The documentary series features pioneers who are opening up frontiers in various fields such as science, space, culture, history, art, fashion, and more. It unfolds the captivating landscapes of the intellectual explorations into the unknown.

The rabbit girl Freya is trying to make everyone happy, with the Sylvanian village's annual star festival serving as the backdrop.

In this drama set on Shikina Island, a far-flung island of the Japanese archipelago located more than six hours from the Japanese main islands, the young physician Kensuke Goto arrives at the island and has to deal with the island's inhabitants, not eager to accept him, at a clinic lacking sufficient medical equipment. Here's a human drama showing how Dr. Coto values the dignity of human life while unflinchingly facing disease with a serious attitude.

An medical student unwillingly assists in human experiments on American POWs during WWII and gets sentenced to death in the Yokohama War Trials. His wife fights for a reduction of sentence.

In 1964, Momoko came by herself to Tokyo from her hometown. She met Shūzō and married him. They raised two children together, but Shūzō suddenly passes away. Momoko is dumbfounded by being alone again. She begins to go to the library and borrows books. This changes her life.

In 1879, Kenshin and his allies face their strongest enemy yet: his former brother-in-law Enishi Yukishiro and his minions, who've vowed their revenge.

It’s 1940, and the population of Japan is divided over its entry into World War II. Satoko, the wife of a fabric merchant, is devoted to her husband but is beginning to suspect he’s up to something. Soon she allows herself to be drawn into a game in which she enigmatically conceals her intentions.

It was a pre-destined love and marriage for Sonoko and Tetsuo. They tied the knot and became husband and wife no questions asked. All is well then. Well, perhaps not. Each holds a secret that even the binds of matrimony cannot untie. Sonoko does not know that Tetsuo makes sex dolls or Dutch wives. Sonoko has a secret too. She is about to tell Tetsuo what she has been hiding. Their marriage is already sexless. Will they make it?

Following the comic series and the subsequent television serial of the same name, and featuring the same cast, a young and relatively inexperienced man comes across a woman during his working day and sparks fly.

Toichi is a boatman who ferries the villagers to a town on the other side of the river. Besides rowing a boat for the villagers all day long, he barely communicates with anyone except Genzo, a young neighbour. Upstream, a large bridge is being constructed. Everyone is excited, but Toichi has mixed feelings about it. One day, Toichi meets a mysterious girl. Having no family and no place to go, Toichi lets her stay with him, but this encounter starts to bring about changes to Toichi's life.

Ruka is a young girl whose parents are separated and whose father works in an aquarium. When two boys, Umi and Sora, who were raised in the sea by dugongs, are brought to the aquarium, Ruka feels drawn to them and begins to realize that she has the same sort of supernatural connection to the ocean that they do. Umi and Sora's special power seems to be connected to strange events that have been occurring more and more frequently, such as the appearance of sea creatures far from their home territory and the disappearance of aquarium animals around the world. However, the exact nature of the boys' power and of the abnormal events is unknown, and Ruka gets drawn into investigating the mystery that surrounds her new friends.

Mari and Humi learn from their mother that their father has dementia on his 70th birthday. They help prepare their mother for his farewell and prepare themselves for the emotions to follow.

In Edo period Japan, a lone ronin spends time in a village helping the farmers tend to their land. To keep his sword skills sharp, he spars daily with a farmer's son. Meanwhile, the nation is in the midst of major unrest with civil war on the horizon. One day, a group of outlaw ronin enters the village.

A fourth-grader investigates the mysterious reason behind the sudden appearance of penguins in his village, which is somehow related to a power from a young woman working at a dental clinic.

At the Hirata home, three generations of their family live together. A crisis ensues when one afternoon, housewife Fumie falls asleep and wakes up to find a thief has stolen her secret money she kept hidden in the refrigerator.

The story follows an amateur salaryman named Hiroshi Miyamoto, who works at a stationary company and pushes forward despite his frustration with his own insignificance.

An unstable young woman pines for the ex-boyfriend who nearly beat her to death – and who has mysteriously disappeared.

To get revenge on her ex-boyfriend and to help revive her late mother's tennis table club, a table tennis prodigy decides to take part in a mixed doubles table tennis tournament.

