Air Dates: November 5, 1987 to February 18, 1988. There were a total of fifteen episodes which aired but it had been scheduled to have twenty but was cancelled due to poor ratings. It aired on Fuji-TV at 7:30 pm on Thursdays, originally it was planned on being the fourth "Sukeban Deka" series though the story/plot was very different from those shows.
Average rating: 7.12% Rating for this episode that aired on November 12, 1987: 7.3% .... Subs were done by Big Nova Subs who also have done a few other older series. An episode lasts for 25 1/2 minutes but the last two minutes are for the credits, think it was longish so fans could hear more of the theme song sung by A-Jari who were a true rock group and somewhat popular.
After taking a needed break from Japanese dramas this show signals my return, thought I would start out with a simple show but upon further reflection much more will take place than I thought. After viewing so many hundreds of dramas from Japan and Korea over the last fifteen years I was so burnt out with them which is why the longish break was needed. Hope I can get back into the swing of things and have so many series to recap, had almost all of the dramas before the break began. Won't be in any kind of hurry to finish many such as this one which is over 37 years old so what's a few more weeks?!
As mentioned in the beginning there's a total of fifteen episodes so will have five batches each containing three recaps which means there's two more after this one. Will leave this intro section here but will be making some changes to it along with many edits for the below character section, after two shows we haven't met everyone yet. That average rating of 7.12% doesn't seem too bad to me and what did they expect from a 7:30 pm show? Izumi also happens to be the first name of the main character and think it's just a coincidence, Izumi Igarashi was a somewhat popular actress and this was her first main role. At the time she had just turned nineteen in age, she was busy up until 2001 which was the year she got married and then retired, over 23 years later she never made a return to acting.
That's Izumi on the left above, she was one tough chick(!) but also had a very soft side to her plus was quite attractive. On the right side is Keiko Yuasa, will give some bio info on all below and at first her main objective was to.... see Izumi killed!!!! That never happened and near the end of the second show a slight friendship began. Most of the action will take place at the Harumi Academy High School and the surrounding area, Harumi is a region of Tokyo. This series began in November 1987, in the show it's also that time frame and to be more exact it was November 5th which was the date Izumi returned to Harumi after three years.... where did she disappear to? There will be many students in each episode but only the top three listed below are key characters, many will be coming and going plus at 23 minutes a show you can only have so many main characters. Wrote most of this up after viewing the first two shows, know there will be a lot of editing to the info as we go along plus a few more characters may be added in.
**** Briefly here's the storyline in a few sentences, it will be explained better in the recaps. Three years ago(late 1984) the 'heroine' Izumi Gojo was a fifteen year old delinquent who got into many scraps but for the most part didn't commit any crimes. One evening she got into a fight with her rival Reiko and beat her badly but the girl was living when Izumi departed. Coming out of the shadows was a man who finished the job as he strangled Reiko to death, unknown to all watching the fight and then murder had been a fourteen year old girl named Saori Saegusa. She knew that Izumi hadn't killed Reiko and that the unknown man had done the cruel deed but shortly before Saori could go to the police another man stopped the young girl. This man was also unknown, like the killer this man was a henchman for the evil R Agency organization and threatened to kill Saori unless she told the police it was Izumi who had slain Reiko!
Which Saori did so soon the police were after the young Izumi and cornered her on a pier. She held her own against a dozen officers but of course the numbers were too overwhelming for Izumi who jumped into the bay, the main detective Fujiwara presumed Izumi had drowned and it was case closed. **** Now it's three years later and Izumi has made her return to the Harumi area of Tokyo, where had she been for three years? When she jumped into the bay divers from R Agency rescued Izumi and for three years she was held captive by them. During that time Izumi was being trained to be the Ultimate Weapon for this evil organization, she had the code name of Prototype #1. In the first episode Izumi escaped from their compound, now her goal in life is to bring down R Agency who also secretly develop superweapons and to also find out why Saori fingered her for Reiko's murder. So that's most everything in a nutshell, more details and info are in the below character bios and of course in the recaps.
