Year: 1986-1987

Rating: 8.0 / 10

NOTE: This show does contain heavier themes!! This includes abuse [especially of children, by other children and adults], suicide, death, illness, references of sexual assault, pet death, car accidents, and probably more I have forgotten.

This does also include spoilers.

I finished Fermat no Ryouri which was lots of fun, so I decided to pick up another drama. I wanted something older; Even if I wasn’t born yet, there’s something comforting about how older things are filmed to me. I ended up picking up this drama because of that.

Set in the 80s,Sailor Fuku Hangyaku Doumei is about a group of girls who fight those at their school to re-establish it to its former prestigious glory. At the school, it works more like a prison with teachers beating up students, kids in cells being beat up by other kids, and just overall delinquency. Like, girls, just call child services at this point…

I'd say overall the show was enjoyable. It was fairly easy to fall into the beat of the series as for most of the series, it was one-off episodes with a typical story arch. While it did feel monotonous on episodes that weren't as good as the rest, most had just enough insanity to keep you occupied and interested. I feel it's fairly easy to liken this to Kamen Rider, having some of the hallmarks of it (fight scenes, child endangerment, overused flashbacks), while still having its own unique identity.

The fight scenes were pretty good, and I’ve seen them called as close as you can get anime battles, and I definitely see it. They’re over the top, but fun and interesting. I really liked the individuality of all of the girl’s special weapons, even Miho’s roses, as silly as they were at times.

One thing that was shocking was how dark it was. I considered dropping it in the first few episodes after a particularly grueling scene where the main girl was thrown around like a ragdoll repeatedly, in a way that was uncomfortable more than anything as it went on for way too long. I do understand the point that was made and why it was made, but boy, it was uncomfortable to sit through. I'm glad not every episode was like that in terms of brutality; I think if you can deal with the first 3 episodes or so, The rest of the series is fine.

However, it didn’t just end at physical violence in terms of what they covered. There were a lot of surprisingly dark plot points– as just the second episode involved a plotline that had a lot to do with suicide and collecting money on someone’s life insurance. The story also has plotlines that involve things such as forced prostitution, hit-and-runs, disease, getting blown up, and burying children alive. After quite a few episodes, I came running to my girlfriend saying, “My love, you would not believe this...”

The characters in the story are likeable and interesting. Yumi gets a big spotlight, but we don’t really find out too much of her motivations in full until the last few episodes. I especially liked later episodes where we got some development on the other 2 who first joined her, Ruri and Kei. I also liked Yuta overall, and one of my favorite episodes was him saving the day by being a shit student who listened to music during lectures. I also really liked Miho and found her interesting, as she was torn between her duty to her family and what she knew was right. I really liked the dynamic of her and Yumi especially and the solace they found in each other.

The low point of the series was actually the ending. I don’t think they necessarily did a bad job with the ending episodes– in fact, they were really good overall and interesting in terms of story– but the last scene is what I don’t get. Once the school is redone and made into a functional and normal school, Yumi leaving just seems stupid, especially after she formed a friendship with the others. I really think that was a bad way to end an otherwise pretty decent series.

The series does rely on a lot of suspension of disbelief– for the fight scenes, for the over the top criminal actions that no one reports– but, I think if you can get through that, it’s a pretty fun watch. It definitely has made me want to watch more sukeban-based dramas...!

Episode-by-episode

On episode 2 and on, I decided to write some notes on each episode! These are messy, but I tried to fix them up before posting here. These are very rough episode summations. This part is long as hell, and I debated putting it in this review at all. Howvever, I figured for my own housekeeping, it'd be good to preserve my notes. Our main heros are Yumi, Kei, Ruri and Yuta. Miho is the chairman's daughter who later joins in.

Episode 2:

The series starts off with a bang. Just in episode 2, there’s already foul play in killing a teacher and blaming it on alcoholism. There’s also a teacher who lights a cigarette on a kids head and acts like your typical yakuza-type. The girls get together to fight back against the school, starting with the student council.

Episode 3:

The episode with the hard-to-watch scene with the main girl. Yumi gets blamed for distributing a manifesto against the school, and thusly gets beat up by the martial arts club to get her to talk. The one teacher pretty much says he's willing to kill Yumi. A boy, Moriguchi, confesses to the crime. We find out his parents went to the school and like Yumi, he wants to restore the school prestige. Anyway, he gets taken away and beat up. Miho tries to connect with Yumi, but I believe it's Kei who shoos her away, not trusting her. We get Yumi's backstory of her mother attacking her when she was 4 and has since disappeared from her life. Yuta tries to save Moriguchi from his cell, but fails. However, Yumi later finds out they've relocated Moriguchi and to get him to talk, they're doing a bunch of shit to him like sleep deprivation and lighting his skin with sparklers. They mess him up and then decide they're sending him to a psychiatric hospital. The gang intercepts this and free Moriguchi. The next day, the students who helped torture Moriguchi are tied up to a post outside of the school.

Episode 4:

We get a new teacher! He's the new English teacher-- a man with curly hair and who is blind. This teacher plans to give after-school lessons to those who are falling behind. We then get a scene of some kid at home who attacks his mom with a baseball bat. This happens again when we see another student get a random phone call. We find out the students who this happened to are the children of parents who oppose how the school is run (maybe this is showing my lack of knowledge of the Japanese school system... But why not just transfer your kid if you know its so shit...); We also learn the kids have been taking those after school lessons. We also learn Miho is familiar with the new teacher, as he used to be her tutor, but he's changed and she's suspicious. Yumi later sees the teacher with one of the other school higher-ups, so it's a pretty obvious open and shut case. Yuta is one of the students who gets called-- but it doesn't effect him. That scene is probably my favorite in the whole series. Kei also gets called, this time while out at a cafe with everyone, and starts a slap fight. When she comes to, she doesn't remember anything. Yuta clarifies that he wasn't effected because he ignores his lessons because he's listening to music. Yuta later is out and about and comes across the teacher who mind controls him into hitting his head against a rock wall, and then later tries to command him to kill himself by walking out in front of a train. Miho ends up saving him with her rose petal attack and we find out the teacher was faking being blind. He later says something to the effect of "my hair is the source of my power" which never gets elaborated on. Anyway, he gets the shit kicked out of him and crucified like he's Ultraman.