Rosuke Narumi works at a trading company and he is pretty good at his job. He dates Satoko Matsubara. The trading company has a business relationship with a private high school experiencing some difficulties. One day, Rosuke Narumi is appointed as the principle of the private high school. Rosuke Narumi soon discovers how different the work environment is from his previous job. So the school can run in the black, Rosuke Narumi implements cost cutting measures. School staff members including Chihiro Mashiba oppose his plan.

A Tokyo college student is attacked by a ghoul, a super-powered human who feeds on human flesh. He survives, but has become part ghoul and becomes a fugitive on the run.

Detective Goro Nanase and his colleagues of "Akatsuka Detective Office" are based in Shimo-Akazuka of Itabashi-ku, Tokyo. The detectives take on a string of challenging cases that no one else wants to take on.

Several years after Shuzo settled his wife’s birthday-surprise divorce proposal (What a Wonderful Family, 40th), the Hirata family faces new problems. Ignoring his family’s worry that he is too old to drive, Shuzo takes his old schoolmate for a spin after carousing. Soon, a new disturbance arises for the Hirata family. Veteran director Yamada Yoji continues his comedy about the “perfect“ Japanese family turned upside down in chaos, laughters and understanding. This time, with an additional taste of death.

While a gang of high school girls randomly beats lone men at night, the photo of a young woman who has been declared missing is used to design a template which is painted on each wall of a small suburban town.

A recently divorced and traumatized man moves to Hakodate, Hokkaido and attends a vocational college to learn carpentry along with several other students who are in the same boat as he. When a couple of the guys go to a hostess club the man meets an unconventional girl who likes him and a relationship is born.

Drama series depicts the lives of three men born in 1987 and oppose irrational things of the world through work, love, and friendship. The men are from the "yutori generation", when the Japanese government reformed the education system, emphasizing a pressure-free environment referred to as yutori education.

A husband and wife have been married for 50 years. For her birthday, the husband asks the wife what she wants for her birthday present. She replies that she wants a divorce. The wife's divorce announcement sends the entire family into chaos.

Mizuki’s husband Yusuke went missing for 3 years. He suddenly comes back home one day and asks Mizuki to go on a trip with him. Their trip consists of visiting the people that helped Yusuke on his previous travel. While travelling together, Misuki sees, touches and feels what Yusuke did for those 3 years.

A psychiatrist, Rintaro Hino, listens closely to the aching hearts of people, relieving them of their pain. His practice is growing but despite his achievements, Dr. Rintaro himself falls short in one department: love.

Tetsuko "Alice" Arisugawa has just moved to a new house with her recently divorced mother and enrolled at a school where a strange rumor lingers among the students about "Judas," who is said to have been murdered over a year before. She is told that if anybody knows his fate it would be Hana Arai, the recluse in the house next door who has been unable to bring herself to attend class since "Judas" disappeared.

Shishio sets sail in his ironclad ship to bring down the government. In order to stop him, Kenshin trains with his old master to learn his final technique.

Kenshin has settled into his new life with Kaoru and his other friends when he is approached with a request from the Meiji government. Makoto Shishio, a former assassin like Kenshin, was betrayed, set on fire and left for dead. He survived, and is now in Kyoto, plotting with his gathered warriors to overthrow the new government. Against Kaoru's wishes, Kenshin reluctantly agrees to go to Kyoto and help keep his country from falling back into civil war.

Five siblings struggle to live together after their parents have passed away. Arguments are a norm, and each have their own problems with studying, finding a job, marriage, etc. But no matter how dysfunctional their family can be, blood is thicker than water and the ties that bind will keep them together through thick and thin.

Toru grew up in alpine countryside around Mount Tate. As a child, he resented the yearly trek up the mountain with his father to prepare their mountain hut for the summer season of climbers. When Toru grows up, he leaves his hometown and enters the working world as a stock trader. One day, Toru receives word that his father has passed away. He returns to Mount Tate once again, and becomes conscious of a new calling. But, does Toru have what it takes to follow in his father footsteps?

An explosion take place in a street of Tokyo. Many people were killed or seriously injured. One casualty is Chihiro, the wife of Public Security chief inspector Kuraki Naotake. While trying to find why his wife was being implicated in the explosion case, Kuraki comes into contact with Public Security sergeant Akeboshi Miki and Metropolitan Police Department inspector Osugi Ryota who are also investigating this case.

