Furuhata Ninzaburō

is a Japanese television series that ran periodically on Fuji Television from 1994 until its final episodes (specials) in 2006. It was written by Japanese playwright Koki Mitani.

It is a police detective drama starring actor Masakazu Tamura as "Ninzaburo Furuhata" and his stereotypically bumbling sidekick, Shintaro Imaizumi, portrayed by actor Masahiko Nishimura. The program aired weekly and featured a guest villain each time, every one of them being a famous actor or talent in Japan. Pop-stars like SMAP (boy-band), television hosts like Sanma Akashiya (variety) and even sports figures like Ichiro Suzuki (baseball) have been featured on this program. It was one of the most popular television dramas in the history of Japanese television.

Plot patterns

Most of the stories follow the following pattern. The audience sees the murder and the cover-up (usually involving the criminal trying to make it look like an accident). Then comes Furuhata's debut. The criminal, usually staying near to the scene of the crime to make sure it does not get solved, hangs around Furuhata, or else he does something suspicious to Furuhata and the detective ends up hanging obnoxiously around him (much to the dismay of the criminal, of course).

The charm of the story is that it is a logic game—Furuhata has all the pieces, and he (as well as the audience) usually knows who the murderer is. It is now Furuhata's job to prove it and get the killer to confess, and our job as a viewer to guess what all Furuhata's clues are.

The character of Furuhata

Looks and manners

*He always wears black, even a black collared shirt.
*He never wears a tie.
*His hair is puffed up like an Elvis wanna-be without the gel.
*He stoops and carries his hands in front of his chest like a mouse on hind paws.
*Since he stoops, he looks up at the person he speaks to, rather than down at them, despite him being relatively tall.
*He points when accusing or asking a prying question.
*He always uses the honorific tense of Japanese when speaking, elongates his vowels and hums while thinking.
*He pokes his forehead with his forefinger when thinking.
*And he always thinks aloud.

The character is said to have been based on Japanese philosophy of science professor, Yoichiro Murakami.

Traits

He also has a number of likes and dislikes that can either make him into a charmingly human—or insufferably selfish—person.
*He likes old and obscure music.
*He rides a very specific bicycle and will chain it—loosely—to whatever object that happens to be near enough.
*He likes trivia.
*He watches too much television.
*He can only cook one meal: chawanmushi, meatloaf, and meat-stuffed peppers.
*He is afraid of guns, though a cop.
*He is a lady's man. He is always kind to female suspects and is usually liked back, but he never has any serious romantic relations.
*He constantly nitpicks at people.
*He mumbles.
*He likes dessert, especially ice-cream with fruits like banana split.
*He likes a very specific kind of bento, subuta.
*He likes to read. He likes shōjo manga.
*He is very specific about his food, even how the pickles in his burger are supposed to be arranged: one in the centre and four around it to form a flower motif. However, he does not have good taste as his favorite foods are convenience store food and other junk food.

hintaro Imaizumi

The character of Shintaro Imaizumi (今泉 慎太郎 "Imaizumi Shintarō"), portrayed by actor Masahiko Nishimura, is supposed to be the idiot sidekick of Furuhata. Although his character grows gradually more and more childish throughout the series, he not only acts as comic relief, but also tends to say and do the things that any "normal" person might say.

For example, Imaizumi often explains what the murderer might have had in mind with the elaborate setup staged moments before in the drama by falling for it and running to the conclusion that the murderer "wanted" the cops to. Or when Furuhata starts thinking aloud with logic, Imaizumi will eliminate the other possibilities that come to mind for the viewer when following Furuhata's train of thought.

Furuhata's character, as sweet and polite as he is to other people, is downright mean on occasion when it comes to Imaizumi, who he acts like he does not like.

In the second and third season of the drama, Imaizumi lashes back against this disdain by confiding in a friend at the police station, Mantaro Kuwabara, portrayed by Toshihito Ito in his own mini-series that ran in the evening after the drama had finished. This series, each episode of which is less than five minutes long, was immensely popular until the death of actor Ito.

Other regular characters

*Otokichi Mukojima (向島 音吉 "Mukōjima Otokichi"), played by Tokyo Sunshine Boys member Takashi Kobayashi (小林 隆 "Kobayashi Takashi"), is a cop that often greets Furuhata when he arrives at the scene of the crime. He is noted for his long and cumbersome name that changes frequently due to his marriages throughout the story. He has a more prominent role in one episode where he is revealed to be baseball superstar Ichiro Suzuki's (the villain of the episode) brother.

*Mamoru Saionji (西園寺 守 "Saionji Mamoru"), played by Japanese comedian Masanori Ishii (石井 正則 "Ishi'i Masanori"), appears in the third season of "Furuhata Ninzaburo". His purpose is to be a second sidekick to Furuhata — one serious and logical as opposed to the childish and silly Imaizumi.

*Mantaro Kuwabara (桑原 万太郎 "Kuwabara Mantarō"), played by Tokyo Sunshine Boys member Toshihito Ito, works at the crime lab and is a good friend of Imaizumi. He was featured in an Imaizumi Shintaro special series that ran late the evening after the main program had finished, and did a comedy skit with Nishimura that related to Imaizumi's displeasure with the outcome of the episode.

