Lingering Spirits

Hikuma Koichi was a saxophone player, but he suffers from the after-effects of an accident. Due to that, he turned his back on music. Hikuma Koichi finds hope in the high school brass band. The band consists of problem students. Koichi struggles to instruct the brass band and to give them hope.

Yasu's mother passed away when he was very young and his father abandoned him. Yasu's wife, Misako, also lost both her parents when she was young. The two spend their days in happiness, watching their young son, Akira, grow up. Unfortunately, a freakish accident occurs that results in Misako sacrificing her life to protect her son. Yasu loses himself in grief and remorse, but recovers as he vows to raise his 3 year-old son as best as possible.

"I thought I might be using a lifetime's happiness in a moment. I was that happy and she was that beautiful." A young boy stands on the red earth of Australia under its blue sky. It is 17-year-old Sakutaro Matsumoto. His time with the girl comes back to him. The colored sand runs through his hands and a tear appears on his cheek. He wakes up. It's 2004 and he is 34 years old and in Japan. He thinks "I have been in a world without her for 17 years." Returning home to see his old high school for the last time before it is demolished, Saku confronts anew the loss of the love of his life, Aki, to leukemia 17 years ago. Now a medical researcher at graduate school, he has been living as if half of him died with her since then.

After awakening in the Edo era, a neurosurgeon uses his medical knowledge to help those around him while searching for a way back to the present day.

Eight-year-old Miyuki lost her mother several years ago and has since lived with just her father, Ryoichi. One day, she is suddenly introduced to Akiko, who is to be her new mother. Akiko uses her stellar business skills to try to win the little girl over, only to fail miserably. Ryoichi tries to reason with Miyuki, but to no avail. Akiko changes tactics and tries to get Shimoyama, a woman in the neighborhood who knows Miyuki well, on her side.

Living in Ikebukuro — an area infamous for juvenile crime, 21-year-old Makoto Majima becomes associated with a youth gang called the G-Boys. A troubleshooter known for his cool headedness and ability to get things done, Makoto diffuses tense situations around Ikebukuro to keep his friends and others out of harm's way. However, the mysterious death of his girlfriend and an escalating gang turf war threaten to be more than Makoto can handle.

What happens with two children commit two different muders in order to protect each other? Does salvation exist for them? In order to walk beneath the sun once more, Ryouji and Yukiho find themselves in a twisted web from which neither can escape without abandoning the other. Having no one but each other, this drama follows the events the follow that fateful day… 14 years ago.

Mitsuki is shy and rather isolated at school. Towa is on the basketball team and Mitsuki's class-mate. Due to circumstances, Mitsuki soon begins to socialize with four jocks of the basketball team, which affects her self-esteem, her social status, her loneliness and her life. She finds a new lease in her school life.

A number of children are being well fed, taken care of, and pampered at a very meticulate and managed orphanage. The facility and grounds are impressive, but the wall acting as a barrier is high. There is a secret to the place and once revealed to several orphans, they're desperate to escape.

Ayako is a 35-year-old detective who is hardworking and has a strong sense of justice. However, she is inflexible and works too hard, which causes her to fail often. One day, she arrested a wanted suspect for a murder case, but, unfortunately, her soul was exchanged with the suspect just when she was looking forward to her rewards.

After her mother took the blame for a tragic fire 13 years ago, Anzu plots revenge by working as a housekeeper under a pseudonym for her icy stepmother.

Shinya is in debt as a result of his gambling habit. He attempts to defraud an old woman with a bank transfer scam, but the woman reminds him of his late mother and they start to relate to each other. Meanwhile, Shinya meets a girl called Hisako in town, and ends up helping her to find out the whereabouts of an unsuccessful comedian, Raita, whom her mother was in love with in her youth. Shinya's father, Ryutaro, is disowned by his son after his wife's death. When Ryutaro meets a homeless man called Moses, he starts living on the street as well. One day when the old woman dies, Moses comes to the deceased and confesses his past. Subsequently Shinya resumes communicating with his father Ryutaro.

When Okita Kazuaki was starting out as a doctor, he was forced to resign from the hospital. He left his girlfriend Danjo Mifuyu behind and went to the US alone. 10 years go by and he comes back as a surgeon with outstanding skills to save his former teacher from illness. His teacher is none other than his ex-girlfriend’s father. In the time that Okita was away, Mifuyu had married his own good friend Masao, who is now the deputy director and the heir of the hospital. To make matters worse, this friend was the one who plotted to drive him out form the hospital 10 years ago. Okita has to face all sorts of ordeals to save his teacher. But he never gives up amid the swirl of love, desire, friendship, jealousy and pride. Okita may be awkward but deals with patients with all his heart. His way of life gets the people working at the hospital to start asking themselves what real healthcare is.

High school student Hoshi Izumi loses her father suddenly in an accident. One day, Sakuma, the waka gashira of a small and weak Yakuza gang in Asakusa - the Medaka Gumi - pays Izumi a visit along with the gang members. The death of their former kumicho (Boss) puts Medaka Gumi on the verge of a breakup. Therefore, Sakuma begs Izumi, the former boss's only distant relative left, to succeed to the kumicho position. Izumi is taken by surprise and keeps refusing at first. However, she ends up becoming the 8th kumicho of the Medaka Gumi! The police tell her that her father's death may possibly be a homicide case. There's also Mayumi, a mysterious woman staring closely at Izumi's father's photograph at his funeral. The situation becomes complicated when the drug-dealing vicious yakuza, Hamaguchi Gumi, comes into the picture as well as Sandaiji Hajime, a politician whose public stance is to eliminate drugs.