Omusubi

A woman nearing 30 struggles with doubts about her future, torn between leaving her unemployed boyfriend to seek stability in marriage and her true desire to stay with him, even as a coworker confesses his long-held feelings for her.

Hirai Taro is a writer, who admires detective novels by Conan Doyle, Maurice Leblanc, and Edgar Allan Poe. He tries to get his own novels published, but newspapers and publishing companies show no interest towards his stories. The only person who reads his novels is Murayama Ryuko. They communicate with each other through letters. While writing his novels, Hirai Taro works low paying jobs and lives in poverty. He meets elderly Private Detective Shirai Saburo. Shirai Saburo teams up with Hirai Taro and they do private detective jobs together.

Eight years ago, a boy who got lost in a festival surrounded by the suspicious light of blue lanterns. Everyone wears a mask and continues to dance silently. It was a festival that no one should ever enter—the boy meets his grandfather, who should have died there. "Naoya, you couldn't come to such a place…" Naoya Fukamachi, who became a college student, lived with loneliness. Naoya has been able to understand people's lies since the day of the Blue Lantern Festival. When a person tells a lie, his voice is distorted and sounds strange.

Due to her husband's work, Maiko moves with her husband to Tokyo from Hiroshima. They live in an apartment offered by her husband's company. Her husband is busy with work and comes home late every night. Maiko beings to talk with Futaba, who lives next door to her. Futaba is her husband's boss. They talk with each other from their porches. One day, Maiko learns that her husband is having an affair. She becomes closer to Futaba.

Getting from Junior High School to High School could be a whole different world. This short, simple nine-episode miniseries is about the transition, witnessed from the eyes of three new high schoolers.