Top 25 Japanese Actresses on MDL
This is my first time compiling a list like this since it is early September I do not have a lot of information on November/December so that I may do two mini follow up articles with those months. I am looking for up to 2 people to help with this type of article as I would like to do it for each season from here on out to be published the month before the season starts.
A special thanks to my sources:
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Pictures for most of the dramas have mot been released at the time of the writing of this article, but it looked to bland just text so I will place a picture of the main lead if I cannot find anything. The titles are linked to their MDL listing so you can see more cast or add things I missed when adding to the database (like character names, I do not translate them without a hiragana guide as readings are so different for name Kanji).
OCTOBER |
Drama | Network JST Airdate/ time | Cast/Synopsis |
Ore no Hanashi wa Nagai | Ikuta Toma as Kishibe Mitsuru Kishibe Mitsuru is a 31-year-old single guy. After he graduated from university, he became absorbed with coffee and opened up a business related to coffee. His business failed. Since then, Mitsuru has been unemployed, and he hasn't even tried to find a new job. He lives with his mother, who runs a cafe. | |
Haru: Sogo Shosha no Onna | Nakatani Miki as Haru Unabara Single mother Umihara Haru was active in the American business community until she was directly headhunted by the CEO of Itsuki Trading, a leading Japanese general trading company, and returned to Japan. She takes up the position of assistant manager of the elite Corporate Planning Department, but her direct superior turns out to be the ex-husband whom she divorced 10 years ago. From ramen to rockets, Haru takes on all sorts of problems within Itsuki Trading’s enormous departments and affiliate companies. She proclaims that she wants to enjoy work and does things that defy common wisdom amid an atmosphere of paralysis due to a conservative deputy CEO. | |
Nippon Noir: Detective Y's Rebellion
| Kaku Kento as Yusa Kiyoharu Yusa Kiyoharu from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department is a cool-headed detective who is in charge of the investigation frontline and will do whatever it takes to achieve his objectives. One day, when he wakes up in a forest, he finds a gun in his right hand, and a dead female detective lying beside him… This woman was his superior. Did he kill her, or was he set up by someone? There is a gap of several months in his memory. Yusa’s buddies turn enemies overnight, and he is pursued as a murder suspect. His only partner is a teenage boy who was the female detective’s only son. Eventually, the case gets linked with the truth of the unsolved 1 billion yen heist. | |
4-punkan no Marigold
| Fukushi Sota as Hanamaki Mikoto A story between a paramedic named Mikoto who can foresee the death of a person he holds hand with and his step-sister, Sara, whom he holds a romantic feeling. One day he foresaw Sara's death, and now there is only 1 year away from her death. | |
Doki No Sakura | Takahata Mitsuki as Sakura Sakura grew up on a remote island. She has a dream, which is to build a bridge on her island. In the spring of 2009, Sakura joins a big construction company. She does not hesitate to tell her colleagues about her dream to build a bridge. Sakura's determination to accomplish her dream affects the colleagues at her company. | |
Jikou Keisatsu Hajimemashita | Odagiri Joe as Shuichiro Kiriyama Shuichiro Kiriyama returns to Japan after working for the FBI [in America] for 12 years. Once again, he starts working with the Statute of Limitation Management Department. Since the statute of limitation for serious crimes like murder were abolished in April 2010, the Limitation Management Department has become an easy, worthless job. As a hobby, Shuichiro Kiriyama begins to investigate the unsolved cases which are about to be abandoned due to the expiration of the statute of limitation. Shizuka Mikazuki joins him once again. | |
Oishi Kyushoku
| Ichihara Hayato as Yukio Amarida A school gourmet comedy set in the 1980s. In one junior high school, teachers and students continued a quiet battle. That is, who will eat the school lunch? | |
Kekkon Dekinai Otoko Season 2 | Abe Hiroshi as Kuwano Shinsuke Kuwano Shinsuke, a successful architect, is well-to-do, knowledgeable and good-looking. He is now 53, still lives alone in the same apartment, which has the latest gadgets, and enjoys the single life. Although he fell for Hayasaka Natsumi, the doctor who treated him and changed his perspective toward marriage, and even dated, they later broke up. So Kuwano’s heart is shut firmly to love again. He is even more eccentric now and feels a little anxious when he thinks about the future. One day, the wheels of fate start to move all of a sudden after a chance encounter with some women. | |
Grand Maison Tokyo