Episode 5:

We start off with the students running as a form of punishment. We get a scene of some girls smoking in the bathroom and heckling the janitor there. Ruri comes out of the stall and doesn't even care to wash her hands-- okay nasty!!! She talks to the janitor before he's sent on a mission to retrieve a case from the bank. However, because of the trappings of the show he is in, nothing goes smoothly, as he ends up getting roughed up and ultimately stabbed on his way back with the case stolen. There is a small suprise, as the guy who sent the janitor on this mission takes the blame... Sort of. Ruri is deadset on finding the culprit while the rest of the girls dgaf. We find out the guy who sent the janitor on the mission is threatening him, saying his life insurance would cover the missing money. The old man sits soggily next to his sick grandson who he's taking care of. Ruri somehow finds his address and helps console him, saying he reminds her of her grandpa. The next day, Ruri tries to collect money at school to help the janitor, but only manages roughly 82 USD$. She goes to find him and then sees him hanged in front of his grandson. There's a ceremony and the guy who sent the janitor to do the thing pays his condolences, but later is at a hostess club laughing about it. He gets a call at the club from... The janitor! At this point I was wondering if they'd consider the weird scifi thing as last time with the guy and his hair powers. Anyway, the gang has wiretapped the phone and gets info. The evil dude keeps getting phone calls from the janitor. Anyway, he gets called out to the park and beat up by the girls. The janitor turns out okay and his grandson recovers... Woo!!

Episode 6:

This episode starts off with a couple in a car; The girl doesn't want to have sex with the guy and runs off. He speeds off after this and hits someone with his car. There's a sole witness-- a schoolboy, who drops his ID when running off. Ruri knew the girl who got hit-- a classmate of hers from middle school-- and she's now in the hospital in critical condition. The evil boy of this episode goes to tell his dad and his dad is like "okay youre grounded but we know where that boy who saw it is from." The gang tries to talk to the boy who saw the incident the next day, but to no avail. We learn the evilboy(tm)'s father is a mega-donator to the school. The gang does piece together pretty easily what happened, and keeps trying to get the boy to talk. As the witness visits the hospital and leaves, he's trailed by masked bikers. Yumi helps save him and leads him to a shack to try and convince him with the others to talk. However, theyre found out and the bikers throw molotov cocktails to try and light the shack and them on fire. They're able to get away from this. However, another girl gets kidnapped-- the witness' sister-- and used for ransom. The witness goes to save his sister and they end up trying to do that thing where his limbs get torn off in different directions, except instead of by horses, it's by their bikes. He ends up not having that happen, just getting the shit kicked out of him and his sister threatened again. Anyway, the gang fights the bikers-- this one is noteable because the evilboy(tm) has a gun, but the girls still win and leave him drowning in nearby water. The witness ends up tesifying, and I believe the victim does pass away?

Episode 7:

This episode starts with Miho saving a little boy from jailtime because he stole some bread. The kid, Yusuke, tells her he's an orphan. Miho ends up bringing him to Yumi's house. Yumi begs Miho to finally join up with her, but she declines because of her father, the chairman, who we also learn is paralyzed from the waist down. I look away for half a second and we cut to a teacher posing shirt off with a rose. The gang investigates whats going on with Yusuke, finding out his last name. He ended up following them to school and crawls through the classroom to tell Yumi he has to piss. Why he doesn't just find a restroom is a mystery to me. Anyway, they slip him out of the classroom under Yumi's skirt. Meanwhile, Yuta is busy investigating Yusuke's pre-school and finds out his dad has been looking for him for 3 days. Miho also gets bullied by Kei and Ruri, leading Yumi to be sad. Anyway, the gang goes to meet up with Yusuke's dad and his dad says he's been neglecting his son since his wife died. We find out Yusuke’s dad is involved in drugs and yakuza money as well. Yuta stays with Yusuke and pretends to be Yumi on the phone, but not before a yakuza guy comes and knocks him out. Miho relays that the drugs have been found and so has the guy behind it. There’s a trade for Yusuke from the drug guys– and of course, a fight scene occurs. A sniper tries to kill the girls, but Miho saves them with her roses. They end up attacking Yusuke’s dad because he’s a shit parent, but Yusuke attacks them for going after his dad. Yusuke and his shitty dad reunite and the girls are like “... Okay.”

Episode 8:

The girls bump into some first graders and Ruri slaps them all. We find out they’re Yuta’s underlings and look up to him because they find him cool. A new teacher is hired– a dude with a moustache who “wants to help the youth get good jobs”... Which is just pipelining them into the Yakuza. Yuta gets selected to be part of this program and is threatened with being locked in the cells if he doesn’t join. Yuta and his little gang go out and he tries to intimidate a guy who ends up kicking his ass. We then see the first-graders in a car with the new teacher. The teacher gets the kids to bother another teacher, and that teacher plays along. Yumi sees both of these incidents. We then find out the new teacher’s yakuza clan is at war with another clan. The kids slowly become more and worse delinquents. Yuta tries to confront them, but they kick the shit out of him. The girls try and step in but are harassed. The kids run into the new teacher and he brings them to his clan office, where he arms the kids with guns and sends them off to kill someone. They do so, and kill the patriarch of the family… Well, not really because it’s a prop gun. Anyway, they tell Yuta. We find out the teacher was actually the one who shot at the patriarch, setting the boys up. There’s a fight scene and Miho saves the day with her roses. Yuta ends up trying to mentor the kids again– but they’ve cleaned up their act and lecture him about being a delinquent at his age.

Episode 9:

Yuta buys a computer! While he’s trying to send something to the girls, the PC fucks up and he gets some weirdo love letter on his screen, and it prints out. The next day at school, Yuta tells them he accidentally hacked into someone else’s computer and there’s something about the school having a hand in arcades. Anyway, we see a girl go into an art classroom and there’s blood (paint?) dripping from a sculpture. She screams, everyone comes running.

We find out the screaming girl is named Nokko, who was mentioned in the weird love letter note Yuta got. Nokko is someone who is in favor of the school being taken down to get new leaders. Yuta goes home to his PC and gets another weird love letter. He reports it to the girls the next day and Kei confronts Nokko. Nokko is just as confused as the others are. However we see another painting fall in the art room. Yumi concludes it might just be the sender’s diary or Nokko’s just lying. However, another letter comes through, and it mentions a white dog. Nokko doesn’t have a dog, so they try and track down who in the school has a dog. They find the girl, but her dog is killed, so she’s of course beside herself in grief.