* Hanada (花田), a character played by actor Norito Yashima, occasionally appears as an onlooking bystander who will overhear the detective's conversations and then come to his own conclusions of who the killer is. He is always right. But he never has any evidence, and disappears from the story after he has made his point. He appears every time in different occupation. The times he made an appearance, he was a waiter in a restaurant, then a waiter in a pub, a cafe, later an air steward, a taxi driver (at the end of the third season) and as an employee in the Japanese embassy to Spain (for a 'Special' episode where he portrayed the main sidekick, without Imaizumi and Saionji around).

Famous guest stars

eason 1

Please note the victim is not always shown, nor is he/she always listed by name in the credits. A credit is given here wherever possible.

Episode	Criminal	Victim	Special Appearance
1	Akina Nakamori	Takeshi Ikeda	Dog - "Ben"
2	Masaaki Sakai	Kitarou	none
3	Yūko Kotegawa	Yuuichi Haba	none
4	Tsurube Shofukutei	Not Shown	Tooru Minegishi
5	Yasosuke Bando	Akiji Kobayashi	none
6	Nana Kinomi	Shinsho Nakamaru	Shunji Fujimura
7	Nenji Koabayashi	Hasenori Hasegawa	none
8	Takeshi Kaga	Sabu Sawahara	Zen Kajiwara
9	Ken Ishiguro	Unmentioned	none
10	Kazuki Kosakai	Noriko Izumoto	Shinichiro Moriyama
11	Kaori Momoi	Saori Yagi	Michiko Ameku
12	Bunta Sugawara	Jun Nakahara	Zen Kajiwara

eason 2

Please note the victim is not always shown, nor is he/she always listed by name in the credits. A credit is given here wherever possible. In the second season, the Shintaro Imaizumi special also begins.

Episode	Criminal	Victim	Special Appearance
14	Sanma Akashiya	Megumi Odaka	Akira Shiroi
15	Yasuko Sawaguchi	Kazuyuki Aijima	none
16	Masao Kusakari	Yoneko Matsukane	Saiko Isshiki
17	Takuya Kimura	None	Akira Shiroi
18	Haruko Kato	Kei Uzaki	Takashi Kobayashi
19	Toshiaki Karasawa	Hikaru Ijuin	Yoshimasa Kondo
20	Fujiro Sawamura	Itoshi Yumeji	none
21	Shingo Yamashiro	Takashi Ikeda	none
22	Morio Kazama	Takehiko Ono	none
23	Honami Suzuki	Not shown	none
11	Tomoko Yamaguchi	Minako Osanai	none

eason 3

Please note the victim is not always shown, nor is he/she always listed by name in the credits. A credit is given here wherever possible. In the third season, Sayonji also joins the group of regular characters.

Episode	Criminal	Victim	Special Appearance
28	Somegoro Ichikawa	Morooka Moro	Yasukio Umeno
29	Hiroyuki Sanada	Minoru Sawatari	none
30	Tatsuo Matsumura	Michiko Ameku	Hachiro Oka
31	Mao Daichi	Tai Kageyama	Yuko Ito
32	Masahiko Tsugawa	Rieko Miura	Shigeki Hosokawa
33	Masachika Ichimura	Shion Machita	none
34	Misako Tanaka	Fumio Kohinata	none
35	Masaharu Fukuyama	Itsuji Itao	Naho Toda
36	Koji Tamaki	Chiharu Kawai	none
37-38	Yosuke Eguchi	Masato Obara	none

pecial Episodes

Please note the victim is not always shown, nor is he/she always listed by name in the credits. A credit is given here wherever possible.

Episode	Criminal	Victim	Special Appearance
13	Takanori Jinnai	Hiromasa Taguchi	Maki Mizuno
26	SMAP	Takashi Ukaji	Koki Mitani
27	Ogata Ken	Kurita Kanichi	none
39	Koshiro Matsumoto	Mitsuhiro Oikawa	none

Final Series

Please note the victim is not always shown, nor is he/she always listed by name in the credits. A credit is given here wherever possible.

Episode	Criminal	Victim	Special Appearance
40	Koji Ishizaka	Tetsuya Chiba	Tatsuya Fujiwara
41	Ichiro Suzuki	Tomohiko Imai	Takashi Kobayashi
42	Nanako Matsushima	Nanako Matsushima	none

Trivia

On Konami videogame Dance Dance Revolution 4th Mix there's a song called "Furahata's Theme" in the Japanese version and "Ninzaburo" in the American version, which is a remix of the show's opening theme. It is played by CJ Crew & Sedge.

It was confirmed on the pre season three special, featuring Ogata Ken, that Furuhata shares the same birthday with another fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, along with historical figures Joan of Arc and Heinrich Schliemann. The January 6 birthday makes Furuhata a Capricorn; however, how old he is and what year he was born was not revealed.

ee also

*Columbo

External links

* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0205638/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnx0dD0xfGZiPXV8cG49MHxrdz0xfHE9ZnVydWhhdGEgbmluemFidXJvfGZ0PTF8bXg9MjB8bG09NTAwfGNvPTF8aHRtbD0xfG5tPTE_;fc=1;ft=5;fm=1 Furuhata Ninzaburo on IMDb]
* [http://www.fujitv.co.jp/furuhata/index2.html Official site] Japanese only