Japanese dramas, Q4 2024: the quarter in review

It aired in TBS's Sunday Theater slot from October 20 to December 22. On broadcast TV it ran nine episodes with an extended finale, while the streaming version split the finale to make 10 episodes. A story of youth on Hashima (Battleship Island) in Nagasaki from 1955 onward intertwines with that of a young man living in Tokyo in 2018. Ayuko Tsukahara and others directed Akiko Nogi's original script, and Ryunosuke Kamiki plays both Teppei and Reo. Hana Sugisaki, Elaiza Ikeda, Takumi Saitoh and Nobuko Miyamoto co-star.

Its 11.0% premiere was the series high, with a low of 6.7%, 8.3% for the final episode and an 8.3% average. It won five awards at the 122nd Television Drama Academy Awards, including Best Drama, as well as the Grand Prix in the serial drama category at the Tokyo Drama Awards 2025 and the Galaxy Award's monthly prize for December 2024.

This TV Asahi Thursday drama aired nine episodes from October 17 to December 19. In this medical drama, a pair of freelance "travel nurses" upend doctor-centered practices at a new hospital. It is an original script by Miho Nakazono and Takafumi Kosaka, with Masaki Okada as Ayumi Nasuda, Kiichi Nakai as Shizuka Kuki and Ken Matsudaira as Ryunosuke Amano.

It opened at 11.3%, reached its series high of 12.1% with episode 6, and never fell below 10.4%, so every episode topped 10%. It drew 11.8% for the final episode and averaged 11.2%.

This TBS Friday drama aired 11 episodes from October 11 to December 20. A city hall employee who lives with just his younger brother, who is on the autism spectrum, meets a little boy who introduces himself as "Lion." Yuya Yagira plays Hiroto Komori, Ryota Bando plays his younger brother Michito Komori and Sora Sato plays Lion. It is an original script by Koji Tokuo and Yoshino Ichinohe.

Its 5.1% premiere was the series low, and it hit its series high of 8.0% with the final episode. It averaged 6.5%. It won the Galaxy Award's monthly prize for December 2024.

It aired 10 episodes in NHK's Drama 10 slot (Tuesdays at 10 p.m.) from October 8 to December 10. Kanae Fujitake (Masataka Kubota), a science teacher newly assigned to a part-time evening high school in Tokyo, forms a science club with students of different ages and backgrounds, and together they take on an experiment to recreate the craters of Mars. It is based on Shin Iyohara's novel, with a script by Kaori Sawai, and Toranosuke Kobayashi, Aoi Ito and Issey Ogata co-star.

At the 28th Nikkan Sports Drama Grand Prix (autumn), it won Best Drama and Best Supporting Actor (Toranosuke Kobayashi).

All eight episodes were released on Netflix on November 14. A woman who lost her boyfriend in an accident meets the man who received his heart in a transplant, in a story set in Hokkaido and Hawaii. Hiroshi Kurosaki directed Yoshikazu Okada's original script, with Kasumi Arimura as Saeko Sugawara, Kentaro Sakaguchi as Kazumasa Naruse and Toma Ikuta as Yusuke Nakamachi.

It entered Netflix's Top 10 for TV in Japan at No. 3 in the week of November 17, took No. 1 in the weeks of November 24 and December 1, and then placed No. 5 and No. 8. It spent two weeks in the global Top 10 for non-English TV, at No. 9 in the week of November 17 (1.3 million views) and No. 10 in the week of November 24 (2.0 million).

It aired 10 episodes in Fuji TV's Thursday Theater slot (Thursdays at 10 p.m.) from October 17 to December 19. In this story of "takuran" (brood parasitism), written as an original script by Takayuki Ichikawa, a woman tormented by her husband's psychological abuse decides to raise another man's child as her husband's. Wakana Matsumoto plays Miwa Kanzaki, Kei Tanaka plays Hiroki Kanzaki and Tatsuya Fukazawa plays Ryo Fuyutsuki.

Its ratings were 5.1% for the premiere, a low of 3.7% and 5.8% for the final episode (the series high). Episode 1, however, received 3.33 million views through catch-up streaming in a single week, setting a new record for Fuji TV's October season, and its TVer favorites passed 800,000 as of October 24, the most of any drama that season.

Nine episodes aired on WOWOW Prime and WOWOW On Demand from October 6 to December 1. In Hokkaido at the end of the Meiji era, former soldier Saichi Sugimoto (Kento Yamazaki) and Ainu girl Asirpa (Anna Yamada) chase tattooed escaped convicts in a battle over hidden gold. A drama sequel to the film released in January 2024, it is based on Satoru Noda's manga. Hiroshi Tachi plays Toshizo Hijikata and Hiroshi Tamaki plays Tokushiro Tsurumi, with a script by Tsutomu Kuroiwa.

It aired eight episodes in TV Asahi's Friday Night Drama slot on Friday nights at 11:15 p.m. from October 11 to November 29. Tsumeko Takano (Nanao), a new employee at an IT consulting firm, looks capable to anyone who sees her but can hardly do her job, while Michito Hiwada (Akihisa Shiono), who joined the company with her, is capable but looks incompetent. This laid-back office comedy centers on the two, whose appearances and abilities don't match, and is based on the manga by Asami Hanzaki. Nonji Nemoto wrote the script, and Arata Iura, Asuka Kudo and Katsumi Takahashi co-star.

The surnames of the main characters contain kanji meaning birds (鷹, 鶸, 雉, 鳩 and others), and the episodes were numbered with 羽 (wa), the counter for birds. The first episode drew a 3.9% rating.