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Sukeban Deka II - The Man in Black Rose Mansion: Is Father Alive?! / Sukeban Deka II - The Secret Revealed! Saki and Soto's Origins
episodes 2.37 & 2.38
Japan 1986
produced by Kazuya Maeda, Chiharu Nakasone, Osamu Tezuka for Toei/Fuji Television
directed by Toshio Oi
starring Yoko Minamino, Akie Yoshizawa, Haruko Sagara, Naoto Nagashima, Keizo Kanie, Masatomo Nakabayashi, Toshiro Mutsuro, Satoshi Moritsuka, Akiko Izumi, Hiroshi Miyauchi, Naomi Katagiri, Genta Nakagura, Ryuzaburo Otomo
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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Having gotten his hands on Saki's (Yoko Minamino) iron
mask, Kage no Soto (Naoto Nagashima), leader of evil organisation
Seiroukai, fails to find out its secret - but he learns from his brother
Ranmaru (Masatomo Nakabayashi), who spies on their father, the old
man of Kamakura (Satoshi Moritsuka), that a man is held captive at Black
Rose Mansion who knows the secret, but just won't tell, even under
torture. Now that man might be Saki's thought-dead father, and if so, he
would tell the secret to her. So Kage no Soto tips Saki off, and before
you know it, she and her sidekicks Okyo
(Haruko Sagara) and Yukino (Akie Yoshizawa) are off to the mansion, which
turns out to be Saki's childhood home. At the mansion, they have to fight
a drunk guard (Ryuzaburo Otomo), a knight in armor and a group of archers
sent by the old man of Kamakura, but they manage to free the prisoner, who
turns out not to be Saki's father after all but Genjuro (Toshiro Mutsuro),
the family butler who has been held here for 12 years. Then though Saki
and Genjuro run into a trap set up by Kage no Soto while Okyo and Yukino
are captured by the archers. And as Kage no Soto threatens to torture and
kill Saki, Genjuro tells them the story of the mask which is also the
story of their childhood. Now as it was, Saki's dad Saotome (Hiroshi
Miyauchi) was an archeologist of high repute whom the old man of Kamakura
wanted to find the Kidora treasure, also known as treasure of all
treasures. So he somehow made him fall in love with his adoptive daughter
Michiko (Akiko Izumi), who was to guide him in the right direction and spy
on him - and really, with her help he found the treasure. Thing is, she
really fell in love with him and they had a daughter, Saki, and she turned
her back on Kamakura. Now eventually, Kamakura's men came to claim the
treasure, but Saotome hid the secret of the treasure in the iron mask and
saw to it that Michiko and Saki escaped even if it cost his own life.
Hearing that, Kage no Soto sets out to find the treasure with the help of
Saki's iron mask, while he leaves it to Saki to free her friends - but
when he sees Saki is no match for the archers who grossly outnumber her,
he saves her life - after all, he was planted as Michiko's foster son back
when. But he promises her to kill her upon their next meeting, a promise
that Saki only returns ...
Now objectively speaking, the plot of this double-episode is
rather over-convoluted and also a tad silly, but with a mansion that looks
like a medieval castle, a knight in armor, archers and a drunk guard, with
some hints of gothic horror, and of course some fun fight scenes, this is
also lots of fun to watch. Random fun mayhaps, and not always for the very
right reasons, but fun still.
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