Last month on Yuri Studio, I made a video about Girl Gangs in Anime and Manga. I enjoyed making it quite a bit and it motivated me to pick up a series I mentioned in the video – Sukeban Deka Pretend, Volume 1 (スケバン刑事Pretend).
Asamiya Saki is dead and gone. High schooler Yasaki Asami (see what they did there?) never knew her. Nonetheless, their lives will become intertwined, when Asami – whose one goal is to make 10,000 friends online – finds a mysterious yo-yo. Well, actually, the yo-yo finds her. It literally drops from the sky as she’s up on the school roof. When she sees a bunch of kids bullying another kid, Saki’s spirit appears and instructs her to fight evil, as Sukeban Deka Pretend!
…kind of like the world’s greatest delinquent is now a magical animal mascot.
In any case, Asami does transform and saves the guy…but he is not interested in being friends. In fact, he kind of loses his grip and turns out to be doing crime. He’s the guy responsible for the new “snake” marijuana in school. The snake tattoo on his forehead awakens and he completely goes off the rails. Asami has to transform and subdue him.
Then Asami helps a girl whose uniform has been stolen, the end result of which is that she turns up a whole ring of stolen school items. The girl whose uniform was stolen turns out to have a snake tattoo that possesses her, as well. She’s actually sold her uniform for money – but was that before or after the snake?
In each case, Asami sets out to help someone, only for them to turn on her, become possessed by something snake-themed, and turn out to be the actual bad guy. I appreciate that snake theme, honestly, calling back to the giant snakes at the end of the original series.
But this all gets really wonky in the final arc of the volume. Chisato is the Vice chair of the Morals committee, a powerful group in the school which rules with an iron hand. She and Asami work together in the stolen goods arc, and they learn that there is actually a blue yo-yo as well! Who has it, or why, neither of them know. When the Chair of the morals committee is possessed by the snake…whatever-it-is, Asami stands ready to fight, but before she can transform, the Morals Chair slaps her down. At which Chisato stands forward with that blue yo-yo and she becomes Sukeban Deka Principal!
Also…Saki’s handler (and lover) Jin seems to be a teacher at the school.
Okay. Yes. Thank you. This was perfect, in a mad as a porridge knife way. Saki being part of the story, while remaining dead is a total thumbs up, as is the whole snake theme. Another thumb for the second yo-yo and another for Jin being right there, and apparently knowing what’s going on, but not lifting a finger to do anything. Four thumbs up for this story. It’s…bonkers in a way that only a reworking of a 50 year old cultural phenomenon could be. A bit like the Brady Bunch Movie. You can’t take the original seriously, but you can’t just lampoon it, either…it was a formative part of the cultural landscape. So you have to hold it with love and make it sillier. ^_^
Ratings:
Art – 8
Characters – 8
Story – 8
Service – 0
Yuri – 0
At the end of this volume we have Asami and Chisato as paired Sukeban Deka, so maybe we’ll get some good partnership-relationship there. The evil snake theme is certainly a thing and now we just need to know how the Principal is involved, because, duh~~ she is clearly involved. Will I get the next volume to find out? You bet I will! Volume 1 only came out in April and this series appears to be still running in Princess magazine, so yeah, I’m all in on this. ^_^
Deliquent girls forever!
