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Shomuni 2013 sees a total change in the members of Shomuni, with the exception of Esumi Makiko who will reprise her role of the feisty Tsuboi Chinatsu. It has been 10 years since Shomuni had been dissolved in Manpan Corporation, and the department members have all gone on into retirement. Tsuboi Chinatsu's whereabouts is known to nobody. Due to the long economic downturn suffered by Japanese companies, restructuring is a common occurrence nowadays. Manpan is no different from the rest. Maruyama Shiori is an Olympic gold-medal hopeful in the pole vault event. Manpan had recruited as part of their PR advertising, but due to severe costs-cutting measures, the track and field club in Manpan was dissolved, and Shiori is deemed to have no value to the company anymore. In order to make Shiori, who doesn't even have the skills to be a telephone operator, leave on her own accord, the company started tweeting bad things about her. Poor Shiori is now an outcast in the company and no one totally dares to be seen with her at all. No one, except for the team of OL, made up of Minami Madoka, Abe Reiko, Kojima Masuko and Fukuda Masuyo, who appear before her one by one. One day, Shiori comes across a lady who seemed to be running away from someone. The next day, she sees the same lady again at the company. The lady is none other than the legendary Tsuboi Chinatsu! Has Chinatsu rejoined the company again? What is the objective of the company and also Chinatsu? -- by Fuji TV

The 42nd NHK Taiga Drama is MUSASHI. Many Japanese history buffs are familiar with The Book of Five Rings written by Miyamoto Musashi in the 17th century. Musashi's treatise on strategy and the way to lead instantly became the business executive's bible when the translated version hit the bookstores more than three hundred years later. In 2003, the story of this legendary swordsman-philosopher-painter comes to life in the NHK Taiga Drama MUSASHI. Based on the famous biography written by Yoshikawa Eiji, this taiga drama boasts a list of stars that reads like a Who's Who of screen and television. Orphaned before he was ten years old, Musashi (his real name is Takezo, so you'll hear his childhood friends call him by that name) grows up skilled in the martial arts. During the Battle of Sekigahara, he fights on the side of the losing Toyotomi forces, but eludes the enemy as they hunt down the vanquished soldiers. He then spends years wandering the countryside mastering the sword, becoming a stronger samurai. As his fame spreads throughout the nation, men seek him out to test their skills against him--most notably Sasaki Kojiro who faces Musashi in the ultimate Duel at Ganryujima.