Category: Drama
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Kageki☆Shojo Revue Starlight
Inspired by a play called Starlight, Karen Aijo and Hikari Kagura make a childhood promise to perform that very play together someday. Hikari moves away, and twelve years later Karen has enrolled in Seisho Music Academy to continue working toward their promise. As the 99th Graduating Class rehearses for their annual production of Starlight, a…
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Tsurukichi Sanpei
Sanpei Mihira is a boy from rural Japan who loves all kinds of freshwater fishing. Takao Yaguchi’s original Fisherman Sanpei manga was serialized by Kodansha from 1973 to 1983. It was adapted to an anime that got big in Italy. Some fishing video games were made in the late 80’s for MSX computers based on…
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Josee, the Tiger and the Fish
Tsuneo Suzukawa is a 22-year-old university student studying marine biology. He works part-time at a diving shop. On his way home after a lecture, he saves a paraplegic young woman named Kumiko Yamamura, who insists on being called “Josee”. After being invited over for dinner as a token of gratitude, Tsuneo receives a job offer…
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Barakamon
As a punishment for punching a famous Calligrapher, young handsome Calligrapher Handa Seishu is exiled on a small island. As someone who has never lived outside of a city, Handa has to adapt to the quirks of his closely-knit new wacky neighbors, like the whole town coming to help him move in, unwanted visitors who…
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Maison Ikkoku
Maison Ikkoku is a comedic Rumiko Takahashi manga about a slow burn romance between the serial entrance-test-failing ronin Yusaku Godai and the young widow Otonashi Kyoko, who happens to be the acting landlady of Godai’s apartment. Kyoko’s dog, Soichiro, shares a name with her deceased husband. The comedy is derived from the antics of the…
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Kids on the Slope (Sakamichi no Apollon)
Two different students – a successful but aloof academic and a rebellious but kindhearted delinquent – form a friendship through their love of listening to and performing jazz. Watanabe’s 12-episode adaptation is based on a 10-volume manga written by Yuki Kodama. A live-action drama movie was produced in 2018. Kids on the Slope takes place between…
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Kimi wa Houkago Insomnia
Insomniacs After School In the small city of Nanao, insomniac Ganta Nakami tries to catch a nap in his school’s abandoned astronomical observatory. There he stumbles upon a sociable and carefree girl named Isaki Magari who has the same problem. The two form an awkward friendship and reestablish their school’s defunct astronomy club. This anime came…
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Do It Yourself!!
High school girls working on Do-It-Yourself (DIY) projects, as they struggle but don’t give up and see the projects through to their end. The story depicts the lives of those girls as they take the first step toward the future. Do It Yourself!! takes place around Sanjo in Niigata (in the near-future). From MAL, “The…
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Patlabor
Patlabor is a science fiction mecha series about cops with humanoid robots, ‘Labors’, that look like Tokyo Metropolitan Police patrol cars, hence combined as ‘Patrol’ ‘Labor’, ‘Patlabor’. Outside of the MPD, Labors are used as heavy machinery for construction. Most continuities begin as Tokyo MPD Special Vehicle Section 2, Department 2 welcomes series protagonist Noa…
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Initial D
If there was ever a single piece of homegrown media responsible for making drift racing popular outside of Japan, it was Initial D. It’s a Japanese street racing manga by Shuichi Shigeno that was serialized from 1995 to 2013. The manga was adapted into an eleven part anime series, beginning with First Stage in 1998 and ending with Final…