Goemon Ishikawa steals a golden statue from Yukari Kukai with female thief Neko no Me Ogin, but Private Detective Shinkuro Akechi chases after Goemon Ishikawa and Neko no Me Ogin. Detective Shinkuro Akechi discovers that there is a code hidden within the golden statue. The code reveals the location where gold is hidden. Meanwhile, outlaws gather under Goemon Ishikawa.

Space Pirate Captain Harlock and his fearless crew face off against the space invaders who seek to conquer the planet Earth.

The murder of a young girl leaves the inhabitants of a small Japanese village in shock. The body of Emili is found by four classmates with whom she was playing. The murder is never solved. Emili's mother, Asako, is torn by grief and puts a curse on the four girls when they claim not to remember the killer's face. Each of the girls, in their own way, will do penance for their silence.

Detective Seiichiro Watari is nearing retirement, but is still bothered by an unsolved case from seven years ago when the decomposed corpse of a female was found by a fisherman in the sea of Otaru. The body was never identified so the case was never solved. Three years after his retirement, Watari unexpectedly discovers a clue that may finally solve the case.

An elderly couple journey to Tokyo to visit their grown children, only to find them preoccupied and self-involved.

This is the continuation and final part of Double Face SP, the Japanese remake of the highly successful 2002 Hong Kong film, Infernal Affairs. This special focuses on Police Inspector Takayama Ryosuke (Kagawa Teruyuki) who had been secretly supplying police information to the organized crime group, the Oda-gumi. Once a young street thug, Takayama was taken under the wing of Oda Hironari (Kohinata Fumiyo), the leader of Oda-gumi. Dressed, fed, and educated, Takayama was instructed to become a police officer and work as a mole for the group. Now, he is tasked to get close to Suenaga Mari (Aoi Yu), a daughter of an influential politician.

In 1868, after the Bakumatsu war ends, the ex-assassin Kenshin Himura traverses Japan with an inverted sword, to defend the needy without killing.

The murder of a young girl shocks a small Japanese village, and the victim's mother is distraught when the classmates her daughter was playing with all claim not to remember the identity of the killer. In her anger, she puts a curse on them.

The Hawaiian Spa Resort in Iwaki, Fukushima prefecture, was heavily damaged by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake. This documentary accompanies their famous Hula dance troupe at their tour through Japan and shows the rebuilding of the resort. The film team also goes with one of the dancers to her former home in the evacuated zone near the Fukushima I nuclear power plant.

A young woman travels to Ireland. She comes across unexpected meetings, inspiration and even miracles.

An outwardly normal schoolteacher preys on suicidal women to slake his overwhelming thirst for human blood.

A disillusioned Natsume arrives at Coin de Rue, a popular Tokyo pastry shop, begging for work. Aiming to become a high-calibre pastry chef, she is determined to overcome both her past and the challenges ahead. Pastry critic Tomura is a frequent visitor to Coin de Rue. Moved by Natsume's persistence, he slowly begins to confront his own painful past aided, of course, by mouthfuls of tasty pastries.

Set during the Edo Period, a young man from a noble family meets a young woman under a special tree called "Raiou" (the tree was struck by lightning at one time with the broken part eventually sprouting out cherry blossoms). The young woman lived freely in the mountains after she was abducted as a young child. The couple soon fall in love under the Raiou tree, but become acutely aware of their different social positions & the ramifications it has on their relationship.

He was the pride of his police department as the number one armed robbery buster... until he had his heart broken by the sudden flight of a fiancee from his life. Now "Detective Lovesick" finds his crime-fighting mojo and his chance at rising through the police hierarchy slipping away. Spending his days in a desperate search for the love of his life, Detective Lovesick is a man in love with himself and idolizes his drinking buddy, who is a romance psychologist. He loses himself to love easily, even at work, falling for every femme fatale he investigates and after a lot of hair pulling, ending each case with a marriage proposal. "Marry me or be under arrest." But will any woman accept such a proposal? Suspense, comedy and romance all converge in a libido-rich police drama unlike any you've ever seen.

Flowers examines the lives of six women across three generations, from the Show period all the way through to the present day.

