Aki Asakura

The Tale of The Princess Kaguya

Found inside a shining stalk of bamboo by an old bamboo cutter and his wife, a tiny girl grows rapidly into an exquisite young lady. The mysterious young princess enthrals all who encounter her. But, ultimately, she must confront her fate.

Whistleblower

A seemingly lazy salaryman is tasked with managing a company secret.

A Story of Yonosuke

The year is 1987 and Japan is just reaching the peak of its economic success. Eighteen-year old Yonosuke Yokomichi arrives in Tokyo from Nagasaki. Ordinary in every way possible, he lives in a suburb far from the excitement of the big city and commutes to a university in the center of Tokyo.

Echoes of Motherhood

The love and conflicts between mother and daughter, and between husband and wife. The final chapter of Nakagawa Ryutaro's trilogy, depicting the forms of love that endure through loss and rebirth.

21st Century Girl

21st Century Girl is an omnibus feature that is of the girls, by the girls and for the girls. The work of 15 women directors under the age of 30, each of whom contributed an 8-minute film, the package highlights a range of genres, visions and thematic concerns.

The Deepest Space in Us

Kaori, an allomantic and asexual woman, is left shattered after her fiancé Takeru’s sudden suicide. Seeking closure, she embarks on a journey with Nakano, Takeru’s best friend, to the place of his death—unraveling hidden layers of love, identity, and the Takeru they never truly knew.

Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes

A cafe owner discovers that the TV in his cafe suddenly shows images from the future, but only two minutes into the future.

Isao Takahata and His Tale of The Princess Kaguya

For his first film in fourteen years, animation director Isao Takahata embarked on a visually sumptuous adaptation of The Tale of the Bamboo-Cutter. A dream project for the director that would hopefully establish the recently formed Ghibli Studio 7, created to meet the demands of a new type of modern animation process. But, almost immediately, the epic production is faced with difficulties and falls dramatically behind schedule. In this compelling and insightful documentary, we follow Isao Takahata and his dedicated team of artists as they frantically strive against adversity to make their vision a reality and bring Studio Ghibli into a new era.

The Tale of The Princess Kaguya

Found inside a shining stalk of bamboo by an old bamboo cutter and his wife, a tiny girl grows rapidly into an exquisite young lady. The mysterious young princess enthrals all who encounter her. But, ultimately, she must confront her fate.

Whistleblower

A seemingly lazy salaryman is tasked with managing a company secret.

A Story of Yonosuke

The year is 1987 and Japan is just reaching the peak of its economic success. Eighteen-year old Yonosuke Yokomichi arrives in Tokyo from Nagasaki. Ordinary in every way possible, he lives in a suburb far from the excitement of the big city and commutes to a university in the center of Tokyo.

Echoes of Motherhood

The love and conflicts between mother and daughter, and between husband and wife. The final chapter of Nakagawa Ryutaro's trilogy, depicting the forms of love that endure through loss and rebirth.

21st Century Girl

21st Century Girl is an omnibus feature that is of the girls, by the girls and for the girls. The work of 15 women directors under the age of 30, each of whom contributed an 8-minute film, the package highlights a range of genres, visions and thematic concerns.

The Deepest Space in Us

Kaori, an allomantic and asexual woman, is left shattered after her fiancé Takeru’s sudden suicide. Seeking closure, she embarks on a journey with Nakano, Takeru’s best friend, to the place of his death—unraveling hidden layers of love, identity, and the Takeru they never truly knew.

Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes

A cafe owner discovers that the TV in his cafe suddenly shows images from the future, but only two minutes into the future.

Isao Takahata and His Tale of The Princess Kaguya

For his first film in fourteen years, animation director Isao Takahata embarked on a visually sumptuous adaptation of The Tale of the Bamboo-Cutter. A dream project for the director that would hopefully establish the recently formed Ghibli Studio 7, created to meet the demands of a new type of modern animation process. But, almost immediately, the epic production is faced with difficulties and falls dramatically behind schedule. In this compelling and insightful documentary, we follow Isao Takahata and his dedicated team of artists as they frantically strive against adversity to make their vision a reality and bring Studio Ghibli into a new era.

The Snow White Murder Case

A beautiful cosmetics company employee is found dead in a gruesome state. What's more, it becomes apparent that one of the victim's colleagues, a homely woman named Miki, has gone missing. Television director Akaboshi attempts to interview as many of Miki's friends and acquaintances as he can find, eliciting miscellaneous information from them.

The Fish Tale

A young child is obsessed with learning about and drawing fish. The child seems a little odd, but if you are understanding and supportive you will be cheering in the end.

Galileo: Forbidden Sorcery

Four years before Silent Parade (2022), Yukawa and Kusanagi investigate the murder of a writer after a video found in his possession piques Yukawa's interest.

