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 January 28, 1988: 6.0% and this was a big decrease from 9.3% that was hit two episodes ago.... Subs were done by Big Nova Subs who also have done a few other older series such as "Strada 5" which I did recap. 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? In episode six Izumi moved into her first ever apartment, after helping the detective Fujiwara out in a duel against a thug the local residents donated enough moolah to pay for a year's rent!!!! Biofeedback is the name of the program/experiments she had been doing at the R Agency, Izumi is the only one who completed all of the tests and training who lived to talk about it!
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. SSG stands for Shadow Student Government, we learned that in the sixth episode. They're an offshoot of the student council who try to maintain the peace in Harumi though very secretly.
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. We did in the sixth episode but don't think we'll be seeing much of Moe who is one cutie! Fujiwara does have a secret crush on her but don't think that will be going anywhere. 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. **** In episode six learned that Ishizu is the mysterious person playing pool often at the Burger in Saki shop. He is quite talented and is hanging around there to keep tabs on Izumi. Learned in the eleventh episode that is was Ishizu who had killed the teen girl Reiko three yeas prior. At the time he threatened the only witness Saori to tell the police it was Izumi who was the killer but the truth has been revealed. A second teen did complete the Biofeedback program successfully in episode twelve but Izumi did defeat this Ultimate Weapon named Hiba and what a brutal fight that was.
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!
For each recap will also try to have a different video, there aren't too many but there could be enough for most posts. Wrote that prior sentence up for the first recap and here were are eleven episodes later. Am running out of videos for the series but do have a good one of Izumi below that's a CM from 1991 for 'Nagatanien Otona no Ochazuke'. If you think about it computers and the internet have only been part of our lives for about thirty or so years so you can understand why there's a shortage of certain videos from decades ago. As I've said a few times the character of Izumi reminds me so much of Nami Matsushima from the 'Female Scorpion' movie series who is so quite yet very lethal plus is so overly attractive!!!! The first screenshot below shows the air date and title of the episode, will have a new one for each recap.
That previous recap/episode was so action packed and would say that's been the best show to date. This was another fine episode though it did start out a bit slow but the second half was quite exciting plus at the end a pair of cliffhangers were thrown in so what may take place in the final three episodes looks to be very promising. Our heroine Izumi looked better than ever in this episode, for the first time she let her hair down a bit and the males at a school dance noticed her for the first time.... but ol' Nao here has been noticing Izumi 😍since the first second of this series!!!! For a change will make this intro section a bit brief, am writing up two recaps in one day which I don't do often so before I go too loco lets get to what took place.
This show aired on January 28, 1998 but the weather looked mild plus the time seems to be in March or April as the Harumi Academy high school will be having their senior prom. Izumi's two new friends Keiko and Saori are quite excited for the event and can't wait to see Izumi on the dance floor. Even though her mates went shopping with Izumi to buy dresses she's refusing to go and it appears until now Izumi has never worn a dress. Above is one screenshot of the Harumi Juvenile Division detective Fujiwara and thought his role would be larger. He had noticed Izumi looking at shoes in a store window and like Izumi he knew being around friends such as Keiko and Saori put them in danger and did say to cool it as to Fujiwara Izumi just brings trouble wherever she goes though it's not directly her fault. It was quickly the night of the prom, Keiko and Saori arrived where their classmates were having a blast but there was no Izumi in attendance. At that moment she had just arrived back at her apartment and there were two packages, one contained such a stunning dress which Saori purchased from what she had saved from working part time. The other box had a brand new pair of shoes courtesy of Keiko, Izumi was very touched by what her close friends had done so there was no way she could not attend the prom. As you can see below Izumi did and dazzling is not an apt enough description but had she left ten minutes later the R Agency may have nabbed her!
A few moments later Izumi saw the dart stuck in her purse, she removed it and attached was the note above which said 'I Will Terminate You'. The dart had been thrown by the second Ultimate Weapon Hiba who has no morals and while Izumi had never met him knew if she didn't leave the dance quickly it could turn into a blood bath! Upon leaving the school's gym where the prom was being held Izumi had been attacked by a pair of men who were the same ones who raided her apartment. Even though she didn't activate her Biofeedback powers Izumi does have many fighting skills and took out these two R Agency goons. Those soldiers have usually been easy pickings for Izumi though they did hurt her a bit in the last episode. Her next opponent won't be easy pickings as out of the shadows appeared Massprotype #02 who of course was Ryo Hiba, his main mission is to terminate Izumi and to date this turned out to be her fiercest battle.
Which shows Hiba being blown to smithereens and though such a struggle Izumi came out on top but she knows the battles will be getting even tougher. I wouldn't be surprised if we see her face off against the R Agency exec Ishizu in the final episode and let's see if my prediction comes true! Saori is at the hospital and is fine though she has to stay there for a few days, a mystery was what happened to Keiko? We viewers know for we saw Keiko hide in the back of the R Agency truck that Hiba had arrived in, the two soldiers who Izumi had taken out weren't hurt too badly and returned to the R Agency HQ. Finding out where the evil organization had moved the HQ to was Keiko's goal, she succeeded but seems as though the soldiers knew and captured her upon arrival. We only saw a few seconds of it but it appears Ishizu may be putting Keiko through the same Biofeedback testing as Izumi went through and if so that will make for an exciting story in the next episode. When this show ended the detective Fujiwara arrived at the hospital and in a not so subtle way told Izumi she should lay low for a while. Which will be impossible for he also mentioned that Keiko is being held at the R Agency compound which is off the Kurihara Highway, why can't Fujiwara jump into action to save Keiko? Maybe he will and in the fourth screenshot below you can see Izumi is more incensed than ever, taking Keiko as a hostage could be the biggest mistake R Agency has ever made and it does set things up to be an exciting final three episodes! Had wanted to complete these recaps by the end of March but that's not possible so will be back with the final trio on April 3rd or 4th.
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