Another letter comes through, and it mentions a scar on someone’s chest– correlating to Yumi. We get a scene of the school staff talking about some dude who just got released from jail; They don’t explicitly state what he did, but it obviously involved inappropriate behavior with the girls at the school. The girls see a weird guy at a cafe and follow him, before concluding it’s not that guy. However, Yuta gets another message and we find out it’s… The waiter!

Cut to Yumi going into a subway and she’s being trailed very obviously by some guy who grabs her and attacks her with a sword… But actually, it’s not Yumi at all, just a girl with a similar hairstyle! Yumi vows to get revenge and plans to lure the guy out herself. Yumi walks alone at night and is being trailed by this dude who could not be more obvious if he tried. She lures him to some construction zone. The guy monologues to himself and slices a very realistic looking mannequin from behind and then… Fight scene incoming! The guy keeps disappearing and showing himself the whole time, but Miho saves the day as per normal. He gets the shit kicked out of him and placed in a barrel and made fun of by the student body.

...

I still don’t get what was up with the art room.

Episode 10:

It starts off with the school staff talking about roses always at the scene of the crime and the rumors of white-sefuku wearing girls kicking the shit out of evil people from the school. A random white lady shows up to the school dressed to the nines. Miss Audrey, the lady, is the new English teacher. She gets hit on by the male staff. Audrey meets Miho specifically.

In class, Miss Audrey talks about love letters she received before class and rips them up. At first I’m like, #girlboss, but she then says it’d be fine if they were in English… Okay, weirdo, gross. All of the students seem smitten by her, and she seems nice enough to the students… But I’m suspicious and so are the staff. If the last episode was more progressive than expected over guys being creepy this one is kind of… Uncomfortable with the focus on this teacher’s ass. Kei and Ruri seem to warm to this new teacher, but Yuta and Yumi are suspicious.

A girl walking home carrying a rose is attacked by a person throwing a card in a weird hooded mask and with a voice changer. Kei brings Miss Audrey some roses for her birthday. Miss Audrey acts weird to her. Kei is later seen carrying roses and attacked by the same figure as before, but she’s able to fend for herself and run away. Of course, we find out behind the hood is Miss Audrey. Kei reports this back to the gang and they connect the fact red roses were involved in both cases. Yumi reports this to Miho and tells her she’s in danger. Miho says it's fine since Yumi hasn't told anyone she’s the one who throws roses. Miho offers to be Yumi’s ear with things, worrying about her.

It occurs to me that despite Yuta never being in disguise and usually at the scene of the ass kicking, he never is reported as being involved. Miss Audrey weirdly stares at Kei and then calls her out to read. Miho later feels someone staring at her and throws a playing card at them… And we see Miss Audrey stomping roses.

Miss Audrey offers Kei a ride home and Kei accepts… Girl don’t!! Miho sees and knows its bad news. Audrey brings her to somewhere completely different, some old swimming pool area… and for some reason Kei follows her inside? Audrey confronts her and slaps her, saying she knows who she is pretty much and she’ll make her talk. Like this is kidnapping and assault I dont get how there’s no legal report of this. Anyway, Miho saves the day, using her roses to attack Audrey AND somehow loosen Kei’s restraints. Audrey calls the principal and tells him there are more wielders of the rose. As she’s on the phone, the girls show up and she’s about to get her ass kicked.

A package arrives to the school... The staff opens it and it’s Miss Audrey tied up with a rose in her mouth.

Episode 11:

We start with the yakuza teacher going off about romance and having a kind heart is the key to life and then… He threatens the students as a cute little dog runs into the classroom. Yuta takes on the dog… And then a boy comes up to him demanding that its his dog and runs off. Later, the girls are going shopping and we see some girls from school shoplifting. We also see the boy and his dog. Some creepy looking guys in glasses watch from above as he passes. The gang meets up with the boy again and… The creepy glasses guys stop the boy before dancing around Yuta. The girls decide they have to reunite the kid with his parents and bring him home. We find out the kid is a rich kid.

The next day at school, the kid shows up to follow them around– specifically Yuta. The creepy glasses guys come up to the kid again, but he accidentally hits them with his bat. Upon seeing Yuta, the glasses guys scramble. The kid asks for ice cream and Yuta obliges, telling the kid to wait outside and… He’s gone! Yuta goes to tell the family of whats happened and the mother blames Yuta. They then get a call that the boy got kidnapped and the kidnappers are demanding money.

Yuta tells the girls and Kei doesn't want to do it, saying if they mess with the wrong people… Girl, you literally attack your teachers daily. Get it together. They do agree to help in the end. A policeman comes up to Yuta and demands he comes in.We later find that Yuta is pulled in by the yakuza teacher and beat because there are rumors he's a lingerie thief. We flash to where the boy is and he’s attacking the glasses guys with a water gun and they're pretty lame. They buy the kid a bunch of food and he complains they got him shitty food.

Yuta tells the girls he was brought in because of the baseball-dog-boy’s parents. The girls are reluctant to help and Yuta is obviously upset. There’s a call to the boy’s parents house and the police are there to trace the call. However, it’s just Yuta calling and they get mad at him. Yuta later sees the nanny running from the baseball-dog-kid’s house and follows her, but swiftly loses her. However, the girls intersect with her, and then find Yuta knocked out.

The nanny comes to the building and she’s involved with the weirdo guys. The nanny pulls out some red thing and I think the implication is just to kill the kid. However, the dog escaped while no one was looking and alerted the gang. The gang pieces together it’s the nanny who's helping do all of this. The creepy guys are trying to get the boy to drink poison, and he’s refusing

The gang runs into kids who wear the same outfit as the baseball boy and they use his dog to track the scent. The weirdo guys are still failing to kill the kid as this is going on. However, the nanny is ready just to strike him and even the weirdo guys are like, “the fuck”. The gang shows up and are ready to beat the shit out of them. As per usual, Miho shows up to help. The gang delivers the evil-doers beat up and tied up outside the parents house, along with the baseball kid and his dog. The baseball kid shows up again to see Yuta and Yuta runs away.

