Tokyo Friends
Tokyo Friends (東京フレンズ, Tōkyō Furenzu) is a Japanese television drama released on June 3, 2005. Unlike many other dramas, it was never aired on TV but released as a set of 3 DVDs. Volumes one and two contain the first 4 episodes while volume three contains the last episode. Each episode is approximately 70 minutes.
| Tokyo Friends | |
|---|---|
 Tokyo Friends DVD cover | |
| Genre | Romantic Comedy |
| Starring | Ai Otsuka Eita Rio Matsumoto Masanobu Katsumura Yōko Maki Mao Kobayashi Ryuta Sato |
| Opening theme | Friends (フレンズ) |
| Country of origin |  |
| Original language(s) | Japanese |
| No. of episodes | 5 |
| Production | |
| Producer(s) | Ueda Hiroki |
| Camera setup | Multiple-camera setup |
| Running time | 46 min. (approx) |
| Release | |
| Original network | TBS |
| First shown in | June 3, 2005 (DVD release only) |
| Chronology | |
| Followed by | Tokyo Friends: The Movie |
| External links | |
| Website | |
The Tokyo Friends Premium Box was also released which includes all 5 episodes, a bonus DVD, and 12 postcards. Although this is a very typical Tokyo-story and was never aired on TV, it was quite successful probably because it was Ai Otsuka's debut as an actress.
Plot
Rei Iwatsuki moved from her hometown Kōchi to Tokyo to pursue her dreams. On arrival, she found a job as a waitress in a restaurant and met guitarist Ryuuji Shintani. Ryuuji liked her voice and invited her to join his band as the vocalist, The Survival Company (also known as Sabakan). The two started a relationship but then broke off when Rei wanted to write her own songs.
Rei met other girls also working in the restaurant, Hirono, Ryoko and Maki, all in pursuit of their own dreams, and became good friends with all of them.
Cast
- Ai Otsuka - Rei Iwatsuki
- Eita - Ryuuji Shintani
- Rio Matsumoto - Hirono Hayama
- Masanobu Katsumura - Kazuo Sasakawa
- Yōko Maki - Ryoko Fujiki
- Mao Kobayashi - Maki Abiko
- Ryuta Sato - Kenichi Satomi
- Yuuta Hiraoka - Hidetoshi Tanaka
- Kuranosuke Sasaki - Kohashi
- Mari Hoshino - Akemi
- Kei Tanaka - Wataru Iwatsuki
- Kazuki Kitamura - Keitaro Sasakawa
- Hajime Okayama
- Kazuyuki Asano
- Yutaka Matsushige - Shirakawa
- Shunta Nakamura - Mitsuo Nagase
- Takashi Ito - Oku-chan
- Yuu Misaki - Yoshie Sasakawa
- Arata Furuta - Wada
Tokyo Friends: The Movie
Tokyo Friends: The Movie was released on DVD on December 13, 2006.
Tokyo friends OST
- Friends : Music : Yoshiki composer : Yoshiki Lyrics : Yoshiki
- Haneirai Tamago : Music : Yoshiki : composer : Yoshiki Lyrics : Ai Otsuka
- To me : Music : Yoshiki : composer : Yoshiki Lyrics : Ai Otsuka
- Friends (Sabakan Ver): Music : Ai Otsuka composer : Yoshiki Lyrics : Yoshiki
External links
- Official website (in Japanese)
- Tokyo Friends on IMDb