"Shoujo Commando Izumi" drama: Episode fifteen(final) of fifteen recap

 

 Air Dates: November 5, 1987 to February 18, 1988. There were a total of fifteen episodes which aired though 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 February 18, 1988: 6.6%, bit of a jump for the rating as at 3.6% episode fourteen was the lowest.... 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. **** In episode thirteen we learned that Ishizu had once been a general in the Japanese Defense Forces but became a bit too crazed, he left to form Ishizu Industries and then was recruited by R Agency. The third screenshot is of the man Eigo Ryuzaki who we finally met in this episode. He's the only person above Ishizu at R Agency  but is also the Deputy Minister of Defense so has been able to acquire so many secrets for his diabolical plans. 

 

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!

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

Episode five .... Episode six .... Episode seven .... Episode eight

Episode nine .... Episode ten .... Episode eleven .... Episode twelve

Episode thirteen .... Episode fourteen

 

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 a dozen episodes later, good thing this series is at it's end as I've run out of videos! For the first ten episodes the rock/pop band A-JARI did the theme song, starting in episode eleven it changed. For the final five shows Izumi sang the theme song which is titled "I can't be honest" there was no regular video for it but the below one is of Izumi singing it live at Sunshine City Alp in March 1988. 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.

   

 

 WOW, how about that first photo above which is from Izumi's first photobook "Kiss of Fire" that came out in early 1988, her second book came out a year later. The bottom two pics are from the book and three others are covers for a few of her singles. How I wish Izumi was born 25 years later as it's close to impossible to get many things such as mag spreads and books from the late 1980's and early nineties So doubt if I will be able to do a regular post for her but will view and recap a few of her other things in the future, I'm truly not exaggerating saying she mag be the most attractive woman I've ever seen in a drama or perhaps anywhere, I am a loss for words at times trying to describe her and she's now been retired for almost 24 years!!!!

 Sure you know this post wraps up this series, went into blindly and perhaps should do that more often! Also finished the trio of recaps a day earlier than planned but does it matter for this aired almost 37 years ago! For I really enjoyed this series and as I've mused before why were the ratings so low and because of that it meant five fewer episodes. This show had action, plot twists, catchy J-Pop tunes, some known older known actors, all in all it was such a fun, enjoyable and interesting series. It wasn't quite a Sukeban show but was close, as a matter of fact for now my next watch will be the first "Sukeban Deka" series from 1985. So if you like shows with those adjectives I listed then this series is one I highly recommend, you can get the subbed show at Big Nova Subs or Aviatz if you're a member. My final rating for this series will be an 8.9/10 which to me is more than respectable and it's hard to go much higher with dramas such as this one. Really no major negatives, at times an extra two minutes in an episode may have helped plus the fighting scenes in the early shows were just so-so but those aren't major beefs and of course by far the best part of this and perhaps any drama was Izumi Igarashi!!!!

 Those screenshots right above are from this final episode, the first two told us how the previous show ended. Have always noticed that the final episodes for dramas are usually very good but aren't the best show of the series, that trend continued here and two more minutes were needed. That screenshot above was how the serries ended and once again have to say can anyone top that smile?!!!! The last episode ended off with Izumi along with the detective Fujiwara traveling to the Japanese Ministry of Defense offices to prevent the R Agency from taking control of the nation's computer system. There was one man named Kono who could have stopped R Agency as he designed the system but the evil organization eliminated him early in the last episode. Izumi and Fujiwara arrived just a bit too late as Ishizu in the second screenshot above said the computers are now under the control of R Agency, it'll just be a matter of time until they've taken control of the entire defense forces.