Episode 12:

We start off with Fumi’s trauma! And the chairman saying they need donations for the school…! And Miho visiting her dad at school! She asks why hes there and he gives her a non-answer. The school is also being faced with competency tests, something I guess they haven't had in a while. We soon after get a montage of students cheating in various ways, writing on their clothes, in their pencil cases, on their skin, looking at other students’ answers. Yuta cheats off Ruri and both of them are punished for it. Apparently there's some tie with the competency test and finances, and we learn Ruri is having financial troubles

The parents of kids who failed are brought in and told they'd flunk out with those grades unless things change. They extort money from the parents for not flunking out their kids– 1,000$ a piece pretty much. The guy behind this testing thing tells the girls who failed they'll be put to work and are pretty much kidnapped into a van to be hostesses at a sleazy club and pretty much if they don't allow it, be forced into worse circumstances– this includes Ruri. Miho sees this and reports back to Yumi. The girls are saved by the gang and Miho. They get hidden and then found like a few minutes later in the runtime. Ruri stops, drops and rolls out of the van and the guys plan to take her back, till they notice other cars coming. Ruri runs off for help, injured. The gang finds her as they search out on the street and Ruri fills them in.

The guy behind this scheme gets called up for one of the girls, and he comes to an abandoned parking lot place? Either way, the girls are there to kick his ass but he has… Footballers? To protect him? And he gets a helmet with a knife sticking out top of it. It’s pretty ridiculous. The girls struggle against the footballers, but Miho comes to change the game. The chairman condemns the donation tactics, and threatens another official. Miho and Yumi have a little stare in the hall. The chairman comes through at the end, and students are forced to bow their heads. We also get a glimpse of the chairman's secretary while strange fantasy-esque music plays.

Episode 13:

We start with two things: A freaky ass scientist with dead animals and swim class. We get a demo by some coach named Miss Misaki and Miho watches from up top. Also everyone’s non-swimsuits are stolen and they run into 3 weirdo scientists. Everyone is like, “thats fucking weird!” and move on except our main 3 girls who explain the scientists are in the chemistry club and get special permission. There’s some weirdo ass shit with Miss Misaki changing in front of Yuta. Everyone's clothes end up at their desks folded. Even the staff are confused like, “must be some really weird pervert to steal the boys too!” No, it’s weird in general!!!

At night, the coach sneaks into the school and Miho catches her, offering no explanation on why she's there. Miho knows the coach is someone who died’s sister. Miho tells Yumi that a year ago there was a hit and run of the girl, and even though they found the culprits, no one was guilty. We also find out Coach Misaki is the one who moved all the uniforms.

Yuta is with Coach Misaki cleaning, and he talks about bringing her flowers. She specifically asks for some Digitalis or something, but a special kind that only grows in the school. We find out that only the chemistry club grows them. I think the link is clear at this point. Yuta sneaks into the chemistry classroom while the weirdos are out. Yuta goes and tells Coach Misaki all this weirdo shit about the flower he found out. The weirdo students ask for more funds from the school staff. Miho shows up and is like, “what the fuck gives”. The weirdo guys are cryptic and not much help. Yumi shows up to talk to Misaki as she’s walking away and confronts her about the case. We find out the body of her sister had the pollen of that flower, and that's the lead Misaki has. Misaki snoops around but the weirdo scientists are on their trail, along with the guy we saw at the beginning. Misaki’s eyes widen and the scene cuts.

Misaki does not show up to swim practice the next day. The gang sneaks off to talk and shares what we already know. Yumi says to go to the chemistry lab. We see Misaki tied up and the weirdo big scientist is taunting her. The flower has something to do with resurrection, and the head scientist starts slapping Misaki with his crutch to kill her which… Seems very ineffective. There’s also now chairs and desks blocking the way to the lab, but the girls get by it by going through the vents on skateboards. Yumi watches the science boys concoct something, but Yumi isn’t there. Yuta then throws ping pong balls outside of the room where the science boys are, and pretends he dropped them. The science boys demand he comes with them. Miho stares down the science boys and tells them that Yuta is needed by a teacher. We find out that Yumi dropped a listening device down in the pingpong dropping, and they spill their whole plan.

The scientist walks out of his long lab room that is… God knows where, some tunnel? And the girls show up to beat the shit out of him. The nerd boys show up to fight . As this is going on, Yuta goes to save the coach. The head nurse sprays some weird white mist out of his crutch. Miho shows up to throw her roses as per usual. The nerds are beat up, tied up the next day outside of school and sprayed with silly spray. The girls are like, “the staff sucks, we should just take them all out now”. Yumi is like, “we have to wait to strike…”

Episode 14:

We start off with some creep with a photo camera taking long-ranged pictures of a couple in an apartment. They’re not doing anything besides kissing… I guess it’s some sort of famous dude, and the guy was a paparazzo. We also see some girls running track and field. The gang wants Yumi to run, but she gets sad and walks off.

A photographer, I think the one from earlier, approaches Yumi on campus to be a model and gives her his card. He is approached by one of the shady school staff dudes and whisked off. When Yumi gets home, she listens to the track radio and stares wistfully at her own award. Yumi runs into her old underling while they are both out for a run. She tells her underling she quit running and her underling is sad because she wanted to run against her. The photographer takes pics of them weirdly from afar. Later, the underling gets approached by some girls for an autograph at a grocery store, and one of the girls steals her bag while she’s writing. They fill up her bag with shit, which… How she didn't notice the weight difference is beyond me. The photographer takes pictures of it happening and it gets published in the paper.

Yumi and the gang talk and Yumi is like, “this is bullshit”. The underling is shown to have jumped off a building. No one believes the underling didn't shoplift in the gang because “pictures don’t lie”. Yumi finds out the guy who tried to scout her is the guy who took the pictures and it's connecting in her head. The gang sees the girls who asked for photographs and connects them to the photographer. Yumi then meets with the photographer. The photographer watches Yumi rifle through his shit. She finds he took weirdo pics of the girls who helped frame the underling before. However, she’s chloroformed.

The gang confronts the two girls. The 2 pairs of girls square off against each other and Ruri and Kei win. The staff slides the photographer money for his help. Photographer slunks off to be a creep, and the staff dude laughs about him keeping more money.

The pair of girls tell The Gang that they were blackmailed because he asked them if they wanted to be models. Yumi and the creepo photographer have a chat where his big plan is revealed. He tries to be a creep and she kicks his shins and runs off down multiple flights of stairs. However she’s saved just in time…! A red rose is left at the scene… Oooo lala.