Halloween Nightmare

A magazine publicist investigates an unsolved murder case that occurs on Halloween every year.

The Whispering

Six high school students, who have finished their college entrance examinations, accidentally discover a haunted house with eerie rumors to it. Inside there, the students start to hear the whispers of death and vanish one by one, as unstoppable, extreme terror engulfs them.

Grande Maison Tokyo Special

Just one year after opening, Hayami Rinko became the first Asian woman to be the chef of a three-star restaurant, but shortly after, the COVID-19 pandemic hit the food and beverage industry hard. "Grand Maison Tokyo" was no exception, and in order to survive, the restaurant entered into a capital alliance with a food consulting company under a major corporation and found a way forward with frozen foods for mail order and recipe sites...

Ghibli Landscapes - Visit 'Japan' as Depicted by Isao Takahata

Aki Asakura, an actress who played the voice of Princess Kaguya, travels around Japan to visit the scenery that appeared in Takahata's work. The documentary also includes an interview with Director Takahata. This documentary is composed from the fragments of a program, aired by BS Nippon Television TV station on the 1st of January 2014, dedicated to the release of The Tale of Princess Kaguya.

Blood-Club Dolls 1

Following the news of a heinous tragedy, a young woman searches the streets for her missing brother, the person accused of committing the incident. Unaware of his true status or location, he finds himself in the employ of an underground fighting ring using inmates like him to entertain wealthy clients, eventually moving up the ranks of the fighters quite quickly. Eventually frustrated at the lack of information from the investigation, she turns to a detective to help him, but with a dangerous socialite also looking into the club they try to push their rescue efforts into high gear into order to save her brother.

Trick Shinsaku Special 3

Within a mountain village, the Suijin family has controlled the village for a long time. The three sisters from the Sujin family begin to quarrel over the family inheritance. There, consecutive murders then take place in the village. The murders can only by explained by paranormal phenomenon. Naoko (Yukie Nakama) and Jiro (Hiroshi Abe) attempt to uncover the truth.

In His Chart

There is a degree of realism when a professional in the field writes about his vocation and such is the case here. Adopted from a novel written by a doctor and set in Nagano, doctor Kuriharai is overwhelmed by the number and variety of patients he has to see due to a shortage of physicians where he practices. He aspires to work somewhere more convenient, specialize and see more of his wife, but faces a dilemma many other doctors experience.

Double Trouble

Chief Iizuka, who works at the Cultural Center, misunderstands two chorus groups with similar names and double-books the concert hall on New Year's Eve. Although they talk to each other, neither of them gives up a step and develops into a big problem. Iizuka, who has lived his life with a "no-nonsense" attitude, finds himself in the middle of two groups and at a loss for words.

Samurai Detective Onihei: White plum allure

A mysterious assassin cloaked in a haunting, seductive fragrance sets his sights on Heizo Hasegawa. Hanjiro Kaneko, a master swordsman, attacks with deadly precision, leaving Heizo to uncover the truth behind the strange scent of "White Plum Allure." As Heizo digs deeper, he discovers a tangled web of deception involving Hiko-no-Ichi, a blind decoy working for the notorious bandit leader Heijuro the Snake.

Samurai Detective Onihei: One Last Wish

Master thief Kinosuke arrives in Edo to pull off one final heist for a tea-server who resembles his long-lost love, while Hasegawa Heizo’s spy Kumehachi tries to stop him, only to be exposed and trapped alongside the thief by Kinosuke's own crew.

4 / Cat-Nekobun no Yon

A short omnibus created by four young creators on the theme of "drawing the people of Ichii who use a certain station where a cat lives".

Kyotaro Nishimura Travel Mystery 68: Disappearing Woman in Yamagata

Inspector Totsugawa of the First Investigation Division goes to Tsuruoka in Yamagata to attend the wedding of the son of Inspector Mukai, his former colleague who now works for the Yamagata Prefectural Police. While sightseeing at Mt. Haguro after the ceremony, he notices a young woman drawing him in her sketchbook. She introduces herself as Yuka Shiraishi and says she came to draw the Dewa Sanzan. Signing the drawing of Totsugawa next to the five-story pagoda with her initial, a 'Y' in the corner, she gives it to him as a present. The next morning, the corpse of a young woman who has been stabbed is discovered in a forest in Tsuruoka. When Totsugawa, on his way back, hears that a sketchbook signed with a 'Y' was found at the scene, he follows Mukai there. However, the body is not Yuka, the woman Totsugawa had met, and while no items pointing to her identity are found, the sketchbook is the same one Yuka had the day before.

