"Sukeban Deka" season one drama, recap thirteen 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 17.0% which was the highest rated episode of the series and this aired on July 25, 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 .... Episode eleven .... Episode twelve

 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 Yuki's first ever single which is titled "Graduation" from February 1985, two months before this series began and it hit #5 on the charts. 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?

 

 Have done some editing to the main characters but not as much as I was expecting nor have any new ones been added in. But odds are high the first three characters below will be added to the above list beginning with the fifteenth episode, after I view that will decide. The first female Ayumi was introduced in the 11th episode, she comes from a very rich family and quickly became the enemy of Saki. Following her is Ayumi's slightly younger sister Kumi who we met in this episode and she may be a key character from here on out. She was an important piece of this two episode story which the topic was a piano competition, though a horrible person Kumi is quite a talented player. Third down is the oldest Mizuchi sister Reimi who we didn't meet until the end of the next episode. But did view the preview for episode fifteen and she too may become an important piece of this drama, actually the entire Mizuchi family will. Who is led by the fourth man down who is the father Gouzo and supposedly is the sixth richest man in Japan and what a crooked person he is! The bottom man is named Kawasaki, he's the new dean of music at the elite Eiko Arts Academy and was the instructor for both Kumi and her rival Junko, more about her further on down.

 Did just take another break from writing drama recaps up but it wasn't nearly as long as my previous one. Actually am writing this up at least a week before it's published, just in case I struggle again with penning these will have a few in the cache to publish. Don't know why it's become such a struggle beginning these recaps, once I begin writing the words flow out quite easily but why do I have such problems starting on these? I have such a backlog of dramas to recap and now know I will never be able to do posts for all of them. So had thought about stopping this series at its halfway point which would have been episode twelve. However this has been a decent show to date which has been getting better so will finish all 24 episodes. Since I began this series also picked up the next two seasons which total about seventy episodes so hope to have at least season two recapped by the end of the year. Yuki Saito as Saki wasn't in either of the next two series as she had become so popular and was off doing other things. To this day she remains quite busy and have seen her in numerous other dramas, did begin to notice how attractive she was in this episode though that had nothing to do with me deciding to watch and post about this show.

 Have never done what I did right above which was to give some details of the main guest stars but the group is slightly different as I may add in three or four of them to the character list. That will be decided after watching episodes fifteen and sixteen which I plan on doing before publishing this and today's other recap. Ayumi above is a return guest star who we first met in the eleventh episode and for the first time ever she was bested in a duel and naturally our heroine Saki Asamiya delivered the crushing blow!!!! Which meant Ayumi is now Saki's dreaded eternal enemy and she was also the toughest opponent to date for Saki. Do recommend reading the previous two recaps which explain much more about Ayumi who is a year older than Saki and comes from a very wealthy family. Near the end of the twelfth episode, which is the prior recap, Saki's good friend Sanpei finally discovered that Saki is an undercover detective(Deka) working out of the Takanoha Academy high school, most of her cases have been based there.

 That's Sanpei above and that's how this episode opened, for now the young man who is so infatuated with Saki doesn't know her true leaders are the secret government organization Dark Agency and when will he? Sanpei will be helping out Saki in all of her future cases but mainly because she's such a friend and will he ever be recruited into the Dark Agency? Don't check on events which will be happening later on in dramas as not to spoil things for me. Let's get to what took place in lucky episode thirteen and after that brief scene with Sanpei asking Saki if she was a cop the action switched to a family driving down the road. That's the above screenshot, the two parents get killed in an accident but surviving is the girl in the middle whose name is Junko Shina, she will be the key to this two episode story. This is the second story in a row with two episodes and am glad for the action(especially the endings) doesn't need to be rushed which is my only minor beef to date with this series.

 In the top screenshot above Junko is weeping at the sight of her parents burning up in the fire. It was no accident as the brakes had been tampered with and who would want to murder the driver who was such a respected man, Junko barely survived and because of that her life will soon be in grave danger. Her father Koichi Shiina was the dean of music at the elite Eiko Arts Academy, it's a high school for very promising musicians. We'll learn more of why Shiina had been murdered in the next show and what's to become of the now orphaned Junko who is seventeen in age and had been a student at her father's school? The following afternoon Saki was returning to her apartment along with Sanpei, the Dark Agency pays for her pad plus must give her some spending money. Who should be out in front of the building waiting for Saki but the main focus of this two episode story Junko Shiina. Once she saw Saki Junko keeled over, Saki quickly dashed to her aid and Junko was burning up with a fever, with Sanpei's help the girl was brought to Saki's small apartment. After putting the still unconscious Junko to bed the phone rang, at the other end of the line was Saki's Dark Agency handler Kyoichiro Jin and there's plenty of screenshots of him above. Don't know how Junko hooked up with the secret organization but was sent by them to Saki's apartment and told to remain with her. That was all Jin had to say over the phone but did add in he put a VCR tape in a desk drawer, that's how the leader of Dark Agency Shirei communicates with Saki. That tape had a few details about Junko's father Koichi who of course is now dead or should I say murdered! 

