"Sukeban Deka" season one drama, recap six of 24 episodes

 

Air Dates: April 11 to October 31, 1985 Thursdays at 7:30 pm on Fuji-TV

Based upon the manga by Shinji Wada, there were some differences between the manga and this series such as two new characters but for the most part what took place in the manga was followed... Subs by Mashhamid though a few others have also subbed this series

Ratings: Average for all 24 episodes was 13.04%, the high was 17.0% while 9.6% was the lowest and that happened twice. This episode's rating was 11.7% which was a huge increase from the previous episode and this aired on May 30, 1985.... there was no episode on the 23rd.

 For my first two 'comeback dramas' after taking a four month break picked a pair of ancient ones, good timing for this series as it aired exactly forty years ago! No solid reasons for picking these but thought the pair, the other was "Shoujou Commando Izumi", would be easier to recap as they're both 25 minute shows and though I do enjoy 45+ minute episodes they can take a while to write up. Sure many of you readers may have a basic knowledge of these DEKA series which were very popular back in the 1980's as there two more seasons after this plus some movies. But there were also many films in this genre that were released from about 1970-74 though they weren't nearly as innocent as this show or movies but do recommend those 1970's films which are among my favorites.

 May do a bit of editing to these first few paragraphs though then again may delete them and throw in some other thoughts or info, we'll see how things work out. Did say I was hoping for a pair of easier dramas for my return to recapping but neither one will be as easy as expected. This one especially and have a strong feeling the Bio section will be needing a lot of editing as we go along plus I bet there are going to be many characters who come and go. Will admit I was really confused about many things after viewing the first show which was only so-so until the end and wondered did I make the right decision as this is a long series with 24 episodes. However the second show was so much better and didn't begin writing this up until viewing that one, that does happen often where the first show is working out the kinks. For the previous series did five batches of three recaps as it was a fifteen episode show which worked out well. So was going to continue that with this series and have eight batches of three recaps but now I'm not sure what to do, am leaning on going back to having two at a time and will decide that at the end of the next recap which is the post below this one.

 The heroine in this series was Yuki Saito who was eighteen when the show began in April 1985, she turned nineteen while it was airing. Wouldn't call Yuki a superstar but she's an actress most drama fans should know of as she's been so busy over the last forty years appearing in too many dramas, movies and stage plays to count! Yuki is also a singer who has about ten albums and 25 singles along with doing many other theme songs to dramas, she does the ending song to this show. Yuki is now 58 in age and she was an attractive woman back in her twenties and thirties, not saying she looks bad now but as mentioned is getting up there in age. Enough of an intro as there's always another mini section after the main character bios which are below and will be editing them quite often.

 Most of the action will be taking place at the Takanoha Academy high school but in episode one the setting was St. Annes school which did slightly confuse me. Episode two is when Saki enrolls at Takanoha Academy and we didn't meet most major characters until then or at least the main students. Most of these photos at the top are of Saki holding a Yo-Yo, it's no ordinary one! When it flips open it shows the Police Crest as Saki is an undercover detective and what power it has. The Yo-Yo can smash through steel and if a person gets hit with it they're down for the count, the steel string is very long and can also double as a pair of handcuffs.

 Yuki Saito as Saki Asamiya.... There is so much to say about Saki and not enough space! Saki's mother Natsu is currently on death row for killing her husband Toshiya, that happened when Saki was six in age which was eleven years ago. For the next nine years don't know yet what became of Saki but by the age of twelve she was a delinquent. She did enter high school but was expelled from Takanoha Academy at the age of fifteen and sent to Kanto Kita Juvenile Center but there was something about Saki or perhaps her circumstances which attracted the attention of the two men below this bio, Jin and Shirei. They're the top two executives of the very secret government department Dark Agency, they've recruited Saki to become an undercover detective as being a teen will allow to work much more efficiently at high schools. Of course Saki refused at first but the offer included an apartment, clothes and such plus a huge kicker. Which is that if Saki successfully completed a mission her mother Natsu's death penalty would be voided though would have to finish a prison sentence. To that offer Saki agreed but the Dark Agency did renege on their end of the deal and came up with an excuse for Saki to do another mission which she reluctantly said yes to so think that scenario of Dark Agency using Saki will continue on. Know more changes will be done to Saki's bio but that covers what we learned in the first two episodes. Saki's mother Natsu is in the bottom screenshot, don't think we'll be seeing her too often.

