Signal (Japanese TV series)

Signal (Japanese: シグナル, Hepburn: Shigunaru), also known as Signal: Long-Term Unsolved Case Investigation Team (Japanese: シグナル 長期未解決事件捜査班, Hepburn: Shigunaru: Chōki Mikaiketsu Jiken Sōsahan), is a Japanese police procedural television series starring Kentaro Sakaguchi, Michiko Kichise and Kazuki Kitamura. It is a remake of the South Korean drama of the same name written by Kim Eun-hee and aired every Tuesday at 21:00 JST from April 10 to June 12, 2018, on Fuji TV.^[1][2]

Signal
Promotional poster
シグナル (Shigunaru)
Genre	Procedural Drama Thriller
Created by	Fuji TV
Based on	Signal by Kim Eun-hee[a]
Written by	Masaya Ozaki
Directed by	Akira Uchikata Kosuke Suzuki
Starring	Kentaro Sakaguchi Michiko Kichise Kazuki Kitamura
Opening theme	"Don't Leave Me" by BTS
Composers	Yuki Hayashi Asami Tachibana
Country of origin	Japan
Original language	Japanese
No. of episodes	10
Production
Producers	Takashi Hagiwara Takahiro Kasabe Mai Ishida
Camera setup	Single camera
Production companies	Kansai Telecasting Corporation Horipro
Original release
Network	Fuji TV
Release	April 10 (2018-04-10) – June 12, 2018 (2018-06-12)
Related
Signal the Movie (2021) Signal (2016)

A sequel film, Signal the Movie, was released in theaters in Japan on April 2, 2021.^[3]

Cast

Main

• Kentaro Sakaguchi as Kento Saegusa
• Michiko Kichise^[4] as Misaki Sakurai
• Kazuki Kitamura^[4] as Takeshi Ooyama

Supporting

*Atsuro Watabe^[4] as Tsutomu Yamada

• Yuichi Kimura as Tsutomu Yamada
• Tetsuhiro Ikeda as Shinya Kojima
• Masahiro Komoto as Kazuo Iwata
• Kaede Aono as Rika Anzai
• Fuju Kamio^[5] as Ryota Kato
• Yuito Obara^[6] as Yōichi Ogawa

Original soundtrack

Boy group BTS from South Korea sang the opening theme song of the series entitled "Don't Leave Me".^[7]

Title	Year	Artist	Peak chart positions					Sales
			KOR [8]	FRA Digital [9]	JPN		US World [10]
					Oricon [11]	Hot 100 [12]
"Don't Leave Me"[13]	2018	BTS	—	91	18	13	1	JPN: 4,611[14] US: 9,000
"—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that region.

Ratings

Ep.	Broadcast date	Average audience share
		Kanto region	Kansai region	Ref.
1	April 10, 2018	9.7%	12.9%	[15]
2	April 17, 2018	8.4%	14.3%	[16]
3	April 24, 2018	8.3%	11.9%	[17]
4	May 1, 2018	7.9%	13.0%	[18]
5	May 8, 2018	6.7%	11.6%	[19]
6	May 15, 2018	5.7%	9.7%	[20]
7	May 22, 2018	6.9%	10.1%	[21]
8	May 29, 2018	6.9%	10.3%	[22]
9	June 5, 2018	7.3%	11.4%	[23]
10	June 12, 2018	9.2%	13.5%	[24]
Average		7.7%	11.9%

International broadcast

Country	Network	Premiere
Indonesia Mongolia Myanmar Singapore Sri Lanka Taiwan Vietnam	WakuWaku Japan (with subtitles)	April 21, 2018[25]

Film

Main article: Signal the Movie

A sequel film, simply titled Signal the Movie, was released in Japan on April 2, 2021. The film was directed by Hajime Hashimoto [ja], co-written by Kōsuke Nishi and Hiroshi Hayashi, and distributed by Toho, with cast members from the television series reprising their respective roles.^[3]

Notes

1. Both versions of Signal and the 2016 US TV series Frequency originate from the 2000 film of the same name by Toby Emmerich