Daichi Watanabe
~~ Adapted from the manga "Romance Boufu Iki" (ロマンス暴風域) by Torikai Akane (鳥飼茜).
The "first penguin" is the courageous first penguin that dives into the sea filled with enemies. Iwasaki Nodoka is a young single mother with no money, no house, and no work. While Nodoka decides that she will do anything to eat, she meets a fisherman who offers her "10,000 yen to rebuild the coast". Thus, Nodoka now carries the dreams of the local fishermen whose lives are on her shoulders. Despite her limited knowledge of the fishing industry, Nodoka does her best working with the stubborn sea men, breaks through the old common sense and customs with her boldness, and creates a revolution in the industry.
M, a mystery writer, has a girlfriend of five years named F, who disappeared on Halloween night. When a woman comes and claims to be her sister, M begins the search for his girlfriend. Along the way, the people he meets describe a woman very unlike the F he knew.
Haruka is a fisherman's daughter, who lost her home and many friends in the Tohoku earthquake. After a year living in a temporary housing, she did not want to return back to her hometown and went to Tokyo where she got captivated by a lighting store. Haruka later works at the store and decides to help the customers to find their own light in life. At the same time, Haruka slowly overcomes her emotional wounds and finds her own light.
Kamijo Ren is the director of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s Criminal Investigation Liaison Division. His father is a former police officer. An incident in Ren’s childhood triggered his thirst for power and he has his sights set on heading the police force by becoming its Superintendent General someday. Ren believes topping the faction that he belongs to is the shortcut to fulfilling his aspiration. He is driven by ambition and has no qualms carrying out work, no matter how dirty it is. His childhood friend Mizuki Sawa, a senior detective in the First Investigation Division, often opposes his stance and mindset as a detective but is the only one who knows about his past.
Kageyama (Daichi Watanabe), Iizuka (Fuma Kikuchi), and Malik (Ike Nwala) live together in a share house. They were hired as live-in part-time workers at the Love Science Research Institute run by Sachi (Anna Ishii), a graduate student who studies love.
Towards the end of WWII, the Navy gave the Kyoto University's physics lab the secret of a bomb that makes use of nuclear fission energy. While doing research to save Japan, the researchers there wonder if they should promote the development of weapons as scientists. Research enthusiast Ishimura Osamu tries to experiment purely but is at the mercy of the time period. His brother, Hiroyuki, also has to face the truth of the war. Asakura Setsu wants only to talk about the future. A story based on historical facts about youth during the tragedy of war.
Kato, a scriptwriter, is in love with Miho—but he can never manage to muster up enough courage to make the relationship anything more than a platonic friendship. Seemingly oblivious to Kato's feelings for her, Miho is always calling him up and spilling her guts about her own love problems. She's in love with someone else, it turns out, but Kato swallows his pride—hearing about it all is almost too much to bear, but he wants to be with Miho as much as he can. In the meantime, the script he's working on for a TV drama mirrors a lot of his relationship with Miho. One day, Kato's friends tell him that his views on love are all mistaken, that he shouldn't delude himself into thinking that his dead-end crush on Miho will go anywhere. Emboldened and motivated, Kato finally decides to tell Miho exactly how he feels.
Takahata Isao’s animated artistry in Only Yesterday (1991) comes to life in Hakota Yuko’s delicate story of a woman’s mnemonic journey. Trapped in her anemic career and love relationship, a 30-year-old TV commercial director returns to her countryside home in the company of a free-spirited friend. In a bittersweet reunion with an alienated family, her childhood memories of freedom and yearnings creep in the dreamlike blue hour, transcending into a lyricism of self-realization – at once whimsical, agonizing and yet hopeful.
On the night of her police university graduation, Natsume Hamanaka’s (Riho Yoshioka) younger brother dies in accident caused by Natsume Hamanaka. In the accident, Natsume Hamanaka also loses her eyesight. She gives up on being a police officer. 3 years later, Natsume Hamanaka still has gotten over what happened that night. One day, she is involved in a minor car accident. She hear's a young girl's voice asking for help. Natsume Hamanaka senses that the girl might be a kidnap victim. She reports what happened to the police, but the police doesn't purse her report. Natsume Hamanaka does not give up and keeps looking for the girl. She finds a young boy who was skateboarding near the fender bender car accident. Natsume Hamanaka believes a serial kidnapper exists.
Keisuke Agatsuma is a high schooler who might not be very sharp but has an amazing sense for comedy. He is self-proclaimed school's king of laughter and he enjoys making everyone laugh, but a future as a comedian seems impossible because of his father's attitude. One day an ex-comedian Jun Tsujimoto transfers to his school from Osaka. They see how interesting ideas they both have and take an interest in forming a stand up combination. As they try to achieve their goal, other comedians seem to overlook Keisuke's abilities for one reason or another and their motivation goes up and down, but still they aim to become pro together. (Source: AnimeNewsNetwork)
Mio is 20 years old Japanese girl. Having lost her parents early, she and her grandmother run a traditional Japanese inn in Nagano. However, her grandmother gets sick. Mio comes to Tokyo and lives with her father’s best friend, Kyosuke. He runs a traditional public bath. She begins to help with his work, but it is scheduled that the public bath would be demolished on redevelopment.
