Air Dates: October 5, 1986 until September 27,1987 on NTV, Sunday nights at 9:00 pm
Director: Toru Murakawa, this episode's rating was 13.6%
Subs were once again done by GEO9875, this was one huge project to do so will give a huge thumbs up for doing the subs and hope the recaps gives the series it's proper justice.
Main Cast: The first two get the most screen time by far but the other four main characters are also very key to this drama. The setting is the Minato Police Station in the Naka ward of Yokohama and the station is part of the Kanagawa prefectural police. If you enjoy J-Pop songs then this show has some superb tunes, most know I'm a fan but do prefer the music from the 80's. Plus there's no beating the hairdos of women from that era! This series also goes by the name of....
Hiroshi Tachi as Toshiki Takayama.... You'll see him referred to as Taka often in the screenshots. He's about a 35 year old man who is an investigator of serious crimes and the gangsters go out of their way to avoid him! Takayama has a bit of a 'cool persona' about him and is an ace with guns, he's the partner of Oshita but seems they didn't start working closely together until the first episode. While both are aces with guns their methods also get them in hot water with their superiors but the pair usually come out on top at the end as far as solving cases go.
Kyohei Shibata as Yuji Oshita.... About the same age as Takayama but looks younger. During the first episode Oshita blurted out he's got a bit of a shady past and it surprised many he became a sergeant. He knows how to pick a lock and some other methods criminals use, sure we'll find out more as time goes on. Like his new partner Takayama he is quite adept using all guns, unlike his partner Oshita isn't much of a 'people person' as Takayama is the one who often interviews witnesses, criminals or others.
Atsuko Asana as Kaoru Mayama.... Member of the Juvenile Division which shares the same office as the Investigative Unit which Takayama and Oshita are a part of. Karou has gone out to crime scenes with the detectives but they never let her get in on the real action. However she is a tough woman who used to be a regular officer and knows how to use a gun well.
Toru Nakamura as Toru Machida.... Not a rookie but hasn't been an inspector for all that long. Machida is the best fighter in the unit and also the women swoon over him but he does have a girlfriend which he said in the first show.... that may have been a lie.
Shizuo Chujo as Takuzo Kondo.... Chief of the Investigation Unit, smart man but seems to be more concerned on what he'll be having for lunch! But at one time Kondo was feared by the Yokohama gangsters and has been on the force for thirty years.
In the third season the roles of Yoshi and Tanaka have become much larger, will add them in for season four. In the two screenshots below Yoshi is on the left, Tanaka is right next to him.
Previous recaps: There's 51 episodes but they were divided into six seasons, there was no break between them. Season one was episode one to nine, second season was ten through eighteen and this third will run from the nineteenth until the 26th episode.
Every episode has been a solid one though of course some are better than others, on the other hand some aren't quite as good. This could be one of the latter for while I enjoyed it the previous 3-4 shows were much better. But often when I write these up and look at the screenshots an episode does become much better and perhaps this will follow that trend. In a very minor storyline and one that was a bit humorous at times our hero above Takayama attempted to do the impossible for him. In the last recap mentioned how he had smoked more in that show than any other one, did the police smoke that much back then? In this episode Takayama had quit smoking, because of that his edginess was at the Nth degree. A few times he almost caved in but something prevented him from lighting up. That is until the very end and you'll see what I mean in the last segment. On with the recap and the first screenshot was from about the five minute mark but felt it was appropriate to begin off with it.
Plus Kato had a very cagey lawyer, her name is Junko Yuki who is above in two screenshots. She let Kondo know that a sting operation based on rumors and no facts is illegal so the Minato station had to release Kato to the fury of everyone. Oshita was naturally upset but what kept his anger down was that he took an immediate liking towards Yuki, he even asked her out three times in this show and the third was the charm! So Kato was sent on his way but we'll be hearing much more about him soon. Also above the chief was asking his men about some recent smuggling that involved guns coming from the Philippines. The guns were of very low quality but were effective enough and had been used in many recent crimes. The investigation had been going nowhere and no one could figure out how such a huge supply of the guns could be streaming in, that will be the second case. That too will involve Kato and until the very end his lawyer Yuki knew zero about this very shady activity. In the bottom screenshot above the investigator Yoshi had given Takayama a butt as he was going crazy from not smoking. However they had been tailing a perp and when caught the goon stepped on Takayama's cigarette before he could light it, wasn't the last time something like that would happen.
Kuwabara told Takayama about a meeting that would be taking place that day about the guns, Takayama will soon be at the scene. Meanwhile his partner Oshita kept on the Kato case and did visit his lawyer Yuki's office, partly to get info on Kato but also to ask her out another dinner date! Which was once again refused but soon Yuki will become a bit leery about her client for an incident took place outside of her office building. That's where she refused Oshita's offer for dinner and right after a car zoomed by shooting at the pair but really only at Oshita. That spooked Yuki to no end and from here on out silently wanted Kato to be taken down. That car did a U-turn and rushed back but Oshita had jumped into his own vehicle and blocked the road. Oshita quickly threw handcuffs on this shooter and discovered something very interesting.... and sinister! There was now a 10 million yen bounty on Oshita's head, every thug in Yokohama would soon be after him! The huge question at this point who would put a bounty on his head, Kato is a prime suspect though it could also be the Ginsei clan. Speaking of the criminal group Takayama had staked out the meeting place with of all people Kaoru who though an officer hates violence. As the above and bottom screenshots show the man arriving at this gun smuggling meeting was a Ginsei boss named Komiya.
Machida is no whiz behind the wheel either as he got stuck in a ditch and it looked like the car Komiya was in would escape easily. That's when Machida showed his potential which even impressed Takayama as Machida barreled through a mini forest and nearly destroyed the car but did catch back up to Komiya. The chase will end up at a warehouse located on the bay, for a change no abandoned buildings were seen in this episode. Before Takayama and Machida arrived at the scene Oshita was there first looking for Kato's container/warehouse. He was just the second to appear there as first was Kato's lawyer Yuki and as mentioned before she was tired of him playing her for a fool. In the containers Kato would bring in from the Philippines there were legit items but there was also hidden storage compartments where the guns had been stashed. Yuki would often sign in the containers and the expected weights would match up so she had no idea about the smuggled guns until this newest shipment arrived. She had noticed a screw which had fallen off one of the hidden compartments and began to have an inkling about Kato's illegal activities.
With Oshita joining in it was an even battle of three against three though Machida hasn't proven himself to be an Ace with a revolver but is a superb fighter. Oshita took out two of the Ginsei henchmen and left Komiya for Takayama as he knows the grudge Takayama has against the clan bosses. However Takayama did have a slight problem and that's of him not having a cigarette in his mouth! So often one was dangling out of his mouth when he fired a fatal shot but luckily Machida was aware of that and had brought a pack with him which he tossed to Takayama. So you can see in the bottom two screenshots above Takayama had his trademark butt out of the mouth(!) and took out Komiya with one shot. That ended the two cases and for the most part the episode but there were few seconds to go. In the first screenshot below the show ended at the Minato station where Takayama was making up for having gone a week without smoking and was puffing through at least two cartons! Now three of the six seasons have been completed and will finish recapping all 51 episodes but as mentioned in the intro unsure on whether to take a mini break from the series or begin on another one.
No comments:
Post a Comment