Suzuki Shizuka is an office lady at a conglomerate who is hypnotized at a local amusement park and left under the spell. Now she is compelled to sing and dance whenever she hears any melody whatsoever. She heads back to the hypnotist for relief, but he is nowhere to be found. So Shizuka sets off on a journey around Japan to find him and break the spell.

A year has passed in postwar Tokyo, and struggling writer Chagawa enters the Akutagawa Prize competition in hopes of securing a better future for the boy in his care, while the Suzuki family unexpectedly take in a new relative who looks down on their humble way of life.

The Tanita Corporation has developed the world's first body fat measuring device. The company itself also has many overweight employees. Because of this, the company finds it difficult to persuade prospective customers to buy their product. Company President Unosuke Tanida (Masao Kusakari) then orders all of his employees to go on diet. Vice President Konosuke (Kenta Hamano) hires nutritionist Nanako (Yuka) to oversee the project. Employees are to eat twice at a company restaurant, but problems arise in sequential order. With Nanako's magic recipe, employees at the company begin to see results.

A variety of aviation professionals such as pilots, flight attendants, the ground crew, mechanics, dispatchers, controllers, and the bird patrol crew all support a single flight. They have only one mission: to secure the safety of the passengers.

May 9, 2003 - The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) launches its unmanned spacecraft Hayabusa into orbit. Its mission is to collect samples from a near Earth asteroid named 25143 Itokawa. Hayabusa is scheduled to make contact with the asteroid in November 2005. As the spacecraft approaches its rendezvous date with the asteroid problems arise for the JAXA staff back on Earth.