Sukeban deka

This is the original Sukeban Deka series staring Yuki Saito as Saki Asamiya.

Kurayami Shirei (Hiroyuki Nagato) who works for Naikaku Johoshitsu (Inner cabinet Intelligence Division) recruits Saki Asamiya who's a boss of girl's gang (Sukeban in Japanese). He needs someone who can work covertly in high school to prevent criminal activity conducted in high schools. Saki's mother is in prison, Kurayami Shirei makes a deal with Saki to suspend her mother's execution if she worked for him. Saki accepts the offer and starts her detective (Deka in Japanese) work.

Based on a comic by Shinji Wada of the same title, this is the original translation of Sukeban Deka series, and is the most edgiest of the trilogy which spanned from 1985 to 1987. The series becomes increasingly campy as it progresses. There's a perpetual cloud over Saki's head as a child of a convict, and she works for the sake of reducing her mother's prison terms.

This series is comprised of 24 episodes, and a 25th "Making of Sukeban Deka" special. Saki gradually finds out who the king pin behind all the crime is and her true relation to him as the series progresses.

This series catapulted Yuki Saito's career, and in tern she succeeded in making this series a success. High school student solving crimes in high school was a novel idea and attracted many fans of the series.

The Sukeban Deka is still being produced from time to time in movies attesting to its popularity. This was the seminal attempt, and was a success that primed the success of all subsequent series.

This is the sequel to the Sukeban Deka series that originated with Yuki Saito's version of Saki Asamia (1985). Yoko Minamino plays her first starring role as Saki Asamiya. Although the two characters has the same name, they are different people.

Kurayami Shirei (Hiroyuki Nagato) is looking for a replacement for Saki Asamiya (Yuki Saito) after she retired from her assignment as Sukeban Deka - a high school student detective who works covertly for Naikaku Johoshitsu (inner cabinet intelligence division) to stop crime conducted by high school teenagers working for Seirou-kai. He's recruiting effort is not so successful until he discovers Yoko Godai (Yoko Minamino) a girl in an iron mask. Kurayami Shirei renames Yoko to Saki Asamiya which from that point on becomes the code name for all future Sukeban Deka. Saki transfers to Ryozan high school, and begins to battle the evil that lurks within the high school.

The story is based on a comic by Shinji Wada by the same title. According to Wada, this second series is his favorite version. Yoko Minamino stars in her first TV series in the title role. She is supported by B-dama no Okyo (Haruko Sagara), and Yukino (Akie Yoshizawa). The production looks to be the epitome of low budget TV series. There are almost no props, and most scene takes place outdoors at night times in a park or at an abandoned building requiring no outlay of budget for the set. This was a popular series in the '80s and Toei Television must have made money hand over fist on this one.

Although made on apparent low budget, the story is surprisingly intriguing, and stands up to repeat viewing even today. It's one of the "classics" that will never fade away, and will be viewed by future generations.

This series getting better more episodes you see. Based on Japanese manga with same name sukeban deka tells a story of heroine without special powers or mask or cape but a simple school girl with her iron yoyo to fight crime.

At age five young Saki saw her mother being arrested for murder, but Saki has a special skill and therefore a special police force spare her mothers life in one condition to train Saki to be the ultimate police force. At her teens her training is complete and protect innocent people from bullying in school to filthy crooks and corrupted big standards people, till she stand in an ultimate challenge against the worst female crime syndicate Remi.

This series is awesome, my favorite episode is 16 when Saki is in prison where we see a Bioman actress in another role. The characters remind me of the ace attorney characters but more serious but their awesomeness is equally. 10/10.

Hence, don't expect some sort of realism in this first outing of the Sukeban Deka series because you won't find it. What you will find here is the adaptation of a mixture of shoujo and shonen with a toppling of 70's exploitation movies resulting in something resembling, in parts, the 2004 cutie honey live action series, Oniisama E...and the Female Prisoner Scorpio series of movies, made by the same company that made this series of all things. Oh yeah, it's also a vehicle to sell you the idol Yuki Saito and her music (the ED is from hers), who is not exactly Ayako Wakao material when it comes to acting but she gets the job done considering this was not meant to be Bamboo Dolls of Ezichen or Ball at the Anjou House stuff from the get go and her actual music, if you can listen to her albums (which I urge you to do), is pretty good stuff. Just be aware that the last quarter of this series is not great to be generous.

P. S. The song Crazy Nights by Metal Veterans Loudness in episode 15 was a nice bonus too, just to reiterate my opinion that J-Pop and Metal indeed are treated as the same thing in Japan, which is great.

This is the third installation of Sukeban Deka series, and Yui Asaka plays the third Saki Asamiya, who works for Kurayami Shirei.

The series is about Sukeban (a girl gang leader) becoming recruited by Kurayami Shirei (Hiroyuki Nagato) to be the inside detective (Deka in Japanese) to solve crimes committed in high school. The inconsistency is that Kurayami Shirei purportedly works for Naikaku Johoshitsu (inner cabinet intelligence division) but Saki Asamiya carries a yo-yo as her weapon that has the insignia of cherry blossom, which is the mark of the Japanese police force. This is like a CIA agent carrying an FBI badge.

Yui Kazama (Yui Asaka) is a Sukeban in Kyushu Japan. She's told by her grandfather that she has two sisters and a father in Tokyo, and to go live with them. Her family comes from a clan of ninja called the Fuma. Just as she arrives in Tokyo and goes to meet her father, she sees her father blown up to pieces right in front of her eyes. Devastated, she learns that a secret ninja organization called Kage (Shadow) has been stalking the sisters to steal the secret of Vajira. Kage's leader is called Sho (Miho Hayashi) and Kashinkoji (Jiro Sagawa). For some reason only ones who can wield the power of Vajira are Sho and Yui. What are the connections between the two ?

This series like Sukeban Deka second series is comprised of 42 episodes divided into parts 1, and 2. Part 1 is about the development of Yui into a full fledged fighter, and battle with various Kage soldiers. Part 2 which starts at episode 32 is about the true relation about Yui to her sisters, to Sho, and the whereabouts of their flesh and blood family member.

The concept of this series borrows from Star Wars amongst other plots that was in development within Toei Studio. For instance Kazuya Yoda's name comes from Yoda, and Leia Kido's name comes from princess Lea. Kashinkoji's appearance is identical to that of the Dark Emperor.

The Sukeban Deka series becomes increasingly campy as they progress, and this third series is the campiest of them all. The author Shinji Wada was annoyed at the way this series deviated so much from his original concept that he reportedly denounced this series to have any relation with his creation. The formula of low budget production that started in the second series continues on this one with most filming taking place out doors, in parks, in a forest, and just about any place they can find to film a sequence. The costumes are mostly what you can find off the shelf or something Toei movie studio have already invested in their samurai movies. But the script is written well that it keeps the episodes entertaining. In place of two school mates the second Sukeban Deka had, in this series they are replaced by two older sisters of Saki Asamiya (portrayed by Yuka Onishi, and Yuma Nakamura) who together with Saki battles the forces of Kage.

This is a popular series that maintains enough interest by the audience that a new version still gets produced. One thing that I've always wondered was - did the producers of this series have fetish for girls with big calves as all girls who played the main character of this series had big calves that had similarity in appearance (if you see them, you'll know what I mean).