"Sukeban Deka" season one drama, recap twelve 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 15.0% which was slightly lower than the previous episode and this aired on July 18, 1985.

 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 though we haven't seen him in a physical fight through eight episodes 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 one 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.

  

 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 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

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

Episode nine .... Episode ten

 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. For today have another Yuki tune which is titled "May" from 1986 and was the theme song to the "Women in Love" movie. 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?

 

 

 The ratings have been steadily rising and that could be because the episodes and stories have become a bit better, to me they're more 'meatier'. This latest mission for Saki was the first time it consisted of two episodes and that was a plus to me as none of the scenes needed to be rushed. It also helps me as I don't need to explain all that much for sure you've read the above recap which had a thrilling ending. Saki had been shot in the left shoulder by a girl named Ayumi Mizuchi who doesn't attend the same high school as Saki which is Takanoha Academy. Ayumi's father is filthy rich and she began some mysterious organization to 'reform' high schools in Japan that emphasized or more accurately discouraged discipline but her groups didn't mind meting that out. The student council president at Takanoha Academy Ritsuko Mitsuhi is currently in a coma after being beaten by one of Ayumi's cronies who was Tagawa, the two other cohorts at the high school are Yokoyama and Miyahara. 

 Ritsuko had stood up to the girls trying to thwart their efforts from taking over the council and creating new rules at the school so she was silenced. As was the PE teacher Nuba who was falsely arrested for the attack on Ritsuko, the third person standing in the way of Ayumi and her group taking over Takanoha Academy was Saki. Who now appears to be out of action after being shot and falling from a cliff into a rapidly moving river, second screenshot above. But the first shows Saki's best friend Sanpei finally finding her in the river, without him she was a goner! Ayumi and her devious group weren't aware that Sanpei had witnessed the shooting and presumed Saki was lying at the bottom of the river dead!!!! Of course that's not the case, now you're all caught up with where the story stands so let's get to this episode's action and that was a bit of a long intro.

 I have liked the character of Sanpei who truly adores Saki and would love to have her as a girlfriend but doubt if it will ever happen. When episodes are just 23 1/2 minutes in length it's hard for everyone to get a lot of screentime which has happened to Sanpei but he was Saki's savior in this show along with one other man. To date Sanpei had no clue that Saki was an undercover detective(Deka) for the mysterious Dark Agency government organization but has been very leery of their top agent Jin and did try to find out more about the man four shows ago but to no avail. After Sanpei fished Saki out of the water he brought her to an empty cabin, she was shot was at a quarry seemingly outside of Tokyo. Sanpei would give his life for Saki but had no idea how to remove the bullet, for now he dashed into the nearby town for food and a doctor but returned without one. However upon his return Sanpei noticed a man tending to Saki who was her Dark Agency 'handler' Jin, Sanpei remained hidden outside. Jin wasn't there long but removed her bullet and with a bit of rest Saki will be 100% but by then will it be too late to save Takanoha Academy from Ayumi's group?! The  high school is currently in such an uproar and is there nothing anyone can do to save the students and staff from this outside group?

 In the bottom screenshot above is the Takanoha Academy's principal Miyagawa and he was being pressured by the staff to get rid of the three new transfer students and to stand up to Ayumi!!!! However Miyagawa flatly refused to do anything as Ayumi's father owns the sixth largest financial institution in Japan and is also among the country's richest men. So telling Ayumi to leave would be signing all of the staff's death warrants so for now not one person is standing up to Ayumi or her three cronies Yokoyama, Tagaawa and Miyahara. In the middle screenshot above Ayumi was visiting Takanoha Academy and she's the president of the Kanto Region's United Student Council. She was so pleased that the school had adopted all of her rule changes and the school will now be admitted into that regional council. So many students at Takanoha Academy were gung-ho with the rules clamping down on fighting, bullying, smoking, following dress codes, etc. and it seemed before long those teens were transforming into Storm Troopers to keep the peace!!!! Not all(most?) students were pleased with these rules but anyone who defied Ayumi and her gang were punished violently such as Miyako and her group of girls in the second to last screenshot who were left for dead in the last episode! For the most part I really didn't understand 100% of what Ayumi was trying to accomplish, was her main goal just to take over local high schools and become their leader? If so why didn't the Dark Agency use more force on Ayumi and her gang(?), at this point you have to remember all at the school thought Saki was dead but she's slowly healing and is about to teach these girls a few lessons.... but for the first time she will need some help!!!!

