Drama Anime

Animated adaptations of traditional and historical Japanese stories. Each episode features 2 different stories.

(Source: AniDB)

Legend has it that before the tunnel (Ao no Doumon) was built, people had to climb over the cliffs through which the tunnel is built to reach an important local shrine. The path was very dangerous and people regularly fell to their deaths. During the Edo period, a Buddhist monk named Zenkai, who had committed a murder in his earlier life, decided to build a safe passage for worshipers in order to atone for his crime. Beginning at the age of 49, he dedicated 30 years of his life to digging the 185 metre tunnel by hand, using only a hammer and chisel.

(Source: Wikipedia)

On the 6th of August, 1945, an atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima. A young boy, Shigeru, left home for his job as a building excavator that morning, carrying a bento made by his mother, only to never return home again. Before long, his mother managed to find Shigeru's remains, and she noticed the completely black and carbonized bento box next to them.

This is an anime adaptation of the original book, "Makkuro na Obentou (The Charred Lunchbox)" written by Kodama Tatsuharu and illustrated by Kitajima Shinpei. The bento box that becomes the focus of the story is actually on display in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.

(Source: AniDB)

When hit KBS drama I'm Sorry, I Love You aired in 2004, it recorded high TV ratings, won the acclaim of critics, and quickly became one of the flagbearers of the Korean Wave. The tragic love story of Mu Hyeok (So Ji Sub of What Happened in Bali) and Eun Chae (Yim Soo Jung of Lump Sugar and I'm a Cyborg, But That's OK) made stars out of its leads and attracted an enormous fanbase throughout Asia. Two years later, G&G Entertainment released a 35-minute animated version of the drama, Between of One Year, consisting of highlights from the drama and new scenes dealing with the final moments of Eun Chae and Mu Hyeok's relationship. The script was supervised by the writer of the original live-action drama, Lee Kyung Hee.

This is a story of a 13 year old girl whose only dream is to participate in the Olympic Games: Her Struggles, her victories, her failures and her willpower fascinate all who help her to become a outstanding athlete.

A Tsutaetai, Kokoro no Tegami (wedding, elderly aid, and funeral company) commissioned work from Tekken showing a son recounting the love of his mother as she supported his ailing father.

The My Road series - Scarlet Road (2002), White Road (2003), Indigo Road (2006), and the most recent instalment Lemon Road (2008) - can be read as meditations on loss and mourning. These poetic films tell their story through motif, character expression, music and montage and require repeated viewing for one to absorb the subtly evoked layers of meaning.

(Source: Midnight Eye)

This short film was inspired by the story told in the prose written by Jia Pingwa to memorialize his father in 1989. Set on the North Shannxi Loess Plateau, the story tells about two boys trying to sell a pig, the only valuable property of the poor family, for food. However, things go wrong. The film was artistically designed to present the spectacular and broad scenery of the Loess Plateau as well as the simple life of the people.

This is a black humor about the difficult years in the northwest of China in 1970s.

(Source: Youtube, edited)

The main character Tatsumi Mai is a girl who uses magic to understand the feelings of people.

Kenji Kawasaki's first film.

Second OVA of "Hana no Asukagumi!".

Music video directed by Toshiaki Hanzaki for the single Hana no Nioi by Mr. Children.

Music video directed by Kousuke Sugimoto for the song BEAM! by INSHOW-HA in their second mini-album "(not) NUCLEAR LOVE (or affection)". It features a blend of live action and animation.

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Background

The story is set in a village in the southern Japanese prefecture of Kōchi during World War II. Even in this remote mountainous area, the perception of American and British people as "brutes" has taken root, due to the deaths and injuries among the villagers' relatives.

A elementary schoolgirl named Eiko transfers from the city of Yokohama to this village. Eiko happens to have blue eyes from her American father, and her classmates make no attempt to rein in their bullying. Other than Eiko's homeroom teacher Akiko, even the teachers view Eiko the same way that the children do. However, a boy named Kenta views Eiko more with curiosity than with hostility.

The children's lives change as the injured father of one of Kenta's classmates returns from the battlefield and news of more casualties arrives in the village.

(Source: Anime News Network)

A class of Japanese youths volunteer for the war effort during WWII, but then get stranded in Manchuria.

The story of an albino whale used in a circus, and the efforts of young children to free him from captivity.

(Source: Anime News Network)

A trip to the beach turns out to be more than expected for two people who are mourning the losses of their beloved. Perhaps a mysterious girl known as the "Umi Warabe" can help them to heal their wounds and move on with their lives.

Yoshihiro Matsunaga is the chaperone for a group of high-school students on a summer trip to the beach. One night he saves one of the students, Nao Morisawa, as she attempts to drown herself. She had been on this same trip a year ago, with her fiancee, who was later killed in a plane crash. As these two get to know each other, we find that Yoshihiro also has a painful secret from his past. Watching over everything is a mysterious young girl who somehow is always there at decisive moments.

(Source: Anime News Network)

Ban Banjou is an insolent wild boy who was raised on the rough sea in Tosa, southern Japan. He joined the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants in Japanese pro baseball league such a baseball pitcher noted for the blazing fastball and the worst control. He fights hard battles against his rival batters, developing his incredible pitching magics.