First up on the Docket:
Gal Gircle: This drama is charged with overuse of a hot cowboy to teach clueless Japanese Gals lessons on how to be better people. It is also changed with putting Fujiki Naohito is a silly cowboy’s costume and making him use a bunch of useless English words. At least Momo did it better. Episode One is further charged with inciting male fantasies and demeaning well-dressed and trendy Japanese girls by having the pretty kogals of the drama trying to beat the crap out of another in Shibuya. This is a drama, not pr0n or a prison flick. And Naohito-san, leave those silver frogs alone!
The gals, well-dressed and kicking ass…
The geezers, who supposed “don’t like the gals” (riiiiiight)
The cowboy to bind them in the streets of Shibuya…
Even though this show is very quirky with Fujiki Naohito as the gallent, chivalrous cowboy, it’s also pretty touching as well. The episode opens with what looks like people from the US Air Force, preparing to drop our cowboy hero over Shibuya 109. (A Cowboy parachuting over Shibuya is something interesting in itself…why didn’t he use a horse?) Then we switch over to a huge para para circle in synch in a huge area of Shibuya (does that really happy), and we soon meet the female lead of the series, Saki, and her friends, Shizuka (the rich girl people don’t like apparently), and a mousy girl whose names escapes me at the moment. I knew gals were tough, after watching the anime “Gals”, but upon first glance of the gals in this circle, means girls would be putting lightly. Due to an accident with a cup of water, some girls get into a fight (see picture one)…(Saki reminds me of Ichiko from Shimotsuma Monogatari in this scene.) The center of the circle, Remi-san, tells the girls to calm down and even offers a corny joke in the process. Remember these jokes, children, as they become progressively worse through the series…but in a cute, corny way.
After hearing the silly old geezers talk about how Shibuya used to be a nice place, and how horrible it’s because now that the gals are around (what was the point of this scene? I think this is the “whine and b*tch about kogals club, because seriously, that’s all they do!), in comes our beloved cowboy. He gets tangled up in his parachute, uses a knife to get out, and falls to the down on his feet, like a cat. Looking up to the sky, he says “thank you”, and his US Air Force companions leave him the sky message “Good Luck” as they depart. Right. Seriously, this is only the beginning of how the drama shows what a hero our cowboy, Shinnosuke is. Coming from the plains of Arizona, he was sent by Geronimo to find his beloved “Imoko”. Once as to wonder if Shinnosuke has come from 19th century Arizona, as his chivalrous message turns out to be troublesome for the more modern citizens of Shibuya. Even one old guy says “I sense that trouble has arrived in Shibuya”…and he would be right.
You can tell that Cowboy Shinnosuke means well, and has a high sense of morals, and is always trying to do the right thing. However, as the episode progresses, I wonder if he really is from 19th century (he was born in Japan, but left when he was seven, apparently, which is why his knowledge of the city is lacking). When he first meets the police officer in the park, you can see that he’s genuinely unsure about the place he’s arrived at, and wondering why in the world this guy is asking him to put out the fires (You say it’s the law, but you don’t know where it comes from or something to that effect). When he first meets Saki (she falls into his trap at the park), he rushes her to the pharmacy he fell near in order to help her feel better, gathering together weird looking ingredients and hungry lion wouldn’t go near and putting them together in order to cure her (Saki obviously isn’t going for it, though if it were me, I wouldn’t mind Fujiki-san picking me up and carrying me like that). From the get go, I wondered how this weird cowboy would survive in Shibuya, looking for the mysterious Imoko.
Eventually, we come to know that cowboy, through a weird twist of fate and his own morals, will come to help out the “Indian girls” (that’s what he calls the gals that he saw para para-ing in the sky) in very unorthodox ways. Saki, our fair heroine, is a friend of Shizuka, the mousy-sounding rich girl of the Angel Hearts Gal Circle (the biggest circle in Shibuya, a place where wayward girls have gone too, according to the title). However, the other girls in the circle don’t like her, only want her for her money, and they wish she would die (”Uzai da yo” is what I think they say, but I’m no Japanese speaker. But I do recognize “shi-ne”). Saki, under pressure from the other girls, echoes their sentiment.
The interactions with the Policeman and Shinnosuke are hilarious. The Policeman is very “by the book”, while Shinnosuke is guided by his heart and his principles. You know that they are each other’s foil, so you know they are destined to see each other again. Which is good, because Sato Ryuta and Fujiki Naohito are really cute.
Ahem, anyway getting back to the story, the policemen guides Shinnosuke to the restaurant of the old geezers, and he tells them about his friend Geronimo, and his search for Imoko (which makes everyone wonder). Back in Arizona, Geronimo and Momo find out that he arrived safely in Shibuya, and the girl wonders if Shinnosuke can cope in such a place. Geronimo has faith in him, however, and even uses a fancy speech to show his faith.
