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 15.4%
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. Beginning with the fourth season she became goofier than ever which has been annoying.
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. Five years ago before coming chief Kondo had killed a Yakuza thug which is one reason he's so feared.
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 ran from the nineteenth until the 26th episode. Season four has been completed which is episodes 27 through 35. So now were down to the last two seasons which each have eight episodes.
Oshita also enjoys doing things a bit differently, why not do that and see how long it takes their colleagues to find them? Which did end up being a long time, as a matter of fact not until the end of the show! While hiding from the passing police cars Karou and Oshita heard the sound of a loud bang, it had to be a passing car but when they heard a second loud burst it had to be a gun! The pair rushed into a building and went to the second floor to a shop which appeared to be open. It wasn't though the doors were and the name of this place was Jewelry Maki, of course a jewelry store but why wasn't anyone there? But if you look at the second to last screenshot there was someone there, a woman who had been shot to death and her name was Yoko Makino. Her husband owned the shop and she had been there with the store's assistant Konno, he was found in another room and he too had been shot to death! So if Karou and Oshita hadn't left the bank these bodies may not have been discovered for a few days nor would this case get solved but there was a problem. For out of the shadows came two men, their names were Kataoka and Ejiri who had robbed the store and shot the two people dead! They grabbed Karou and Oshita taking them from the store and because of that no one at the Minato station was aware of what had taken place for a while.
Back at the Minato station the chief Kondo was livid with what Karou and Oshita had done in fleeing the bank and remaining 'wanted robbers'. He knew both enjoyed playing pranks and was this one of them for at the time the station didn't know of the jewelry store robbery? But there was a call placed about possible gunshots, checking out the incident were the investigators led by the other hero and Oshita's partner Takayama. At the store the two shot bodies were discovered, could Karou and Oshita been the culprits? It sounded far fetched but Takayama saw a few counterfeit notes from the simulated bank heist which the manager had put in a duffel bag. So the manager knew of this simulated robbery but don't think his employees did. These two thugs Kataoka and Ejiri had told Oshita to drive his car and head to naturally an abandoned small warehouse, Karou of course was also a hostage. Oshita had been thinking ahead and knew Takayama would be assigned to the case. He left the counterfeit money at the scene as a clue and did another act which he knew Takayama would pick up on. Which was driving like a mad man through a construction site and the workers identified the driver as Oshita to Takayama but couldn't ID the other three passengers.
So Takayama knew his partner along with Karou had been abducted and was innocent of the two murders, now the huge question is who are their abductors and where to find them? The man on the right in the fourth screenshot is named Naoya Makino, we only saw him briefly but he's involved in the robbery. Makino is the owner of the jewelry store and was the husband of Yoko, he claimed to be golfing at the time of his wife's murder. For a long time Makino wasn't considered to be a suspect in the crime and had said the store had been closed that day. His wife Yoko was there with the assistant Konno to prepare jewelry for an upcoming exhibition, everything Makino said appeared to be the truth. At this warehouse Karou and Oshita were tied up, was there any chance of escaping? It did almost happen as Oshita was able to grab a lighter that had been sitting on a nearby table, it took a while but he was able to burn through his ropes which hurt like Hell! He quickly untied Karou and seemed like the pair had the upper hand with these goons. However in the bottom screenshot above a woman snuck up behind Oshita and said to drop his gun which he had taken from one of the captors, of course Oshita did and more on this woman very shortly.
Mari had been arrested once for using drugs and it appears she hasn't stopped using them. The two jewelry store robbers Kataoka and Ejiri had been arrested at least once before for selling pot and possibly sold more than that, now there's a connection between Makino, his mistress Mari and the two robbers. The hunt turned to who could have sold Kataoka and Ejiri those two revolvers, it led Takayama and his mate Yoshi to a gun seller named Yasuda. This thug almost took out the pair with his own revolver but when your foe is Takayama you have no chance as the thug was soon taken down! This Yasuda confessed he did sell the goons those .38 revolvers but had no clue where their hideout was. Back to that woman who held Oshita by gunpoint and she was Mari who often bought her drugs from Kataoka and Ejiri. Mari was in on this robbery but soon left and went back to her regular job which was of owning a dance studio. Takayama and Yoshi soon paid a visit there, Mari did claim to know Makino but only as a dance student, she wasn't a convincing lair. While Takayama brought Mari out to the dance floor to impress her with his flair Yoshi stuck a recording bug under her office table and the pair were soon to hear a conversation she had with Makino.
The endings to these episodes are over rather quickly, in the second to last screenshot is the mastermind of the robbery Makino who is in the middle. He had planned to collect the million yen insurance policy on his wife Yoko and then a two million policy on the stolen jewelry, then after sell them! So Makino would have made a hefty sum but his plans went up in smoke and once again the Minato crew came out on top, they have a 100% success rate! To end the show off the chief Kondo said because the bank robbery simulation went so poorly the station would have to do it all over again! That brought many groans from the investigators and wasn't solving a major crime more important than playing a game? So that ends this latest recap and there's a dozen more episodes to go, hope to be back in a week with the next pair of recaps.
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