Akaboshi Noboru (Takizawa Hideaki) is a kind, inquisitive and curious grade school student who idolizes his grandfather, a kind of Japanese Indiana Jones who has travelled all over the world and has a collection of rare and mysterious artifacts. When the floating spectre of a girl with no eyes terrorizes their school, Noboru and his friends become caught up in the mystery and eventually solve the case. They race home to tell Noboru’s grandfather, but he has left again on his travels, leaving behind an advanced talking computer database called “CLUSTER”. With the help of CLUSTER’s vast memory stores, Noboru and his classmates have the means to investigate more supernatural cases, and the “Kaiki Club” is born. Kaiki Club explores some quite horrific themes, and even though the SFX in this first series are pretty basic, they are usually well done and can be quite shocking to Western audiences, who are not accustomed to so much blood and horror in a children’s television series.

As in many Japanese shows, the character names have some additional significance. In this case they are colour-coded. Akaboshi Noboru (red) is of course their leader, with his enthusiam for the supernatural and a strong sense of justice. He also narrates the series. Imai Tsubasa also stars as Noboru’s friend, the nerdy and nervous Aoki Keita (blue). He is the classic geek, physically inept, but an honor student and bookworm with a head full of facts. Kawano Naoki plays the hotheaded Kuroiwa Takeshi (black). Rounding out the Kaiki Club members are Nomura Yuka as Konno Erika, who is kind, thoughtful and intelligent and her little brother Konno Shuuhei. Due to this series, Tackey, Tsubasa and Naoki were heavily promoted in the Johnnys magazines as a threesome and came to be known as “The Kaidan Trio”.

Starring Takizawa Hideaki (Noboru) and Imai Tsubasa (Keita).

In the year 2040, man has discovered the secret of travelling into the past and an organisation called the Time Enforcement Commission was born to track down offenders who travel back in time and risk altering history. Officers of the TEC are called “Time Police” and they are equipped with Target Hunting Systems, laser guns and time cuffs, which allow them to track the offenders and send them back to the future. Tackey plays Satonaka Rentarou, a junior high school student from 1997 who is inexplicably targeted by a marauder from the future when a Timecop, “Ryo” (Azuma Mikihisa) and his pretty, young, female partner “Kei” (Nakayama Emily), arrive on the scene to save Kentarou. They introduce him to their timeship ARK, and promise to stay to look after him.

Episode 8
Imai Tsubasa and Kawano Naoki return to the Mokuyou no Kaidan franchise in this special episode as two brothers from the year 2040, Gaku and Tetsuya, joyriding in the past. Both big gaming fans, 1997 is like a video game landscape and they are on a mission to collect a series of statues and mark them off an acquisition list. Meanwhile Rentarou is on a tentative “date” at the museum with Kei, his pretty young Timecop friend, when she is called away on police business.

It is then that Rentarou sees Gaku and Tetsuya trying to steal a statue at the museum. He goes to intervene, but they run off, and when security show up, it is Rentarou they see escaping. In the meantime, Rentarou catches up with the other two boys, and after a couple of spirited brawls they make a truce and he decides to help them experience life in 1997. The boys become fast friends as they share candy, KFC, a peep show and eventually a Mission Impossible style break-in at the stronghold of an underworld boss before they are captured by his henchmen. Will Rentarou’s Timecop friends arrive in time to save them from being turned into statues themselves?

Tragicomedy about an older woman who takes an elixer to try and recapture her youth. Imai Tsubasa stars as “Kazuya” an innocent teenager on his first date. Also stars Yoshino Sayaka as “Rumiko”.

A story about the quirky and eccentric Fujiwara family – 4 brothers and their widowed father, who manage a large, buddhist temple in Tokyo. The oldest brother, Fujiwara Shinbu (Kishitani Goro) has shunned the family business in favour of his sportscar driving, playboy lifestyle, leaving the religious duties to second oldest brother Fujiwara Shinjin (Masahiro Nakai - SMAP), who rides around on his moped performing funerary rituals and chanting sutras by day but dreams of being a sportswriter. The third oldest brother Fujiwara Shinyu (Imai Tsubasa) is miserable and rebellious, hiding a secret smoking habit from the others, and baby brother Fujiwara Shinai (Akaishi Ryotaro) is still wetting his bed. Although all the brothers are emotionally wounded and pulling in different directions, they were once united by the love of the mother they lost five years earlier, and their little handprints still adorn the family washing machine, which now barely works without a thump and a kick. But they refuse to get rid of it because it is a memento of their mother.

