Furuhata Ninzaburō

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Furuhata Ninzaburō (古畑 任三郎?) 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.

Contents

[edit] 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.

[edit] The character of Furuhata

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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 shoujo 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.

[edit] Shintaro 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.

[edit] Other regular characters

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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).

[edit] Famous guest stars

[edit] Season 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

[edit] Season 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

[edit] Season 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

[edit] Special 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

[edit] 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

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

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.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Languages