Quick Japanese lesson as, AFAIK, there's not been a formal English title for this ultra-obscure series: Owakon is an abbreviation of 'owatta konatento' which means out-of-fashion content, 'owatta' being a past tense of 'owaru' meaning 'to end' and 'konatento' meaning media content, i.e. video, music, printed or other form of entertainment. The term is generally used as a sort of jokey put down for media trends that turned out to have a rather shorter shelf life than hoped for.
A notable example of an eponymically predictive title - given the dearth of evidence that it ever existed just four years after it was broadcast - this short series from NHK is actually rather a neat little attempt at telling the story of a tiny independent production company, serving multiple networks and clinging to existence in the rapidly changing landscape of 21st century Japanese media.
Chocolate TV is the company in question, employing just twenty staff, it's fate depends greatly on the whims of its mercurial president, Genjiro Aramaki, played, believe it or not, by the great Sonny Chiba. Chiba clearly relishes a role much removed from his martial arts origins and plays the ex-variety show producer Aramaki as a rogueish, larger-than-life, one-time industry mover-and-shaker who might have seen better days but who isn't going to let his career nor his company go down without a fight.
The tone is generally comic, with some serious elements. Each episode begins with a minute long sequence, underpinned with a few bars of what sounds like US3's Cantaloop, in which president Aramaki is presented with some viewer feedback by his secretary (while he scoffs chocolates from a seemingly endless supply) to which he typically responds with an earthy or sardonic drop of wisdom.
The story then typically continues with the assignment of some or other challenging task to one of Owakon TV's producers or directors and the remainder of the episode follows their struggles to resolve it, be it a truculent star, falling ratings or a seemingly unworkable concept for a new show. In most cases staff members band together and despite, or because of, president Aramaki's impulsive interventions, generally save the day.
Somewhat aptly given its subject matter, there's nothing massively memorable about this short series but it's very enjoyable nonetheless and the half hour episodes lend themselves well to the end of evening filler slot. There's also a lot of fun to be had watching Sonny Chiba chew the scenery.
