"Hakozume: Tatakau! Koban Joshi" drama: Episode one recap

 

 Air Dates: July 7th until September ??, 2021 Wednesdays at 10:00 pm on NTV

Also known as Police in a Pod and subs are being provided by Irozuku

Main Cast: The action takes place in the town of Machiyama which is a fictional one but it's supposed to be in the prefecture of Saitama. Bit of a large cast but the top two characters will probably get 90% of the screen time, will update the info as we go along.

Erika Toda as Seiko Fuji.... Thirty year old police woman who has recently been demoted to the main Machiyama police box. We haven't learned what Seiko did to get demoted but it had something to do with a case. Seiko was the ace of the Criminal Investigation Unit and her way to relax is to browse through unsolved cases! It has helped her on the job and in the first episode she was assigned to be the partner and mentor of Mai. 

 Mei Nagano as Mai Kawai.... That Kawai isn't quite the word for cute nor scary so she does take some ribbing. Mai is a twenty year old rookie who just graduated from the Saitama Police Academy. She's now partnered with Seiko, of course Mai is quite inept in this first show and did come so close to quitting.

Tsuyoshi Muro as Shuichi Igasaki.... Commander of the police box where Seiko and Mai work out of. He's kind hearted but would rather not leave the box to go on patrol or answer calls.

Shohei Miura as Seiji Minamoto.... Detective at the Machiyama Police HQ, he worked with Seiko when she was a detective and they have some sort of past which we'll learn about.

Yuki Yamada as Takeshi Yamada.... Also a detective at the Machiyama Police HQ.

Yusuke Hirayama as Tamotsu Hojo.... Another detective at the Machiyama Police HQ.

Nanase Nishino as Miwa Makitaka.... Recently assigned to the Machiyama Police HQ as she'll be taking over Seiko's position in the Criminal Investigation Unit. She's quite inept and is terrified of men as she had gone to only female schools growing up. She's the neighbor of both Seiko and Mai as he trio live in a police dormitory.

Seiji Chihara as Masayoshi Yoshino.... Asst. police chief who always kisses the ass of his superior!

Atsushi Fukazawa as The Chief.... Only goes by 'The Chief', bit of an inept leader.

Link to the drama's NTV site: Hakozume site

 Erika was my first ever #1, she's not these days but when I did that 'All Time Top Twenty Faves' list in 2018 she finished in the fourth position so obviously she hasn't faded much. Up to that point had viewed twenty of her dramas, seen her make six guest drama appearances, watched eleven of her TV movies and eleven regular films so that's a massive amount of things when you add them together. But this is the first drama I've seen her since 2018, wasn't too interested in Erika's last two regular series so skipped them. However this drama looked quite interesting and the first episode was a solid show, at first wasn't going to recap all of the episodes but think I just may.

 This is a prime time show and if you've read my recaps from the past year you know how much I dislike them these days. Usually late night shows are just so much better and 90+% of the dramas I view these days are shows that air after 11:00 pm. Not sure of the posting schedule, would like to have back to back posts but unsure if this first recap will be followed by a second. Am writing this up on the 14th, episode two airs today and wanted to publish this by the 18th, we'll see what happens. Long intro and let's get to this first show which was 51 minutes long. Took seventy screenshots so will try to use less words and let the pics speak for themselves.

**** After writing this up decided not to wait for the second episode as for now there's no ongoing storyline plus was planning on taking a day or two off so didn't want to hold on to this for too long. Think in the future will have two recaps in a row but that's not written in stone.

 The screenshots will go in chronological order though I may skip around a bit with what took place. That'll help in describing the main characters and we really just met three of them in this first episode who are the trio above. Erika was probably on screen for forty of this show's 51 minutes but the main focus was on Mei and her character Mai. She's just twenty in age and isn't that quite young to be a police officer? Seems it is but Mai recently graduated from the ten month Saitama Police Academy course but her wish hadn't always been to be a police officer. We learned later on that she had made a promise to her father that she would become a civil service worker as it's a very stable job. However the only exam Mai could pass was the one for police work so it had been off to the police academy.

 Mai is just two weeks removed from graduation and was assigned to a police box in the city of Machiyama. Police Box positions aren't as difficult as you don't deal with violent crimes and such, more of a way to get trained or for older officers a nice way to take it easy. In the center above is the box leader Igasaki who is 46 in age and after twenty years on the force he finally has a cushier position. He had been training Mai but now they'll be a newcomer to the police box who will become Mai's new mentor and also partner. That's Erika above on the right who plays Seiko, she's thirty in age and was the ace of the Machiyama Criminal Unit. But she's just been demoted and for now the reason why is still a mystery, think it has something to do with a case she worked on and possibly made a major mistake. So it's the first day out on patrol for the new team of women officers whose main responsibility is answering minor calls, monitoring traffic, catching speeders, etc. But almost immediately the pair saw a scooter speed through an intersection and almost run over an older man.

 Seiko has this unique hobby which is studying the details of recent unsolved cases. Seems like an odd hobby but it paid off when the pair went to check on that older man who was almost run over by the scooter and the rider fled the scene. This man, whose name was Shinohara, claimed he was fine and didn't want to press charges and attempted to leave the area but was held back by Seiko. She has the eyes of an eagle and when Shinohara was lying on the ground she noticed the soles of his shoes. May seem far fetched but she noticed they were the same soles of a string of unsolved recent burglaries, she immediately arrested the man and took him to the police box. But Shinohara knew the evidence was weak and wouldn't respond to any of Seiko's questions, the main Criminal Investigation had been notified and were on their way to bring Shinohara into Police HQ. But Seiko wanted to be the one to take the credit for the arrest so decided to have the rookie Mai try her hand at questioning.

