Hakozume – Kouban Joshi no Gyakushuu – 05

A Part

「深夜のパトロール」 (Shin’ya no Patorōru)
“Late-Night Patrol”

B Part

「VS．チカン」 (Bāsasu. Chikan)
“Vs. the Groper”

First of all, I would like to apologize for the late coverage, as it was my b-day weekend and well I decided to take some time off to enjoy with friends and family, and not have to worry about half-assing the coverage with what little time I had.

It doesn’t really matter, as I’m not really one to make a fuss about my birthday, I rather spend a quiet evening with whatever game I’m currently playing at the moment (Odin’s Sphere) or treat myself to some fast food coffee like Starbucks or Tim Hortons (yes we have both) Nevertheless this Sunday ended perfectly with some short rain-showers and the ability to cuddle up with my cat and finally sit down to watch this week’s episode of Hakozume and Sasaki to Miyano the latter incoming in another post. 🙂

Now fully charged, it’s time to start this week’s coverage!

Hakozume this week deals with intense topics, albeit the first part of the episode was written much more like a gag as Kawai proved she’s the comedic relief of the show. Her moments come from her novice-ness and inability to keep her emotions to herself, she’s still learning the ropes from Seiko, Seiji, and Takeshi.

Takeshi and Seiji are running undercover ops for a week now, trying to catch a robber that’s infiltrating a school at night to see what he can nab from unsuspecting teachers, Seiko is one step ahead of them and sends Kawai into the school to distract Seiji and Takeshi, it works. She’s just a scardey cat so she sings the national anthem to the police academy. It would have been nice if Hakozume would have gone with a full horror vibe, but instead, it decided to just gloss over that vibe and go with comedy instead, in a somewhat horror setting. That being a school at night. Seiko does manage to apprehend the bad guy by putting a lock on the bike he was going to steal. He gets sent down to the station and all ends well, except for some spooked hairs that stand on end with Kawai.

Sometimes on patrol, they would catch the glimpse of a ghost here and there, but nothing some salt can’t fix!

In the second part of the episode, and probably my favorite part of Hakozume so far, the gang ends up entangled with a gropper fresh out of the train, of course, this man is denying everything and doesn’t feel any type of remorse. I totally agree with Miwa and I would also be glaring at this man like he’s the scum of the earth. There’s a funny scene with Takeshi, in fact, I forgot to mention, I personally thought this second part gave Takeshi so much character and, was his moment to shine, but in my mind that expanded him as a character, which is good.

Anyway, engrossed in work he has little time to think about the other’s personal feelings and bursts into the interrogation room asking what color panties this girl was wearing. Of course, the girl goes red with embarrassment, and everyone gives a stern warning to Takeshi, but that makes him come up with an incredible plan, and that’s to shame the gropper into submission, essentially making him face the same embarrassment he made the girl face in front of all those people inside the train. I found this scene hilarious and honestly, how Seiji was so willing to act as the victim made it all the more funnier.

This little rehab scene made the gropper dude admit his wrongdoings and confess everything. I bet he would have been let off if he was honest from the start and not saying sexist things like she was asking for it with that short skirt and whatever else he was saying that’s too gross to type out.

There’s a discussion here that’s been repeated one too many times, clothes don’t mean a woman is asking for anything, a girl or woman should be able to wear whatever she wants without the fear of men doing unwanted forward sexual advances, if it’s non-consensual, it’s molestation! And that’s the end of that. I will not be taking opinions on that thank you very much.

How pathetic do you have to be to think it’s okay to touch other women unsolicited in a public space, like the train, how many mental gymnastics do you have to go through to be able to justify your actions, but all ended well as the man got some type of rehab with all the shaming Seiko did with the photo-taking action.

Honestly, I’m glad Hakozume is going back to talking about the harder-to-talk-about topics like this week’s gropper incident. Meanwhile, it maintains a semi-light tone with some of the more lighthearted incidents where Kawai’s personality can interject and makes us emotionally connect with her as she is our conduit to the police world.

Full-length images: 36.