The gang talks to Yumi about what they found. Apparently, there's been a history of these things, all being set up. The photographer is lured out via a phone call. The two other girls are set to show up and get beaten by army guys. The girls show up and kick their asses. At the end of the episode, Yuta gets a camera and I think takes upskirt pictures which… They chase after him but I think we need to examine why that was even necessary–

Episode 15:

We start off with a slideshow and a live performance of the theme song! Very cute. Kei is staring at the guitarist and is told the place is about to close. The owner tells the guitarist to treasure fans like her– apparently she’s a regular. She gets gifted the band's live tape. We then see the guitarist face off against a group of delinquents with his band. Miho sees all this going down.

The school is gossipping the next day. We find out that the guitarist fought and crushed the leader of all the school gangs who has been keeping peace between that academy and the one our gang is part of. The one teacher introduces a new student… The guitarist of the band!? Kei shows him around the school and is making fast friends with him. Miho bumps into Kei and drops the tape– Kei rudely takes it from her, even though Miho was nothing but nice to her. We find out Kei used to be an accomplished sukeban. Miho and Yumi talk and Miho spills that she saw the guitarist fighting the guy who got his ass kicked. As Kei is showing the guitarist around, the creepy staff guy shows up and wants to talk to him. Suddenly, a bunch of punks show up to threaten him and the staff tells the punks to bring him to the detention cell. He does some like insane psychic attack… And… Kei is unphased and smiling. Girl…? Anyway, she goes to one of their shows later too.

Yuta comes into the class with news– another group was sent to the hospital. We flash to Yumi telling the gang about the guitarist. Kei doesn't want to believe it, and later goes to watch him play piano. She asks him if he really beat up the other school groups… And he tells her not to tell anyone. He tries to kiss her and she pushes him back, embarrassed. He asks Kei to introduce him to the gang. Kei goes to tell the group and they're like, “did you tell him it's us.” She says no. Kei tries to convince Yumi it’s a good idea, but Yumi hesitates. We see guitarist boy talking to the staff– and surprise surprise, they want him to go after the girls. They tell him it's fine even if they die… And hand him money. Miho runs into him in the hallway and he tries to crypticly flirt? With her. She just walks away. Miho spills that his next target is the alliance.

Yumi tells the gang later, and Kei gets upset. Kei doesnt believe it and storms off. Yuta runs in to tell Yumi and Ruri that the guitarist is kidnapping girls from the school to get the girls to come out. Kei goes to find the guitarist, but then sees him and his guys and the kidnapped girls. Guitarist boy gets called out to fight on a stage. At first, Yumi and Ruri are the only ones, but Kei joins seconds later. The fight ensues. Halfway through the fight, the guitarist uses some… weird… all-encompassing sand? wind? attack? But Miho is there to save the day with her roses! Kei beats the shit out of the guitarist, showing she’s over him. She also takes the tape out of the cassette she got, showing she’s over it. Miho stares on from afar, looking like a kicked puppy.

Episode 16:

We start with someone walking and…oh no blood at their feet! Yumi and Ruri take a detour into the school and discover a blood trail. Naturally, they investigate. They check out an abandoned warehouse on school grounds, where more blood is. As Yumi walks into a door, she gets grabbed, gagged and a knife held to her. The one who grabbed Yumi is some girl, and Ruri is dragged in as well. The girl said she got busted for stabbing a yakuza– she’s a delinquent who broke out of a facility, and is currently bleeding. Yumi tries to reason with the girl, telling her that she’ll send Ruri to fetch the girl’s friend, and if she goes to the police, she can kill Yumi.

The girl is also from the school initially, withdrawing on the third day of the school. Staff give us more insight– her boyfriend is a boxer who had his fingers cut off from the yakuza, and so she stabbed the guy. The person the girl wants them to find is her boyfriend, and she hands a locket to Ruri to signal that Ruri knows the girl when she comes across her boyfriend. As Ruri leaves, she wonders why Yumi didn’t just attack the girl– something I was wondering too. Yuta and Kei see Ruri running and try and catch up to her, but she ignores them. Yuta and Kei use a car to try and catch up to her. Ruri rummages through a scrapyard trying to find the guy– but we see guys with strange makeup on their faces staring at her and later corner her. The boyfriend comes through and stops it, and Ruri tells him she’s there on behalf of his girlfriend.

Meanwhile, Yumi tries to stop the bleeding after seeing a first aid kit, and the girl fights her. The girl sees Yumi’s scar and asks her about it. Yumi tells the girl her story. The girl is touched and realizes Yumi could’ve just attacked her and didn’t. Yumi says she knew the girl couldn't stab anyone who wasn’t evil, and there was a good reason she stabbed the yakuza. She tells about her boyfriend’s fingers being cut off. Ruri gets driven by the boyfriend as Yuta and Kei are still confused. The pair see the other guys in the junkyard with what I think is cocaine. Ruri and the boyfriend arrive. The boyfriend lifts her into his car and drives off. Yuta and Kei say the boyfriend is the head of a smuggling ring and is meeting with Yakuza tonight.

We later see the guys pouring gasoline on the girl at night. Apparently it’s something to do with the yakuza trading route and in reality, the boyfriend never lost his fingers. How he pretended is beyond me, honestly. The guys light a single candle and drive off. The gang arrives in time to save the girl from death and Yuta goes to call for an ambulance. By the broken locket on the ground, they are able to understand how all of this happened. As the evil guys sit around and complain in the car, the girls show up to attack them. The boyfriend at some point ends up with a flamethrower. Miho is there to save the day…! They end up kicking the shit out of the boyfriend successfully. The next day, the gang visits the girl in the hospital. She’s renounced her boyfriend and calls the gang her friends.

Episode 17:

We start with… Yumi eating soup! And watching tv! However, in this program, there are girls who claim to be part of the Sailor Suit Rebel Alliance. Yumi is like… Hey man, the fuck? The girls who were pretending on the show come out of the studio gleefully shouting about… pretending. No care to who hears I guess. They talk about being excited just to be famous. A guy comes up to them saying, “hey yeah you’re those girls. Wanna get interviewed by me?” And they agree.

The next day, the girls are disgruntled, worrying about the ripple effect of the phonies. The girls who are phonies of course go to the same school. There’s a girl discovered outside tied up with a “the sailor suit alliance was here” sign. Then, there’s some more girls who threaten some random dude… And the phonies show up to fight. The fight is photographed by the aforementioned reporter. Naturally, this keeps happening and the girls get more and more reports about themselves in the paper. The group is worried about the alliance’s name, but Yumi mentions there hasn’t been any harm done. The next day, Yumi walks into class to see most of the girls in a new white uniform that the fakers keep wearing.

