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Hajimemashite minna san....welcome to my site on my fave Japanese Pop Culture likes such as dramas, movies, magazine scans, promo events etc. Mainly concentrate on my faves...Risa Watanabe... Miku Tanaka... Yui Kobayashi....Miyuki Watanabe.... Nene Shida.... if you're a fan at all of any of them then you've come to the right place(!) but many others are featured here besides them. Do mainly quick reviews on things I've watched, try to make the reviews brief, quick to read through with not too many spoilers, just whether they're good or bad and why I thought so plus whether you may find them enjoyable. Many, many screenshots are included from everything I've watched plus any video trailers if they're available. Hope you find something that interests you, don't hesitate to comment, arigato gozaimasu!

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Saturday, March 15, 2025

"Shoujo Commando Izumi" drama: Episode three of fifteen recap

 


 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 19, 1987: 7.9% .... 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 November 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 an elite school 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 most posts but the one for today is the same as episode two's which is 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 this and the first two posts, least I hope you did for those do need to be read or what I talk about in this post will be meaningless to you. In the two above screenshots is the actress who plays Saori in the series and her role is becoming very important and larger. She's introducing herself in the first and is on the right in the bottom screenshot, in real life her name is Masami Katsuragawa and don't think she ever did any acting besides this drama which is so odd, is that true? Bring her up for in this series Saori aka Masami looks so similar to Yui Asaka who was a popular actress at the time this show aired. Saori's hair, uniform and face are so identical to Yui's so was that done on purpose(?) and bet it was. Yui appeared in a pair of top notch Sukeban movies and also one series about that genre. Yui did get married and retired for a while but has made a return to acting and she was also a very popular J-Popper 30+ years ago, she's now 55 in age.

 What I did notice much more in this episode was how attractive the star Izumi Igarashi was and she's one of the better looking actresses I have ever seen! But that had zero to do with why I decided to view this drama and while it may not be possible will see if a regular post can be done for Izumi but it's probably so hard or perhaps impossible to find things from so long ago. This is the third and final of today's recaps and am not going to publish this until viewing the fourth show and starting on that post. Will be publishing three recaps at a time so just want to get a bit ahead of myself and may stick with these shorter series for a while, ones that are 25-30 minutes in length. Let's get to what took place in this show and at first I was confused about the beginning scene which lasted for 2-3 minutes. Thought it was a flashback of Izumi doing a training session while being held prisoner at the R Agency compound in the past but it was a different girl and what happened was in the present day which was mid-November 1987.









 Most details about the very secretive R Agency are still unknown to date, know they are an organization which develops superweapons but for their own use or to sell them? Also know that they have been training teen girls to become their Ultimate Weapons to fight in wars or do terrorist attacks but for what purpose, to possibly overthrow the government of Japan?! Sure things will be explained more as we go along, the main executive of the evil organization is named Rinichirou Ishizu who does own a legit company called Ishizu Industries. That's him in the third screenshot above and to date we've only seen him partially shadowed like he is in that picture, much more about him also needs to be revealed. He had been watching a tape of a newish recruit who had been out on a simulated POW Rescue mission, she did finish the brutal task in a time of 21 minutes, eleven seconds. But Ishizu was musing about how his best trainee of all had completed the mission in 11:09, that's Izumi and how Ishizu wants her back alive as she's the only recruit ever to escape from the R Agency training compound/prison. I also have no idea how many others have been or are being trained for evil purposes by the R Agency.

 It is hard to tell by most screenshots but when I was viewing this episode it was easy to see how attractive our heroine Izumi Gojo is! She's now living or at least sleeping in that abandoned warehouse her possible new friend Keiko uses as a hideout. Keiko is the president of the Harumi Academy's student council and is highly respected at the high school but have a feeling the council is a bit shady and we have so much to learn about many things but there are a dozen more shows after this one. Izumi had set up alarms all around the building as she knows the R Agency will try to abduct her again, one man did break in who Izumi nabbed but as it turned out he was just an autograph seeker who heard about Izumi's exploits! Keiko is the taller girl in the sailor suit uniform above, when the last show ended she had given Izumi a present which was that briefcase and also an application to attend Harumi Academy. So far Izumi has no plans on enrolling and becoming a student again but it may happen by the end of this show. In the second to last screenshot is the new student Saori Saegusa who we met in the last recap, she was the only witness to the death of Reiko which took place three years ago. Saori finally admitted to all that Izumi wasn't the killer as the R Agency had forced her to lie. So now the detective Fujiwara isn't on the prowl to nab her and in the future he may prove to be an ally. In that screenshot Saori was telling Izumi and Keiko's group she had just transferred to Harumi Academy from Tsukiura high school which is much more elite than Harumi Academy and it was easy to see Saori did that to get closer to Izumi who she has such a crush on!!!!