When their father Fujiwara Shingaku (Harada Yoshio) decides to hire the young, pretty, eccentric but inept Nana (Kimura Yoshino) as a housekeeper, it further complicates matters for Shinbu, because she has a crush on him. She also immediately gets on Shinyu’s case about his smoking habit, but in general provides a much needed sunny disposition and female perspective to the previously all-male household. But when she decides to get rid of the family washing-machine, she fractures an invisible bond that unites the boys and their father.

High school drama about a principal who goes to great lengths to motivate his wayward students. Featuring Imai Tsubasa as the delinquent, motorcycle-riding Yazaki Ryota.

A domestic drama about a family of seven brothers who run a tofu shop. Starring Imai Tsubasa as the second oldest son, along with Kohara Yuki and kansai juniors including Nishikido Ryo, Murakami Shingo, Maruyama Ryuhei and Yasuda Shota as the other brothers. Tsubasa’s music and other popular juniors songs also featured as the theme music.

A remake of the classic 18th century story of the “47 loyal samurai”.

From “Chushingura - Revenge of the 47 Samurai: by Alan Atkinson, Spencer Museum of Art.
“On the snowy night of January 30, 1703, in an incident known as the Ako vendetta, forty-six samurai burst into the mansion of the man responsible for the death of their former master, Asano Naganori, the lord of Ako. Their intended victim, Kira Yoshinaka, was a powerful noble and an important retainer of the imperial household. After refusing the opportunity to die by his own hand, Kira was killed with the same dagger Asano had used to commit seppuku, and then beheaded. At dawn on the following morning the vengeful samurai surrendered themselves to the priests of a Buddhist temple to await their punishment.

This startling event captured the imagination of a Japan that had known peace for almost a hundred years, at a time when the samurai ideals of loyalty and resolute action seemed almost forgotten. Today, more than two hundred years after the vendetta occurred, the temple where these men are buried is a place of pious pilgrimage for many Japanese. The vendetta served as the basis for what is without doubt the most famous and popular work of the traditional Japanese theater, Kanadehon Chushingura (The Treasury of Loyal Retainers: A Model for Emulation).

Drama series starring Imai Tsubasa and Johnnys Jnrs. Featuring Takizawa Hideaki in a guest performance.

After Shinoda Natsuo’s (Domoto Tsuyoshi) parents die, he has his hands full trying to keep the family together, run the bicycle shop and pay the bills. His younger brother Jun (Oguri Shun) is deaf, has plans to become a teacher and is trying to cultivate his first online romance with heartbreaking results. His young sister Chika (Ikewaki Chizuru) has fallen pregnant and wants to have the baby but her equally young boyfriend, Suetsugu Hiroto (Imai Tsubasa) has defied his family, left school and fallen in with a crowd of hoods.

Further complicating matters, Natsuo meets and falls in love with the beautiful yet fragile Katese Yuki (Hirosue Ryoko). Despite her frailty, Natsuo promises to train Yuki to use diving gear, then take her with him to explore the ‘Summer Snow’, a rare underwater event where dying plankton catch the sunlight as they fall to the ocean floor. But there is even more heartbreak when he finds out that Yuki’s weakness is caused by potentially fatal heart condition that can only be cured by a transplant.

A surprisingly uplifting and funny story of family ties, love and sacrifice with great performances by the ensemble cast. The series title has a double meaning. Not only does it describe the ocean coral, but it links the names of the two lead characters – “Natsuo” (Summer) and “Yuki” (Snow).

Tsubasa stars as Hishikawa Yoshikuni (17), who separates from his girlfriend Tajima Hiroko because he is having frightening dreams about his father’s mistress and the things she did to him. He is afraid that his fears, and a buried rage towards his father, might somehow endanger Hiroko, but she is confused by his sudden withdrawal. But Yoshikuni is an intelligent and sensitive boy, and as he starts to notice that his friends are also hiding painful secrets, he sets out to try to understand them in the hopes he can understand himself better.