The reporter talks to the girls and tells them they need to take down a real threat. The reporter shows them the image of a jeweler, telling them he smuggles for some sort of illegal ring. Of course, this is majorly sketchy. The girls go to take down the guy, hitting him over the head and covering his face. They run away after he sees their faces, and the reporter guy is just a few steps away. The jeweler is reported as murdered, and the fake alliance is to blame. Kei and Ruri want to confront the girls, but they don’t show up to school the following day.

The reporter tells the fakes that they killed him, and the girls don’t really question it. He tells the girls to just forget all about it and stop being the alliance. We then see the reporter get handed a suitcase full of jewels by an associate– the real thing the “reporter” was after. The real alliance stares down the girls, and the leader of the phony alliance slaps Yumi. There’s a small confrontation, but the girls don’t bring up the fact they know they’re the fake alliance. Yumi says there’s no way the girls can be killers, and there’s more than meets the eye.

The girls get a note that the real alliance is coming after them. The girls go to the reporter and tells him the truth. However, the reporter then reveals it was all a fake to get the jewelry… Which there’s no actual reason for him to do that. If he said, “well, tough shit” it would’ve been different. However, as per this show, it’s more complicated, and the reporter kidnaps the girls and plans to kill them. The guy and his men wait for the real alliance to show up. Naturally, the girls show up to fix things and attack the guys. Halfway through the battle, the reporter douses the fakes in gasoline and holds a match. The girls are stunned, then get attacked. Miho comes yet again to say the day, this time targeting her rose attack on putting out the lighter. The girls get the upper hand again…! The girls save the phones who flee. The phonies approach them the next day, calling them lame, but then revealing that they made a fanclub for the real alliance… But to join people need an entry fee and they can meet the real things. Once the fakes walk off, the real alliance just laughs.

Episode 18:

We start off with the Yakuza teacher strolling into school in a tux with flowers. An older woman is driven up to the school and the yakuza teacher gives her flowers. We get it reported later she was his kindergarten teacher who moved to Australia and is now an oil tycoon. She’s apparently looking for a relative connection, and they find a 17-year-old girl who’s related to her via some lawyer the yakuza teacher hired.

We later see this lady on the train breaking up a scuffle. Ruri is also on the train and witnesses it and jumps in. The old lady asks Ruri for a favor and brings her to a cafe. She tells Ruri of her inheritance, and that her husband and son passed away in a car crash. The lady tells Ruri she needs help picking out a gift for the 17-year-old girl and Ruri accepts helping her. A guy watches them talk and goes to I think the lawyer to tell him. A girl is brought in and surprise– she’s a fake!! Ruri and the lady go shopping and sightseeing, and bond. They part ways and the old lady says she hopes the girl is as nice as Ruri is. The creepy guy from earlier follows Ruri and kidnaps her. The guy interrogates her and intimidates her, trying to like… Snap her neck? She kicks his crotch and runs off. Yumi brings her to her house and takes care of her.

The faker meets up with the older lady. Ruri and Yumi watch from afar, noticing the guy who kidnapped Ruri. Ruri and Yumi go talk to the catholic school where the girl is from, and the nuns show the pair a picture of the girl and note that she was run over… So, dead. The gang catches on to the plot. The gang tries to talk to the old lady, but the creepy guy from before is following the old lady and the fake. The gang sends in Ruri to do something… That something is to dress up like her fake relative. Yuta approaches the old lady and says he needs directions to Hokkaido. Ruri steps in to replace the faker after the rest of the gang knocks out the fake. They go back to a hotel room where the old lady is to sign the probate paper. She signs the papers and goes over to Ruri. The guys say they’ll escort the pair to the hot springs. Ruri quickly calls the gang– however, she’s interrupted by the guy who attacked her earlier, and he attacks her again. The lawyer tells the old lady her relative is dead and she’s going to die as well. He chloroforms her and they drive off.

Kei follows the car while Yumi goes to check on Ruri. She frees Ruri from being tied up and they head out to also follow the car. The car heads to a graveyard, planning to stage a suicide. The girls show up to attack! Miho shows up with her rose attack to save the day as well mid-fight. The lawyer tries to run off, but is pinned to a tree with a needle, before Yumi knocks him out. The next day, Ruri escorts the old lady off. Yakuza teacher runs after the car, pleading that he can be her adopted kid.

Episode 19:

We start off with Miho gayly watching the dance routine of some bobbed haired girl. Her name is Kaori. They go on a cafe date after and Kaori talks about dieting and wanting to go on broadway. Some vampire dude is across the street. After the date, the vampire dude goes up to Miho to try and convince her of something– she knows he's one of her father’s guys. We find out the father wants her to study in the UK and she doesn’t want to. Kaori heads home, sees suspicious stuff outside her apartment, and then we see a room get blown up…? Miho rushes to see her at the hospital in record timing. We learn from the gang there was a gas attack via some guy commiting suicide and also Kaori quit school to learn to be a broadway dancer. Miho later learns Kaori is blind from the incident. We learn there's 1 doctor who can fix this, I think in England or America. Miho’s father offers to pay, on the condition that Miho goes to study in the UK. Miho does not accept. Miho later has a gay little memory montage of Kaori.

Yumi and Miho talk and Yumi tries to comfort her. Miho feels beaten down, unable to join the alliance and stand up to her father. It seems Miho is ready to accept her fate of being British. Yuta sees Miho and Yumi come out of the same room together. Ruri is mean to her, and Yumi tells her to knock it off. Miho goes to Kaori and helps comfort her. Kaori is unsure if the incident was actually a suicide attempt, as she saw someone with a badge from the school. Miho tells the gang it seems, because Yumi knows now. Ruri questions where Yumi got this, and Yuta spills the beans on Miho and Yumi meeting up. Kei and Ruri are shocked by this, mad at her. Yumi tells her to think about the roses that always help them out– they're Miho’s. Ruri doesn't believe there’s anything good about Miho based on the fact she’s the chairman's daughter, and storms off.

Vampire dude reveals to Miho’s dad that his face was seen, and Miho’s dad says that things need to be fixed. A “doctor” comes in to give Kaori an injection… And of course, it's a vampire dude. Miho sees vampire dude leaving the hospital in a hurry and runs up to Kaori. Kaori is fine. We get a horror interpretive dance routine, and it seems to be Kaori’s dream. Kaori calls out to Miho for help, before falling down… Dead. Miho and Yumi see the dead body. Miho finally snaps, saying she doesn't care that it's her father, she needs to take him down. Vampire dude is apparently heading to blow up the Education League building as well. Miho walks in on the conversation, grabbing a rose and walking towards her dad, telling him the news of Kaori’s passing. Her dad says, “wow sucks, hope you still study in the UK.”