 After that the plan is to topple the Japanese government, then it's world domination and can anyone save the world? Of course all look towards Izumi to be the savior but the R Agency or should I say Ishizu has created three new Biofeedback Warriors, they are are so powerful and why Izumi may win in a one on one duel she couldn't beat all three together in a battle. In the third screenshot Ishizu is on the left, he's second in command at R Agency with the main leader being Ryuzaki who is on the right side. He's a traitor to the Japanese nation as he was a deputy director at the Ministry of Defense, he stole all of their secrets and military/defense plans so it looks like he'll be unstoppable. But he is worried that Izumi still hasn't been terminated and Ryuzaki was wise thinking that but in the end run it didn't help him. Whew, that may have been my longest intro ever for a recap but least you know where we currently stand and won't have to discuss too much of what's taken place up until now, let's finally get to the final episode's action.

 Often there's a lighthearted beginning scene to these episodes, for instance the last recap was of the Harumi Academy girls playing a rival boys school in a Baseball game. No kind of opening like that for this show as the intensity level remained sky high until the end, of course the main mission for Izumi and her mates was to find the location of R Agency and to defeat them once and for all. It's best not to ask questions in these kinds of series such as why wasn't the Japanese government or armed forces notified? In early 1988 computers were still relatively new but some businesses and governments depended on them, one expert with them was the woman in the third and fourth screenshots above. She's the detective Fujiwara's assistant Moe who we only saw in four episodes but what a whiz she was with computers and did some things I didn't think were possible back then. The R Agency leader Ryuzaki has taken the Japanese defense computers to a secret location, he's also taken all of the hard drives and such with him to a different place. Moe said she could run many programs to figure out where Ryuzaki has hidden the computers.... some sort of early GSP chip...., it was an easy process but could take a long time(week!) as the speeds were much slower. A week would be too late as within a day or so the R Agency will begin their mission to take control of Japan, isn't there another way to find the computers? But only being a 23+ minute episode Moe soon struck pay dirt, she got some signals from the Arahama region and narrowed the location down to less than a square mile, Arahama is a part of Sendai city.

 Fujiwara told Izumi this was as far as he could go with his help though we knew it wouldn't be the last we saw of him. Izumi understood why Fujiwara couldn't head north with her to hunt for Ishizu and Ryuzaki but Fujiwara did tell his rookie trainee Todaji to drive them to the location. With their plan/mission of overthrowing the Defense Forces and then the Japanese government in full swing the R Agency are everywhere, they probably had moles at the Harumi PD. They knew Izumi, Keiko, Saori and Ken were being driven north to the Sendai area and intercepted the car Todaji was driving and sent it off the road. Quickly Izumi and her mates dashed away but were chased by a pair of motorcycle drivers to a warehouse, Izumi still wouldn't activate her Biofeedback powers but after seeing Keiko and Ken get hurt badly went into full fighting mode and took out the pair of riders. At least Izumi was very close to where she needed to go and it's the second time she's come to the R Agency compound. She did early in the series and all we knew at the time is that it was located on a peninsula well north of Tokyo, now we know it's not far from Sendai. Did say that we would see Fujiwara again, he had trailed the police car and after Izumi won her battle against the two cycle riders he gave her a lift to a nearby pier. For the only way to reach the peninsula is by boat, Izumi stole one and to Fujiwara's dismay headed off on her own as Izumi has realized it's only her that can save Japan!!!!

 Izumi did steal a bazooka from one of those motorcycle riders but was just thinking if R Agency knows Izumi is so powerful why were only. two soldiers sent to eliminate her? She also had a knife and her Survival Saw for weapons, that saw is very sharp and has taken out many enemies up until now but would those be any match against the powerful R Agency weapons? The R Agency compound is made up of several buildings, some to house/train their abducted teens, a few for their soldiers to live in and then there's the main building where the Defense Forces computers have been hidden at. Before getting to the compound Izumi had met the three Biofeedback Warriors above and that trio is so strong, while Izumi could possibly win a one on one fight against them a battle against all at once would be too much for her as we saw in the last episode. Izumi tried to talk some sense into these Warriors as they were the same age as Izumi and had no idea what they were doing but the talk went nowhere as they were under a unique form of Mind Control which may have been another Ishizu creation. With no alternatives Izumi finally went into her own Biofeedback mode, what a fierce struggle it was against this trio but in the end Izumi came out on top.

