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Sukeban Deka II - Defiant! Saki, Yukino and Okyo's Final Deadly Battle
episode 2.41
Japan 1986
produced by Kazuya Maeda, Chiharu Nakasone, Osamu Tezuka for Toei/Fuji Television
directed by Hideo Tanaka
starring Yoko Minamino, Akie Yoshizawa, Haruko Sagara, Keizo Kanie, Hiroyuki Nagato, Satoshi Morizuka, Masatomo Nakabayashi, Goro Mutsumi
screenplay by Izo Hashimoto, based on the manga by Shinji Wada, music by Ichiro Nitta
TV series Sukeban Deka, Sukeban Deka (Yoko Minamino)
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Of course, the old man of Kamakura (Satoshi Morizuka), megalomaniac
villain of the series, has long found out that Saki (Yoko Minamino) has
unearthed the Kidora treasure, which turns out to be a grail that grants
immortality if one drinks from it during a lunar eclipse, so the first
thing he does is have Saki fired from the Sukeban Deka program - not a big
deal as he has the program's director Kurayami (Hiroyuki Nagato) in his
pocket, then has the grail stolen from Saki's sidekicks Okyo
(Haruko Sagara) and Yukino (Akie Yoshizawa). Knowing what immortality
would mean for a villain like the old man of Kamakura, Saki, Okyo and
Yukino decide to go and retrieve the grail anyhow, but heading to the old
man's place, they walk into an ambush and both Okyo and Yukino are killed.
Saki manages to defeat all the attackers who have come by foot, by car and
by motorbike, but then director Kurayami and his men show up to arrest her
because she didn't follow orders and leave things be. They almost succeed,
too, when Saki's mentor Nishiwaki (Keizo Kanie) stops by in his car to
pick her up and drive her to safety, directly disobeying the orders of
director Kurayami doing so ...
As I said in my review on last
episode, towards the end of its run this series is going into
overdrive to tie up its narrative threads - but while Kage no Soto's death
was pretty much hinted at for quite some time now, the deaths (?) of Okyo
and Yukino came completely unannounced (other than in the preview stuck to
the ending of last episode), and while they're certainly emotional
moments, they're somewhat downplayed by both set in the middle of a rather
exciting fight setpiece which Saki's ultimately whisked away from before
she can do much griefing - which really works for the episode, as it
prevents things from becoming too sentimental when the bigger picture is
about something else. In all, this might not be the narratively most
refined story as it's too straightforward, but is rich on action and
surprises, and serves as a pretty great set-up for the finale.
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review © by Mike Haberfelner
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