Best tv shows like Wakaba
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
The story is about a young woman who becomes a landscape gardener following her father's wishes. Wakaba, born and brought up in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, lived happily with her parents and younger brother until the Great Hanshin Earthquake shook and destroyed the city in 1995. In the disaster, Wakaba loses her father, who was an architect and moves with her mother and brother to Obi, old castle town in Nichinan, Miyazaki Prefecture, where her grandmother lives with her uncle and aunt. Living in Obi's rich natural environment, Wakaba learns that plants can heal people's hearts. She makes a resolution to return to Kobe and reconstruct the city abundant in greenery.
IMDB Rating:
IMDB Votes:
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags: asadora
Best tv shows and movies like Wakaba (2004):
Similar in 86%
My Favorite Member (2019)
Plot Summary:
Mana Endo (Yuki Sakurai) is an OL and she is about to turn 30-years-old. She has enjoyed posting about herself on social media, but she has grown tired of that. One day, Mana Endo happens to see underground idol Hana Kurimoto (Sei Shiraishi) perform live. Mana Endo is touched by her, who is not good at performing, but eager at what she is doing.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 16
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Kaze no Haruka (2005)
Plot Summary:
At the age of nine, Haruka moves from Osaka to Yufuin with her father Yosuke and her younger sister Asuka because Yosuke hopes to open a restaurant in the town. Her mother Yuko, however, chooses to stay in Osaka and the parents soon get a divorce. Yosuke starts running a restaurant but ends up closing it down soon after. Ten years later, Haruka supports her family by working part time while going to a junior college. Worrying about Haruka, Yuko invites her to come to Osaka and offers her a job. Although she has not forgiven her mother, Haruka decides to earn money in Osaka to help Yosuke reopen the restaurant. Through various experiences in Osaka, Haruka gradually understands her mother and grows as a tour planner with her talent for pleasing people.
IMDB Rating:
IMDB Votes:
Genere: Drama, Family
Country: Japan
Duration: 15 min
Plot tags: asadora
Similar in 84%
Scarlet (2019)
Plot Summary:
Born in 1937 in Osaka as the eldest daughter, Kawahara Kimiko moves to Shigaraki with her family at the age of 9. She works to support her family from a young age. Eventually, she jumps into the male world of pottery and becomes a pioneer of female ceramic arts. After marrying her husband who is also involved in ceramics and owning her own kiln, she raises her two children while struggling to create unique ware.
IMDB Rating:
IMDB Votes:
Genere: Drama, Family, History, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration: 15 min
Plot tags: asadora
Similar in 82%
Twins (2008)
Plot Summary:
The twin girls Tajima Megumi and Ichijo Nozomi was separated at birth after their parents had divorced. Years later they meet each other. Both of them have a career within the entertainment industry. Megumi who lives in Matsue, Shimane sings in the band Shijimijiru, and Nozomi is a maiko, an apprentice geisha in Kyoto.
IMDB Rating:
IMDB Votes:
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags: asadora
Similar in 87%
The Voice of Hope (2009)
Plot Summary:
The story follows the 20-year-old Tsubasa who dedicates her life to her family and their shop. Her life is turned upside down when her mother who was missing came back home. To pay of her mother's debt she starts to work at a small radio station as a DJ.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 14
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags: asadora
Similar in 79%
Here Comes the Morning (2015)
Plot Summary:
Towards the end of the Edo era, in the town of Kyoto, there lived a wealthy merchant by the name of Imai Tadamasa. He was blessed with 3 children, Hatsu, Asa and Kyutaro. His eldest, Hatsu, was a traditional girl who loved to play the koto and sew. Whilst his second daughter, Asa, was an impish hoyden who loved sumo wrestling. Asa was engaged to be married to the second son of a distinguished family who ran a money changer business in Osaka, Shirooka Shinjiro. Although Asa was furious when she had first heard about the betrothal, when she met up with Shinjiro for the first time, his charisma greatly attracted her and she fell in love with him in no time.
IMDB Rating: 8.6
IMDB Votes: 59
Genere: Biography, Drama, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration: 15 min
Plot tags: asadora
Similar in 75%
Tenka (2004)
Plot Summary:
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IMDB Rating:
IMDB Votes:
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags: asadora
Similar in 87%
Step Forward (2008)
Plot Summary:
The 78th NHK Asadora is Hitomi. The series takes place in the old shitamachi area of Tokyo, and in these most recent episodes, 20-year old heroine Hitomi becomes the force around which her divorced mother, long estranged from her own father, is forced to reconcile and renew a sense of family camaraderie. This is not particularly easy, given the trifling issues and problems of modern day life that beset each of the characters, and the drama unfolds with a light comedic touch. Hitomi's upbringing is the issue that is constantly brought into focus. The family reconciliation is made possible, ironically through the death of Hitomi's grandmother. Hitomi seizes the opportunity to travel to her funeral from Sapporo. Once there, she sets out to realize her dream of becoming a dancer, all the while interfering with and disrupting her grandfather's life.