The most dangerous and exciting car race in the universe is held only once every five years. And that's tonight. The competitors are lined up at the starting block. In his vehicle, JP, the most daredevil driver on the circuit, is ready for the green light. Female driver Sonoshee, with whom he is secretly in love, is also on the starting line. She will stop at nothing to get on to that podium. In this race, not only is anything possible, but also anything is allowed. In fact, their adversaries have modified their vehicles to equip them with highly destructive weapons; with such participants, it is hardly surprising that Redline is forbidden by the authorities, who will try anything to halt the proceedings.

Nodame and Chiaki mutually decide that it would be for the best if they parted ways for a while so Nodame can practice for an upcoming competition. However, when things don’t go her way, she gets impatient and depressed. While Nodame is away, Chiaki’s former pianist Rui Son returns to take her place. To make matters worse, Rui and Chiaki are set to play the song Nodame dreams of playing with Chiaki herself: Ravel’s “Concerto in G Minor”.

Ginko's younger brother Tetsuro, a failed comedian, is the oddball of the family. Embarrassing, loud and plain inappropriate at times causes Ginko to disown him. The two reunite when she discovers Tetsuro is terminally ill. Tetsuro’s impending death marks the beginning of love and toleration.

After being deserted by her parents, 11-year old Miyori shuts her heart from the rest of the world and denies any form of human relationships. She was entrusted in the care of her grandmother who lives near a forest. Miyori will take a walk in the forest where she felt a strong sense of loneliness in the forest which seems to have nothing. However, she soon encounters unbelievable things...

Based on Saibara Rieko's manga, Ike-chan to Boku (a.k.a. Good Bye My Secret Friend) tells the heartfelt story of a young boy named Toshio and his imaginary friend Ike-chan. Toshio's floating blob of a friend has two big eyes and a mouth, and changes colors and sizes depending on the mood. When Toshio is sad, she turns small. When Toshio makes friend with a girl, she turns bright red from anger. Ike-chan stays by Toshio's side as he grows older, but the day he finds his first love, Ike-chan disappears from his life. Child actor Fukasawa Arashi (Helen the Baby Fox) takes the leading role in this affecting fable about childhood, friendship, and growing up from director Ohoka Toshihiko. Popular actress Aoi Yu voices Ike-chan.

Leo, a young Japanese college student, travels to Hawaii and eventually falls in love with Maray, an older Japanese-Caucasion woman.

Three distinct tales unfold in the bustling city of Tokyo. Merde, a bizarre sewer-dweller, emerges from a manhole and begins terrorizing pedestrians. After his arrest, he stands trial and lashes out at a hostile courtroom. A man who has resigned himself to a life of solitude reconsiders after meeting a charming pizza delivery woman. And finally, a happy young couple find themselves undergoing a series of frightening metamorphoses.

A 21-year-old girl is released from prison, only to deal with the neighborhood gossip about her and family conflicts. She decides to save one million yen, move to where no one knows her and keep repeating the process.

Handa Sen is the "okami" (proprietress) of a long-standing restaurant in one of the lower parts of Tokyo. Though she is normally airheaded and loves to drink, she has an impressive mastery of a wide range skills, from cooking to ceramics to calligraphy. While the drama follows various events surrounding the restaurant, one of the series' highlights is its illustration of Japanese food and culture.

The series consists of four 3-episode chapters, each handled by a different director. The directors were given freedom in their stories, but they all share a common theme: lies. --Tokyograph

Mirume is a 19 year old college student who falls in love with Yuri, an almost 40 year old art teacher at his university. Yuri isn't your typical college professor, having a quirky sense of humor and unpredictable personality. When Yuri invites Murume to her studio, she playfully seduces the still naive 19 year old student. Things become more complicated when Mirume discovers that Yuri is married to a much older man....

A Japanese Class B war criminal sets out to take full responsibility for the execution of American Airmen.

28 year old freelance writer Sakura Asuka wakes up tied in a white room. The white room is a protected room located in an isolated ward of a psychiatric hospital. Sakura first became unconscious because of heavy alcohol use and a druge overdose. She’s confined in the single room because of her high risk of committing suicide. Sakura tried to talk to the nurses and doctors but they didn’t listen to her. Under the circumstances another patient Miki, who suffers from an eating disorder, leads her to understand the unknown world. But, Sakura is looking for the way to get back to the real world as soon as possible.

