Thursday's episode of the Fuji TV drama series "Last Friends" registered a 20.7% audience rating, placing it not far behind this season's leader, "Gokusen 3." Boasting a cast of popular young stars, "Last Friends" has steadily been gaining steam since the 13.9% ratings of its premiere episode in April.

Despite its heavy themes such as domestic violence and sexual identity issues, the show has proven to be very successful, and is one of the few series this season to show a trend of improvement in the ratings. It is now less than a point behind "Gokusen," which has fallen about five percentage points since its strong 26.4% start. "Last Friends" also surpassed this week's episode of "CHANGE," which has scored less than 20% for two consecutive weeks despite starring the super-popular Takuya Kimura.