A Mother's Touch

Satoshi loses his eyesight completely at the age of 9 despite numerous surgeries, but grows up with cheerful spirit thanks to his mother Reiko’s unconditional love. Surrounded by affection and friendship at high school, Satoshi’s future seems bright until one day his family realizes that he is losing his hearing as well. Determined to never give up, Reiko tries everything she can to give him hope.

AIBOU: Tokyo Detective Duo

Detective Ukyo Sugishita confronts crime on the basis of his own convictions. He has a partner that works for him in the Special Task Unit. For the first 7 seasons, Ukyo’s first partner is Kaoru Kameyama. He is a good-natured, hot-tempered, straightforward and somewhat scattered detective. Beginning in Season 8, Takeru Kanbe replaces Kameyama. Contrary to his predecessor, Takeru is a lanky, cool, conceited and confident detective. From Season 11 to Season 13, Ukyo’s partner is a young detective Toru Kai. Toru is a son of Deputy Director-General of The National Police Agency. But he became a detective by his own effort. And starting with Season 14, Ukyo’s current partner is Wataru Kaburagi, an elite bureaucrat who came to the Metropolitan Police Department on temporary assignment. As the first partner without any career of a police officer, he will face challenging cases together with Ukyo.

Solitary Gourmet

Centered around typical Japanese food, a solitary salesman travelling through the country for business purposes, eats at its various establishments and experiences the various delicacies of Japanese cuisine.

Two Husbands One Wife

When a man's ex suggests a three-person marriage with her boyfriend, the trio face jealousy, social stigma and intimacy issues in their unique setup.

Teppan

Teppan is a Japanese television drama that aired on NHK in 2010–2011. It was the 83rd Asadora. It starred a new actress, Miori Takimoto, in the role of a young woman raised by an adopted family in Onomichi who learns of her real grandmother and decides to move to Osaka to start an okonomiyaki restaurant. The title word "teppan" refers to the metal surface on which okonomiyaki are cooked. The series, while interrupted by the Tohoku Earthquake, averaged a 17.2% rating, making it the fourth most popular of the Asadora dramas in the previous five years.

Kumokiri Nizaemon

During the Kyoho period in the reign of Tokugawa Yoshimune, there is a gang of thieves active not just in Edo but also the Tokaido and the Nakasendo, and all across the Kansai region, stealing large sums of money with skillful techniques. They only target the very wealthy and never kill or injure people. They appear with the clouds and disappear like the mist. On the night that the beautiful Ochiyo is to become the bride of a dry goods dealer, a large amount of money hidden inside the shop is stolen. The gang disappears without injuring anyone. It was a two-year plan to marry Ochiyo off so that she could bring them in. The leader of this gang is Kumokiri Nizaemon, the greatest bandit of all time. He keeps a rein on his highly-skilled and notorious followers Nanabake no Ochiyo, Kinezumi no Kichigoro, Subashiri no Kumagoro, Ingakozo Rokunosuke and others.

Mr. Housekeeper, Mitazono

Kaoru Mitazono (Masahiro Matsuoka) is a talented housekeeper with an usual secret. Kaoru is actually a guy! Besides cooking, cleaning and babysitting Kaoru Mitazono has the unusual habit of discovering secrets held within the family of her employers.

Midnight Diner

Set in a small restaurant in the corner of a shopping district. The unusual eatery is only open after midnight, and its standard menu consists of just a single choice. However, the customers still come for the amusing chatter and the proprietor's willingness to cook any dish that they request. This drama depicts the lives of the restaurant's patrons, including a yakuza, an unsuccessful actor, a group of office ladies, a newspaper delivery boy, and a stripper.

24 JAPAN

Japanese adaptation of the American TV Series "24". Genba Shido is the director of Team A in the Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU). He is excellent at his job and a reasonable person, but he often has to make drastic decisions to save lives.

La Grande Maison Tokyo

Determined to attain three stars, a middle-aged female chef teams up with a disgraced Michelin-starred chef to start a new restaurant together.

Shitamachi Rocket

Tsukuda Kohei was once a researcher with the Aerospace and Science Exploration Agency and now runs Tsukuda Industries, a small factory which was left by his father. Although his relationship with his teenage daughter Rina is somewhat strained, business at Tsukuda Industries has gradually started to improve. But Tsukuda puts too much effort into his dream of developing a rocket engine and business declines little by little. One day, a major client suddenly declares that it is dropping Tsukuda Industries. Then, Tsukuda Industries gets sued by a big rival company, Nakashima Industries, for patent infringement. Tsukuda Industries’ reputation is hurt and financing from banks is also in a desperate situation. In the midst of this, Teikoku Heavy Industries, one of Japan’s leading corporations, offers to buy a patent which Tsukuda Industries possesses for 2 billion yen

Akinai Seiden: Kin to Gin

Set in the mid-Edo period, this drama follows Sachi, who works as an apprentice at the Osaka Tenma kimono merchant Isuzuya and strives to carve a way to success despite the challenges she faces.