Mushi are beings in touch with the essence of life, far more basic and pure than normal living things. Most humans are incapable of perceiving Mushi and are oblivious to their existence, but there are a few who possess the ability to see and interact with Mushi. One such person is Ginko who travels from place to place to research Mushi and aid people suffering from problems caused by them.

Tomoya Kishida is working as a staffer in a television studio when he hears about the death of his close friend, Aoi Sato. This sparks his recollection of the events in life they shared from meeting at a record store, shooting a short film as part of their university film club, to saying their last goodbyes. Though in love with each other, neither had the courage to confess their feelings before it was too late.

Two penniless orphans, Black and White, struggle to survive on the mean streets of Treasure Town. When a megacorporation threatens to tear down the town to build an amusement park, Black and White engage in the fight of their life.

Recently graduated from high school, 17-year-old Shiro decides to put off college and work at a gas station instead. Shy and introspective, Shiro understands he is at a turning point of his life, but is unsure of what lies ahead. Though his parents disapprove of his decision, he has the support of his flower child grandmother who declares that a gas station is a romantic place for life's drifters. Surely enough, soon a new co-worker, college student Noriko, drifts into Shiro's life. He falls headfirst into a bittersweet first love that ushers him into the world of adulthood.

Young women in a small Japanese town look to revive their home's declining fortunes by building a Hawaiian village tourist attraction.

Adapted from the popular manga of the same name, director Masahiro Takada's coming of age drama follows five Hama Art College students as they prepare to venture out into the real world on a great voyage of self-discovery.

Directed by Junya Sato and based on a book by Jun Henmi, "Yamato" has a framing story set in the present day and uses flashbacks to tell the story of the crew of the World War II Japanese battleship Yamato. The film was never released in the United States, where reviewers who have seen it have compared the military epic to "Titanic" and "Saving Private Ryan."

Tetsumu, an introverted youth, realizes he has a natural ability of communicating with elephants. This prompts him to leave for Chiang Mai in Thailand to become Japan's first elephant trainer. Having found his place in the world, Tetsumu develops into a strong, confident young man. He returns to Japan with the dream of building a green "paradise" for his ivory-tusked friends. Meanwhile, he starts a career as an elephant trainer for touring shows. He meets Emi, a woman seven years his senior and falls in love.

Suzume Katagura, a bored housewife, spends her days doing chores and taking care of her husband's pet turtle. One day, she sees a wanted ad for spies. Hoping for some excitement in her life, she decides to give them a call.

Fuki who lives with her grandfather Shoei in Taketomi Island, Okinawa, dreams of becoming a photographer. In her childhood, her mother Masami left Fuki to live in Tokyo. Although Masami has not come back, Fuki receives birthday cards from Masami every year on her birthday. On Fuki's fourteenth birthday, Masami promises to confess everything when Fuki becomes 20 years old. After her graduation from high school, Fuki moves to Tokyo to work as a camera assistant. Fuki starts off her hectic life in Tokyo, and soon, her nineteenth birthday comes. As usual, she receives a birthday card from Masami. A year later...

A young yakuza thug apprentices with an indebted comic "rakugo" performer, whose not-so-fashionable son runs a clothes shop in the Harajuku backstreets.

One of the true classic's of anime's much-loved robot genre.

A horror suspense film to be released in February 2005, in which Reiko SUHO plays a college student who is drawn into a bizarre world. A dead woman is found on the roof of a university. Saya, who was watching the scene from the side, senses "something" invisible to others and notices a strange message.

Behind the scenes documentary about the filming of "Hana & Alice", which began as a series of shorts promoting Kit Kat

The shock of her fiance's sudden dissolution of their relationship causes university student, Miki, to lose her voice. While recuperating in a hospital in her hometown of Hakodate, she learns of the tragic life of her deceased mother, Kaoru, from her grandmother.

Nanako is an ordinary high school girl who lives with her mother, who is a taxi driver. One day, suddenly she has a younger brother - Nanao, the son of her late father's mistress. While Nanao's mother is being put in jail, Nanako's mother decides to take care of him. Nanako doesn't like it at all. Everything Nanao does irritates her. Shortly afterwards, Nanako's mother becomes very sick. In fact, she doesn't have much time left. Since she is in hospital, Nanako is forced to live with Nanao alone...

