"Hakozume: Tatakau! Koban Joshi" drama: Episode four 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

Ratings:

Episode one, 11.3% ... Episode two, 11.7% ... Episode three, 10.8% ... Episode four, 8.9%

Previous recaps:

Episode one .... Episode two

  

 

 Second half of this two part case and not sure when the next recaps will be done. Did say in the above post that Mei was diagnosed with the virus on July 23rd which prevented most filming. But the next two shows were going to be preempted anyways because of some specials so it appears all ten episodes will be aired. That's good to know as I've been enjoying this series and each show seems to be getting a tad better, shouldn't have to rehash things as where we stand is in the above post.

 And where we stand is the continuation of the sexual assault case whose victim was an eighteen year old high school student named Ayana. She had come into the Machiyama main police station after the assault and ended up being interviewed by Mai only because Seiko had the day off. She blew that interview with Ayana terribly and perhaps if Mai didn't this case could have been solved much sooner. The girl Ayana was so distraught from the assault she won't even leave her room at home nor will do another interview with the police. But Mai did redeem herself somewhat as she was able to sketch a crude drawing of the suspect who had been seen by a high school lad passing by. So it's come down to a man named Yasuda who is the main suspect and he's served time in prison for other sexual assaults.

 This was the first case in the Machiyama area but there had been five of these attacks recently in the nearby Murakawa area. Because of that a special task force has been set up at the Machiyama HQ, Yasuda will remain the key suspect for now but the leader of the task force Yoneda has ordered the troops not to concentrate on only the one man and this leader is worse than a drill sergeant. To their immense disappointment Seiko and Mai weren't chosen to be a part of the investigation, can understand why Mai wasn't but there aren't many better detectives than Seiko. So it's back to the police box for the new partners where it's been very quiet due to it being so hot.

 Seiko does things which may not seem important at the time but later on we realize she knew what she was doing. For instance she sent Mai out to do a solo patrol on foot before they went out on their regular rounds in the police cruiser. Mai didn't know the area well enough but that seemingly useless patrol will pay dividends at the end. Mai even made a detailed map of the area though mainly of just eateries though it did impress the police box leader Igasaki. Don't mention him too often but he does play a key role in this series, at times he appears to be a goofball but don't underestimate him.

 Meanwhile back at the Machiyama Police HQ the investigation is at a standstill. After a week zero new clues have been found even though they've staked out Yasuda's apartment but he had rarely left it during the week. Miwa had spent about a hundred hours viewing CCTV footage from the Murakawa area attacks but to no avail. However there was one clue from the victims which is that they were attacked by two men in a black van, could Yasuda been involved in those assaults and if so where was his partner when he attacked Ayana? With the case going nowhere something different had to be done, thanks to the request of Minamoto above Seiko and Mai were brought into the investigation.

 Seiko and Minamoto usually act cool towards each other but they do work well together. They're now the new stakeout team at Yasuda's apartment but his not leaving the place continued. Mai was assigned to go over the CCTV footage again with the detective Yamada who really helped her out in the last episode with a very uplifting pep talk. Miwa had originally checked out the taped footage of the previous attacks and found no new evidence, sadly that was the case too for Mai and Yamada. The person who could really help out the case would be Ayana but she still won't talk with the police and Seiko has tried many times to interview her, that assault has really affected Ayana and Mai is still so upset with herself for blowing that original interview.

 The task force leader Yoneda is naturally a bit irate at the lack of progress in the six sexual assault cases, he screamed to them how can a team of forty be so inept?! First off the task force, then on it and now once again Seiko and Mai have been booted from the investigation. However Seiko is someone who doesn't always listen to her superior's orders though she's not exactly a rebel, she continued the stakeout on Yasuda's apartment with Minamoto but there was still zero activity from the suspect. In another 'sly move' from Seiko she had Mai read over the reports the victims gave after their assault, to me though Seiko may only be an officer she quietly knows more on how to solve a case or train a newbie than anyone else. While reading the testimonies from the victims Mai was shocked at how those assaults had affected their lives, like Ayana many could never leave their houses and have been unable to return to their previous way of living. 

 Don't think I mentioned it before but the sexual assaults had all been on teenage girls. With the help of a bribe from their leader Igasaki the team of Seiko and Mai can once again try to interview Ayana, like the previous times she wouldn't respond to their request. But speaking to Ayana through her bedroom door Mai gave a nice uplifting speech and admitted how she blew that first interview by not taking the feelings of Ayana into consideration. Plus she added with her testimony they could catch the culprit so much sooner and didn't Ayana want to prevent more girls from being assaulted too? That worked for the first time in two weeks Ayana left her bedroom and agreed to be interviewed again, Seiko leaving those testimonies from other victims for Mai to read was the key to everything. After staking out Yasuda's apartment for two weeks the task force had been thinking perhaps he's not the attacker but after Ayana's interview he's now the main suspect but is this pervert still working with a man in a black van?

 In that top screenshot above Seiko and Mai reported their new info to the task force leader who still wasn't going to let them return to the investigation. But during the talk a call came in from Minamoto who was still staking out Yasuda's apartment. It was a little after 9:00 pm, that black van pulled in front of Yasuda's place and he quickly jumped in with Minamoto trailing them. The detective Yamada is another person who is hard to figure out, he's not nearly as efficient as his partner Minamoto but he often comes though when the chips are down. Unnoticed by all at the station he pilfered the keys to a police vehicle, with Seiko and Mai in tow it was off to chase down the black van and catch the two attackers though they did have to wait until an assault began. But the astute Seiko wondered would Yasuda and his partner attack someone this late at night, it was now 9:30 pm and where could a teenage girl be outside at that time? But once again Seiko's 'sly move' paid off and it was from when she sent Mai to do that solo patrol.

 Mai had noticed across from an ice cream shop she almost had a break in there was a cram school across the street whose classes were at night. So that was the destination for the trio and that assumption paid off as Yasuda and his partner trailed the only alone girl and tried to force her into the van. But luckily the three were in the nick of time to prevent the assault and who knows what could have taken place inside the van? His partner was nabbed but Yasuda managed to flee with Mai in hot pursuit but as was the case in the first show she fell flat on her face during the chase. But out of nowhere flew Minamoto who grabbed Yasuda and did give him a slight beating, all is well as finally the assault case was solved! However Seiko and especially Mai were concerned what would happen to them for going against the orders of the task force leader Yoneda. But he showed his true colors and in front of the entire team congratulated them on a job well done. Happy ending too for Ayana who is now over the shock of being attacked and is back to living a normal life. When she was thanking the pair for their help she revealed to Seiko that Mai had been leaving 'patrol cards' notices at her house during her rounds to assure Ayana she was safe, though the rookie makes many mistakes Seiko knows she has a solid partner.

 Another fine episode but it did drag slightly in the middle. As mentioned in the beginning two episodes were going to be preempted so there won't be another recap until two weeks from now, perhaps three weeks as I'd like to do a pair of them. Am recapping another series and will be starting on Miona's current drama very soon, as usual took a mega amount of screenshots.