Nevertheless: The Shapes of Love

After a painful breakup, Miu vows to focus on art and avoid love — until an encounter with an aloof, charming artist stirs her deepest instincts.

Rasen no Meikyu: DNA Kagaku Sosa

In Tokyo, a murderer leaves his signature, an `X`on the dead body. When found, the mark appears eerily similar to that of the one seen on the body of the dead wife of Detective Genji Ando. Banned from the investigation, he secretly reaches out to Jin Jinbo, an associate professor at the medical school`s genome analysis lab. Who better than a DNA expert to identify this potential serial killer?

Isn’t It a Ripoff?: The Job of a New Member of the Intellectual Property Department

Fujisaki Aki is an employee at "Tsukiyono Drink", a medium-sized beverage manufacturer. She has been transferred to the Intellectual Property Department, that is in charge of managing intellectual property rights. Together with her superior, Kitawaki Masayoshi, who is a licensed patent attorney, the two work together to overcome various challenges faced by the company.

The Crimes of Those Women

Elegant in appearance, fulfilling in her career. Yet, she struggles with romantic relationships, longing for love. Married to a high-profile doctor, residing in an upscale residential area. Living like a servant, however, she yearns for freedom. Burning with ideals, assigned to the coveted criminal investigations division. But torn by a sense of duty, she seeks justice. Mistress, housewife, detective. Are they enemies, allies, or perhaps…? One after another, their secrets and hidden sides are revealed. Cracks begin to form in perfect crimes, and the truth behind the incidents comes to light. Their longing for "ordinary happiness," each envisioned in their own way, drives them to madness. A thrilling suspense.

Bukatsudo

Muyoan Retirement Training

The main character, Hanbei Hinata, who plays Mizutani, is a direct hatamoto guardian who guards Edo Castle. While working honestly on that mission, he became disgusted by a colleague who only thought about his career advancement, and soon he abandoned all his desires and began to think about a retired life

Lawyer in Kabukicho, Rinka

Following her father’s disappearance, a principled corporate attorney takes over his practice located in Tokyo’s seedy red-light district of Kabukicho.

Shall We Have a Toast For Now?

Kayama Hanabi, Machi Akebi, and Shiraishi Wakana are three ladies who met because they were three-timed by the same man, Yamada. After confronting Yamada, the three hit it off and decide to attend a matchmaking party together next time. This is a heartwarming comedy of three women with different looks, personalities, and preferences, but are connected by a strange fate. While they meet new men each time through weekend matchmaking parties, the women also grow as humans and regain their youth.

School can't teach!

Gakko ja Oshierarenai! is a Japanese television drama series concerning the life of ten high school students. It stars Kyoko Fukada as their teacher. It started to air on July 15, 2008. Aida Mai is a woman in her third year as an english teacher at a private all-girls high school. Due to declining enrollment, the school decides to admit its first male students. Those five freshmen initially feel they're in paradise, but the concerned Mai tries to help them adjust by creating a social dance club and inviting five girls. Those ten students become the focus of the drama, which is described as a story of love and adolescence.

Gura Gura Maison Tokyo: Shohei Hirako's Swaying Emotions

Shohei serves as the head chef at a top hotel's buffet restaurant, but he often feels dissatisfied because, as a chef, he can't create the dishes he truly wants to. Amid his inner turmoil, he reminisces about his time three years ago in France, when he trained under Obana.

Puzzle

Misako Ayukawa, a woman in her 30s, is an English teacher with ironically poor English skills. She values herself over her students and money over love. She displays arrogance in front of her students, but acts pleasantly around everyone else. However, Ayukawa possesses a brilliant mind for solving puzzles. Motivated by the possibility of rewards and treasure, she ends up tackling various cases on the weekends along with 3 of her top students.

Mother and Son

Takashi's mother, Chise, lost her home in Miyagi in the Great East Japan Earthquake, and is hospitalized with terminal cancer near Takashi's house in Kanto. She is concerned about her second son, Takumi, who has not been in contact with her. Takashi has complicated feelings for Takumi, who has always been the recipient of his mother's love. The brothers, who were born and raised in Tohoku and have different personalities and lifestyles, are reunited when Chise falls ill, and the three decide to head to Matsushima at Chise's request, who has only a short time left to live. Matsushima is the only place they remember where they went on a family trip after losing their father at an early age. They encounter various people and see the disaster area spreading out. The group continues their journey with their own thoughts in mind...

Sleeping Jukujo

Aizawa Senba's husband asks her to get divorced after he meets his first love through facebook and wants to marry her. In order for her to get custody of her son, she decides to work at a luxurious hotel, and there she meets the young heir of the hotel, Takaoka Yuusuke, and starts to have feelings for him.