Drowning Love - Recommendations

• TV (12 eps)
• 2015

The slow-paced yet heartwarming life of the four girls in the tiny Asahioka Branch School continues as Natsumi, Komari, Renge, and Hotaru attend school in the one-room schoolhouse that holds only 5 students. Although the laid-back environment and atmosphere is a big change for Hotaru, who came from bustling Tokyo, there’s just something charming and calming about life in the Japanese countryside. 

• TV (12 eps)
• 2013

When Hotaru transfers from a school in bustling Tokyo to a tiny school in a quiet country village, she’s in for a big adjustment. Although her new school only has five students, there's something about the laidback lifestyle that makes her feel right at home. It's a big change from the big city, but there are still plenty of new adventures to look forward to with her quirky new friends as Hotaru learns that “home” really is where the heart is.

• TV (13 eps)
• 2016

Everyone has regrets in life. So who wouldn't take the chance to change the past if given the opportunity? When sixteen-year-old Takamiya Naho receives a mysterious letter, claiming to be from her twenty-seven-year-old self, her life is suddenly thrown into flux. The letter tells her that a new transfer student by the name of Naruse Kakeru will be joining her class, and to keep her eye on him. But why? Naho must decide what to make of the letter and its cryptic warning, and what it means not only for her future, but for Kakeru's as well.

• TV (25 eps)
• 2017

Five young women have one thing in common—the careers they planned for themselves weren’t working out. Job dissatisfaction, trying to make ends meet, and personal insecurities lead each of them to start working at a local tourism bureau where their lives become intertwined. As the girls experience their first year on the job, they learn a lot about their town, their industry, and themselves. 

• TV (12 eps)
• 2008

After a series of unfortunate events, the young Hirose Takuma was rendered blind. In an attempt to reverse his condition Hirose moves in with his uncle in a rural village, and upon his arrival he quickly begins to make new friends. However, Hirose soon discovers that one of his classmates, Hayami Kohinata, is being harshly bullied by her peers for reasons that neither she nor anyone else wants to explain. Even the seemingly honest and gentle Hinata Kagura, who had been doing her best to be friendly and helpful to Hirose since his arrival, acts harshly towards Hayami. Once a mysterious girl bequeaths Hirose with a life-changing gift, he takes it upon himself to help save Kohinata from her loneliness while working to uncover the truth of the situation.

• TV (12 eps)
• 2012

26 years ago, something terrible happened in a middle school’s third year classroom. A popular, talented student named Misaki suddenly died, and the ramifications of that incident have caused each third year class since then to live in fear. It is now 1998, and Kouichi Sakakibara has just transferred into the notorious classroom, curious about the mysterious secret that his peers are hiding from him. He’s drawn to one enigmatic girl named Mei Misaki, a quiet student who wears an eye patch and warns him about getting involved with her, and continues to seek her out against the pleas of his classmates. And that’s when people begin to violently die...

• TV (26 eps)
• 2011

Ohana Matsumae is a sixteen-year-old girl with no purpose or direction in life. One day, however, she gets the chance to reinvent herself when her mother and her boyfriend do a moonlight flit to escape his debts. Left alone, Ohana goes to live with her estranged grandmother, but when she arrives she finds herself forced to work at the family’s hot spring resort, the Kissuiso Inn. With her grandmother considering her nothing more than an employee and a roommate who hates her, Ohana’s happy dream of a new life soon turns into a nightmare. Now the wide-eyed girl must learn the value of hard work as she attempts to make friends and familiarise herself with life at the resort.

• Web (4 eps)
• 2015

• TV (26 eps)
• 2006

Maebara Keiichi, an ordinary high-school boy, has transferred to a new school in Hinamizawa, a small rural village. At the outset everything seems peaceful and Keiichi becomes friends with a nice group of schoolgirls with whom he spends many idle summer afternoons. Suddenly violence encroaches upon the blissful peace of the village and Keiichi becomes entangled in an endless cycle of fear and death. The inconsistent, but inevitable horrors of Hinamizawa are told and retold becoming an endless and inescapable nightmare of insanity. Will it end even if the mystery of Hinamizawa is solved?

• TV (104 eps)
• 1969 - 1971

Moving to a new school is never easy, and it's even worse when you’re the most intelligent girl in school and everyone around you seems incredibly boring; that is Kozue Ayuhara’s attitude after arriving at Fujimi High. The only part of school that she finds interesting is her favorite sport, volleyball; but unfortunately, even the Fujimi volleyball team is in shambles. One day, after insulting the team for always losing, Kozue is challenged to try out and prove just how good she is. Of course, as with everything in her life, Kozue passes with flying colors, and in the process becomes the admired new team captain. Having suddenly found a challenge worthy of her skills, can Kozue overcome the professional and personal obstacles involved with taking a losing team to international glory?