SCHOOLGIRL COMMANDO IZUMI
(1987, Japan, Shoujo Commando Izumi)
After sampling the mad 1980s Japanese TV phenomenon of schoolgirl action heroes in Sukeban Deka (three series, two films and a recent remake), I looked around for more. Best of the bunch appeared to be Schoolgirl Commando Izumi, who carries around a rucksack of explosives and automatic weapons, bringing swift justice to whatever baddies are around. That is when she's not hanging around and doing girly things with her classmate buddies.
The premise predates James Cameron's Dark Angel. An innocent-looking teenager being re-programmed and re-trained as a government killing machine. Here the pseudo-science is called 'bio-feedback'. So, whenever she gets into a fix, she just stares into the camera, her hair blows up in the air, and then she defeats the villains in slow-motion.
What separates this schoolgirl martial arts chaos from all the rest, is the time and money lavished on the stuntwork and explosives. The action in many episodes is good enough for a Japanese movie from that time. The whole series is relatively short, at 15 half-hour episodes, far less padded out than the epic Sukeban Deka series. This would make it an ideal choice for a US release, which has been very sluggish to import any Japanese series that aren't anime, despite a treasure trove of choice.
Ignorance of these TV gems is of course a result of the lack of English language info. The series isn't even on IMDB. Especially in the wake crowd-pleasers like the recent Machine Girl and Saikano - The Ultimate Weapon. Japanese girls with guns is definitely a hot genre. Let's get a chance to see more of it.
I got my DVD set from CDjapan (front cover artwork pictured at top) last year, but remember there are no English subtitles or voicetrack. No extras either, simply the entire series of 15 episodes over 3 DVDs.
Proof I'm not the only one in the world who's seen this series: check out this review, with screengrabs.
Check out the explosive opening titles here on YouTube...
The premise predates James Cameron's Dark Angel. An innocent-looking teenager being re-programmed and re-trained as a government killing machine. Here the pseudo-science is called 'bio-feedback'. So, whenever she gets into a fix, she just stares into the camera, her hair blows up in the air, and then she defeats the villains in slow-motion.
What separates this schoolgirl martial arts chaos from all the rest, is the time and money lavished on the stuntwork and explosives. The action in many episodes is good enough for a Japanese movie from that time. The whole series is relatively short, at 15 half-hour episodes, far less padded out than the epic Sukeban Deka series. This would make it an ideal choice for a US release, which has been very sluggish to import any Japanese series that aren't anime, despite a treasure trove of choice.
Ignorance of these TV gems is of course a result of the lack of English language info. The series isn't even on IMDB. Especially in the wake crowd-pleasers like the recent Machine Girl and Saikano - The Ultimate Weapon. Japanese girls with guns is definitely a hot genre. Let's get a chance to see more of it.
I got my DVD set from CDjapan (front cover artwork pictured at top) last year, but remember there are no English subtitles or voicetrack. No extras either, simply the entire series of 15 episodes over 3 DVDs.
Proof I'm not the only one in the world who's seen this series: check out this review, with screengrabs.
Check out the explosive opening titles here on YouTube...
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