 

Koji Naka as Kyoichiro Jin.... The top agent for Dark Agency and is Saki's 'handler'. Jin was a cool looking man and was very respected by his superior Shirei. Jin is very skilled at martial arts and drives a yellow Porsche 911.

 Hiroyuki Nagato as Kurayami Shirei.... Leader of Dark Agency and the person who recruited  Saki to be an undercover detective at high schools. To me it appears Shirei is the one toying with Saki and saying he'll void her mother's death sentence to keep her doing missions, think Jin does have a soft spot for Saki and doesn't like seeing her used. Shirei had been a judge at one time and was one of the six on the panel for Natsu's murder trial! Perhaps that's why he chose Saki to be a secret detective as he had been keeping tabs on her for about a decade and felt she was finally ready for action! Don't know if it will continue on for the whole series but when Shirei appears in screen we never see him clearly, he is an older man and maybe keeping his face obscured adds to the mystery.

 The remaining characters are all from Takanoha Academy which is a high school, in Tokyo? No characters appeared in the first episode so these bios will definitely need to be edited for future posts, the top characters are the students. Don't think any teachers will be key to the stories but will add a pair in plus the principal. Saki had attended this school when she was fifteen in age but had been expelled in her first year and sent to a detention center, she's now returned to the fury of many who remember her!

Chiaki Watanabe as Miyako Yumekoji.... She too is a delinquent girl but unlike Saki was never sent away to a detention center and is very intelligent though her ego is a bit too large. When Saki had been expelled Miyako took 'control' of the school or in other words has become the leader of the school's undesirables. Who are females and you never see girls have male underlings in these shows or films, of course those henchmen(women?) are Yes People who bully others. None of that group of Miyako's followers will have large roles but we will be seeing them often enough, the names of the main four girls are Tomiko, Hanako, Masayo and Tamami. That's them in the first screenshot below, Miyako is on the left and in the center of the second screenshot. Miyako is a very attractive teen and for now hates Saki with such a passion so a theme for the first half of the series will be of her trying to take Saki down. Of course Miyako doesn't know Saki is an undercover detective and had felt she returned to Takanoha Academy to take control of the female gangs which was not the case.

 Yasuyoshi Masuda as Sanpei Nowaki.... That's an odd name and don't recall ever seeing either of those before. Senpai wasn't at Takanoha Academy when Saki was enrolled there two years ago, when he first saw Saki in present times it was love at first sight for Senpai!!!! Who had no idea of Saki's past but was so enamored with her ultra coolness plus she was attractive. Unsure(doubt) if Saki will ever return Senpai's feelings of love but think he will become a trusted ally. By the third episode Sanpei has become friends with Saki, not best friends yet but he is her only one.

 Jo Onode as Taro.... Haven't seen him to date so have no screenshot for the character but included him for now as this role is supposed to be important. Same goes for Mai Tachihara who plays Kazuko Hasegawa, she too we didn't see in the first three shows. 

 

 Genji Kawai as Miyagawa.... Principal of Takanoha Academy and he probably won't be an important character but should be in most episodes, he's the older man sitting at the desk.

 Hiraizumi Sei as Numa Juzo.... PE teacher at the academy and also the home room teacher of Saki's. Juzo was strongly opposed to Saki being able to reenroll at the school but like all didn't know she was an undercover detective. He also works in  the guidance department and can be extremely strict though usually is fair to all except not at first towards Saki.

Previous recaps

 There is one woman English teacher who may be added in to the above but that should be it for the cast or least for now. There will be some new storylines and characters added into the series as we go along so off course will add in any major characters and keep editing to the existing characters also.  Have said om other dramas how in a way it could be easier to wait until the entire series has been finished or pick a certain show to wait until, say the midway point. Then you could go into one post and click on the links for each episode as doing it that way makes it so much easier to read plus this is the only was you can read them in order quickly as searching could take a while.

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

 You do see those characters at the end of most of these kinds of dramas, ones where the story is ongoing. Those Hiragana characters spell out Tsudzuku which means To be continued, of course it means the story and that car is Jin's yellow Porsche 911. For each recap will have a video for this series and hopefully there can be a new one for each post and there aren't as many as I thought. So it is getting tougher so may have to leave a video up for two recaps or perhaps have some of Yuki's J-Pop songs. She is featured in the below video which is a good one, have said what a powerful Yo-Yo Saki has and you can see her taking out many thugs in the video. Below the video will be a screenshot of what the episode's title was, those you saw in the previous drama I reviewed and was having titles much more common in the 80's?