| Kimura Takuya as Natsuki Obana A talented Japanese chef in French cuisine has devoted his life to food. He opened his own restaurant in Paris and earned two Michelin stars. Hailed as a superstar chef, his confidence has turned into conceit. But no matter how he tries, three Michelin stars are beyond his reach. He feels pressured and up against a wall. At this moment, a serious incident occurs at the restaurant, and he ends up losing both the place and his team. While he is feeling at his lowest, he happens to meet a female chef and decides to start over again as a chef. He makes it his goal to create the world’s greatest three Michelin star restaurant and tries to put together the best staff. However, he is shunned by his former colleagues and has problems even though he has found new talent. But he does not give up. He shoves unreasonable demands at other people and aims higher himself. The attitudes of the people around him gradually begin to change as they watch him. | |
Doctor X 6 | Yonekura Ryoko as Michiko Daimon Totei University Hospital has built a massive deficit. Investor Nicholas Tange, whose nickname is Vulture, comes up with a turnaround plan for the hospital. His plan implements restructuring and cost-cutting. By Nicholas Tange’s request, Michiko Daimon begins to work at the Totei University Hospital again. | |
Evil's Wave | Furukawa Yuki Naoya / Yaginuma Masato In 2014, a series of murders targeting women took place in Kawasaki City. All the victims have been killed as if they had hanged and these are dubbed the “Hanging Murders” in public. The police investigation runs into difficulties without clues on the murderer. However, Detective Iguchi from the First Investigation Division has his eye on a man whom he suspects to kill for pleasure. This man is Nogi Naoya. He lies about his identity, erases his traces in public and lives as if he is holding his breath. Nogi is actually Yaginuma Masato, the victim in the sensational Akishima mother and son kidnapping case. He gets his neighbour Yoshika involved as he tries to escape the police dragnet but comes to realise some facts. What is his true motive? | |
Million Joe | Kitayama Hiromitsu as Kurei Soichi Soichi Kurei is a magazine editor. He is currently working on popular manga series Million Joe. The writer of the manga series is Tsuneo Magata, but he suddenly dies. Soichi Kurei is devastated because he feels Million Joe should be finished. Soichi Kurei then suggests Tsuneo Magata's chief assistant Ryota Terashi. The suggestion is to hide the death of Tsuneo Magata and for Ryota Terashi to finish the manga series using Tsuneo Magata's notes. | |
Top League | Tamayama Tetsuji as Matsuoka Naoki Naoki Matsuoka is a reporter at the business desk for the Yamato Newspaper. One day he is transferred to the political desk. During a regular press conference held by Chief Cabinet Secretary Kondo, Naoki Matsuoka asks the Chief Cabinet Secretary “What do you think about the safe found in the reclaimed land in Minato, Tokyo?" The question got Chief Cabinet Secretary Kondo’s attention. Due to that, Naoki Matsuoka is placed in charge of coverage of the Chief Cabinet Secretary Kondo, and he soon becomes part of the "top league," which refers to a small group of reporters who dig into the prime minister, Chief Cabinet Secretary and senior officers of the ruling party. | |
Shonen Torajiro
| Inoue Mao as Kuruma Mitsuko Based on "Otoka Wa Tsurai Yo" movie franchise of film director/author Yamada Yoji, the series will tell the story of Kuruma Torajiro's childhood. | |
Motokare Mania
| Araki Yuko as Nanba Yurika Nanba Yurika is 27-years-old and single. She has an attractive appearance, and she is not bad in communicating with others, but she is not good when it comes to having romantic relationships. This is primarily due to her inability to get over her ex-boyfriend Saito Makoto. They broke up 5 years ago. After their breakup, Saito Makoto disappeared from her life. Now, Nanba Yurika meets Saito Makoto again at the real estate company where she begins to work. Her ex-boyfriend, who is still now 30-years-old and is still single, is her co-worker. | |
You and I on the G-String
| Haru as Yaeko Kogure The story centers on Yaeko Kogure, a woman who resigned from her company due to plans for marriage, only to have her fiancé break up with her on her last day. Confused and angry, she passes by a store that is playing Johann Sebastian Bach's iconic "Air" piece. Moved by the piece, she begins taking violin lessons for adults in the hopes of being able to play it. | |
Cheat
| Honda challenges the role of having the face of an idol who cannot sell while disciplining the scammers with her genius ability. The scene where Honda wears an idol costume, sings and dances is also a highlight, and Honda is enthusiastic about the challenge to the role of an idol, "I want to play with it so that everyone can become an ideal idol statue.'' It is out. | |
Sherlock
| Fujioka Dean as Sherlock Set in present-day Tokyo, Sherlock works as a freelancer crime consultant. From an early age, Sherlock has been fascinated with how people become criminals and in original sin. He is a genius, but he also has an impulse to commit crimes. Sherlock works on cases which interests him among police or customer requests. | |
