Taiho Shichauzo! Full Throttle Episode 02
逮捕しちゃうぞ フルスロットル Episode 02

SPOILER Summary: Kachou is officially not pleased with how Miyuki and Natsumi handled the incident with Randy as it is completely against police procedure. That out of the way, Natsumi, Miyuki, and Randy head off to grab something to eat. They discuss the situation at hand until Randy falls asleep in the booth. Natsumi carries him as she and Miyuki walk back to their (?) apartment (actually, I would guess its Natsumi’s since she’s been in Japan the whole time). Miyuki puts Randy to sleep on the couch, then nods off in a nearby chair while Natsumi has a few beers.

The following morning, Miyuki and Randy are out for a walk and Natsumi is sleeping at the table, which is covered in empty beer cans. She now has headphones on, which are connected to a small stereo which comes on at 08:30, ensuring Natsumi wakes up on time for work. At the police station, two more men arrive to claim Randy in order to bring him back to the U.S. Kachou decides to have Randy make the decision and he decides he wants to meet his grandfather. The two men decide to leave it at that for now.

Nakajima (Ken) decides to take Randy to see a real Japanese castle and give him a bike ride at the same time. The two talk about samurai while Natsumi and Miyuki decide to pay Randy’s grandfather (Ikari-san) a visit. The address leads them to the Ikari Kendo Dojo and the two go to look for him in opposite directions. Miyuki finds evidence of a father still grieving for his daughter while Natsumi finds Ikari-san. He’s practicing with a bamboo sword and when confronted about Randy, claims to not have a grandson and to have disowned his daughter. Miyuki arrives to dispute that and in the end, Natsumi ends up using force to get Ikari-san into the car to see his grandson.

Nakajima and Randy use sticks to do a little Samurai practice and Randy works hard. This is observed by the two men as well as Natsumi, Miyuki, and Ikari-san. When Randy goes for another attack, Ikari-san see’s the moves of his daughter when she was young. Randy’s stick breaks and Ikari-san finally decides to reveal himself, challenging Randy to press on even if his “sword” broke. The other two men decide to interrupt, but in the end, Ikari-san decides that he will be the one to take care of his grandson.

Back at the police station, the group talks about how things ended up. Nakajima stammers a bit as he tries to talk to Miyuki a bit, but finally manages to get out a “welcome back” greeting to her.

Thoughts: It wasn’t really a remarkable episode, but it was nice just the same. Now that the Randy story is resolved, the preview for episode 3 looks like a regular traffic cop story. Now that Nakajima and Miyuki have finally had the official greeting, how much are the writers going to allow them to progress? Clearly, this will be of primary importance to me.