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 26, 1987: 6.6% .... 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. It's now two episodes later, not much has changed save for the fact that Izumi has enrolled at Harumi Academy but will she be staying there?
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. Did learn in episode four the student council is called SSG but don't know yet what those initials stand for but there's little doubt there could be something sinister about the group.
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! In the fourth show Saori got a part time job at Ken's Burger in Saki poolhall/diner, think it's because Izumi often goes there!
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 was supposed top have a female partner named Moe Muto but haven't seen her through four 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....
Takeo is an actor I know so well and he's one of my faves from the 1970's and 80's. Did recap his "Strada 5" drama last year but sadly. it was just so-so however not to be missed are the two 'Stray Cat Rock' films, all five in that series need to be viewed!!!! He was in many other films and dramas worth seeing, sadly he died in 2012 at the age of seventy.
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. Did learn in the fourth episode R Agency has been recruiting teens from all over Japan and have been training them to also be ruthless but according to Ishizu none is as skilled as Izumi is and most shows will deal with trying to recapture her.
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. The one for today is another of Izumi in action and has mentioned in a previous post she really reminds me of Nami Matsushima from the Female Scorpion film series. The first screenshot below shows the air date and title of the episode, will have a new one for each recap.
Previous recaps
Do recommend reading a few of these and actually all as they are easy to breeze through plus it will help you follow the storylines so much better. In a way you could wait until I have finished recapping the entire series, go to the final post and start reading from the first link!
What I also noticed more in this show was Yumi Tsuchida who plays the important role of Keiko and her part is becoming larger. What I really noticed was such a resemblance to Mizuki Yamashita who is one of the most popular women ever here!! Actually because of their ages should say that Mizuki looks so much like Yumi who as mentioned in her bio above retired two years after this series ended. Let's get to the action and this is part one of an action packed story, of course part two is the next post. While this may be the first two part story there is a major ongoing storyline and also a few other minor ones. If you didn't read the first three recaps do recommend doing so and added in the links above, I do talk a little bit of what's taken place up until now but there isn't enough time to discuss more and those prior recaps are quick but informative reads.
At the end of the previous recap it appeared Izumi just may enroll at high school and she had been out of the loop for three years. With a little urging by her ultimate fan Saori and Keiko who bought her a brand new uniform Izumi has enrolled at Harumi Academy which is in Tokyo and she fit in rather quickly. Above someone referred to her as the Ice Doll, first time that nickname has been used but bet it won't be the last. Also you can see above that Saori has just began a PT job at Ken's Burger in Saki pool hall/diner and think it was because Saori knew where Izumi hangs out often, she has such a crush on her Senpai! I do like the character of Ken who seems like a dependable guy but his role to date hasn't been all that important. At the back of his diner is where Keiko holds the secret meetings for her SSG group and that was the first time we have heard of it. Keiko is the president of Harumi Academy's student council but I've been thinking there's something shady about that elite group. Perhaps it's just some of the members who are shady and it's why they also refer to themselves as SSG, don't know what that stands for yet but should soon. At this short meeting Keiko brought up the name of Shunji Kamiya, first time we've heard his name. Shunji has been missing for over three months and where could he have disappeared to, for some reason Keiko felt Izumi may have some answers and that meeting was way too short but least it introduced us to Shunji.
That's according to the top executive at R Agency Ishizu but in the next show it appears there may be one person higher than he is in the evil organization. When we see his face most of it is hidden in shadows which increases his eerieness, we have heard Ishizu talk about how when Izumi escaped from the R Agency compound her memories had also been left there(!) but now that doesn't seem to be the case. For when Keiko asked Izumi about Shunji Kamiya we could see that name rang a bell in her head though Izumi denied ever knowing him. So now everything else is secondary in Izumi's life as her main mission is to secretly travel back to the R Agency compound/training facility to find out what exactly they did to her and perhaps more importantly bring this unknown yet powerful group down! Izumi must have some memories for she does know where their secret lair is and it is a very large area located on a peninsula north of Tokyo. To the annoyance of Izumi tagging along with her to this unknown location was Keiko but in a way think Izumi was glad for some company, this mission wasn't so secret as the bottom screenshot above shows R Agency has somehow learned of Izumi's quest for revenge!
Think a slingshot is a required for a Sukeban fighter and as Keiko exclaimed above Izumi had one! However it wasn't to shoot rocks and such but to shower her enemy with grenades and also sharp knives as Izumi brought down a few R Agency soldiers with them. So while Izumi, with occasional help from Keiko, has been able to keep the soldiers at bay there are just too many of them and the pair did retreat for the time being as they realized they were being tracked at the R Agency HQ and how do you hide from a radar and cameras? To Izumi there was only one option and was quite dangerous which you can see right below. That escape was by jumping off a small cliff/waterfall into a fast moving stream, the radar wouldn't be able to track the pair in water and with no alternatives JUMP is what Izumi and Keiko did. Which was the final bit of action in this episode as part two of this daring mission will conclude in episode five which is the next post. Some things begin to get explained better in that show such as the Biofeedback training Izumi went through and there are some screenshots of that below.
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