 No reason was given to Saki about why the man was killed but her orders were to take in Junko and have her live there with Saki for the remainder of the case. Junko has also been secretly enrolled at Saki's high school Takanoha Academy which would allow Saki to keep tabs on the girl who like Saki is seventeen in age, for now we viewers and Saki know so little about Junko. Another person very much in the dark about things is Sanpei, his curiosity about who Jin is has rapidly been increasing with each show and so hasn't Sanpei's feelings towards Saki!!!! Back in the eighth episode Sanpei did confront Jin about his relationship with Saki but received no answers and was warned to lay off. That didn't satisfy Sanpei and when he left Saki's apartment waiting outside in his yellow Porsche 911 was Jin, he's now aware that Sanpei knows about Saki being an undercover detective(Deka). The pair went to a deserted warehouse for a chat and there has to be at least one scene an episode at an abandoned building! Once again Sanpei was ordered to back off from Saki and not to interfere with her undercover work which really incensed Sanpei, he's so fed up with being left in the dark. Perhaps that would be safer for him as Jin is a man you don't want to mess with, he's so adept at martial arts plus is an ace with a pistol. It took Jin just a few seconds to subdue the furious Sanpei who said if he was smart Sanpei would leave Saki alone and then proceeded to leave the building. However Jin thought more about the situation and did go back to alleviate the fears of Sanpei. Jin added in he did care so much for Saki and would always be there to protect her which is true as it's happened twice in the last three episodes. Jin also added in Saki is about to go against her toughest opponent(s) to date and for Sanpei not to make things even harder for Saki as his hanging around would put her in even more danger, think Sanpei got the message but we know there's no way he'll abandon Saki.

 That second paragraph is always the longest of a recap and for some reason can't make them shorter but least it means these last four are often smaller. After a day resting Junko has recovered and doesn't seem to be too shaken up about losing her parents, that's been the case for other victims Saki has worked with. Above you can see that Junko was telling Saki how her life revolves around the Piano and how her father had been her main teacher for so many years. So wasn't the father's #1 protege and ex-student Tashihiro Kawasaki who over the years became a popular concert pianist. He was also a professor at the Eiko Arts Academy where Koichi Shiina was the dean of the music department, with his death Kawasaki is now the dean and this is when we viewers became highly suspicious of this man. Will have more details later but all of the other faculty at Eiko Arts Academy have resigned or had some other tragedy befall them, there is something very fishy going on at this elite high school but what? Even though her father and mother are now deceased Junko still plans to enter the very prestigious All Japan Piano Concert which will take place in five days, Junko will often refer to the competition as Concours. Along with Saki Junko paid a visit to her old school and it was to inform her ex-instructor Kawasaki that she still planned on entering the competition which did appear to upset the man, Junko didn't notice that but Saki did.

 Junko asked her esteemed instructor and also family friend to listen to her play Chopin's composition "Fantaisie Impromptu" which he composed in 1834. To the ears of Saki Junko played brilliantly but that wasn't the case with Kawasaki who told Junko her playing was stiff and heartless, perhaps it would be better not to enter the competition and practice for the one held next year? Of course that broke Junko's heart but it was easy to see that Kawasaki was lying, during the performance Saki had noticed a secret camera in a ceiling nook was taping Junko. That camera feed led to another room where viewing was the young girl above who like Saki and Junko is seventeen in age, her name is Kumi Mizuchi. That last name is familiar to us as the girl's older sister is Ayumi who was so key to the previous story and we'll soon be hearing much about her. Like her sister Ayumi Kumi is a spoiled brat and is such a low life person yet is so talented at the piano, she too has entered the national contest and could easily win it even without using any dirty tactics. But she now has Kawasaki as an ally and Kumi's main foe would be Junko which is why he tried discouraging her from entering the competition, even though Kawasaki falsely criticized her playing Junko will still enter the Concours. Deep down Kawasaki was very impressed with Junko's playing and told Kumi so which is right above, though Kumi is so talented Kawasaki felt that Junko was just a tad better and would be the favorite to win the competition. That naturally sent Kumi into a fury, the Mizuchi family never loses(!) and the next thing to take place was the attempted abduction of Junko, that's right above and below.

 Final segment and when the above paragraphs are longish it also means this last section is a bit shorter. The ending was quite exciting and of course it will continue on into the next episode and recap, what took place in these final seven minutes is right above. Trying to abduct Junko outside the Eiko Arts Academy were a trio of young hoodlums, with the help of Sanpei Junko was able to escape for the time being and that's her hiding in the top screenshot above. **** If Jin was smart(he is!) he would hire and train Sanpei to be Saki's partner in fighting crime, Sanpei's already aware of her working undercover and would think he would be beneficial to Saki and the Dark Agency. Saki helped Sanpei with the trio of attackers and to her amazement and fear soon arriving on the scene was the group of motorcyclists above!!!! We also saw them in the last two episodes and they work so well together as a team, if it wasn't for Jin's help they would have crushed Saki in the last episode!!!! The group began to circle around the frightened Saki and it's not easy scaring her, in a way her bitter enemy was about to help Saki. For out of the shadows arose Ayumi Mizuchi, that's her dressed in the black jacket above and to date has been Saki's toughest opponent. Saki had no clue who the girl was with Ayumi who introduced herself as Kumi and told our heroine that Junko needed to be kidnapped and beaten for she was standing in the way of Kumi winning the upcoming prestigious piano competition!

 Bet there aren't many wars or melees that arise due to playing the Piano but odd things like this are what make these kinds of series so fun and interesting. That sneering talk from Ayumi and her sister did allow Saki to elude the motorcyclists and she fled to a nearby Baseball stadium, all of the action is in the above screenshots. That group of riders couldn't drive into the stands to finish off Saki which to Ayumi wasn't a bad thing as she wanted Saki all to herself! Ayumi is an ace rider on a motorcycle and is also very skilled with a rope/slingshot as she threw a noose-like cord at Saki which somehow wrapped around her arm and she was tied to a railing like a sitting duck! As the episode ended Ayumi above was barreling towards Saki and would this finally be the demise of our heroine Deka? Seeing as how there's eleven more shows to go odds are high Saki will escape to fight another day and how that will happen is in the recap for episode fourteen which is the next post. There's plenty more screenshots below with what took place in this episode. Think I do a good job at explaining things but this is a show that's hard to give justice to as it's so terrific, watching this series is so much better than reading about it so hope a few of you perusing this will check out this series which is easy enough to obtain.