HKT48: "Majisuka Gakuen 0 Kisarazu Rantouhen" drama recap

 Air Date: November 29, 2015 on NTV, 48 minutes in length

Main Cast:

HKT48 

Sakura Miyawaki as Sakura

Haruka Kodama as Katzuzetsu

Aika Ota as Ogi

Chiharu Anai as Neji

Mio Tomonaga as Bouyomi

Madoka Moriyasu as Kakuni

Natsumi Matsuoka as Oshiri

Rika Sakaguchi as Fukurotoji

.... and seven more Senbatsu members, also a special cameo by....

Rino Sashihara as Ageman(Wota)

Monogatari Okamoto as teacher Teramoto

Plus the seven members of the Kishidan rock group

  With all of the recent watches along with recaps for so many Korean dramas and Japanese or Korean films needed a bit of fun break. Nothing as relaxing as these Yanki types of dramas or films, if I wanted to this could have been recapped in less than fifty words. At the top is the PV for HKT's sixth single "Shekarashika" which was the theme song to this drama special and it also featured the members of the rock group Kishidan.
 HKT's singles have been okay listens throughout the years but most have been forgettable though this single was one of their better ones, actually may have been the group's best single. The members of Kishidan also played the bad boys in this special, did some checking up on them and they seem like an interesting group of guys. There was an event to promote the single and drama with both groups, almost did another post for it but there's over eighty pics already for this post.

 This aired between the fourth and fifth seasons of 'Majisuka', not sure what the point of the special was or even if there was one. This mini TV movie just starred the Senbatsu members for the single, it was somewhat of an enjoyable view but would have liked it more if it was a bit longer or maybe was a series just with the group. HKT also had another TV movie with just their members which was "Himitsu" and that aired in 2013.
 The cast is listed above but didn't feel like naming all sixteen characters, naturally some didn't get too much screen time. First off are the six from Kishidan and that's the name of their gang in the drama, only six were introduced though thought seven were in the group.

 On to the HKT gals who in the drama all hailed from the Shekarashika Girls Commercial High School which is located in Hakata, that's a play on HKT. Here's all sixteen members who were in the show and while their actual names aren't listed their character names are.

 The high school is located in Kyushu where HKT is also based. Of course with that title for the drama you can accurately guess that it's a school for delinquents though they don't seem as bad as the gals from the real Majisuka dramas. The class is on a school trip, while the sixteen were hoping to travel to Tokyo to visit Shibuya and other parts of the city they had to take their trip in Kisarazu. That is a real city and is located in Chiba, close to Tokyo but quite far from Kyushu.
  These type of dramas always mean one thing and that's plenty of fighting. When the fighting ceases then there's a bit more of fighting and when the Yanki gals get tired of that then fighting will be on the agenda. Hopefully you've realized that fighting makes up most of these shows and this one was no different. What the big difference between this and the other Majisuka seasons is that they were all set in schools save for season six while this was set on a class trip.

 Seems the minute the gals departed from their bus is when their fun started which was.... you guessed it, fighting!!!! They broke up into four small groups just to travel around the area and in all honesty what a boring place to take a vacation. Not a boring place if you're a fighter as there seemed to be many gangs around, the top dog in town were Kishidan which consisted of all men, their mini posses prowling the city were all eventually embarrassed by the four small groups of gals.
 The two stars of the show and the leaders of the class were Sakura who kept her own name and always seems to have the lead role in a '48' family drama. Her cohort who to me seemed like the true leader was Katsuzetsu played by Haruka and she does play Yanki characters to a T. She's the one who is always looking for fights and often has to be held back by Sakura who looks so frail and innocent but that appearance is quite deceiving.

