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 January 28, 1988: 7.1% and this was an increase from the 6.0 the last episode received.... 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.
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!
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 almost at it's end as I'm running 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 has the audio and a few scenes from the show. 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.
As you probably figured out this is the final trio of recaps for this series, when it aired back in late 1987/early '88 it wasn't a popular drama but I've enjoyed it quite a bit and seems it's much more liked 37 years after it's run. The title of this episode was "Final Battle" and Izumi did utter those words at the end. However there are two more episodes after this so of course we will see Izumi in a few battles, there is a mini preview at the end of these episodes and the next show certainly look action packed.
Took a few days off from viewing this series, wanted to complete it by April 4th but it's already the 2nd so odds are high I won't make it and this series being 37 years old what's a few more days?! For you drama fans will let you know in this show's final recap what is on deck as far as recapping goes. Fairly sure first up will be the 1985 series "Sukeban Deka 1" and this series was a slight takeoff from that genre. Will also be viewing/recapping the "No. 1 Sentai Gozyuger" show, that's an ongoing series and six episodes have aired so may recap two shows at once but still have a week to mull that over. In the last recap made a prediction that Izumi would square off against the R Agency exec. Rinichiro Ishizu in the final episode and to an extent was right. For that battle pitting Izumi against Ishizu took place in this episode, of course you can figure out who came out on top but it's not the end of the R Agency nor of the warriors they'll send to battle Izumi. Haven't watched the next show yet and won't until this recap is complete, let's get to the action and there was a lot of it.
The HQ is right below, it's not the official base of R Agency but is the main office for Ishizu Industries which at one time was a legit company but no longer. With no time to spare Izumi zoomed to the area that was just off the Kurihara Highway, that's a real route which leads to Kurihara city in the prefect of Miyagi. The huge compound was buried deep in the woods and it took a while before Izumi could find it and there were a few other complications. Such as many R Agency soldiers in Izumi's way, Ishizu felt that Izumi can never be trusted to work for him again so his order was to terminate her!!!! Biofeedback is the name of the program and powers Izumi gained through the R Agency training, when she goes into Biofeedback mode her strength and stamina increase greatly. But Izumi doesn't like to use those powers unless it's a dire situation, she didn't here and it almost cost Izumi her life for while she held her own against a few soldiers there were too many and Izumi began to get pummeled. But her savior appeared who was detective Fujiwara, he too jumped into the battle but wasn't much of a match against much younger and trained soldiers. But Fujiwara did take a few R Agency soldiers out plus it allowed Izumi to regain her composure, when she sees a friend getting hurt it spurs her to action. Quickly Izumi took out a few soldiers, many soon saw they were no match for her so fled and back at the HQ of Ishizu something vital was noticed. Which was that Izumi didn't go into Biofeedback mode when beating the soldiers and Ishizu is very confused about how Izumi operates.
From his HQ Ishizu was able to watch Izumi get even closer to his base even though there's an all out war against her, Ishizu even said heavy weapons were permitted to terminate Izumi! What baffled Ishizu to no end was that Izumi still wasn't using her Biofeedback powers, it's true she had a lot of training at the R Agency compound but it still made Ishizu wonder how she could defeat his best troops? Soon even those elite soldiers began to realize they had no chance against a smallish 18 year old girl(!!!!) so they retreated, back at his HQ Ishizu said all who wanted to leave could. Up until now we had only seen a few seconds here and there of Izumi's best friend Keiko who had been tied to a bed with wires jammed into her head as the idea was to quickly make her a match for Izumi! So you can see above and right below what took place shortly after Izumi entered the R Agency/Ishizu Industries building, she was attacked by Keiko! Who was strong but had no training to be a fighter as she had just been held captive for about ten hours but she did put the fear into Izumi. Keiko did get in a few good punches and even began to strangle Izumi but the main reason that happened was because Izumi did not want to hurt her best friend so didn't fight nearly as hard as she could have. But there wasn't much reasoning with the brainwashed Keiko so Izumi finally did hurt her a bit but not too badly, just enough to put Keiko out of commission for a while.
Upon returning to his office Ishizu called his main director and only man above him at R Agency, Ryuzaki is his name and had to look that up for he won't be appearing until the final two shows. Ishizu told his superior that the Biofeedback program will be suspended as there's no way it could defeat Izumi, Ryuzaki was disappointed to hear that and Izumi has no clue what may be awaiting her. Keiko recovered quickly plus Saori is finally out of the hospital so life is back to being somewhat normal. Have never mentioned it until now as we only have seen it for 3-4 seconds in a show. Which is a watch Izumi used to carry in her pocket, the odd thing was that the watch ran backwards! That was because of Izumi trying to recapture the time in her life lost because of being held captive by the R Agency, that watch was destroyed early in this episode. But Saori got Izumi a new watch which ran normally for she should only look to the future and on that note the episode ended. Not every episode until now has been an award winner but there's been no duds and would recommend this if you're into the Sukeban genre, next pair of posts are for the final two episodes.
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