Izumi Igarashi as Izumi Gojo.... The main 'heroine' who is eighteen in age, she had been missing for three years and was presumed to be deceased. There will be a couple of main focuses of this series, where and why did Izumi disappear for three years, why/how has she returned and also a main part of the story will be of Izumi seeking revenge for what had been done to her those three years! Did talk about that just above and Izumi does have the nickname of Ice Doll as she appears to be a cold person but really wasn't. Izumi grew up alone as her parents died when she was ten in age but never moved into an orphanage and had lived on her own. One positive about Izumi being held prisoner is that she became such a ruthless fighter at the R Agency 'prison/training facility', now she'll use those skills they taught her to bring them down! Seeing as how I wrote this up after viewing just two shows sure more will be added in.
Yumi Tsuchida as Keiko Yuasa.... President of Harumi Academy's student council, she too is a tough young woman though not in Izumi's class. For two shows Keiko couldn't strand the sight of Izumi and wanted to see her dead(!) but once the truth came out about Izumi being framed for Reiko's murder Keiko did begin to warm up to her, this will be another character where much more info will be added in. Yumi in real life is like the below character who had a very short show biz career as she retired at the age of twenty or two years after this show ended. In this series Keiko does have many cohorts who she bosses around but none seem to mind, the only two with any kind of screen time are named Mako and Shoko.
Masami Katsuragawa as Saori Saegusa.... As far as I can tell this is her only acting role and has no Ja.wiki page so who is she? Don't know but even though we didn't see Saori until halfway through the second episode she is an important character and was the reason the police were hot on Izumi's tail three years ago! That's because in 1984 Saori had secretly witnessed the brutal fight between Izumi and her bitter rival Reiko so knew Izumi wasn't the killer. However the R Agency forced Saori to tell the police Izumi was the killer and in episode two Saori finally was able to tell the true story to all, including the police. Saori has recently transferred to Harumi Academy from Tsukiura high school which was much more elite and mainly it was to get closer to Izumi whom she has a crush on!
Takeyuki Yue as Ken Kuwabara.... Runs the pool hall/diner Burger in Saki, Ken is just eighteen in age but doesn't appear to be a student. As of now don't know who owns the pool hall which happens to be the hangout for many Harumi Academy high school students, especially Keiko and her cohorts. To me Ken seems like a decent young man and someone you can rely on.
Takeo Chii as Eiji Fujiwara.... Detective at the Harumi precinct in Tokyo, he mainly works in the Juvenile Division. Fujiwara has a female partner named Moe Muto but haven't seen her in the first two shows. He was the main detective for Reiko's murder and had tried arresting Izumi but to no avail as she jumped into the Harumi bay. So Fujiwara naturally thought Izumi was dead and was shocked by her return, he was doubly shocked when he found out that Izumi was innocent after hearing Saori's tale. So over time he does become Izumi's ally and Fujiwara wondered if R Agency has a mole at his precinct for the file on Izumi had gone missing....
Hiroyuki Watanabe as Rinichiro Ishizu.... The most known of the cast, Hiroyuki was a very busy actor up until 2022 when he passed away and was just 66 in age. In this series he's the president of Ishizu Industries which appears to be a legit company, what isn't legit is the organization he's a top exec at. Which is a very underground team called R Agency which develops superweapons(!) and were responsible for Izumi's three year disappearance. They were the group who saved her from the police in November 1984 but did some cruel things to her such as trying to make Izumi into their.... Ultimate Weapon! Not much is known so far about Ishizu and R Agency but know they will be very important to the story so will edit this section plus may add in another character if needed.
For now that's it as far as characters go but know that section above will need editing for most episodes. For each recap will also try to have a different video, there aren't too many but there could be enough for each post and the one for today has the theme song for the show. There was no regular PV done for it which is surprising, the tune is titled "Just for Love" by the group A-Jari. They were an 80's band who were somewhat popular but disbanded in 1989 but have reunited on a few occasions. The first screenshot below shows the air date and title of the episode, will have a new one for each recap.
