Spiral - Season 1 (1999)

A mysterious incident occurs in an office building rumored to be haunted—where people have been killed and ghosts are said to appear—resulting in the deaths of six people all at once.

Natsumi (Takami Yoshimoto), a member of the Forensic Science Laboratory, goes undercover with her high school teacher, Ando (Goro Kishitani), in an office building where a series of suspicious deaths has occurred. There, she is attacked by a man. The words “Find me. The game begins” appear on a computer monitor. Is this man really Gozo Arita, who was executed three years ago…?

Misaki (Risa Sudo), who is three months pregnant, shoved her younger sister Kumiko (Yuka Nomura) until she fainted, then vanished from their apartment. Misaki was found at a scrap yard, but surprisingly, she had already given birth.

Ando (Goro Kishitani) is shocked to discover the body of Misaki (Risa Sudo), who should have been lying in her hospital room. At that moment, the “Misaki” in the hospital room breaks free from Kumiko (Yuka Nomura) and dashes outside. Claiming to have “disposed of Misaki’s body,” this “Misaki” lunges at Ando when he appears, but suddenly collapses and dies.

Ando (Goro Kishitani) and Natsumi (Takami Yoshimoto), who had been secretly watching a ritual to resurrect the dead at the shrine in Hasado Village, are abducted by villagers. As they try to escape, they unexpectedly encounter Takeo (Kensuke Toida), who was supposed to be dead. Natsumi suggests they consult with the village scientist, Imanishi (Yasushi Kageyama).

The live broadcast to open the “Cursed Disc” has begun. However, just as the password was about to be entered, the computer crashed, and luckily, the broadcast didn’t air. But the director, Takamura (Mai Oikawa), was the only one who saw the content. Furthermore, when Ando (Goro Kishitani) went to retrieve it, he was told it had already been stolen.

TV director Takamura (Mai Oikawa) was shot and killed by physicist Kasahara (Hiroshi Okochi). However, Ando (Goro Kishitani) was convinced that Takamura’s death must be the reincarnation of Sadako Yamamura. Unless they find the “cursed disc,” the damage will only grow worse. But the disc that Takamura was supposed to have been keeping was already gone.

When Ando (Goro Kishitani) went to visit Miwako (Risa Junna) in the hospital, he was thrown into confusion upon seeing his son Takanori (Masaya Kudo)—who was supposed to be dead—come back to life and playing with Miwako. Takanori remembered everything up to the point when he went to the beach a year ago and seemed just like the “real” him, but...

Sadako Yamamura, who had been reborn in Mai’s (Akiko Yada) body, failed to obtain the disc she needed to halt her rapid aging. Sadako’s hatred and resentment turned toward Ando (Goro Kishitani), who had deliberately dropped the disc. Ando, too, was consumed by remorse for having caused the deaths of his son, Takanori, on two separate occasions, and trembled with rage toward Sadako.

The cursed disc has been lost. Sadako has also vanished, and it seemed as though peaceful days had returned for Ando (Goro Kishitani) and Natsumi (Takami Yoshimoto). Then one day, Ando received a request for a meeting from Kasahara (Hiroshi Okochi), the scientist who killed TV producer Takamura.

Who exactly are the “Great King of Terror” and the “Guardian”? Nostradamus scholar Kawai (Tsuyoshi Masu), accompanied by a TV crew, drove off to uncover their true identities, but he vanished, enveloped in light. At the scene, Ando (Goro Kishitani) and Natsumi (Takami Yoshimoto) spotted Sadako (Akiko Yada), who appeared as a rejuvenated Mai. Sadako was alive after all.

After tracking down the secret underground laboratory, Ando (Goro Kishitani), Natsumi (Takami Yoshimoto), and Rikuta (Takeshi Naito) were confronted by Oda (Seiichi Tanabe). Oda was the “Great King of Terror” and none other than “the Guard”—Kenichi Higashi—who had been used in Rikuta’s experiments. Oda declared: “It was all an experiment to manipulate crowd psychology. Mai giving birth to Sadako was unplanned, but we used gene therapy to halt her aging and made her a test subject. With this, I will become the ‘Guardian of the World,’” he boasted, before vanishing.

Oda’s secret underground laboratory—where he had manipulated Sadako to become the “Great King of Terror”—was rocked by a massive explosion. Ando (Goro Kishitani), who should have been right in the thick of it, woke up in the hospital as his wife Miwako (Risa Junna), Natsumi (Takami Yoshimoto), and Kumiko (Yuka Nomura) watched over him. Hearing the words, “You’re the only one who survived, Doctor,” Ando was overcome with joy. However, when he visited the accident site, the sheer scale of the explosion left him doubting that he was actually alive, so he went to the morgue, but...