The father mentions she's the only child and something like “a rose must remain a rose”. Miho is like, “well, roses have thorns. Checkmate, DAD.” And then leaves. As the vampire dude is getting driven down the street, the car is stopped in a tunnel because the gang arrives to kick his ass. Vampire dude tries to run off, flapping his cape, and then suddenly a bunch of suited up guys arrive. The girls promptly kick their asses. The vampire dude throws Yumi on the street, and the girls rush to her. He suddenly throws something out of a bottle to light a small fire, and then is ready to throw the whole thing… But Miho stops it with her rose attack! Kei retrieves the bottle with her chain weapon thing and safely puts it down before the girls beat up the vampire dude for real. Miho watches on from afar, smiling. Yumi calls out to her, begging her not to run away. Miho is hesitant, but Yumi shows that the other girls are there watching as well, and gives her smiles of acceptance. Everyone puts their hand in a hand pile of comradery.

Episode 20:

We start off with Yuta getting his ass beat by the Yakuza teacher. The girls are there… And then Miho shows up to be like, “what’s up?” Miho embarrasses the yakuza teacher and gets everyone out of trouble, even getting the teacher to apologize to Yuta. Everyone seems to be warming to Miho’s involvement.

A student gets hit by a car… Someone going into the school.. A board of directors? And Miho also planted a listening device in the board meeting room and the gang listens in. There’s some dastardly plan afoot as per normal. The chairman’s wife/assistant hands the board guy a totem to give to Miho. The guy gets his car stolen by the student from before, along with the totem. The car has things related to this new plan the school is doing. Apparently the plan is a major school overhaul. Miho hears this all. The yakuza teacher investigates the students. The car is later found, no one in it. Miho’s dad is thinking his wife/secretary is keeping things from him– not even hearing about the meeting. He gets pissed off at her and breaks a very nice cup. The lady gets a call and the documents are NOT in the car.

Corporal punishment keeps being doled out until Miho breaks it up and looks for info. The kid who stole the car is chased around in the streets by suited guys. Yumi sees this go down. They lose sight of the guy and Yumi helps him escape. The guy says he stole the car to cause a little chaos and remarks that it's the first time they've ever spoken. She warns him about the yakuza teacher and throws her the totem before leaving. The board guy shows up at Miho’s house to talk to her dad’s girlfriend. They express fear if the plan ever got out. Yumi keeps trailing the delinquent kid and he goes to an abandoned van. However, he's kidnapped immediately and Yumi sees this, with a perfect 80s freeze frame. There’s also a warning message to leave the doll at a location, and Yumi shakes the doll, opening it to reveal some sort of eye lens case with something inside. Miho calls up Yumi to let her know.

Yumi heads to the tracks, seemingly alone. The guys in suits are there with a beat up delinquent kid. She has the doll and throws it over to them. There’s still the eye lens case inside. They attack the kid a few more times and then let him go. Yumi rushes back over to him. Apparently the eye lens case is actually some film. The guys in suits show up late at night and the girls are there to kick their asses— Now with Miho in tow!!! Miho gets him to spill the beans of where the doll is, and Yumi punches him so hard in the stomach he passes out. The girls run to get the doll from his office… but the safe has already been opened and everything is taken out! I legit was expecting Yumi to have switched out the camera stuff, but I guess not. The wife/secretary now has the camera roll.

Episode 21:

We start with the kids in school being forced to wear some sort of one-hand handcuff bracelets for some reason? Miho and Yumi discuss it, thinking it might be part of “Plan B” from the school. Miho mentions something about slaves being branded in olden times by emperors. Miho says she’ll find it out. The one weirdo teacher-principal-staff dude comes in with his gang of dudes, first being rude then apologizing to Miho. Apparently, he’s looking for a room to install “new teaching devices” in. The two leave and the teacher contemplates Miho and Yumi’s relationship.

Apparently, the new “teaching devices” include some sort of monitors it seems. Apparently, they can check the activities of students in the school with the computers. A girl falls during gym and Moriguchi, from all that time ago, saves her, and as the yakuza teacher goes to strike her, but Moriguchi stops it. However he gets beat up instead. Two students head out while the yakuza teacher is distracted, but are quickly found out within seconds. The boy who saved the girl, Moriguchi, is sent to the reflection cell, where boys are being forced to do push ups.

Yuta comes in on crutches. He apparently fell on stairs and broke his leg. Moriguchi comes in, and the girl he saved tries to take care of him. The faculty talk about finding out the identity of the alliance. Some girls get accosted for going out at night from the students who help uphold the school, and we’re shown these students are stationed all over. Yuta is out on the street and sees the students bothering others and narrowly escapes their gaze. We also find out Yuta is faking his injury. He meets with the girls and they all commiserate. Yumi remembers Miho’s words and tells them they should disperse, that it’s not safe for them to be together. We then see the one weirdo staff guy overseeing the whole operation to catch students out and about.

Moruiguchi and the girl are out together and Yumi sees them. Moriguchi says he’s planning to steal the keys. Yumi warns him, but he continues on, until all 3 of them are spotted. Moriguchi and the girl get cornered and captured and Yumi manages to run away and hide. The staff dude says he caught the rebel alliance, mistaking Moriguchi and the girl to be them. We yet again see the chairman being badly taken care of by his wife/secretary and she refuses to get him help as he calls out for it. Miho goes to see her dad and sees him struggling before running to help. She grabs his medicine and helps him, to which he thanks her. She walks away silently.

The staff teacher dude acts creepy to the girl and then beats up Moriguchi. Miho shows up and sees the scene, accosting the teacher for being there late. The teacher tells her he caught members of the rebel alliance. Miho steals some of the bracelets, and we see Yumi and Ruri running and meeting up with Miho and Fumi. The teacher watches them meet up, and Miho sends off a dog with one of the bracelets attached. Multiple animals are released with bracelets, including chickens, cats, rabbits. I do wish they were gentler to the animals for this scene– not that it was outright abusive, but definitely some rough handling. The teacher goes to find out what’s going on with the bracelets himself. The girls show up in costume to kick the shit out of him. The next day, the bracelets are taken off since the girls were able to get the keys. It seems Moriguchi and the girl, Aki, are now dating as well. Cute!

