"Abunai Deka" drama: Episode ten 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 13.5%

Subs were once 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. However she is a tough woman who used to be a regular officer and knows how to use a gun well.

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 .... Episode seven .... Episode eight

   

 

 The previous recap was for episode nine which was the final show of the first season. This drama was picked up for another nine episode season which makes this the first show of that one. Then there were nine episodes in the third season and eight in the next three seasons for a total of 51. There was no break in those seasons as the shows ran for 51 consecutive weeks. On to this recap and while there had been some goofiness in some of the prior episodes this was one of the most serious shows to date.

 Every episode has had a different case but there's been one underlying minor story which may get more attention as we go along. That story has to do with the powerful Ginsei family which is a Yakuza clan, it's main leader is an older man named Reijiro Nagao. Seems Takayama's main goal in life is to bring this family down but has been warned so often by his chief Kondo to lay off. Two reasons for that, one is because Kondo doesn't want a war with the Yakuza and the other is that he may fear what would happen to Takayama! But that hasn't stopped him from working on his own time to dig up dirt on the Ginsei clan, this whole episode deals with the gang and will there be more of these to follow? In the top screenshot above Takayama was working on his own trailing the Ginsei leader's son Akira Nagao and the two bumped into each other as Nagao was leaving a bar called Club London. Takayama wanted words with this punk but was held back by two of his henchman, by the time he ditched them Nagao was nowhere to be found.

 However at the door of Club London Takayama heard a gunshot and tried to find out where it came from. He did find the location and that's in the second screenshot above which was a parking garage. There lay dying was a 32 year old man named Ochiai with a gunshot to his chest. That was courtesy of Nagao who has such a short fuse, Ochiai was drunk and had bumped into Nagao. Instead of talking it over Nagao pulled out his pistol and shot the man dead, he quickly jumped into his vehicle with another associate and a woman named Hiroko. She's his part time girlfriend and also works as a hostess at Club London, Hiroko was dropped off at her apartment for at the time Nagao didn't realize that he had made a mistake in doing that. The following day Takayama arrived at Nagao's Yakuza office with his trusty partner Oshita in tow. Oshita baited Nagao hard enough where the goon started to beat him, all part of Takayama's plan. Because of that Nagao could be arrested for beating an officer and was dragged down to the Minato station located in Yokohama. Takayama showed zero restraint and really was putting a beating on Nagao who insisted he didn't kill the man the previous night, we all know better.

 That beat down of Nagao didn't please Takayama's chief Kondo nor did that stunt to get Nagao arrested. To Takayama's fury later on that day Nagao was released and there wasn't a thing he could do about it. One of Nagao's goons named Miyazaki had come into the Minato station claiming it was him that shot Ochiai the night before, his gun was a perfect match so he was arrested while Nagao was set free. Of course all knew this was a sham as Miyazaki was the fall guy for Nagao but everything he said checked out and the police had no option but to release Nagao. It's now the next day and the Investigative Division's chief was yelling 'Where is Takayama?'. He was told his best investigator had taken some paid leave beginning that day and his chief Kondo was livid. Takayama was in the city of Matsuyama which is far from Yokohama and is on the island of Shikoku. That was Nagao's destination and why would this young punk head to such a place? Takayama did have a brief conversation with this man there and to him there's no way Nagao is fit to take over as the leader of the Ginsei clan, this thug may be tough but has such a pea sized brain.

 Back in Yokohama Oshita with the Investigative Division's other top notch man Machida did more investigating about Ochiai's murder. They discovered Nagao left the Club London with a hostess named Hiroko who was nowhere to be found since the night of the murder. The pair found out she came from of all places.... Matsuyama(!) and that's why Nagao travelled there. She can finger him for the shooting and Nagao is kicking himself for not taking care of her before. Following the lead of Takayama both Oshita and Machida have also taken a paid leave without the permission of Kondo, his best three men are gone and he had no clue what was going on. Oshita and Machida found Takayama rather easily in Matsuyama and told him about Hiroko. When she visits the city she'll always see her best friend Akiko who worked at a local factory. But upon arriving there the trio found the woman had been stabbed, no doubt by Nagao's goons. But Akiko did blurt out she had planned on meeting Hiroko at the city's baseball stadium, the trio rushed there as quick as possible. Would it be on time for in the bottom screenshot above she's in the sights of Nagao's best rifleman.

 In the second to last screenshot is the chief Kondo who finally learned where his three investigators were. In Matsuyama and Kondo was furious because who had called him was the city's chief of police who told the trio were in a shooting war on the streets of the city. In that bottom screenshot is Nagao's father who is the leader of the Ginsei clan, the father doesn't care for his son at all and can't believe the trouble he's making for the Yakuza family. Back to the baseball stadium and Takayama, Oshita and Machida arrived just in time to save Hiroko. They could see the sniper who was named Komiya but he was too far away to hit. Takayama stayed with Hiroko while the other two chased Komiya down and this was an exciting scene. Oshita and Machida were on one of those hillside transports going one way while Komiya was on another heading downhill. The two investigators opened a hatch on the car, jumped from it and chased the other car down the hill! Komiya spotted them and he did the same thing while also opening fire but couldn't hit either Oshita or Machida.

 The battle eventually ended up at a train station, by this time Takayama had joined his mates. As you can see above Komiya had grabbed a woman and would shoot unless all dropped their weapons, there's no doubt the creep would have killed the innocent woman. But sneaking onto the second floor behind Komiya was Oshita who may be a better shooter than Takayama. He shot at Komiya wounding him in the shoulder, the woman was unharmed and all ended well as the goon was arrested. However there was nothing to link Nagao to the the almost shootings of Hiroko and this other woman. Takayama knew that but it didn't stop him from meeting up again that day with Nagao and rubbing it in that his gang had failed him again! The situation with Takayama cannot go on any longer according to Nagao, he's summoned more troops for a final showdown with Takayama, Oshita and Machida.

 Instead of being the hunters Takayama, his two partners and Hiroko the next day became the hunted! Nagao's reinforcements had arrived and it was an all out gun battle at an abandoned factory, seems like there's at least one of them in each episode. This battle did last for a while and it's hard to believe how many shots were missed by both sides. However Oshita and Takayama are both ace shooters, Machida is a decent man with a pistol too and after such a long struggle the gang was shot down. Not all were killed as many were too injured to continue but not among them was one missing person, their main 'leader' Nagao. Just as the shooting ceased with the police victorious arriving in a car was Nagao with another henchman, he jumped out and began to fire in a rage! But it didn't take long for Oshita to put another gangster down, very rarely do Oshita and Takayama shoot to kill and they usually just hit a criminal in the shoulder or leg to injure them.

So Nagao was just injured enough where he couldn't fight and now Takayama wants answers to his questions, will they be enough to finally bring down the Ginsei clan? Who knows the answer to that for as you can see in the second to last screenshot above Nagao was shot in the heart by a sniper and was dead within seconds. Oshita took care of the sniper but the damage was done, Takayama was crushed his efforts all were for naught but at least he saved the life of Hiroko. The next day the trio of investigators arrived back at the Yokohama airport, leaving the city was who was in the above screenshot. The older man in the middle is Nagao's father who is the leader of the Ginsei clan, he was going to Matsuyama to take care of his son's body. It was never mentioned but there's no doubt the father ordered the hit on his son, Takayama probably knew so too but of course there was no proof to back up that claim. That ends this recap and this may have been the top show to date, good to see a case take place outside of Yokohama. Just 41 more episodes to go(!) and will have the next pair of recaps in a week, plenty more screenshots to help you follow the action a bit better.