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 21.8%
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.
The opening scene were those first two screenshots above, Takayama was busting a woman named Reiko Hayami for a bank robbery. She wasn't the robber but had a man named Watanabe do the dirty work for her, seems Reiko has such a spell over men who will do anything for her! That robbery netted ten million yen which is a lot but should have been higher for a bank robbery, Watanabe was caught and squealed on Reiko as he thought she ratted him out which was never proven to be true or false. On the way back to the Minato station a call came in to the car Takayama was in, driving was his sometimes partner Yoshi. There was a warning about a mysterious van near Yamashita Park, could they check it out? Which the pair did and in the back of the van were two tied up plus beaten electricians, both were alive and quickly transported to the hospital. When Takayama called the station the young investigator Machida answered and said some odd things, to Takayama something is not right at the Minato precinct and he's on his way! Yoshi can take care of Reiko and at the hospital Takayama had run into the Juvenile Unit investigator Kaoru who was visiting a friend, he said join him as something could be brewing at the station!
This episode aired on July 19, 1987 so being the middle of Summer it was sweltering! What made it worse is that the AC at the Minato station was on the fritz, a call had been placed to fix it but here it is about 9:00 pm and no one had shown up. And guess who those two electricians that were beaten and left in the back of their van? Of course the repairmen though no one at the station knew about it and to the station chief Kondo's surprise arriving so late at night were the two repairmen and I did have a huge question about that. How did these two men know the van was going to the Minato station, they had no clue about their AC being down! These men were a pair of thugs who were looking for a bomber(!) named Maejima, an hour or so before he had been brought to the station. That was courtesy of Machida who had broken up with his girlfriend and was looking to blow off some steam. He was with Oshita and the two saw Maejima beating some man up on the street, the pair dragged him to the Minato station though at the time none knew who Maejima was. Immediately these two fake repairmen pulled their pistols out and held Kondo's secretary Hitomi as a hostage, bring us Maejima they demanded or she'll soon be history! The entire staff was marched down to the holding cell and locked in, all save for Oshita who was bushed and sleeping in the 'Nap Room'.
Already as a hostage was Kondo's secretary Hitomi, Suzuki told the Minato staff who were locked in a cell he would kill her in an hour if they couldn't deliver Maejima! The time at this moment is 2:30 am, Hitomi will be killed an hour later if there's no Maejima but there's an even more pressing matter. So much did happen may leave a few minor things out by. Yoshi had returned to the Minato precinct with Reiko after the station had been taken over. Yoshi was dragged to the holding cell and when the thugs had put everyone in there were four suspects there. They were released with three fleeing the station, the fourth was a man named Watanabe and it was the same one who had robbed a bank for Reiko! He was shocked to see Yoshi drag her in however she was able to escape but was nabbed outside the station by Takayama, for now Watanabae will stay to help out Suzuki. The real Maejima had also been put in the same cell as the other investigators as he was thought to be part of their team. He confessed the entire plan to everyone there and Hattori wants to see him killed so he wouldn't squeal to the cops! At 4:20 am that morning a delivery will be made Kanagawa Bank's Minato branch, it will be a delivery of 500 million yen! Maejima is an ace bomber and had installed a bomb to go off in the room below that vault at 4:30 am, that's when Hattori and his crew will sweep in and take the dough!
Of course Takayama and Oshita knew Hitomi only had a few minutes to live, they had no ingenious plan to save her so raided the station. Which did work as the Suzuki, Ono and Watanabe were caught by surprise. Watanabe was quickly captured and that's Kaoru holding a gun to his head above. In the screenshot below that is Ono who had fled to the station's roof, he was gunned down easily by Oshita. But Ono did live and may not have if it wasn't for Oshita as Hattori had told Suzuki to shoot him dead once Maejima was found. Fleeing to a different section of the roof was Suzuki who had Takayama on his tail and it's a losing battle when you're in a shoot out with Takayama! Who shot the pistol out of Suzuki's hand and with no alternatives was going to jump down three stories. Takayama knew he wouldn't survive but why take the chance so shot Suzuki in the leg for the third time(!), he was too disabled to move so is that the end of the case? Not by a long shot as Maejima's bomb was set to go off in thirty minutes and he said no one but him could disable it plus Hattori and his aide Matsumoto would be there to take the dough, it's off to the bank with no time to spare!!!!
The bomb was on an overhead pipe in a room below the main bank vault, very carefully Takayama was able to unscrew it from it's spot and hand it down to Maejima. Oshita by this time had joined his partner and watched as Maejima went to work, there was less than thirty seconds to go until it exploded! Of course being a TV drama the bomb was disabled with only one second to spare, whew!!!! So that ended this case and back at the Minato station all were blaming Oshita and Machida for this almost fatal incident, if they didn't arrest Maejima none of this would have happened. Which is true but then again if Maejima wasn't arrested Hattori would have pulled off a huge bank heist. So ends this recap and it was such a struggle writing up the pair today as I am a bit burnt out from dramas but the pace should pick up for the final ten episodes. Plenty more screenshots below of the action, should have the next pair of recaps within the week.
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