 Mai tries hard but being on the streets isn't the same as the academy training and was asking Shinohara some daffy questions. Think Seiko knew how things would work out as soon Shinohara answered one of those off the wall questions, before long he couldn't shut up and confessed to the burglaries. Arriving soon after were a pair of detectives Seiko had worked with at HQ but they were a tad too late as Seiko and Mai have solved the case! We really didn't see much of the detectives that Seiko once worked with, sure we'll be seeing much more of them in future episodes but this first show was mainly for us to be introduced to the two main characters, Seiko and Mai. Not too much of Nanase in this show save for one scene later on. Her character's name is Miwa who has taken Seiko's place as a detective in the Criminal Investigation Unit. However she's been kind of useless, Miwa didn't want the position but it was forced upon her as she's uncomfortable around men having only gone to all female schools.

 The above are from an inspection back at the main station, the kiss-up deputy chief Yoshino had thought with the head chief's birthday taking place that day he'd be retiring. 'Not so fast' the chief told his underling, he's just sixty in age and guess you can be a chief until the age of 62. That was really the only time we saw the two leaders of the Machiyama station and as mentioned we didn't see much of the other detectives who I presume will have a larger role. That small group of three do have a chip on their shoulder and to them they should be running the station. Bit after this 'not needed farewell ceremony' two of those detectives had a run in with Seiko and Mai. They were in pursuit of a robbery suspect and the chase brought them to the area the two police women patrol.

 The pair also rushing to a nearby mall where the suspect was, in kind of a humorous scene Seiko was driving the patrol car and wouldn't let her ex-colleagues pass. Seiko and Mai made it to the mall first which was one of those unique Japanese ones where it's semi outdoors and cars aren't allowed. So Seiko ordered Mai to chase the suspect while she would drive to the back entrance, one of them should be able to thwart this man. At first it was Mai who noticed the criminal but he also noticed her eyeing him suspiciously. The training at the academy was all fine and dandy but real life situations are so much different as Mai quickly learned again. When she attempted to confront the suspect he quickly fled with Mai hot on his heels. Mai never quite caught him but luckily by this time the chase was close to the back exit where lying in wait was Seiko.

 What we learned is that you don't want to mess with Seiko as it took all of two seconds for her to flip this criminal over and place the cuffs on him! Mai had watched the scene lying on her stomach as she had fallen during the chase and not being part of the arrest really dejected her even more. That's because up until now Mai was on the verge of quitting but this last incident was the final straw for her. Many times Mai had attempted to hand in a resignation letter only to have a call come in, on a few occasions she just forgot to confront her superior Igasaki about resigning and a few times her letter has been damaged during work. 

 Above is the only scene we saw much of Nanase in and she plays the detective Miwa who has taken the place of Seiko in the Criminal Investigation Unit. The trio all live in the same women's police dormitory and bet we'll see more of these get togethers. Miwa was talking above how she's so uncomfortable around men as she had only gone to all female schools until entering the police academy, to her there's no way she can replace Seiko. Shortly after her departure Seiko was cleaning up Mai's apartment where the mini party had taken place, Mai had been a bit too tipsy from wine and passed out. Seiko noticed some draft resignation letters in the trash, seems all newbies go through the same bad stretch that Mai is in and Seiko has vowed to herself she'll prevent Mai from leaving.

 Final segment and in the last five  minutes there was one more call for Seiko and Mai to check out. There's been this young man named Sakamoto who has called the police box fifteen times in the last two weeks saying he was going to kill himself. All were false alarms and Mai had responded to the last call, Sakamoto is a lonely man living in a small apartment and has some major problems. For the 16th time he called saying the same thing, when Seiko and Mai arrived at his place the door was locked and there was no answer. Mai thought it was just another attempt to get attention and told Seiko they should leave. Seiko is a top notch officer and she could sense something was wrong this time. Seiko broke a window to enter the apartment, to her horror she saw Sakamoto dangling from a rope!

 But he still had a pulse and Seiko called an ambulance to respond immediately, she had to call because Mai was frozen with fear. But it was a happy ending as Sakamoto pulled through and Mai had spent the entire night at the hospital with him. Upon her return to the police box Mai finally was able to turn in her resignation letter, she just felt there was zero chance of her becoming an efficient officer. But she had some sense talked into her head by the leader Igasaki who has been on the force for twenty years and knew all newbies have the same struggles. He was able to convince Mai to hang in there a bit longer and why not as she has such an excellent mentor and supporter in Seiko.

 That finally brings us to the end and that was a solid beginning to this series. May have seemed like a long recap but most are for first episodes and it was only one paragraph longer than usual recaps. For now there's no on going storyline which is why I'm doing only one post today instead of two. Did say last week I was going to take a break until the end of the month with dramas so this is kind of a bonus post, you can grab this at the site mentioned at the top and they always do a good job with subs. Will watch the next episode and then will decide to have just one or a pair of recaps next time around.