QuaranTV 3: Sukeban Deka 2
Okay, you might want to grab a pencil and a sticky note to keep up with this one! This is the latest in a series of blogs title QuaranTV 3 and in this one I am talking the 1988 Japanese movie Sukeban Deka 2 which actually features the main character whose title/code name is Sukeban Deka 3 because Sukeban Deka 2 was the star of the the movie Sukeban Deka 1… got it? Now that we are all caught up, Sukeban Deka 2 is, obviously, the sequel to Sukeban Deka 1 and, despite being a theatrically released feature film, also serves as a cap to a season of the Sukeban Deka TV series.
In this film Sukeban Deka 3 (aka Yui) works with her sisters, who wield metal origami cranes and knitting needles instead of her yo-yo, to fight for justice but the program Yui works under has been taken over by a new student police force tasked with stopping underage crime. After Yui objects to the new group’s overly violent methods (you know, compared to the tame methodology of a secret undercover group that sends school girls with explosive yo-you out to fight crime) and quits, her old boss and friends are targeted by the student police group because, as I think we all saw coming, they are going to take over Tokyo. Yui teams up with a group of outcast kids living in a squat to fight back and… then it basically turns into an episode of the A-Team.
I quite liked Sukeban Deka 2, possibly more than the first. Yui Asaka, aka Yui the Sukeban Deka 3, is just as likable as Yoko Minamino was in the first and has shed the weird red leather pseudo ninja gear she rocked during her appearance in Sukeban Deka 1. This movie starts with a summary of the series and explains the three agents who have borne the Sukeban Deka mantle over the series. This is incredibly helpful, not that it was entirely necessary to follow the first movie, and explains that the main character from the first movie spent 17 years of her life locked in an iron mask. I don’t think that was even mentioned in the first movie!
Where Sukeban Deka 1 turned into a weird Enter The Dragon homage this movie, as mentioned above, really felt like an episode of the A-Team. I first thought this when I was subjected to some of the worst fight choreography I have ever seen in a feature film but the final battle, complete with homemade weapons and traps employing clothes line to defeat masses of attacking baddies just cemented the comparison. Although there is just the briefest allusion to possible romance blooming between Sukeban Deka 3 and the leader of the homeless kids, Sukeban Deka 2 retains the surprising innocence of Sukeban Deka 1. I continue to find that refreshing. I have literally seen more violence and innuendo in Japanese sentai shows. I am very interested to see if the 2006 third installment (Yo Yo Girl Cop) keeps up the PG rating or goes the route of most of the other Tokyo Shock/media Blasters DVDs I have seen and goes off the rails with either violence or sexploitation.
So let me sum up both Sukeban Deka films I have seen so far this way: these are the Japanese action films you can watch with you girlfriend/boyfriend/parole officer/parents or whoever else thinks you only watch this stuff because you are a pervert. In fact, the only reason why I would not suggest viewing them with some young Power Ranger fans in your life you are looking to get into something beyond the mighty morphin’ shows is because the movies are subtitled, not dubbed, and that is sure to turn off most younger viewers!
Okay, real quick before I sign off let me mention I have a new martial arts fantasy novel out called White Tiger, Black Leopard which is available at your favorite ebook retailer. If you are not sure if a martial arts fantasy novel is your cup of tea, I get it… visit my website SwordsandRayguns.com and sign up for my email newsletter (which is going to be mainly stuff about books, TV, comics and movies I am watching and reading) and you’ll get a free story in the genre to help you figure it out. You can also check out my science fiction novels.
Keep an eye out… probably watching Yo Yo Girl Cop soon.