 As you can see in many of the above screenshots there was quite a bit of action in this episode and perhaps more than any other show which I hope continues. While Saki recovered from her gunshot wound and fall from a cliff her dependable friend Sanpei has been staying with her in that deserted cabin in the woods. Which meant neither has been attending school at Takanoha Academy and above Sanpei had got in touch with his friend Taro to hear about what has been going on at school. None of the news was positive and according to Taro the place has become a semi concentration camp and no one, including parents, had any ways to regain control of the school? We viewers didn't see too much of what was taking place at the school but some students relished the idea of punishing their peers for not following the strict rules and was a bit surprised there were no reported killings! Sanpei didn't take enough precautions to keep this meeting a secret as he had been noticed chatting with Taro in a cafe by Aymui's trusted cohort Miyahara who reported that sighting to her mates Yokoyama and Tagawa. Another huge mistake Sanpei had made was revealing to Taro the location of where he was hiding out with Saki and what happened because of those loose lips is above. Taro had been caught and beaten by the three girls and their bike riding friends above until Saki's hidden location was revealed, then Taro was tied to the end of a bike and dragged all the way to that hidden cabin! Another surprise was that those riders didn't stick around to finish off Sanpei and Saki, at the time I had a strong feeling that Ayumi wanted to finish the job she began on Saki!

 Attached to Taro was a note for Saki from Ayumi, it was for the pair to meet at the hospital where the student council president Ritsuko is lying at and she's still in a coma. Above Ayumi did trick her way into Ritsuko's room and will be waiting there for Saki's appearance which better be soon for shortly Ayumi was to pull the tube supplying Ritsuko with oxygen! Ayumi was not going to make things easy for Saki as on the route from the cabin to the hospital were the trio of Yokoyama, Tagawa and Miyahara, their orders were not to let Saki pass!!!! That's right above and though it had been a few days since that gunshot Saki still wasn't fully recovered, she had been practicing using her powerful Yo-Yo before this matchup and you could see she was a bit rusty. Plus at this confrontation Saki still had a sling on her left arm, when the battle began she tore it off and though injured Saki's adrenaline seemed to give her super powers! For her aim using that Yo-Yo had returned plus so didn't her strength, above you can see she bested the trio of lowlife girls who went tumbling down into a quarry pit! However the battle was just beginning for you can see that five motorcyclists were soon there and once again Saki was no match for them as she was mainly just rolling away from being hit and couldn't go on the offense. This was one of two scenes where Saki wondered if she had finally met her match and perhaps she did! But for the first time in the series making an appearance in a fight was Saki's Dark Agency handler Jin, had heard he was a master at martial arts and he did prove how skilled he was. This was the second time in this episode that Jin was there to save Saki, the first was when he removed that bullet and does Jin secretly follow her around on cases? I don't think so but this mission was Saki's hardest to date so sure Jin was there to provide backup if needed.

 Final segment to the best story to date, what took place in these last seven minutes is right above and the first five screenshots below. In the first one above you can see Jin there to save Saki's hide and he did prove to be quite the martial arts ace as Jin seemed to take care of those five violent motorcyclists in less than thirty seconds! As mentioned often when episodes are just 23 1/2 minutes in length not a lot of time can be spent on one scene and do hope Jin comes to the aid of Saki a few more times as he is such a coolish character. With no obstacles it was clear sailing to the hospital for that showdown with her top nemesis to date, Ayumi Mizuchi. Saki made it just in time as Ayumi had withdrawn the oxygen tube from Ritsuko's mouth and she used her trusty Yo-Yo to turn that machine back on! So the student council president is now saved, the trio of Yokoyama, Tagawa and Miyahara were defeated by Saki and Jin took care of those motorcyclists. So it's down to Saki versus Ayumi, a win for Saki will also save her Takanoha Academy high school! In the blink of an eye the location switched to a forest and Ayumi is one very tough fighter, as Saki says in the second to last screenshot it's her toughest opponent to date! While Saki's fighting skills are top notch plus is an expert with that enhanced Yo-Yo Ayumi is also skilled with a few weapons but didn't have a rifle for this battle. Instead she used a whip in this final duel and for a while Saki was defenseless as Ayumi could lash with that whip faster than the speed of sound!

 But remembering how Ayumi had almost killed Ritsuko, Miyako and some other students seemed to unleash a power Saki never thought she had! That Yo-Yo had to be going over a hundred miles an hour, Ayumi took many vicious hits and soon crumbled to the ground, so didn't Saki and would either rise to be declared the victor? Watching from behind some trees had been Saki's good friend Sanpei who rushed over to Saki when she fell to the ground but after a few seconds was much better. To the shock of the pair when they turned around the body of Ayumi was gone and of course they wondered what happened to her? Very eerily the voice of Ayumi echoed throughout the forest and said the life of Saki will be spared.... for now!!!! Wow, so does that mean a return of this diabolical character of Ayumi and think that's the case for when the episode ended the narrator said Saki's life will be in constant danger! But at the end the Takanoha Academy high school had returned to normal and because he witnessed that duel Sanpei did learn that Saki was a detective so how will that play out in future shows? That ends this recap and thanks for reading it, this was the best story to date as I've said a few times. Should have finished this a few days ago but at times it can take me so long to get motivated to begin a recap. But when I do start writing it is enjoyable and it's like watching an episode again so don't know why it takes me so long to begin these, hopefully the next pair will be within five days.