Episode 22:

We start off with the chairman's wife being shocked there's a rebel alliance and chewing out the staff. We then see Miho and Yumi talking about it. Finally, we find out that it's her stepmother. The pair see the stepmother enter the car and drive off. Yumi recognizes her… As her mother!? We get the classic Yumi getting attacked flashback.

There’s something at the start of the school talking about special treatment or something and we find out the Yakuza’s guys are the law now and looking for the rebel alliance. Two unrelated students are taken out of class and interrogated, and we find out that’s the plan, to interrogate every student. The rest of the students find out about Plan B and the plan to turn the school into a reflection cell. The students are up in arms and talk about fighting back. The Yakuza’s student law comes in and tells the students that they’re going to fight them– the students push back and barricade the room. Yakuza guy comes up to see the commotion, and so does Miho. Ruri and Kei talk about how their parents will have to step in since they locked themselves in the room.

Yakuza guy and another lady talk to the principal about the commotion. They say it’s not such a bad thing because it’ll be easier to crush their spirits. Miho is informed her father is in the hospital after suffering a seizure. The student law and the Yakuza guy fan the smell of food into the room and people start to get impatient. Yuta comes up with a way to sneak out as well. A classmate slides a paper to the Yakuza teacher, probably telling of Yuta’s plan. Yuta is of course, caught and beat up, and made an example of outside.

Smoke comes into the room which is… What the hell but what do I expect from this show? The students break the windows to get it out, and the snitches run to yell at the Yakuza teacher. Obviously the class turns on them for it, but Yumi yells there’s no reason to do this. The students surrender, but the Yakuza teacher yells that someone in there is part of the rebel alliance. The students start turning on each other. No one turns themselves in and more gas floods in. Yumi yells and gives herself up, but Kei and Ruri follow suit. They and the class stare at each other. Meanwhile, Miho is with her father and her step mother in the hospital. Her father tells her that he wants her to run the academy and she says she can’t do that. He then tells the step mother to take care of Miho. We find out the rebel alliance has been caught.

The girls are lined up in handcuffs in front of the students and staff. Yumi holds strong on her convictions to fight, but gets slapped. The three are carried out of the room and the students all look on in horror. Yuta is in the cell with the other 3, somehow caught as well. Kei and Ruri finally ask why Yumi came to the academy, but she dodges the question. Miho shows up to save the gang, freeing them. The staff finds out the alliance has escaped and goes to find them. However, the alliance finds them, this time not in disguise, and Miho is there as well, showing herself. Miho and the Yakuza teacher face off. However, as she gets knocked down, Kei helped save her– then Ruri saves Kei and all four fight the teacher. They work together to take down the teacher together. The girls surround the principal and his secretary, attacking them as well. The students come out to cheer them on for their victory, led by Yuta. However Ruri and Kei are shot!? Miho and Yumi go to hold onto them and we get a cliffhanger.

Episode 23:

This episode picks up where we left off, seeing an unknown person run away after shooting the two. An ambulance arrives for Ruri and Kei, and they’re taken to the hospital. Miho says it must've been her step mother shooting at them, as she’s the only one who would consider shooting the alliance, even if Miho was involved. Yumi is thinking about the fact that it's most likely her mother. Yumi shows Miho the picture of her mother and Miho is aghast. Yumi says she’s her biological mother who tried to kill her, and the reason she transferred to the academy. They both are like, “okay we gotta beat your mom, Yumi.” The stepmother finds out from an assistant that yeah, Miho is part of it, and her sniper got 2/4.The stepmother gets an image of Yumi and it hits her, oh yeah that's my daughter.

The students are barred from the school, as it’s apparently been closed. Theyre told to go home. Yuta and Yumi talk by the river about their circumstances. 3 weeks pass and the guys who guard it are still there and the academy is re-launching under a new name. An interviewer asks the students, who are angry about the decision, leading to fights between the students and staff. Ruri and Kei are up and recovering in the hospital. Miho is out, but Yuta and Yumi came to visit. The step mother is talking about the new school. I guess we’re supposed to assume Miho’s dad actually died. The stepmother's assistant brings her Yumi’s file and goes to ask about it, but the stepmother shoos her away. Yumi and Miho talk together. Miho talks about the plan for the school to raise mindless robots to send them to rule Japan later on. Miho talks about how even her father wasn’t aware of this.

Yumi goes to see her mother. The mother urges her to come in and sit, saying, “yeah you prob hate me because I tried to kill you.. But! I have a good excuse.” Yumi is giving her a blank stare. We see the flashback again. She tells Yumi that remarrying changed her and she never forgot about Yumi, thinking they’d meet again some day. She tells Yumi that everything will be hers in time. Yumi tells her that her mother died when she was four, and that's all she came to say. Yumi goes home and cries.

Students are still protesting outside the academy and swarm the step mother’s car. The stepmother gets inside and talks about making it have her touch. The staff comes in to beg for their positions, but are escorted out. They all deserve it, so I don't feel bad lol. Yumi burns the picture of her mother. The mother gets a call from Yumi, presumably to meet again. Knowing the beats this series follows, I think she’s gonna kick the shit out of her. Miho’s dad actually isn’t dead…? Miho goes to visit him in the hospital, wearing the white outfit, where he’s lying, very weak. Miho says she came to bid him farewell. Yumi and Miho meet up, dressed to fight. Ruri and Kei have recovered, joining them.

The alliance squares off against the now chairwoman [mother] and her gang. Yumi walks forward, and so does her mother. Her mother pulls out a pistol to attack, and Ruri and Kei go to save her, but Miho pulls her back. Yumi walks forward and makes a fist, before putting it down. The chairwoman drops the gun and falls to her knees crying. The mothers assistant pulls a gun, and Miho stops her from firing. We fade the scene. We seem to get a flashforward– the students happily go to the school and are greeted by the teachers. Yumi folds her alliance uniform as the rest of the group comes in. Miho tells Yumi to keep her outfit, and the other two help her put it in her bag. Ruri and Kei tell her they want bid Yumi goodbye, as it’s not a farewell but a see you later. Yumi walks out of the school as the theme music begins playing. They watch her depart and we get a clipshow of the fights. One by one, everyone walks away from watching Yumi leave… but Miho.