 All of this action is right above, shortly after Izumi reached the R Agency compound and why weren't there massive armies protecting the place? Izumi found the building where the Defense Forces computers were being stored, the mission to control the Armed Forces had begun but don't think at this point it had gone too far and there was a chance of no major damage being done if Izumi could disable the computers but don't think she knew that. Back in the twelfth episode made a prediction that this series would end off with Izumi battling the man who kidnapped her at the age of fifteen and had trained her to be the Ultimate Weapon of the R Agency. That man is Ishizu and and their duel took place in the thirteenth episode so was only partially correct. But now I'm 100% on the money with the prediction as waiting for Izumi in the main control room of R Agency was Ishizu, that's him above and below in sunglasses. He soon was gloating to Izumi about how she was too late to stop the overthrow of the Japanese Defense Forces and then the entire government but he didn't get the final laugh. I personally don't know much about how 1988 computers operated but fairly sure they weren't too fast and didn't have nearly as many powers as the ones we use today. Even though Ishizu had begun the process of taking over the Defense Forces computers it could take a very long time and wonder if Izumi knew any of these details which may have helped her(?) but in the end the Ultimate Weapon never needed any help from anyone!

 Down to the final segment of this very enjoyable series, there were about 6-7 minutes to go and a lot was crammed into that small amount of time. What took place is right above and the first four screenshots below. During this final major scene Izumi didn't utter too many words, a few times she said "I will kill you Ishizu" but that was about it as this deranged genius did most of the talking. What I noticed towards the end of this scene which shocked me and Izumi also is that Ishizu appeared to be blind, check out the second to last screenshot above. That blindness would have been the result of when Ishizu was thrown into a fire by Izumi in the thirteenth episode and how has he been able to function so well? Ishizu did blabber on as most crazed men seeking world domination do, he did give a very bit of important info to Izumi which was that the main leader of R Agency Ryuzaki was on his way to Tokyo at that exact moment, he had all of the records, instructions, etc. that are needed to operate the Japanese government computers which he will begin to use once R Agency has taken control of the Defense Forces, hope that didn't sound confusing. Right around then Izumi and us viewers were getting the impression that Ishizu had begun to dislike his leader Ryzaki and deep down wanted to see Izumi take the man out! Which ended up being true for Ryuzaki's motives had become different from Ishizu's such as being too greedy, before he died Ishizu told Izumi to take out Ryuzaki!!!! But first she would need to escape from the R Agency compound and it should be done easy against a blind Ishizu. Not so for the cane Ishizu used was also a gun(!) and he did nick Izumi in the leg even though he couldn't see. Knowing time was short Izumi went back into Biofeedback mode and pummeled Ishizu, he was thrown into a fire and this time did perish!

 The fire had been from a time bomb Ishizu had set to destroy the R Agency compound, that did happen as you can see in the above screenshot. Somehow Izumi made it back to the Tokyo area in no time, wonder if Fujiwara had driven her there? She located the car that was transporting the R Agency leader Ryuzaki, Izumi still had that bazooka and wasted no time in using it on this very evil man, thus the end of R Agency. All of the records on how to use the Japanese government computers were also destroyed and would they have done Ryuzaki any good for the plan to control the Defense Forces computers had gone up in smoke. At the very end Fujiwara drove Izumi back to reunite with her friends, that happened while the credits were running so nothing was heard and this wraps up my return to the world of Japanese dramas! Have said a few times I lucked out with viewing such a fun and slightly unique show, will once again ask why wasn't it more popular? Thanks if you've been reading these recaps, they were longer than planned which is often a good sign that so much happened in a drama. For now my plan is to view and recap the 1985 series "Sukeban Deka 1", the first recaps would be in about a week.