"Abunai Deka" drama: Episode seven of 51(!!!!) recap

 

 Air Dates: October 5, 1986 until September 27,1987 on NTV, Sunday nights at 9:00 pm

Director: Toru Murakawa, this episode's rating was 12.1%

Subs were one again done by GEO9875, this was one huge project to do so will give a huge thumbs up for doing the subs and hope the recaps gives the series it's proper justice. 

Main Cast: Wrote this up after viewing the first two shows and know there will be a lot of editing to the bios as we have so much to learn about the characters. The first two get the most screen time by far but the other four main characters are also very key to this drama. The setting is the Minato Police Station in the Naka ward of Yokohama and the station is part of the Kanagawa prefectural police. If you enjoy J-Pop songs then this show has some superb tunes, most know I'm a fan but do prefer the music from the 80's. Plus there's no beating the hairdos of women from that era! This series also goes by the name of....

 Hiroshi Tachi as Toshiki Takayama.... You'll see Taka often in the screenshots. He's about a 35 year old man who is an investigator of serious crimes and the gangsters go out of their way to avoid him! Takayama has a bit of a 'cool persona' about him and is an ace with guns, he's the partner of Oshita but seems they didn't start working closely together until the first episode. While both are aces with guns their methods also get them in hot water with their superiors but the pair usually come out on top at the end as far as solving cases go.

Kyohei Shibata as Yuji Oshita.... About the same age as Takayama but looks younger. During the first episode Oshita blurted out he's got a bit of a shady past and it surprised many he became a sergeant. He knows how to pick a lock and some other methods criminals use, sure we'll find out more as time goes on. Like his new partner Takayama he is quite adept using all guns, unlike his partner Oshita isn't much of a 'people person' as Takayama is the one who often interviews witnesses, criminals or others. 

Atsuko Asana as Kaoru Mayama.... Member of the Juvenile Division which shares the same office as the Investigative Unit which Takayama and Oshita are a part of. Karou has gone out to crime scenes with the detectives but they never let her get in on the real action.

Toru Nakamura as Toru Machida.... Not a rookie but hasn't been an inspector for all that long. Machida is the best fighter in the unit and also the women swoon over him but he does have a girlfriend which he said in the first show. 

Nana Kinomi as Yuko Matsumura.... How about that hairdo?! Yuko is the chief of the Juvenile Division but haven't seen her make much of a contribution to any cases so far. She does share some unknown secret from the past with the Investigative chief Kondo that took place ten years ago, will that become part of the story? She's also quite the 'Fashion Queen' who often shows up at the station in some new glittering outfit.

Shizuo Chujo as Takuzo Kondo.... Chief of the Investigation Unit, smart man but seems to be more concerned on what he'll be having for lunch! But at one time Kondo was feared by the Yokohama gangsters and has been on the force for thirty years.

 There's a few more minor characters such as the detective Yoshi, chief Tanaka and female officer Hitomi,  if their roles become larger will add them onto this list.

 

Previous recaps

Episode one .... Episode two    Episode three .... Episode four .... Episode five

Episode six

  

 Zipping right through this series, started this post on Thursday and hope I can get two more recaps done by the end of the month, did I?(YES!) Looking forward to the challenge of doing posts for all 51 episodes, won't be setting any kind of speed records and sure there may be a bit of a lull in the middle of the series. There are two newer dramas I'll be getting to but will wait a few more days or even a week before starting on them, there's also a series beginning in February I'm interested in. Enough blabbering and on to this recap, every show has had a different kind of case.

 Lot of goofiness in the first few minutes of this episode, luckily things became quite serious. In the top screenshot is the chief of the Juvenile Unit who is Yuko, she was reporting on the area's crime stats which brought such a yawn to all in attendance. In the opening credits she gets the third billing but her role to date hasn't been large or important. Her assistant is Karou and was she quite spunky in this show. In the second screenshot she put a wealthy woman in her place who wanted the police to look for her dog! But then a very young boy came into the station and Karou was all smiles for this boy named Junichi who had a small package for the station. This is when things turned from humorous to serious as in the package was a videotape, the short recording had the woman in the third screenshot. As it says this woman has been marked to die at the hands of the package's sender, who is this woman, why is she being targeted and most importantly who was the sender?

 As you can see the tape showed the woman at a tennis club, the Investigative Unit determined where the club was but the woman wasn't a member there. But she was a guest of the woman in the fourth screenshot who was a bank employee named Yoshie and she had some info about the unknown woman. Her name is Chiharu Noguchi who is currently a traffic cop at the Yamashita police station, this criminal is planning on murdering a policewoman? The tape said the killing would be taking place at 2:00 pm, it's getting  close to that time so Oshita and Takayama rushed to the region Yoshie patrols, bit late for talking about them in a post. But sadly as you can see in the bottom screenshot the investigators from the Minato police station were just a minute or so too late, Chiharu had been killed with one shot by a sniper.  Ballistics determined the rifle was a 30-carbine and one had been stolen the previous week at house in Yamanote, certain guns appear to be legal in Japan. When Oshita and Takayama interviewed the man whose rifle was stolen they found out a very puzzling detail, while the rifle was used in the shooting no bullets were stolen and why would that be?