Shinmai Shimai no Futari Gohan
| About a shy girl who loves cooking and a bubbly girl who loves to eat, became sisters after their parents remarried. | |
Aozakura: Bouei Daigakukou Monogatari
| Based on the manga by Nikaido Hikaru about a boy who goes to the National Defense Academy. | |
Honki no Shirushi
| Tsuji Kazumichi is an employee of a small trading company who has been drifting through daily life to ward off the sense of emptiness that he feels. He has a good reputation in the company and also seems to have a romantic relationship. However, he is neither good at endearing himself to other people nor developing feelings for others and has never truly been in love. Then one day, Tsuji encounters a woman with an aura of mystery at a convenience store. | |
Shiyakusho
| Matsuoka Masahiro as Shimura Based on Azumi Kishi's manga; plays Shimura, an employee at the government office, who processes paperwork for the dead and has a fake smile on his face to conceal his turbulent past. | |
Re: Follower | Nishime Shun as Ikenaga Suspense drama that manages the popular SNS "Kureshida" when Ikenaga (Nishime), Harada (Shiono), Whaleoka (Massunari Wada), Shiroe (Ryuji Sato) will solve it by writing dissatisfaction and troubles. In addition, the stage of a story that was not drawn in the drama has also been decided. | |
Inomata Susumu and 8 Mourning Women |
| Okazaki Sae as Akari Akari is a young writer who is gaining popularity thanks to her debut work. It is decided that her next series will take the theme 'Mourning Women'. Mourning Women is a popular internet term for an unpopular woman who has never had a date and is not good with men. But there is a problem, Akari is a beautiful woman who has a lot of friends and leads a glamorous life, she doesn't understand anything about 'Mourning Women'. With the help of her editor, Inomata Susumu, she will look for those so-called 'Mourning Women'. |
Kodoku no Gurume Season 8
| Matsushige Yutaka as Inogashira Goro Inogashira Goro continues to visit clients and frequent restaurants as he travels in Japan for his import merchandise business. | |
Rika | Part 1 - Synopsis A vice-director of a hospital in Tokyo, the surgeon Masafumi has a fiance as an ace of a hospital that is envied for the future. However, after Rika turned Masafumi into a “fateful partner” and entered the hospital as a nurse, a mysterious incident continued in the hospital. Disappearing patients, nurses, doctors. And Rika's magical hand extends to Masafumi's fiance. Is the end of Rika's mad love...? Part 2 - Synopsis Three years later. Movie company producer Honma is separated from his family because of his wife's cheating. He lived away from his beloved 7-year-old daughter. One day, I register for a "matching app that allows me to communicate via email" for work research. There is an e-mail from a woman who gave her the handle name. Letter correspondence continues for a while, and Honma proposes to meet for work purpose. This was the entrance to hell and the beginning of ruin. Since then, there have been numerous emails and incoming calls on Honma's mobile phone. Rika's relentless stalking continues at the company's home. A spectacular story involving Honma's colleagues, detectives, detectives, and his wife and daughter has an unexpected ending. | |
Black School Rules | Sato Shori as Onoda Sora The first youth story of Sato and Satoshi Takahashi. The original story of the movie of the same name released on Friday, November 1, 2019, will be developed in the same work as Hulu. At a high school, Soraku (Sato) has a class-like presence, and Nakaya (Takahashi) is a tune. Two people who are opposite to each other draw a figure to confront the “black school rules” of high school that respects discipline. | |
Miss Zicocho – Survey file of genius and professor Tenno
| Manako Amano is a professor of engineering at a leading university, and has been studying “failure studies”. Rather than pursuing the responsibility for failure, it is a study that helps to prevent and recurrence by investigating the direct causes and the background and social causes. The various accidents that occur every day are always a failure, and accident investigation is the best fieldwork of Manako. Their activities go beyond engineering and spread with curiosity, such as corporate fraud and medical accidents. Personality is self-paced, selfish. He loves failure with the belief that “growth/progress will always be accompanied by failure” and frustrates the other party in order to shine his eyes on the failure story. However, the genius with a built-in failure database of east and west in the brain, Manako reaches the truth of the accident today! | |
Aibou: Season 18 |
