Best Japanese soap series

Hirugao: Love Affairs in the Afternoon (2014)

Life is simple for Sasamoto Sawa, a young housewife, but when the adulteress Takigawa Rikako moves into her neighborhood, so too does a new world of sophistication and sex. After Takigawa is nearly caught in the act, Sasamoto covers for her during the ensuing aftermath, unwittingly involving herself with a handsome teacher named Kitano Yuichi — and discovering her own desires for extramarital passions.

Crazy Over His Fingers: Just the Two of Us in a Salon After Closing (2020)

Fumi works as an assistant at a popular salon in the city and is aiming to become a hairdresser. She receives strict guidance from Sousuke, the salon's charismatic hairdresser and manager. Every time he touches Fumi, she becomes agitated. One day after the salon closed, Fumi stands in as Sousuke's practice partner at the shampoo station. As he touches her and sprinkles her with water, she becomes angry again! Or so the thought...could she actually be attracted to him? Sousuke flashes an evil smile as he senses Fumi's heart, and his fingertips start to stroke every corner of her body...Fumi cannot refuse his fingers anymore.

Riko High!! (2021)

Kie is a full-time housewife who has lived a life like fresh water. However, one day, her husband's affair was suddenly discovered, and she left with a divorce notice and lost communication. Kie, who was shocked and angry, found the room of her husband's affair partner and boarded, but it was not the woman of the affair partner... but a young man, Kenta who was his boyfriend. It was discovered that Kenta was having an affair with her...

Peanut Butter Sandwich (2020)

Sayo is a career woman who believes that if you work hard, anything is within reach.Miharu is a nurse who has been in a too-long relationship as her hopes of marriage diminish.Miwa works at a credit union and has a hard time turning down men’s advances and suffers from low self-esteem.Akane is a secretary with a beauty everyone notices and an elegance that makes her unattainable, yet there’s also a sadness about her.Four ladies with different views of love, all looking for a husband, end up going to a matchmaking party together.Four ladies, all at a critical moment in their lives, get real, as their spouse-hunting love story unfolds!Engaging in spouse-hunting parties and dating apps, they try to find their match but things don’t work out.At times they find themselves involved with a married man and at other times, they becomefriends with benefits...Will these four ladies ever find happiness?

Kurayami Santa (2015)

In the midst of Shouwa era Japan, greed runs rampant through the bustling cities and communities of the nation. King of Hell Enma Daiou summons an envoy into his office in the form of a small boy named Kurayami Santa. Through Enma's debriefing, Santa learns that the amount of greed and selfish behavior produced by humans will soon create an enormous wave of souls entering into Hell simultaneously, which would be catastrophic for Hell itself.Santa is given one mission: do something about it. With neither guidelines nor rules, Santa is tasked to handle the situation as he sees fit. In the human world, a rampaging thunderstorm strikes a nearby cemetery with a bolt of lightning, and the envoy of Hell appears.Teleported into the human world, Santa quickly realizes that humans are just as wicked as Enma had described. Without upsetting the balance between light and dark, Santa begins his quest to complete the mission from Hell and restore order to the human world.

Little Meg the Witch Girl (1974)

Majokko Megu-chan is a magical girl anime series. The manga was created by Tomo Inoue and Akio Narita, while the 72-episode anime series was produced by Toei Animation between 1974 and 1975. This series is considered an important forerunner of the present day magical girl genre, as the series' characterization and general structure exerted considerable influence over future shows in the same genre. Most notably, several of the show's recurring motifs were recycled in Toei's Sailor Moon, AIC's Pretty Sammy, and Wedding Peach.

_Summer (2006)

Takumi Kaizu is a boy that doesn't have any particular interest in girls. During a school trip, his friend Osamu asks him whether or not he has a girl that he likes. From that point on, Takumi slowly becomes interested in the opposite sex, through the girls that he is accquainted with in his daily life. As the last summer of his high school life begins, Takumi begins to search for the one girl that he can call his girlfriend, while watching Osamu's desperate and relentless search for a girlfriend as well.

The Guide to Late Night Bad Love (2018)

Madoka Koga, who maintains her fierce attitude from her delinquent days, but is still a virgin; Chiyo Fukuma, a woman who treats shoujo manga as bibles for romance; and Sawako Chidori, a woman who can't help but always fall for poor excuses for men. The story centers on the three women who meet each other while carousing at night, telling each other bad stories of men they have met or dated. (animenewsnetwork)

Stewardess Story (1983)

虹の向こうへ (2010)

Love Again (1998)

Mizuki Yoshino's love for schoolmate Yuta Ogari having gone completely unnoticed. She learns to forget about him after they take their separate paths in life. However, just as Mizuki is about to marry into a very wealthy family, she happens to meet her old love again. He is also involved in a relationship though, and the feelings that their meeting rekindles threatens to disappoint and anger those who are trying to keep them apart.

同窓会 (1993)