Shizuka Fujimoto

A variety of aviation professionals such as pilots, flight attendants, the ground crew, mechanics, dispatchers, controllers, and the bird patrol crew all support a single flight. They have only one mission: to secure the safety of the passengers.

A year has passed in postwar Tokyo, and struggling writer Chagawa enters the Akutagawa Prize competition in hopes of securing a better future for the boy in his care, while the Suzuki family unexpectedly take in a new relative who looks down on their humble way of life.

Suzuki Shizuka is an office lady at a conglomerate who is hypnotized at a local amusement park and left under the spell. Now she is compelled to sing and dance whenever she hears any melody whatsoever. She heads back to the hypnotist for relief, but he is nowhere to be found. So Shizuka sets off on a journey around Japan to find him and break the spell.

The Tanita Corporation has developed the world's first body fat measuring device. The company itself also has many overweight employees. Because of this, the company finds it difficult to persuade prospective customers to buy their product. Company President Unosuke Tanida (Masao Kusakari) then orders all of his employees to go on diet. Vice President Konosuke (Kenta Hamano) hires nutritionist Nanako (Yuka) to oversee the project. Employees are to eat twice at a company restaurant, but problems arise in sequential order. With Nanako's magic recipe, employees at the company begin to see results.

May 9, 2003 - The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launches its unmanned spacecraft Hayabusa into orbit. Its mission is to collect samples from a near Earth asteroid named 25143 Itokawa. Hayabusa is scheduled to make contact with the asteroid in November 2005. As the spacecraft approaches its rendezvous date with the asteroid problems arise for the JAXA staff back on Earth.

Yukiko Makabe works at the #3 Special Investigation Team of the Metropolitan Police Department. She has excellent negotiation skills. Yukiko then attempts to negotiate with a hijacker on a bus, but something unexpected happens and her mission fails. Yukiko takes full responsibility and takes a transfer to a special interrogation team "Kintori". Her boss is Katsutoshi Kajiyama and Yukiko has had a difficult working relationship with him in the past. Her other coworkers include Susumu Hishimoto, Zenjiro Nakata and Haruo Koishikawa.

University student Kuno Totono is the type who constantly questions what is taken for granted in society and develops his own theories based on his vast knowledge and unique set of values. One day in autumn, the police come to see him. His university schoolmate has been murdered at a park nearby and the police apparently regard Totono with suspicion. He is asked to come with them for questioning. In the interrogation room, the police are manipulated by Totono who tends to digress from the topic and poke at their contradictions. He even correctly guesses that one of them is troubled about not getting along with the wife and ends up giving advice. However, Totono’s fingerprints are eventually discovered on the murder weapon.