 Those happy times for the students didn't last too long as shortly after four soldiers from R Agency secretly attacked the high school! Their first evil deed was to poison the school's water to knock most of the students out, next they nabbed Keiko and her student council cronies who they will hold hostage until Izumi returns to the school but think all along the intention of the soldiers was to kill them! One student the soldiers didn't harm or take hostage was the newbie Saori as they wanted her to find Izumi and give her a message. After the rooftop meeting with Keiko and Saori Izumi had returned to the abandoned warehouse, for now she had no intentions of becoming a student again. That's where Saori found her 'crush' and gave her the message from the R Agency soldiers which was that she needed to break her old POW Rescue record of 11:09 to save Keiko and the school! That demand had been set up by the top R Agency exec Ishizu who wanted to see if Izumi's skills had been improving which they have been. So unknown to Izumi the soldiers have two options and neither is a good one for our heroine. If she can't break her record of 11 minutes, nine seconds to save Keiko and her cohorts then the soldiers have been ordered to kill Izumi as it'll mean her skills are slipping!

 The other possible option is that if Izumi does break that record the soldiers will kidnap her once again and drag Izumi back to the compound, she can't win either way! Izumi had ordered Saori not to tell the detective Fujiwara about this mission and we only saw him for a minute in this show though his role will be an important one. Izumi told her new friend Saori to wait for the POW Rescue mission to finish, if Izumi hasn't broken the record then go to the police and it was so difficult for Saori not to do anything while Izumi's life was in danger. Which was constantly as you can see in the above and below screenshots, the R Agency soldiers had somehow boobytrapped the entire school with bombs and invisible wires that would activate them. Izumi has lost most of her memories from when she was held captive but hasn't forgotten any of the fighting/survival skills she had been taught at the compound, she noticed all of the hidden wires and bombs. And somehow Izumi had managed to plant her own outside of the school, she had gotten into a scrap with one of the soldiers outside which is when we learned Izumi had planted landmines all over the school's grounds. The soldier had stepped on a landmine and if he removed his foot then it would explode(!) so for now this soldier was out of action. After entering the school Izumi quickly got into another brutal match which ended with the soldier bursting into flames which is right above. This was one exciting mission/scene and did notice at this point how little Izumi ever says.










 Final segment, the paragraphs in the three recaps are longer than I thought they would be. But that is a positive as it means much is happening in the show and also have noticed how I trend to make recaps a bit longer if I'm enjoying the series. So it's two soldiers down for Izumi and two to go, R Agency seems like such an elite yet evil organization so why aren't their soldiers/guards/thugs better fighters? Izumi took out a third soldier who was guarding Keiko and her three mates, at the time Izumi figured all were eliminated. Plus she did set a new record for as a screenshot above shows there were seven seconds to go, the new record for a POW Rescue mission is now 11 minutes and two seconds. However just as Izumi was about to untie the group of girls she was surprised when a fourth soldier attacked and for the first time the students saw how skilled of a fighter/commando Izumi is! This soldier was armed and much larger than Izumi who subdued this elite fighter rather easily and hope her battles begin to get more difficult. 

 Not sure what was going on in Keiko's mind when Izumi rescued the group, Keiko still isn't friends with Izumi and could she possibly be jealous of her fighting skills? I would say Yes to that as Keiko is also a good fighter but not at Izumi's level but have a strong feeling the duo will become an unbeatable team sooner than later. In the second to last screenshot above the detective Fujiwara had finally been notified of the battle at Harumi Academy, he arrived too late and had a strong inkling a long war was beginning and so far he doesn't know who is trying to kill or kidnap Izumi. You readers do as it's R Agency and that's their leader Ishizu in the bottom screenshot above. At least three attempts have been made to bring Izumi back to the R Agency compound/prison to complete her training, all have failed. So Ishiizu is wondering should they back off before exposing the organization and we'll see if that happens. In the final minute the following day Izumi arrived back at Harumi Academy, she's still not a student but could be in the next show! For Keiko had given Izumi another present which was a brand new school uniform, that's right below and did that do the trick as far as making Izumi become a student again? That we will find out in the next recap but that won't be done for about four more days, that's when the next trio of posts for this series will be published and so far so good with this series for me.
















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