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| Secret Task Force CRISIS |
They were cool and colorful, but what made them stand out was their different personalities: the gruff leader guy, the cool tough guy, the goofy fat guy, the young brash guy and of course the one female member of the team, and watching them interact and cooperate with each other to vanquish the bad guys was the heart of the show.
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| The original Secret Task Force Five Rangers |
And now we have the latest in the kick-ass tactical fighting team style with the drama CRISIS, the drama of five special agents brought together to create a new secret task force. Armed with hi-tech gadgetry and super-vehicles, these five agents battle against the terrorist group, The Heisei Restoration Army.
And just like the Five Rangers, these guys are cool and colorful and what makes them stand out is their different personalities:
The gruff leader guy ( Yoshinaga, played by Tetsushi Tanaka), The cool tough guys Akira (Oguri Shun) and Tamaru,(Hidetoshi Nishijjima), and of course the one female member , Rei Oyama (played by Yuko Araki)!
In fact, the only thing missing is the goofy fat guy, although one might argue that the Oguri Shun character of Akira Inami, though himself one of the “Cool Tough Guys” on the team, is so goofy and silly at times that even though he has the “Blue Ranger” name of Akira, we’ll have to give him the “Yellow Ranger” character tag!
The gruff leader guy ( Yoshinaga, played by Tetsushi Tanaka), The cool tough guys Akira (Oguri Shun) and Tamaru,(Hidetoshi Nishijjima), and of course the one female member , Rei Oyama (played by Yuko Araki)!
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| Tetsushi Tanaka as Mitsunari Yoshinaga |
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| Shun Oguri as Akira Inami |
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| Hidetoshi Nishijima as Saburo Tamaru |
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| Toru Nomaguchi as Yusuke Kashii |
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| Yuko Araki as Rei Oyama |
The Five Rangers was head by the elder military leader Commander Edogawa, and in a similar fashion, the Self Defense Force in CRISIS is overseen by the elder police lieutenant Kaji Daiki (the ever-stoic Kyozo Nagatsuka), the man who gives his team (which he proudly calls his “thoroughbreds”) their orders and missions.
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| Daiji Kaji |
The Five Rangers task force EAGLE worked out of their secret headquarters cleverly hidden beneath an unassuming Snack Shop , and the CRISIS team is much the same, in this case, their secret headquarters is hidden in a basement of the Water Supply Equipment Building.
In just the first episode we have seen this elite task force take on two separate acts of terrorism, one a planned Bullet-Train Bombing and a Victim shackled to a pipe bomb around his neck. In both they arrive calm and collected, taking in the lay of the land and using their skills to decide how to best diffuse the situation!
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| It's not the Varitank, but it'll do. |
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| Squad is on the scene |
In both cases, we see the five members at their very best, and I have to say that they are all super cool and really likeable, The Stuffy-teacher aura of leader Yoshinaga, the computer hacking skills of Oyama, the bomb technician brain of Kashii...
...and the rough and ready bloody knuckle fisticuff action from both Akira and Tamaru, the latter of who has to be my favorite character so far: calm and quiet but able to punch the lights out of any adversary!
Just love watching these guys beat the hell out of the bad guys! Heck, even their NAMES, "Akira" and "Saburo" are legendary Japanese Tough guy names, no?!
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| Team Leader Yoshinaga |
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| Bomb Expert Kashii |
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| Akira Inami and Saburo Tamaru: the "Tuff" Guys |
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| Akira Inami |
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| and his method of subduing his "subjects"! |
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| Tamaru lays them out. |
(There was a Killer Bodyguard character in Haruki Murakami’s 1Q84 named Tamaru, and oh MAN, could this guy play him!)!
And then there’s the awesome sight of pretty Yuko Araki making quite a splash for herself as the computer whiz Oyama, as you all may recall, I was quite taken with her in her role as the delectably girly Madoka Murota in the excellent Keiko Kitagawa drama “Ie Uru Onna” last year, so great to see her playing a bigger role here!
And then there’s the awesome sight of pretty Yuko Araki making quite a splash for herself as the computer whiz Oyama, as you all may recall, I was quite taken with her in her role as the delectably girly Madoka Murota in the excellent Keiko Kitagawa drama “Ie Uru Onna” last year, so great to see her playing a bigger role here!
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| Yuko Araki as Madoka in "Ie Uru Onna" |
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| above and below: as Rei Oyama |
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| the team's resident Hacker |
Actresses Yuriko Ishida and Moeka Nozaki also appear here, though at this point we have little information about who they are and what purpose they have in the show’s bigger picture…So far all we know is that Yuriko’s character is someone of interest to Tamaru (ex wife, perhaps?)...
and Moeka is a svelte femme fatale that Akira’s picked up in a bar….
..both are very intriguing and I suspect they’re going to be important people, but we’ll have to wait and see! With such a great cast playing great characters, this is a surefire winner!
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| Yuriko Ishida |
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| Moeka Nozaki |
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com
