Sukeban Deka – Season 1 (1985)
Unrelated to the Sukeban exploitation movies, Toei’s landmark TV series stars Yuki Saito as a delinquent girl turned into a special detective. The Japanese secret police arms her with a steel breaking yo-yo that allows her to fight the corruption and criminality in and outside high schools.
A 25 episode definition of coolness Sukeban Deka – Season 1 mixes school girl action with an infinite amount of style and superb soundtrack by Ichiro Nitta (plus a theme song by Saito). The first half of the season consists of rather unrelated episodes, while the second half is more connected in terms of storylines.
As Sukeban Deka has already been discussed several times by people more knowledgable than me (
link 1,
link 2,
link 3,
link 4), all I can do is add yet another recommendation for this show that remains one of the greatest things TV has ever produced. Toei has released all three seasons on dvd (and laserdisc and VHS before that) but be prepared to sell your house and take a loan from the yakuza as Toei is charging 9800 yen per volume, or 4500 if it’s a 1 disc release (Vol 3 of season 1, Vol. 5 of season 3). But it’s worth it, I promise.
Season one consists of 26 episodes. Episode 25 is a behind the scenes episode. Episode 26 is a ’best of’ compilation. The story ends with episode 24. Toei has released season 1 in three volumes. Volume 1 and 2 feature 10 episodes each. Vol. 3 features episodes 21-25. Episode 26 can be found on Sukeban Deka compilation dvd (which was released before the actual volumes... mainly to promote the dvd debut of the series). It also features similar compilation episodes from seasons 2&3.
The dvds for season 1 are barebones. Only data file is included. However, each volume comes with an 8 page booklet featuring interview with a crew member (producer Kazuya Maeda, director Hideo Tanaka, and producer Tadashi Oka). The dvds are full screen (original aspect ratio) and looking pretty good considering the origins. Some episodes are progressive (1-3, 6-8, 11-15) but not all. Japanese mono and no subtitles as you’d expect from Toei.
Notice that initial pressing of Vol. 1 comes with thick box set to house all three volumes + the compilation dvd. This is the case also with seasons 2 &3 (minus the compilation dvd of course, as there’s only one of those). If you want to ensure getting the box sets, you should use second hand retailers such as amazon.co.jp private sellers or yahoo auctions. In fact, this would be recommendable anyway due to the street prices... unless you’re a millionaire of course and want to pay the full price.
Season 1 dvds.
But I guess it's way to recent for possessing a genuine cult-appeal in your book.