***Fushiawase wo Anata ni (We Bring You Misfortune) A woman sees a company called "Fushiawase wo Anata ni" (we bring you misfortune) promoting a new sales concept: giving its clients misfortune to motivate them to seek greater happiness. ***Kuuhaku no Hito (Blank Person) A woman wakes up in her bed every morning not remembering the events of the past night, and finding that someone has moved around the things in her room. ***Jigoku wa Manin (Hell Is Full) As there is no more room in hell, the evil/sinful find they cannot die. ***Kako kara no Nikki (Diary from the Past) A struggling author chances upon a diary which changes his life. ***Aketekure (Open Up!) A woman's husband dies in a car accident, but that same evening he is heard pounding on the door for someone to let him in.

Two teenage best pals attracted to the same boy end up scrambling his life after he walks into a door and is knocked unconscious.

A writer (Hidetoshi Nishijima) who has an artistic crisis purchases a stack of diaries written by a teenage girl (Yû Aoi) who is fatally ill. Living in different time lines both are able to communicate via writing diaries…

Tadao Kuramochi, an ordinary salaryman, decides one day to reach for his dreams and start his own wrestling federation. Tadao must succeed to save his family on the verge of collapsing.

A former idol becomes a teacher at the high school she graduated from, but her new career is threatened by an expose book her ex-manager is planning to publish.

Hidenori is a Japanese-Korean man with no sense of belonging, destination or education. He drifts around and meanders through life until a death reminds him of his heritage and so begins a journey to South Korea.

After making a serious mistake in his work in Tokyo, talented surgeon Goto Kensuke is invited to take charge of the only clinic on the small island of Yonaguni, Okinawa. It is difficult to get competent doctors to serve on this remote island, and the islanders are now used to traveling for hours via boat for proper medical care. Despite seeming weak and unreliable (he gets very seasick, and does not have a driving license), he wins over the skeptical islanders with his skill and dedication. Some children of the island make a flag for his clinic, but get his name wrong. Thereafter he is known by all as Koto.

Web/video series by Shunji Iwai. Commissioned by Nestle for breaktown.com. Later adapted into feature film.

Hina, a student at Nikko High School, goes out one evening with her classmate Beniko. They get split up and Hina ends up in a strange meeting with a man named Ikumi in a game arcade. The next day, Ikumi turns up as the new teacher at her school. Ikumi doesn't seem to recognize Hina but the wheels of fate are slowly moving to reunite them in what is a passionate story of forbidden love.

Yoko is aiming to become an actress in the city far away from her home. I lost my husband in an accident during autumn salmon fishing and tried to escape from my mother who had a hard time raising with one woman. One day, a phone call returns to the home where Yoko should have forgotten. “Mom fell ...” My mother, who met on a homecoming for the first time in five years, had a hard day as a mother while having a serious illness. The captain of the sightseeing boat, who was close to retirement, touched her mother and her mother-in-law who had been absent for a long time because of her father's absence. When Yoko found that her mother's illness was actually life-threatening, Yoko had to return to the city with a ticket that could make her dream come true. Yoko understands her feelings toward her mother's feelings as her true feelings while the scent of her hometown is loosing.

The making of 'All About Lily Chou-Chou' starting from its conception as an interactive story that played out on a BBS

Uchiyama Kaede and Shiina Kasumi used to be best friends. Now in high school, Kasumi grew more popular than Kaede, which has led her to continually bully her ex-best friend. One day after school, Kaede meets Kishida Takumi, a bike thief who's especially talented in picking locks. She asks him for a favour: if he could possibly open the key to the school roof. Meanwhile, the arrival of a new teacher seems to bring changes to the school.

Charts the troubled teenage years of students Yūichi Hasumi and Shūsuke Hoshino, exploring the shifting and complex power dynamics of their relationship against the backdrop of Yūichi's love for the dreamy and abstract music of fictional pop star Lily Chou-Chou.

13-year-old Sachiko is about to encounter the most difficult moments in her young life. Her father abandons her and her mother attempts to commit suicide by slashing her wrist. Her teacher, whom she relies on heavily, leaves for northern Japan to take another job. Other students start to gossip about Sachiko and her former teacher. Sachiko then drops out of school and attempts to find herself.