IMDB Rating:
IMDB Votes:
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 15 min
Plot tags: asadora
Similar in 75%
Teppan (2010)
Plot Summary:
Teppan is a Japanese television drama that aired on NHK in 2010–2011. It was the 83rd Asadora. It starred a new actress, Miori Takimoto, in the role of a young woman raised by an adopted family in Onomichi who learns of her real grandmother and decides to move to Osaka to start an okonomiyaki restaurant. The title word "teppan" refers to the metal surface on which okonomiyaki are cooked. The series, while interrupted by the Tohoku Earthquake, averaged a 17.2% rating, making it the fourth most popular of the Asadora dramas in the previous five years.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 9
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 15 min
Plot tags: asadora
Similar in 75%
Real Clothes (2009)
Plot Summary:
Kinue is a saleswoman in the futon section of a department store. One day, she suddenly gets transferred to the women's clothing department, even though she herself is lacking in fashion sense. Her new boss Miki, soon introduces Kinue to the tough reality of the fashion world. Through this job, Kinue learns about the meaning of life, love, and work.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 37
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags: dorama
Similar in 85%
Last Doctor (2014)
Plot Summary:
Yoshizaki Kaoruko, who had been a clinician at a university hospital, takes up a post at a medical examiner’s office after she is told by her professor to try to get experience. However, everyone from the supervising doctor Akita Shinya, director Yanagida Shuhei and assistant Yamashita Mieko are all individualistic characters. This does not bode well for the future. Meanwhile, Akita and Kaoruko are put in charge of the dead body of a popular model who fell to her death. The police consider it to be a suicide, but Akita is drawn to a subtle point.
IMDB Rating:
IMDB Votes:
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 54 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
Truth of Zero (2014)
Plot Summary:
Maou Matsumoto is a new forensic medical examiner who returns in Japan after studying in USA. Mao only interest is her work and the autopsies she performs.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 32
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 54 min
Plot tags: medical drama
Similar in 75%
Toto Nee-chan (2016)
Plot Summary:
In 1930 and as a young child, Tsuneko Kohashi lives at Enshu in Shizuoka Prefecture. She has a happy life with her parents and two younger sisters. Things change after her father dies from tuberculosis. Her father asked Tsuneko Kohashi to take care of the family in his place. Due to financial difficulties, her mother Kimiko decides to move the family to Tokyo where Tsuneko's grandmother lives.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 22
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 15 min
Plot tags: asadora
Similar in 76%
Garden of the Wind (2008)
Plot Summary:
The lead, Dr. Sadami Shiratori worked in the operating room at a famous Tokyo hospital was around death on a daily basis. His own father, Teizo Shiratori is also a doctor, called Grandfather as he raised the estranged children of his wayward son, he practiced medicine in a small town on Hokkaido, Japan’s most northern island. His practice was limited only to terminal patients…in their own homes. He cared for them and helped both them and their families prepare for the ‘final journey’.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 30
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Cheers to Miki Clinic (2019)
Plot Summary:
When doctor Tsukumo is fired following a medical mishap his medical university professor recommends that he starts anew at a for profit business called Miki Clinic. This clinic is staffed with young and proficient doctors who are experts in their field, but also opinionated and strong-willed. The clinic works holistically on the mind and the body of its well-to-do patients. The clinic also has a secret.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 6
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Yell (2020)
Plot Summary:
NHK's 102nd morning drama depicts the life of a famous composer. Koyama Yuichi with his wife Oto. They meet each other through music and overcome hardships together. Yuichi composes songs that became "Yells" for people all over Japan in the Showa Era (1926-1989) in which radical changes were going on. .
IMDB Rating: 8.3
IMDB Votes: 11
Genere: Biography, Comedy, Drama, Romance
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags: asadora
Similar in 86%
Chaser Game (2022)
Plot Summary:
Tatsuya Shindo (Keisuke Watanabe) has worked as a game creator for Dynamic Dream for the past 9 years. He dreamed of holding that job since he was a middle school student. Now, Tatsuya Shindo gets promoted to a middle management position within the company. He is excited to work in his new position as a manager, but what awaits for him are team members who are hard to deal with. A new project is also assigned to him. While working on the project, Tatsuya Shindo encounters various problems. Can he complete the project successfully?.
IMDB Rating:
IMDB Votes:
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
Beautiful Rain (2012)
Plot Summary:
A young daughter (Mana Ashida) supports her father (Etsushi Toyokawa) who is diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 45
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 54 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
The Hanawa Sisters (2011)
Plot Summary:
A dad who is popular with the ladies and a mom that continues to love the dad without any doubt like a young girl. The four sisters that the unbelievably ironclad husband and wife raised includes, an unmarried and divorced, a marriage hunter, a boyfriend-less, and one that has no luck with men. Out of them all, the second daughter Takemi, was the problem child, having divorced multiple times and has 3 kids. Because Takemi lives true to herself, she often ends up standing out from everyone, and gets called "the femme fatale with many lovers," problem child," and "devil." Will she end up causing many humorous troubles!? -- TBS -- DramaWiki.