V6’s Miyake Ken is Yoda Mitsuhiro (17), Yoshikuni’s friend , and Yoshikuni notices that Mitsuhiro’s stepmother Keiko seems to be forcing an inappropriate relationship on Mitsuhiro, threatening to cut off his support if he doesn’t submit. Yoshikuni sees a burning rage growing in his otherwise gentle friend, and decides to accept the mother’s invitations to get closer, in order to plead with her on behalf of her stepson. This angers Mitsuhiro even more and the two boys’ relationship falls apart. But Yoshikini discovers that Mitsuhiro’s father was a wealthy store owner who committed suicide with his lover – Mitsuhiro’s real mother – and his stepmother is so angry she is manipulating Mitsuhiro, both physically and emotionally, to exact revenge.

KAT-TUN’ s Tanaka Koki plays Iwatsuke Shigehisa (16), who has a weak heart, and suffers tremendous feelings of inadequacy compared to his handsome, high-achieving older brother. Younger than all the other boys, his best friend is his camera, and he hopes to be a photographer one day. He has developed a crush on Yoshikuni and follows him around like a puppy, taking photos of him at every opportunity which he develops and keeps in his room. He is also very jealous of Yoshikuni’s girlfriend Hiroko, and tries to convince her that the reason Yoshikuni pulled away from her is because he is gay. To make matters worse, Iwatsuke is also being prayed upon sexually by an older sempai, Takagi, who has been spying on the school, has witnessed Iwatsuki’s machinations and threatens to tell everyone. Eventually, Iwatsuke’s feelings of confusion, inadequacy and guilt start to spiral out of control.

Shinohara Kanji (Murakami Shingo - Kanjani 8) seems like a happy-go-lucky Kansai boy, but when his mother comes to visit the school he reveals to the other boys that his strong-willed parents, who are always fighting, are getting a divorce, and he’ll have to choose between them.

The last major character in the drama is Seto Osamu (Ikuta Toma), a boy not living at the school who nevertheless always seems to be turning up, full of effusive, happy energy to play pranks on the other boys. But it is revealed that he is too scared to go home because he thinks his house is haunted by the ghost of his mother, whom he believes he killed when he was little when a shaver fell into the bath she was cleaning. His mother always disciplined him severely, and he thinks her ghost has returned to torment him again and wants to hide out during the summer with the other boys.

Just as the boys start to overcome their diffferences, let down their guards and open up to each other, a tragedy occurs that shakes them to the core. When the board threatens to close down Shoraikan and send the boys home, they unite to save the school and realising how much they have in common allows them to start confronting their demons, rather than living in Neverland forever.

But when the court appoints Kazuaki to defend a angry but earnest young man, Akakura Toshiya (Imai Tsubasa) who has been accused of murder, Ryoko sees a way to both recover the debt and pursue her passion to defend the innocent. Kasuaki reluctantly teams up with Ryoko to clear Akakura’s name, and then Akakura joins the office as a legal clerk while he tries to complete his studies and help them out on investigations.

A theatrical performance series featuring Johnnys in leading roles. Imai Tsubasa stars in Ep 4 “Strip” (Yabuki Koichi), Ep 12 “Fuyu no Yurigera” (冬のユリゲラー The Winter of Yuri Geller) (Kakehi) and Ep 18 “Sayonara Nishiko-kun” (さよなら西湖クン ) (Iijima Naoya) Also features Miyake Ken (V6), Satoshi Ohno (Arashi), Ikuta Toma, Yokoyama You (Kanjani 8), Kato Shigeaki (NEWS), Masuda Takahisa and Tegoshi Yuya (NEWS, Tegomasu) among others.

But Natsu has a minor eye condition that prevents her from joining the voyage, they are cruelly separated at Kobe port and Natsu is left alone in wartime Japan. The family in Brazil soon discover that the work opportunities there were misrepresented and they are little more than indentured servants to European landlords, unable to raise the money to return to Japan. They send letters and money to Natsu from Brazil whenever they can, but her carers take the money for themselves and hide the letters, causing Natsu to believe that she has been abandoned.

When Haru finally makes it home 70 years later with her grandson, Yamato, in tow and track down Natsu, they anticipate a joyful reunion. But they soon discover that Natsu is is now a high-powered, self-made company executive who believes herself to have been forgotten by her family. Tsubasa learned to speak Portuguese for this role. Starring Mori Mitsuko as Takakura Haru, Nogiwa Yoko as Yamabe (Takakura) Natsu and Imai Tsubasa as Takakura Yamato.