  

 

 

 Not every story is an award winner but most are original and usually interesting which can't always be easy to do. Especially for Japanese dramas as very few last for many seasons unlike American shows so new series and stories always need to be created. Can't say this show's story was brand new as it dealt with a J-Pop Idol, but one who may have been an arsonist! I could be wrong but have always thought J-Pop in the 1980's may have been more popular than it is these days. To me I like the Idols more as so many were solo artists and even groups seldom had even five members. In the bottom screenshot right above could be Saki's only friend at Takanoha Academy who is Sanpei Nowa and he's someone I'm hoping will start getting more screentime as we only see him for two minutes a show, he is so infatuated with Saki. When the last recap ended the pair were going to a rock show, above Sanpei has tickets to another upcoming show. Did look that name up and it was a fictional band but there is a song title that's very similar. The actress who will be playing the role of the Idol Yukari is Sawako Kitahara who is one of the few guest stars who had a long career. At the time this was filmed she was 21 in age, she's now 61(!) and Sawako was a busy actress up until about ten years ago plus back in the 1980's was part of a J-Pop group and also had some solo music. Let's finally get to what took place and though have talked about an Idol being the main focus there wasn't too much music.

 Who we haven't seen much of to date save for the second episode is the character of Miyako Yumekoji and her four cronies. That's Miyako in the top screenshot above, she and her mates were in two shortish scenes and thought her role would be more important but it hasn't so far though we're only at the 25% mark of this series. It's very helpful to read the above bio section and/or the previous recaps to know what's going on, do talk about some things but there's not enough time for a lot of detail. After Saki had been expelled from Takanoha Academy two years ago Miyako took her place in controlling the girl gangs at the high school. Miyako was positive that Saki returned to regain control of the gang(s) but of course that's not the case as Saki is an undercover detective for the mysterious Dark Agency. I was under the impression the two would become bitter rivals and have some clashes but to date that hasn't happened and hope it does. Miyako has four cronies named Tomoko, Hanako, Masayo and Tamami who are in the second screenshot, all appear to be useless YES people who agree with Miyako every time she brags about being the most beautiful female in Japan and she's not even close!!!! Those first three screenshots are of Miyako and her mates talking about the J-Pop Idol Yukari Izumi, Saki also brought her name up to her potential boyfriend Sanpei who says he has no interest in Idols but I wonder(?). While they were talking appearing about a block away was Jin in his yellow Porsche 911, Saki went over to meet with him and Sanpei has been growing very suspicious of this man who seems to have such control over Saki.

 Of course Jin has control over Saki as he's her Dark Agency 'handler', think he's also their top spy and could even be second in command. Who we don't see often in person is the Dark Agency director Shirei who usually contacts Saki via the phone, a cassette or for the second consecutive episode a VHS tape. The subject was the Idol who so many are swooning over these days, Yukari Izumi and according to Shirei Yukari may be involved in a string of arsons. In the past few weeks there have been three fires set right after one of Yukari's performances and the locations of those fires were near those concert sites. Shirei and Jin had also learned Yukari may have had some previous arson incidents and it's Saki's mission to find out what is going on. Which did rattle Saki up a bit as she's finally been able to behave like a regular high school teen and when are these missions going to end? We know not by the end of this series(!) and reluctantly Saki agreed to the mission but least it was a different kind of case. The Dark Agency can pull so many strings and falsify much info, Jin was able to get Saki a position as Yukari's personal assistant! It appears Yukari has had many of them as she treats most people like dirt and at first I thought Saki was going to hate helping this young Diva out but our first impressions of Yukari were way off base. Her father Daizo Izumi is extremely wealthy and he owns a large production company named Universal Electronics so he's been a help to Yukari's career. In third to last screenshot above is her manager Hayashita, you can see in the bottom screenshot how it appears Yukari loves fire!

 That's the manager Hayashita in the top screenshot above talking with Saki, he was asking her to have a bit more patience with Yukari and try to stick it out with her. Shortly after that Saki did meet up with Jin but it was only for twenty seconds to relay him her case status, it took place on the street and noticing was Sanpei. Who finally had enough of this mysterious man coming between him and Saki so when Jin zoomed off in his Porsche 911 Sanpei trailed him via a taxi. Sanpei thought he was playing James Bond as he followed Jin into an office building and then to a room whose door was ajar. Sanpei was thinking now is when he will finally learn who this mysterious man is but there's no fooling a top spy such as Jin. For he knew Sanpei was trailing him and it was a trap to give Sanpei a warning.... Back off or else! So have to presume that's what Sanpei will do but think he may become an ally of Saki's later on in the series. Her mission finding out if Yukari is involved in these recent arsons is about to become more fiery as instead of taking a nap in her dressing room Yukari slipped out a back window, to possibly set another fire? Her manager Hayashita was beside himself with worry and pleaded for Saki to hunt for her which she agreed to do. What took place is right above and to Saki's amazement Yukari was meeting up with a boy her own age which would be about seventeen! Saki nor anyone else had any idea Yukari had a boyfriend whose name was Makoto Nakane and the pair met two years ago. The encounter was very short and after Yukari told Saki everything that has taken place in her life the last two years, she's aware of the recent arsons but she herself has never set a fire but once almost did.