IMDB Rating: 5.6
IMDB Votes: 26
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
Fragile (2016)
Plot Summary:
The story of Kishi Keiichitaro, a dashingly handsome pathologist who is intensely eccentric and brutally honest, but also holds one of the most brilliant minds. A pathologist is a physician whose job is to determine a diagnosis of disease or cause of death based on an assortment of data, including a patient's tissue, bodily fluids, organ samples, blood, etc.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 41
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 54 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
DOCTORS: The Ultimate Surgeon (2011)
Plot Summary:
Donoue General Hospital runs into a budget deficit, even though the doctors drive expensive imported cars and live an outlandish lifestyle. Office manager Momoi finds surgeon Kosuke Sagara through a medical website. Kosuke Sagara arrives at the hospital and tells the director of the general hospital to decide on his pay after watching his work. Kosuke Sagara informs the hospital that he had previously quit his job at a university hospital and taken a year sabbatical.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 30
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 54 min
Plot tags: medical drama
Similar in 81%
Midnight Diner (2009)
Plot Summary:
Set in a small restaurant in the corner of a shopping district. The unusual eatery is only open after midnight, and its standard menu consists of just a single choice. However, the customers still come for the amusing chatter and the proprietor's willingness to cook any dish that they request. This drama depicts the lives of the restaurant's patrons, including a yakuza, an unsuccessful actor, a group of office ladies, a newspaper delivery boy, and a stripper.
IMDB Rating: 8.6
IMDB Votes: 3000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 24 min
Plot tags: psychological, sincere, touching, melancholic, contemplative, anthology
Similar in 77%
Silver and Gold (2017)
Plot Summary:
Morita, a man who never succeeds in anything, takes his anger out in gambling. He meets an underworld fixer named Ginji Hirai, who introduces him to the underworld trade, where billions of yen changes hands every moment, and speculators and other influential people bet their lives for greed.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 29
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
Sleeping Jukujo (2012)
Plot Summary:
Aizawa Senba's husband asks her to get divorced after he meets his first love through facebook and wants to marry her. In order for her to get custody of her son, she decides to work at a luxurious hotel, and there she meets the young heir of the hotel, Takaoka Yuusuke, and starts to have feelings for him.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 5
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 30 min
Plot tags: sentimental, touching, suspenseful, disturbing
Similar in 75%
The Japanese the Japanese Don't Know (2010)
Plot Summary:
Haruko lands a job in a local tutoring establishment and upon showing up for work on the first day, she discovers that she will not be teaching Japanese people, but teaching people Japanese. Her students are all foreigners who live in Japan for several reasons, and she is faced with their many questions on the Japanese Language that she'd never really thought of before.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 148
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration:
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing
Similar in 77%
Boys Over Flowers 2 (2007)
Plot Summary:
Hana Yori Dango Returns is a Japanese television drama series, broadcast on TBS in 2007. It is the sequel to 2005 Hana Yori Dango TV series, based on Japanese shōjo manga series, Boys Over Flowers, written by Yoko Kamio, and followed by movie adaptation Hana Yori Dango Final.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 45 min
Plot tags: dorama, sentimental, romantic, humorous, cynical, shoujo, anime, comic
Similar in 88%
A Life (2017)
Plot Summary:
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.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 326
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 54 min
Plot tags: tense, captivating, medical drama
Similar in 82%
BOSS (2009)
Plot Summary:
Osawa Eriko is a beautiful career woman who has just returned from training in the U.S. and is appointed as the "boss" of this division. But despite her intelligence and capabilities, she can never understand a man's heart, so she remains unable to find a husband.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 290
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 54 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, disturbing, detective
Similar in 75%
Border (2014)
Plot Summary:
Ishikawa Ango is a very capable detective that lives only for his job. One day, while investigating a crime scene, he gets shot in the head by the criminal that was still lurking about. Ango gets thrown over that line that divides life and death but, though he dies, doctor's are able to reanimate him and he pulls through. Yet, the bullet remains stuck in his head as the operation to remove it is very dangerous. Shortly after, he goes back to work and soon realizes that he's now able to see and talk with the recently departed.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 403
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 54 min
Plot tags: detective, dorama, tense, atmospheric, serious, captivating, suspenseful, disturbing, psychological
Similar in 83%
Carnation (2011)
Plot Summary:
Carnation is a Japanese television drama that aired in the Asadora slot on NHK from 3 October 2011 to 31 March 2012. It is the 85th Asadora. It is based on the life of the fashion designer Ayako Koshino in Kishiwada, Osaka. Ayako was the mother of the internationally famous designers Hiroko Koshino, Junko Koshino, and Michiko Koshino.
IMDB Rating: 8.8
IMDB Votes: 83
Genere: Drama
Country: Japan
Duration: 15 min
Plot tags: touching, serious, emotional, realistic, asadora, stylized