 Why no ammo was stolen is baffling the Investigative Unit so didn't something else to Takayama, why would the killer be warning the police? That was eventually revealed at the end but didn't have any bearing on solving the case. Before the team could continue on with Chiharu's murder another envelope was delivered to the station by a little boy, both boys said a mysterious man gave them 100 yen to bring a package to the station. Once again there was a videotape, it was of a yoga class at a gym and the camera was focused on one unknown woman. The warning this time was that the woman would be killed at 3:00 pm, its now noon time. Takayama wondered if this woman may also work for the police, he brought someone in from the training academy who did identify the woman. Her name was Sachiko Nishiwaki who was also a traffic officer, she worked at the Negishi precinct. Time is short as it's approaching 3:00 pm. Oshita and Takayama made a mad dash to where Sachiko was on patrol. But as you can see in the second to last screenshot our heroes were just a few seconds too late, right in front of them Sachiko was killed with one shot.

 Oshita saw a figure on a nearby rooftop and dashed to the location but this criminal had everything planned out well. That's him escaping in the bottom screenshot, he had a rope all set up to climb down to his vehicle but Oshita was still in hot pursuit. So wasn't the third key member of the Investigative Unit Machida but both were on foot and there's no way they could catch up to the car. So it appears policewoman are being targeted but Takayama isn't entirely convinced of that though for now he has no other possibilities. The following day there was another attack on a female officer, this time at a restaurant but the MO was entirely different. The whole unit went to this place and was able to nab the perp in short order, have they found their killer? Of course not as there was still twenty minutes to go in the show and this man did have airtight alibis for where he was for the two murders. But during the arrest of this man named Komatsu at the restaurant Oshita and Takayama showed off their fighting abilities, you don't want to mess around with either one of them!

 There was a break in the case for a weapons store reported the previous week they had sold bullets to a man for a 30-carbine rifle. The man above with a beard was the buyer, his name was Furukawa and the police naturally paid him a visit. Furukawa never denied buying the ammo and even showed the detectives his rifle which was an M-58. That's an entirely different weapon and one the bullets for a 30-carbine rifle wouldn't work with, there's something quite shady going on so Furukawa was dragged down to the Minato police station. It was a bit obvious what took place, Takayama seemed to grasp what happened though no one else did. Furukawa claimed he bought the wrong kind of ammo by mistake, after realizing the bullets wouldn't fit his rifle he threw them out! So the obvious part was that Furukawa had bought the bullets for someone else, there's no way he would buy the wrong kind of bullets nor was there any way he would then throw them out.

 But Furukawa was mum on the issue and wouldn't say a word. Have mentioned a few times how Oshita and Takayama don't do things by the book and am often glad they don't! If Furukawa won't reveal what actually took place perhaps a bit of roughing up will open that mouth of his, you can see the pair in action in the bottom screenshot. Roughing up suspects may not be looked upon brightly these days but I prefer the older ways of making a criminal/suspect confess to something. In that screenshot Furukawa finally did admit the truth, he bought the bullets for a man named Katakura. The pair weren't friends but seems Katakura had some dirt on Furukawa and used that to blackmail him in a way, that way was to get the ammo for the stolen 30-carbine rifle. During this time the Minato station received yet another package, in it of course was a videotape of the next victim. That's the policewoman above who is scheduled to be killed at 4:00 pm, her name is Yoshimi who is the radio operator at the Minato station so it'll be easy to protect her. But seems she didn't need any protecting as no mention of her was made after knowing she was the next potential victim.

 This Katakura man has one prior, three years ago he attempted to rob a jewelry store but that heist was a flop as the police had a tip of the impending crime. It took place in the Motomachi area of Yokohama, at the time the Juvenile Unit investigator Karou was stationed there. She was a plant at the store and pretended to be an employee, when Katakura attempted the robbery Karou thwarted it which you can see in the above top screenshot. Karou is allowed to go on cases with the Investigative Unit but they never allow her to be part of the arresting team. Don't think anyone knew how tough she was at the Minato station as most never knew of Karou's past, she can handle a gun well too. When Katakura was arrested for the attempted robbery he swore up and down he would take revenge on Karou, he served three years in prison and now that he's out Katakura is set to enact that revenge. During this final long scene Karou was at a dress shop in Bashamichi getting fitted for a new outfit, on the opposite roof was Katakura with his powerful rifle and as you can see above Karou was in his sights.

 But not for long as Oshita had an inkling on where Karou would be that day, with Takayama they sped to the shop and were able to stop the sniper attack. But when Oshita went to the opposite roof he was nabbed by Katakura, unless Karou is delivered to him within ten minutes he'll blow Oshita's brains out! Karou did make it to the roof but an exchange was never made as unknown to all save for Oshita on another rooftop was Takayama with a sniper rifle. He hit Katakura in the leg and is their anything Takayama can't do? With Katakura badly injured Oshita was able to pummel the man who was quickly arrested but not before Karou gave the impression to all she would shoot this creep! He never said anything until the end but Takayama's theory was that Katakura had killed the two policewoman to divert the police away from his real target who was Karou and that plan may have worked if he had stolen the ammo instead of having it bought at a gun shop. So ends another thrilling episode and to me each show is getting a bit better. The recap for episode eight is the next post and these screenshots help you follow the story better as I can't explain every single detail that took place.