Saki chats with a few girls, who make it their mission to torture “slow” Shizuka because they have “nothing else better to do anyways”. Saki looks like she has a problem with it, but she doesn’t say a word, probably thinking about her status more. Watching the girls be mean to Shizuka is hard to watch at times. Meanwhile, the Policeman allows Shinnosuke to stay at his house for the night, and he gets in touch with Geronimo. A few minutes ago, the old man talk about how much faith he had in the cowboy, but when he hears that the cowboy “was caught” and “when I got the drugs, the guy asked me to give him the money”, he only thinks of the worst things (but those scenes were pretty funny). Shinnosuke assures him that he’ll complete his task to find Imoko, and that he’s made friends in the process. Thinking that Geronimo is dying (Geronimo is a bit of a drama queen, isn’t it?), asks that the Shinigami (Death God) leave Geronimo alone (puh-leez)
The teasing of Shizuka continues, and Saki, under pressure, once again tells her “friend” that she’s annoying and to die. Shinnosuke hears this, and confronts Saki, who tells him there are no meanings to the words (a cute scene where Geronimo says something is annoying also helps to illustrate the point). Shinnosuke still seems confused. Later, Saki and the other friend (who’s voice is mousy as well) are hanging out with the other girls, and asks Saki how long she intends to keep dissing Shizuka. Saki plays it off, and when her friend gets up to get a juice, she asks her to get her some water (”how long do you intend to live off of 10 yen?”). When Saki tries to send a message to apologize, the other girls crowd around her, and Saki, unable to turn back, decides to send her a message to “die”. The other girls are pleased. Meanwhile, Shizuka receives the message, and she looks pretty devastated (by this time, I’m yelling at Saki to stop being a jerk. Peer pressure is so high school…)
The policeman awakens to see a fire in his home, which he tries hard to put out. Shinnosuke thanks his for marinating his food, and the policeman once again reminds him of the rules. The policeman calls him annoying, and the cowboy brings up the word “uzai”. The policeman says he doesn’t use that kind of language, and then tells the cowboy about how bad a place Shibuya is becoming, and how as a policemen, he hopes to bring back its decency. They head off to bed, but not before Shinnosuke asks why Shibuya doesn’t have many stars. After being told that the lights are bright, and the stars are still around, he wonders why if there are stars in the sky, how come so many girls are lost?
Shizuka wanders the city, dejected, while the other gals happily send her messages to “die”. I found this hard to watch because Shizuka really looks sad (then again, I’d be anything but happy if people sent me message asking me to “please die”. Then again, I’d probably kick their butts too.) Apparently, she’s the “lost” girl of Shibuya this time around.
Saki and the Cowboy meet up again, where they talk about what a friend is (but not before demanding food, since you know, she only has 10 yen). When Shinnosuke asks her what friendship is, she thinks back to she and Shizuka joined Angel Heart in junior high, complete with her writing a message on the button, and telling her that’ll be there for her every step of the way. Of course, Saki isn’t completely touched by her flashback, and she goes back to being snarky. Just then, she gets a message from Shizuka saying that she’s really going to “die”. This freaks Saki out, and she rushes to her friend, screaming about how she’s going to kill herself, and Shinnosuke yells after her.
The climax of this episode occurs when Saki finds Shizuka walking along the cliff of a building, and she rushes upstairs to stop her friend. The other girl runs and finds the Policeman, and drags him to the building. By this time, a crowd gathers around the street, and are horrified to see that Shizuka is trying to kill herself. In the midst of Saki trying to stop Shizuka, Shinnosuke appears and says “you’re annoying. die.” Shizuka, thinking that she’s the receive of the words, attempts to jump. Saki throws her out of the way, and she falls instead.
Shinnosuke uses his super-lasso (seriously, it can catch anything) to catch Saki, but says he caught the wrong one. By this time, the Policeman is at the roof, prattling on about the rules, and how this is attempted manslaugher. Looking dead in Saki’s eyes, Shinnosuke tells her that she’s annoying and that she should die - and lets go of the rope. Everyone is freaking out, and both Shizuka and the Policeman grab the rope to save Saki. Saki complains about how crazy the cowboy is, but when the role slips further, and she ends up hanging upside down, she breaks. She tells Shizuka how sorry she is for telling her to die, and she didn’t mean it. Shizuka begs Shinnosuke to help her, but he doesn’t budge. Just then, the rope completely slips from both Shizuka and the Policeman’s hands, and Saki spirals down to the street, everyone’s screaming and going insane. As she descends, Saki screams, “I DON’T WANT TO DIE…”
…and she does not. The rope stops short of the street, and it was tied to a ring at the other end of the roof. Shinnosuke puts on his gloves, and calmly pulls Saki up to the top, and everyone is happy. Saki looks freaked out (I would be too, especially if I thought I would die), and Shinnosuke explains he wanted to follow Japan’s rules regarding this matter. To say that someone is annoying and they should die might be the rules, but if someone said those words to him “it’s pretty damn scary”. Shizuka and Saki hug each other, shaken up by the whole ordeal. The Policeman tries to stop Shinnosuke, but can only look at him as he disappears.
Geronimo praises Shinnosuke for his work, but chastises him when he discovers that the girl he helped wasn’t Imoko. At the end of the episode, Momo drops into the Policeman’s house. Shinnosuke is happy to see her, while the Policeman wonders who the heck that little girl is.
This is a very quirky drama. I don’t think I’d want to learn to respect my friends the way Saki learned, but the premise of a cowboy super hero touching the lives of kogals in Shibuya is very interesting, a very Japanese premise indeed. Fujiki-san and Sato-san are really cute, and while Saki seems b*tchy at times, I do like her. Like I said, I’ve already seen the series, but after this episode, I wondered what crazy lengths Shinnosuke would go to in order to teach these gals how to find their way.