45-year-old Mitsuo Komae works for an advertising company. He gets demoted from the head office in Tokyo to a branch office in the province. He has to leave his wife and daughter in Tokyo to work at the branch office. There, Mitsuo Komae begins work as the branch office manager which only has 2 employees. Needing to pay for the mortgage on his house and support his student daughter, he seeks ways to increase sales. One day, Mitsuo Komae receives a phone call from a client. The client is CEO Ryuzaki. Mitsuo Komae’s branch office made leaflets for CEO Ryuzaki's company, but a silly mistake was done in the leaflets. CEO Ryuzaki is furious. Making things even worse, CEO Ryuzaki is a yakuza. Mitsuo Komae is in big trouble.
Two girls dream of the same man. One remained in their hometown, went with Shiina and wants to revisit the happy times with him again. The other moved away, returned to move back in with her parents and establishes contact with Shiina and other friends. It may be that either a rivalry or a triangle is in the offing.
Wako Taira (Eri Tokunaga) is 31-years-old. She works part-time at a cinema close to her home. Her boyfriend is Fu-kun and they have lived together for 3 years. She has never thought of breaking up with her boyfriend, considering her age. One day, she meets high school student Yumeaki Iko. She can't resist him. Wako Taira has an affair with Yumeaki Iko.
College student Asako falls in love at first sight with Baku after meeting at a photography exhibit. Romance sparks between the two but doesn't last long when Baku suddenly disappears from her life. Two years later, she spots a man that bears a striking resemblance to him. Even though it is only his physical similarities to Baku that attracted her to him, she doesn't say so and starts dating the soft-spoken young man called Ryohei.
Michitaro Sano’s wife passed away 18 years ago. Since her death, he has lived with his daughter Yumiko at their home. Now, Michitaro retires from his work. Yumiko though tells him to start doing housework. Michitaro is also surprised to learn that Yumiko has a boyfriend and is considering marriage. Michitaro is unsure how to handle his sudden abundance of free time. He then attends a local radio calisthenics group session.
Yoshika has had a crush on Ichimiya, whom she calls "the One" since she was in middle school. Now, a 24-year-old salarywoman, her all-consuming fixation has prevented her from even considering another candidate for boyfriend until an office colleague asks her out.
Yuri Kashiwaga was once known as a genius pianist. One day, she returns to her hometown in Goto Islands from Tokyo. There, she begins to work as a temporary teacher at a middle school and advisor for the school chorus. The chorus aims to take part at a competition. Yuri gives the members of the chorus members an assignment. She instructs them to write a letter with the title of “To myself 15 years later.” The 15-year-old boys and girls write about their secrets and worries.
After the death of his grandfather, Koen Shirakawa (Atsushi Ito) quits his job at a bookstore and goes to a temple to become a monk.
Hajime asks his friend Yoshi to set him up with his classmate Ann. Yoshi tries to do this for Hajime, but this just upsets Ann. Yoshi's relationship with Ann is now awkward. Yoshi doesn't know exactly why, but Ann becomes absent from school frequently. One day, during their summer vacation, Yoshi hears that Ann has dropped out of school.
In this unauthorized adaptation of the novel "The Long Goodbye" by Raymond Chandler set in Tokyo during the 1950s, Tamotsu is suspected of murdering his actress wife Shizuka Harada. He flees to Taiwan and commits suicide. Tamotsu's friend Banji Masuzawa, a private detective, has doubts about Tamotsu's death, but the case is covered up by powerful media mogul Heizo Harada. Banji is then involved in another case involving the neighbors of the Harada family. He encounters drunk novelist Joji Kamiido, a publishing house editor and a beautiful woman Aiko who holds the key to case. As it looks like Banji has solved the case, something unexpected occurs...
In Sapporo, college student Watanabe Sachi approaches her band leader boyfriend Takumi with the news that she is pregnant. Finding it difficult to deal with the fallout, the couple decide to leave Sapporo for the port city of Hakodate instead. Soon, however, they are separated and Sachi has to make a difficult decision about her baby on Christmas Eve. Her decision will ultimately involve Iwadate Shuichi and his wife Mizue, an older couple who still mourn the loss of their own child.
Three stories, depicted in three different styles, unfold in three locations: "Kyoto", a lyrical improvised drama based on documentar y footage following local rappers, which is blended with fiction; "Okinawa", a documentary about intriguing characters who Yamamoto met by chance; and " Tokyo", an otherworldly love story about a man dealing with loss who drifts through life, and a woman who pretends to be his deceased wife.
Hikari (Dai Watanabe) receives news that his father passed away. Hikari decides to take over his father's ramen shop. To do so, Hikari quits his job at a design company and goes back to his home town of Kurume, Fukuoka Prefecture. Now, taking over his father's shop Hikari has problems recreating his father's recipe. Hikari thinks back to when he was a child and how his father believed Hikari never used his imagination. Hikari relies on his memory in attempt to recreate his father's recipe.
Based on the semibiographical novel by Jun Miura, Oh My Buddha is the classic summer coming-of-age story that is burned to a crisp with teenage angst, youthful dreams and that warm sense of folk zeitgeist of the 70s. The narrator is a first-year student at an all-boys Buddhist school. Jaded by his dull, ordinary life, he longs for the type of creative, liberal and forward life his idol Bob Dylan leads, writing rock songs alone in his room, imitating his hero's signature croon, until one day he got invited on an island trip of sexual liberation with his fellow liberal friend.