 The leader of the Kishidan gang is Show who is more than irate when he learns a bunch of high school gals has pummeled all of his men. Except for the final scene Show is always seen at a restaurant as he tries to come off as connoisseur of fine foods but he's anything but. His fave food appears to be Tabasco sauce as he smothers it on everything he eats, not just a little but a whole bottle at a time. His age wasn't given but he and his gang have to have at least five years on the girls.
 Show sends his men back to the streets of Kisarazu to hunt down the the teen girls but they're unsuccessful mainly due to their own incompetence. They're looking for girls with Kyushu accents, one group they came upon said their accents were from Hataka and the gang then went merrily along their way.
 The class trip had been arranged by Teramoto who is their teacher and seemingly such a dag. There was a tour guide for some reason, the only tourist spot these gals would want to visit would be a boxing hall. Unable to find and capture any of the students the gang tracks down the teacher Teramoto and is holding him hostage. Back at their hotel, actually it's so small hate to call it that, the sixteen students have heard about their teacher being taken and most are saying good riddance.

 The tour guide, who Teramoto had somehow fallen for, lashes into the students for their attitude. The class was such a bunch of galahs that the school had blocked them from going on a vacation. Teramoto had stuck up for his class and through his efforts the class of lowlifes was able to take a trip. Don't know why the girls had been complaining as they were able to do their favorite pastime of fighting. The two leaders Sakura and Katsuzetsu realized what their teacher had done for the class and that he did care for them, now it's time to rescue him.
 The showdown was set for 6:00 am the following morning at the Hachiman Shrine. When the sixteen arrived seemed like the odds were not in their favor as it appeared there were a hundred or more of the Kishidan gang there. Like every 'Majisuka' drama 100 to 16 are actually good odds, perhaps a thousand would be a little steep to overcome. Didn't take many screenshots of the brawl as I just kicked back and enjoyed it, if you've seen one of these you've seen them all. That is except for the old films from the '70's, those fight scenes were hard to top as the wardrobe budget was very miniscule.

 Didn't take long for the sixteen to take out the hundred or so members of the Kishidan gang and to free their teacher.... but there's one who only witnessed the carnage and didn't fight. That was the gang's leader Show, he only will fight one on one and wants to go against the best from Shekarashika. Katsuzetzu thinks that's her but Sakura wants the chance to fight him so they do a quick battle of paper, rock and scissors. The outcome had Sakura as the gal to challenge Show, when he asked if she had lost the game her reply was that she had won!
 As they started to face off there was an interruption as some unknown gal began strolling towards them, that is seemingly unknown to all but Show. Of course everyone knows who Wota is as she was from the original 'Majisuka' and a member of the Team Hormone. Wota now goes by the name of Ageman and wants to her chance to battle Show. He has no objection to that request though it didn't please Sakura who was dying to show Show how things are done in Kyushu.

 That was a bit of a fun fight if you can refer to a fight being that way. It was a long scrap too as both Show and Ageman took and received a beating with the outcome being in doubt until the very end. Finally though Ageman was able to wrap that chain around Show's legs which enabled her to jump on him and end the battle with a flurry of punches.
 After the fight the two talked for a few seconds where we discovered the two had dated for a while in the past, perhaps that's why Ageman wanted to battle him so badly. That skirmish ended the festivities and for the most part this mini special which lasted a little over 45 minutes, the final three were of HKT singing the rockin' theme song. You may not think or realize it but that was one of my better recaps, was able to stretch it out as it could have been done in about fifty or so words and that may have been just repeating fight(ing) over and over and....

 Perhaps if this was a full length drama or regular movie would have been longer but these kinds of shows are really all the same and don't mean that in a bad way. I've enjoyed the seasons of 'Majisuka' and other shows in the same vein along with so many movies too. These shows aren't made to be written about but instead need to be viewed to get the atmosphere which you can't get from words. Of course it's not a must watch but it was good enough, if you like HKT and Sakura then would recommend it. Have a short promo at the bottom, there are many of them but all that I found were only 15-20 seconds in length.

 Haruka is my fave member from HKT and wonder what's happened to her this year. We've seen her when the group performs on TV or at concerts but that's been it. There's been zero mag spreads since February nor any kind of event appearances or should I say zero activities which has left me and her fans perplexed. It's just not me as others are curious what's happened to her as she's one popular Idol and also an A++ looker, Haruka's photobook "Lock On" was by #1 PB for 2016. The group's first album comes out at the end of the month so let's hope that's when her reappearance takes place.