Sailor Suited Schoolgirl Crime Fighters

I really do have too much time on my hands.  So much so that, of late, I've found myself becoming mildly obsessed with an eighties Japanese TV series featuring crime fighting schoolgirls, all dressed in those traditional Japanese school uniforms that look - to us in the UK, at least - like sailor suits.  Actually, back in the eighties there was apparently a plethora of similar series on Japanese TV, including a rocket launcher toting schoolgirl commando, but the series I've been watching was the original for this genre.  Sukeban Deka.  To be entirely accurate, what I've been watching is the second series, Sukeban Deka II: Legend of the Iron Masked Girl.  Some explanation is undoubtedly required here for the uninitiated - 'Sukeban Deka' roughly translates as 'Delinquent Girl Detective' and the heroine of these series is a juvenile delinquent turned undercover agent for the Japanese secret service schoolgirl, who, under the guise of an ordinary high school student, fights crime.  Mainly crime in the Japanese school system, squaring off against various juvenile gangs, teenaged criminal masterminds and the like.  Each of the three series features a different 'Sukeban Deka', all armed with a metal yo-yo as a weapon, (it has a chain instead of a string and a panel that flips open to reveal their police badge).  All are played by popular young female singers of the era and all use the same cover name of Saki Asimaya.  

Sukeban Deka II was, I gather, the most popular iteration and features Yoko Minamino in the title role,  She is assisted by two sidekicks, one of whom, Okyo, is a mean hand with her marbles, throwing them with deadly accuracy to defeat opponents, or bouncing them off of walls and ceilings to hit enemies.  When she's finished, she whips out her handkerchief and throws it on the ground, the marbles all conveniently rolling into it for her to pick them up.  Which gives you some idea of the general lunacy which permeates the average episode.  Each series has an overarching story arc - in the case of the second it is Saki's quest to solve the mystery of her father's disappearance, which seems to be linked to a powerful crime syndicate, whose agents she encounters (and defeats) at every turn.  In execution, it is all suitably tongue in cheek, in the latest episode I saw, Saki and Okyo infiltrate a boys school, (they make very unconvincing boys, something the script plays on), in order to investigate the crime syndicate's plot to unify all the boys school gangs, taking out their bosses if they refuse to co-operate.  Much to Okya's disgust, they find that the gang at the school they have infiltrated are a bunch of incompetent cowards, (described by one gang member as 'a strange boy with a pretty face', Okya succeeds in single handedly beating them all up).  Finally revealing themselves as girls, the duo succeed in inspiring sufficient backbone in the boys to take on the rival gang sent to take them over.  Saki and Okya, meanwhile, take on the flamboyant cloak twirling and milk drinking syndicate agent behind the plot, finally defeating him with a combination of yo-yo and marbles. At least, I think that's what happened.  Following the plot logic isn't always easy.

So why has this fascinated me so much?  I mean, I've never really been into Japanese popular culture, aside from the obvious monster movies and Kurosawa films.  I'm afraid that samurai and ninja films have, in the main, passed me by, as have Japanese gangster pictures.  I've never been a fan of Anime - I can see its attraction but it just isn't my cup of tea, yet crime fighting Japanese schoolgirls in sailor suits have proven strangely compelling.  I think that it has to do with the sheer bizarreness of the average episode, which depicts the Japanese school system as being a hotbed of crime and often mixes in standard school drama with weird crime fighting action, (Saki frequently seems to have her attempts to do her homework interrupted by her handler turning up with her next assignment, for instance). The fact that it is so clearly cheaply made, with the action taking place in deserted buildings or on empty wasteland, just adds to the appeal.  Every episode, which usually run just over twenty minutes, plays out like a live action comic strip, (not surprisingly, it is adapted from one), complete with campy, sixties TV series Batman touches, (whenever Saki takes off her motorcycle leathers, we cut from her unzipping the jacket to her in full school uniform, despite that ankle length dress making it impossible for her to have been wearing it underneath).  There are forty two episodes to this second series, so i'm looking forward to a lot more camp Japanese school crime fighting campness.