Spark

Downtown no Gottsu Ee Kanji

Downtown no Gottsu Ee Kanji (ダウンタウンのごっつええ感じ, roughly "Downtown's Feeling Real Good"), was a Japanese variety show. It premiered on December 8, 1991 and ended its run on November 2, 1997. It aired on Fuji TV every Sunday night. Hosted by the comedy duo Downtown (consisting of Masatoshi Hamada and Hitoshi Matsumoto), it had several other actors and comedians in its regular cast, including You, Koji Imada, Koji Higashino, Itsuji Itao, Ryoko Shinohara and Honkon (Takahiro Kurano). Like most other Japanese variety shows, it featured guest interviews and games, but it is best known and remembered for its sketch comedy. Downtown and other cast members would dress in costumes and perform absurd skits with bizarre characters.

Gaki no Tsukai No Laughing Batsu Game

After participating to a previous show where they have to bet or be challenged to any kind of competitions, the losing members of the Gaki no Tsukai are selected to spend 24 hours in a setting which they have no knowledge of the theme nor the course of the events. They are exposed to various absurd and crazy situations nonstop for 24 hours and must refrain from laughing. If they do so, hang-men appear and hit the rule breakers with a weapon (the weapon varies every year).

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.

IPPON GRAND PRIX

The Unbroken

WOWOW brings acclaimed author Toyoko Yamasaki's 1999 literary tour de force to life on the small screen for the very first time. Audiences have already received television adaptations of Yamasaki's other works – The Ivory Tower (白い巨塔), The Grand Family (華麗なる一族), The Waste Land (不毛地帯), A Son of the Good Earth (大地の子), and My Destiny (運命の人) – and can now add The Unbroken (沈まぬ太陽) to that list with this long-awaited production. Features a star-studded cast and additional filming on location in Africa and the Middle East.

Good Doctor

Minato Shindo has savant syndrome. His memory is amazing, but he has difficulty communicating with other people. When Minato was little, he dreamed of becoming a doctor. He met Doctor Akira Shiga and he wanted to become a pediatric surgeon. Akira was surprised by the 7-year-old's memory of the human organs and he decided to support Minato in achieving his dream. Eventually, Minato graduated from medical school and passed the national exam for medical practitioners. Now, Akira works as a director at a large hospital. He suggests to Minato to work in the pediatric surgery department at the hospital where he works.

Wednesday Downtown

Everybody has theories that they personally cling blindly to regardless of proof or scientific validity. In this entertaining information program, a host of celebrities present their cases for pet theories to studio guests by any means be it academic argument or laughably “out there” logic. Can their theories gain acceptance? Or will they be discarded as pop science that only adds confusion to the world? Find out through exhaustive examination including on-location experiments!

Midnight Taxi

A reserved young taxi driver navigates the neon-lit streets of Tokyo, quietly witnessing her passengers' poignant life transitions while embarking on her own introspective journey toward turning thirty.

Love Exposure

The story of a teenage boy called Yu, who falls for Yoko, a girl he runs into while operating for the sake of sin as an upskirt photographer in an offshoot of the porn industry. His attempts to woo her are complicated by a spot of cross-dressing - which convinces Yoko that she is lesbian - dalliances with kung-fu and crime, and a constant struggle with the guilt that's a legacy of his Catholic upbringing.

Fugitive Boys

Tobio Masubuchi and his friends are ordinary high school students. Due to an incident, their peaceful days are about to change. Tobio’s friends are beaten by students from another high school in their neighborhood. Tobio and his friends scheme to get back the students from the other school. The day they are to carry out their plan, they see the other high school engulfed in flames. Tobio and his friends become suspects.

GARO

The Makai fight a secret war against the demon forces known as Horrors, evil creatures that manifest themselves through darkness to devour Humanity. On the frontlines are the Makai Knights, given the task of watching over a district and eliminating any Horrors that manifest there. GARO follows the tales of the Knights bearing the title of ‘Golden Knight Garo’, and their duty to vanquish the Horrors and protect Humanity from the darkness.

Ressha Sentai ToQger vs. Kamen Rider Gaim: Spring Break Combined Special

The ToQGers stop at a station in Zawame City, where there is no Shadow Line activity. However, they come across Kamen Rider Gaim and are brought into a fight with the Underground Empire known as Badan. As the ToQGers and the Armored Riders work together to discover Badan’s true intentions, a mysterious Rider calling himself Fifteen appears…

Emergency Room 24 Hours

Dr. Shindo seems cold, but is a competent surgeon. He is also an ER doctor capable of accurate decisions and treatment, who always tries to see things from the patient’s side. Although once retired from his profession, he one day discovers someone in need of help, who he treats and rushes to the Kohoku Medical University Emergency Center. This incident encourages him to once again work as an ER doctor. Confrontation erupts between female doctor Tamaki, and Shindo, now a just-arrived ER doctor. While this human drama depicts the relationships among doctors and nurses, it appeals emotionally to viewers on the subject of life.

Kitchen Knife and Green Chili Pepper

In Kyoto, soon after the war, Ichika strives to save her family's long established ryoten restaurant from financial crisis. In order to do so, she marries Yamaguchi Amane, who is 15 years younger, in a marriage of convenience.

The Naked Director

Follows the rise of Tooru Muranishi, one of Japan's most notorious directors of adult video. Adapted from a biography of the man, this series depicts the character, his art, vision and his interactions with the approving and disapproving folk around him.

Ao Haru Ride

At the end of the first year of high school, Futaba Yoshioka meets Kou Tanaka who was her first love. In their middle school days, they attended the same school, but he suddenly transferred to another school. Three years later, he appears in front of her again with the different last name of Kou Mabuchi. His personality also seems to have changed from warm to cold. He is like a totally different person from three years ago. Futaba Yoshioka slowly learns what happened to Kou Mabuchi for the past three years and she become to have feelings for him again.

Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell

With most of his family already dead at Ogami Itto's hands, Retsudo launches one final plot to destroy him, and when that fails, unleashes the fury of every remaining member of the Yagyu clan.

Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance

Official Shogunate executioner Ogami Itto has been framed for disloyalty to the Shogunate by the Yagyu clan, against whom he now is waging a one-man war, along with his infant son, Daigoro.

Flower & Snake

The wealthy president of a company has built up an unpayable debt to a local crime lord, and to escape punishment he sells his famous dancer wife to the lecherous old man figuring a 90 year old can’t do too much bad with her. Perhaps not, but others can while he watches. She’s put on stage in an underground BDSM sex show and begins a spiraling decent from strongly independent woman to submissive sex slave

Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades

Ogami Itto volunteers to be tortured by Yakuza in order to save a prostitute and is hired by their leader to kill an evil chamberlain.

Die My Love

After inheriting a remote Montana house, Jackson moves there from New York with his partner Grace, and the couple soon welcome a child. As Jackson becomes increasingly absent and rural isolation sets in, Grace struggles with loneliness, creative frustration, and unresolved emotional wounds. What begins as an attempt at renewal gradually turns into an intense psychological descent, placing strain on their relationship and exposing the fragile balance between love, identity, and motherhood.

The Romantics

Alliances are tested when seven college pals reunite to watch two of their own say “I do” at a seaside wedding. But the maid of honor and the groom share a passionate history, and the bride isn’t the only one who’s wondering if it’s all in the past.

Night Train to Munich

Czechoslovakia, March 1939, on the eve of World War II. As the German invaders occupy Prague, inventor Axel Bomasch manages to flee and reach England; but those who need to put his knowledge at the service of the Nazi war machine, in order to carry out their evil plans of destruction, will stop at nothing to capture him.