Thanks for reading the above post which went much smoother than I thought for it was the first drama recap done in four months! Not much to add in for this section as the above was written up after viewing this second episode so very little editing save for the video had to be done. The 1980's had a look and sound which is so unique, just by hearing the music or looking at a female's hair you can tell what era they were from! That ending theme song is decent which is right above and hope there's more songs in the episodes. The star of the show Izumi Igarashi sings the theme song starting in the tenth episode which was also a solid tune and it's a shame that she's still retired. Izumi did so when she got married in 2001 but by now her children would be adults but perhaps because she's been out of the spotlight for so long is probably thinking who would remember her? On to this second episode's recap, the one for the third show is the next post.
That first screenshot above is of Izumi thinking back to her days at the R Agency compound where for three years she had been trained to become the evil organization's Ultimate Weapon. Izumi can't remember too much of what took place but knows she was treated cruelly and wants revenge, she still has retained her memories and skills on how to fight so there won't be too many scraps she won't come out as the victor! Also above is what took place in the first eight or so minutes, one person who is semi glad the Izumi is back but for devious reasons is the girl in the sailor suit uniform who is Keiko Yuasa. Like Izumi she's also eighteen in age but up until now the pair had never met, Keiko wants to avenge the death of her friend Reiko who she's always presumed was killed by Izumi three years ago but we'll soon find out what really took place. All Izumi recalls from three years ago is that a girl named Saori Saegusa told the police Izumi had strangled Reiko which was a lie and why did Saori do that? You can see above that Keiko set up a meeting between Izumi and Saori but it was more of a case of Keiko wanting to get Izumi alone to avenge Reiko's death.... she may have to wait in line for also after Izumi is the dreaded secret R Agency and the above detective Fujiwara. Who at the end of the last episode was stunned to see Izumi alive, at the Harumi precinct another incident stunned him which was that Izumi's file has gone missing, was there a mole at the station who took it and if so why? Right above Fujiwara finally did corner Izumi and in such a shock she easily took away Fujiwara's revolver, he let Izumi walk away after that and though he didn't say it then it appeared Fujiwara was beginning to doubt Izumi was the killer of Reiko.
Also mysterious and definitely evil is the very secret R Agency who had saved Izumi when she jumped into the Harumi bay three years ago but did that to train the girl to be a ruthless killer! Which Izumi isn't yet but is a very skilled fighter, R Agency wants Izumi back and sent a elite assassin named Takasugi to nab Izumi and if that can't be done then to eliminate her! That's Takasugi above in two screenshots, he heard about Izumi meeting up with Saori so shot the two student council girls Mako and Shoko who were bringing her to Keiko's secret lair. But Takasugi didn't attempt to kill the girls, he just used poisonous darts to knock them out for a few hours as his goal was to kidnap Saori and use her as bait to draw out Izumi. But Saori was able to escape with another of Keiko's cohorts who brought Saori to the hideout, shortly joining them were Keiko and Izumi. Neither had ever met Saori who at the time went to a different high school in Harumi, Izumi naturally wanted to know why Saori fingered her as the killer of Reiko! But before the questioning began Takasugi made a return and did corner Izumi in an empty room, Keiko's hideout is at an abandoned warehouse. As mentioned a few times Izumi is unbeatable and somehow was able to dislodge a door from it's hinges and clobber Takasugi over the head with it!!!! That was one exciting fight but a very short one as the R Agency goon was out for the count but don't think he was dead.
Saori remained where she was and witnessed a hooded man wrap a steel wire around Reiko's neck and strangle her to death! Saori couldn't believe what she had seen and muttered that she was going to rush to the police and tell them all she saw. 'Not so fast' a man's voice said behind Saori who never saw this man's face, he threatened Saori and her family if she went to the police with the truth and was ordered to tell them that... Izumi was the murderer!!!! So that's the true story of what took place and Izumi wants revenge more than ever now, so might Keiko as it was her best friend that had been killed. No one was mad at all towards Saori and most may have done the same thing if they were in her shoes. With about a minute to go the final scene took place with Izumi meeting Keiko at the infamous pier and while Keiko can't become friends with Izumi quite yet she will slowly break down the wall between them. As the show ended Keiko had given Izumi an envelope, in it was an application to Harumi Academy and will Izumi be returning to school? That was still undecided by the end of the next recap but it appears Izumi will be a student again in episode four, also towards the end of this show the detective Fujiwara learned about Izumi's innocence and to date the R Agency is still one massive enigma.
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