Saki is a delinquent high school student with pink hair. - Okay, so what? She's also an undercover cop. - Not a far stretch for Japanese cinema. And she fights with a bulletproof yo-yo that doubles as a badge. - Well, it is anime...

Saki is all that and a bag of chips! She was released from juvenile prison to work as an undercover detective. In exchange for infiltrating the murky underworld of high school organized crime, her mother is taken off death row. Wait, there's more. Her alma mater is being taken over by three evil sisters and their powerful father. Her only real allies are a kid who shaves his head to attract women, a stoic detective who looks like he escaped from AREA 88, and the school principal who wears too much eye shadow. The irony? She doesn't even like her mother very much...
We are a forgiving lot, anime fans. You can feed us the most unbelievable plots and ridiculous situations, but so long as it looks cool we'll watch it. I once tried to describe PROJECT A-KO to a friend, but to him it sounded too weird and silly to be interesting. Of course it is weird and silly, but when he saw it he loved it. "This is so cool!"
It's too bad SUKEBAN DEKA isn't a comedy. There are funny scenes, but the show relies on drama and action. And in this case, the one is saved by the other. The story is too sentimental, and while it's not as bad as ARCADIA OF MY YOUTH, this is definitely melodrama. But it also smacks of John Woo and his Hong Kong action thrillers like THE KILLER or HARD BOILED; goofy story, cool action. It's that wild action that saves an otherwise cheesy flick. All the common ingredients are here: tragic pasts, gritty professionals, slain innocents who must be avenged, and the central character's ability to obliterate whole prefectures of bad guys. It's very overdone, but the story is saved by not taking itself too seriously. Sanpei's affections and Saki's wild-takes relieve the soap opera tension, while some scenes are so overboard it's impossible not to smile.

Saki flashing her badge

And there's plenty of action. The fight sequences are a little over the top, but not in a bad way. It's very stylized and that's part of the fun. Again, if you've seen any old Chow Yun Fat action flicks you know what I mean. There's a part of me that gets a kick out of all the double takes and overblown entrances that were so common in old anime dramas. You'll find lots of goofy dramatics here, and the scene where Saki reveals her identity to the police superintendent is precious! She makes flashing a badge look like a Power Rangers episode. Even the music is melodramatic, but that's fitting. Lots of pensive close-ups with tense snatches of song.
As long as you don't take it too seriously this is a fun pair of flicks. If you do decide to check it out, be sure to see the first SUKEBAN DEKA, or some of Vol. 2 won't make sense. There's nothing really new or unique here. But if you can get past the 'overacting' and thin plot, how can you pass up a girl with 5 feet of pink hair, a bad attitude, and a bulletproof yo-yo?

A.D. VISION, INC. / 60 MIN.
Creator/Supervisor: Wada Shinji
VHSSK/002 Subtitled $29.95
VHSSK/002D Subtitled $29.95
Release Date: Indeterminate (per A.D. Vision)
COPYRIGHT ©1991 SHINJI WADA/HAKUSENSHA/J.H. PROJECT
COPYRIGHT © 1996 A.D VISION, INC.