plots, though now the stakes have been raised from a virus to a nuclear weapon. Returning faces include Takeru Sato, Michiko Kichise], Hiroki Narimiya, and Umika Kawashima, while several new characters are joining the action.

“Hidarime Tantei EYE” started out as a single-episode special last October, but now it has been developed into a full-length series. Due to vision problems, junior high student Ainosuke Tanaka (Ryosuke Yamada) received a corneal transplant in his left eye from his older brother (Yu Yokoyama), who reportedly passes away. Ainosuke soon begins having strange visions, which seem to be connected to his brother’s death. At the same time, the visions also lead him to discover an evil organization, whose crimes are planned by… his brother! Faking his death, the brother has become a criminal mastermind, and now Ainosuke is determined to stop him.

Shinsuke Murakami (Kenji Sakaguchi) is an interviewer for a corporate restructuring consulting firm. He has become a pro at his role, sending countless workers into forced retirement, despite the personal anguish that naturally comes with the job. In the first of the show’s six episodes, he is tasked with cutting 200 employees from a large building material company, but one employee in particular refuses to give in.

NHK’s 2010 taiga drama is “Ryomaden,” a telling of Sakamoto Ryoma’s life by screenwriter Yasushi Fukuda. Sakamoto was a leader of the anti-shogunate movement during Japan’s Bakumatsu period in the mid-1800s, who was assassinated at the age of 33. The character has appeared in countless dramas and films, but here he is being played by popular actor Masaharu Fukuyama, backed by a cast that includes Ryoko Hirosue, Shihori Kanjiya, Yoko Maki, and Yu Aoi.

Katsuhiro Tamura (Sho Sakurai) is an assistant administrative scrivener (one who prepares legal documents) with a strong sense of justice. While studying to become a full-fledged scrivener, he meets Misuzu Sumiyoshi (Maki Horikita), a 22-year-old scrivener who has been in the profession since graduating from high school. Misuzu is hard-working and capable, but she hates men and can’t stand to lose. Because of their personalities, Katsuhiro and Misuzu are constantly at odds, but over time they begin to understand each other.

Akira Takahara (Yoko Moriguchi) is a magazine editor at a successful publisher, but after a certain scandal, she ends up being fired. On top of that, her fiance disappears and she loses her apartment. It turns out that her fiance has left with an enormous debt to Kaoru Shioya (Seiji Rokkaku), a former coworker who now owns a Shibuya host club called Club Indigo. Full of despair, she is forced to take on the job of managing the club, which employs a colorful cast of hosts. However, when various incidents start happening around the club, she and these unusual men unite in trying to solve the cases.