| Mizutani Yutaka as Mizutani Yutaka Sugishi It was found on the 2nd that a new work "season18" (Wednesday, 9 pm) of the TV Asahi series drama "Aibo" starring Yutaka Mizutani (67) will be broadcast in 2 cools from October. Twenty years have passed since the drama was born, and the combination with partner Takashi Sorimachi (45) also entered the fifth year. Recently, the two performed the largest Hokkaido location in the drama series. A popular work by the Metropolitan Police Department special mission officer Ukyo Sugishita (Mizutani) who tries to solve the case with his partner. In the first special, looking for Ukyo, whose name is unknown, Watanabe Castle (Santachi) visits the northernmost remote island. |
Please Never Manage
| “Don't manage it at all” is a romantic comedy that draws the love story of the main character, Rika Kakeda, with various scientific experiments, great episodes, and a story with a science university, set at the University of Technology. All three volumes of the book have been released. The Kakeda role in the drama small TakiNozomi ( Johnny WEST ) is in charge. Fumika Baba will also play the role of his fond Iijima. Raoul (Snow Man / Johnny's Jr.) will also appear as teles supporting Kakeda's love. Other casts include Yuki Imai, Makita Sports, and Ken Ishiguro. | |
Hidarikiki no Eren
| Based on the manga by Kappy about a designer who dreams of becoming 'someone' and a painter who is blessed with overwhelming talent and suffers because she is a genius. |
Listed as Fall Season |
Drama | Network JST Airdate/ time | Cast/Synopsis |
Shinya Shokudo ~ Tokyo Stories Season 2
| There is a small eatery ‘Meshiya’ in a back alley of a busy street which is run just by its owner. Called the “midnight eatery”, its opening hours are from midnight to seven in the morning. The only items on the menu are miso soup with pork and vegetables set, beer, sake and shochu. All sorts of customers visit the eatery, which is based on the owner’s policy of “making whatever can be done”. The encounters between the owner, food and customers are humorous and at times, heartrending. | |
Ai Naki Mori de Sakebi
| Murata Jo (Shiina Kippei) is a ruthless criminal. On the surface, he is cheerful and lively. But he emotionally controls other people, milks them for money and makes them commit brutal crimes. | |
Chou no Rikigaku ~ Satsujin Bunsekihan
| Kimura Fumino as Kisaragi Toko Kisaragi Toko is a detective in the Investigation 1 Section 11 of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Her senior, Detective Hideaki Takano, has decided to move to the Public Security Bureau. Hideaki Takano’s transfer will be carried out in 1 week. During this time, a murder takes place. A wealthy man is found dead in his home. His throat has been cut and a blue flower placed within the wound. Also, the victim's wife, Mayumi, is missing. A newspaper then receives an email from Kurasuta 16, professing themselves as the murderer. The email also implies the location of Mayumi. Since Detective Hideaki Takano is soon to transfer to the Public Security Bureau, Toko Kisaragi feels more pressure and responsibility to solve the crime. | |
Hikinukiya ~ Headhunter no Ryuugi
| Matsushita Nao as Kanoko Saho “Make me fired?” — Koho Kago (Nao Matsushita), who worked as an executive of the outdoor product manufacturer Fone, whose father is the president, was stunned. He was working hard to take over his belief in manufacturing but suddenly dismissed. In the background is a trick of a person invited through “a certain head hunter” ... Meanwhile, in front of Koho, Hanori Watanabe (Yuki Uchida), who calls himself “Head Hunter”, appears to be working at Forte Force, a headhunting company where she works strangely. And when the boss Go Namiki (Nobuya Kote) went to work for the first time, there was a competing hard arm head hunter, Masaki Toga (Atsuo Watanabe). While battling, betraying and fighting, Koho confronts clients and candidates (headhunting candidates) with one or two managers and finds the rewards for "a job that keeps people's lives". But... On the other hand, dark clouds began to drift in the management of the phone. | |
Yuganda Hamon
| Matsuda Ryuhei as Sawamura [Reporter] Can a reporter who has issued a “misinformation” save the victim of the “misinformation”? | |
Red Beard 2
| Funakoshi Eiichiro as Jo Niidekyo The second edition of “Red Beard” produced in 2017 on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Shugoro Yamamoto, the original author. Set in the Edo period Koishikawa Yoyosho, a mysterious and rugged doctor known as “Red Beard” (Eiichiro Funakoshi) and a young doctor, Yasushi Nakamura, poor patients, and people in Ichii. Co-starred by Aimi Satsukawa, Kimiaki Maeda and Kosuke Suzuki. | |
Continuing dramas from previous seasons:
(Sept) Scarlet - Toda Erika as Kawahara Kimiko
(Sept) Rinsho Hanzai Gakusha Himura Hideo no Suiri Season 2 - Saito Takumi as Himura Hideo
(Jan) Idaten - Beat Takeshi as Kokontei Shinshō
(Apr.) Kasouken no Onna Season 19 - Sawaguchi Yasuko as Sakaki Mariko
Did not add Hitori Camp de Tabete Neru - as it seems it's like a cooking survival show? Is that variety? Anyhow, not in the MDL database but here is the official and my sources have it listed. 12.52 a.m., Saturdays, 19 October 2019, TV Tokyo.
Wanna know if a Jdorama will be subbed? Giftedones map is an excellent place to start.