 Which happened two years ago and after igniting her lighter appearing out of the shadows was Makoto who asked Yukari not to do something as crazy as setting a fire. Makoto is a very decent young man and the two fell for each other instantly, at the time Yukari wasn't a popular Idol. Of course having a boyfriend is taboo for J-Poppers so she and Makoto had kept their romance a secret and this talk with Saki really helped out Yukari as she never had a real friend to talk with for advice. That scene helped us viewers also as we saw that Yukari wasn't some stuck up Diva and was a nice young woman whose problems were mainly because of her wealthy father, that man Daizo is in the bottom screenshot above. So by now Saki and us viewers realized Yukari was not an arsonist nor was involved in any of the recent fires but a fourth happened that night while Yukari and Saki were talking after that encounter with Makoto. The newspapers had heard rumors of Yukari being involved and that was front page news, Saki knew her new friend was being framed and who would want to destroy Yukari's career? That will be explained in the final segment and it's not Yukari who these creeps want to hurt badly. During a conversation with her father Daizo he did say be would settle the matter with money which did infuriate Yukari and she was so tired of being pampered as you can see below.

 Final segment, the action in these final 6-7 minutes is in the above batch of screenshots and the first five below. This series has had a lot of action but not as much as I was expecting, most of the fighting takes place in the final scene. Once again there was a nice twist to the story and we had no clue about the things that led up to the finale. So the bottom line is Yukari is being framed for being an arsonist though as mentioned she isn't the target of these lowlifes. While the plan didn't work out for the scammers it easily could have if it wasn't for the intervention by Saki, what got the ball rolling in these last few minutes is that Yukari's boyfriend Makoto was kidnapped to use as bait! He made a call to Yukari and asked for her to meet him at the Lislel Hotel, Makoto had been beaten and it would have been worse if he didn't make the call. Yukari dashed there and while on an elevator going to Makoto's room she was trapped and taken away by two thugs who brought her to Makato. He was tied up and was two floors below the top of the hotel, this is all above. What absolutely stunned Yukari to no end was that entering this hiding place was her manager Hayashita and he may was one of the masterminds behind this scheme! Soon entering the cramped space was a man named Nishiura and the plan is for him to become the new president of Yukari's father's company Universal Electronics. It's been Hayashita who ordered the fires and spread the rumor of Yukari being the arsonist so wonder if this plan had been in the works for a while? 

 Nishiura had started the company with Daizo Izumi but Daizo had worked harder plus had invested more money than Nishiura. Daizo was not a friendly man who often abused his VP Nishiura and the plan was to embarrass Daizo so badly with his daughter being an arsonist he would retire thus making Nishiura the new president, Hayashita would be lead the production department. So you may have been wondering why Saki's name hadn't been mentioned too often but it will soon. Yukari had told Saki a bit about Nishiura and his situation so to Saki that made this man a prime suspect in arranging these four recent arsons. She tailed Nishiura to the Lislel Hotel and watched him meet Yukari's manager Hayashita in their restaurant. So she followed the men up to the place where Yukari and Makoto were being held, Saki heard everything but didn't jump into action quite yet. Yukari and Makoto were dragged to the roof and the plan was for them to be thrown off, it would be made to look like a double suicide because of their relationship. Now is when Saki went into Sukeban Deka mode, she took out her trusty Yo-Yo and within twenty seconds had defeated Hayashita, Nishiura and their trio of thugs. These fight scenes at the end are rather short and sure there's a reason for that but wish they were a bit longer though least they're exciting. Watching Saki use that Yo-Yo is worth the price of admission and do have a video at the top of her using that prized possession. In the final few seconds Saki did return to Takanoha Academy and it looks like she'll be going to another concert with Sanpei. That wraps this recap up and the drama has settled into one terrific series, about every four days will have a pair of recaps.