is a Japanese

hardboiled Hardboiled (or hard-boiled) fiction is a literary genre that shares some of its characters and settings with crime fiction (especially detective fiction and noir fiction). The genre's typical protagonist is a detective who battles the violence o ...

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

series written by

Buronson , known by the pen names and , is a Japanese manga writer. Making his debut in 1972, he first found success with the hardboiled detective manga series '' Doberman Deka'' (1975–1979) alongside illustrator Shinji Hiramatsu. He is best-known fo ...

and illustrated by

Shinji Hiramatsu Shinji Hiramatsu ( Japanese: 平松伸二, Hepburn: ''Hiramatsu Shinji,'' born August 22, 1955) is a Japanese manga artist. He hails from Takahashi City, Okayama Prefecture, and currently resides in Shibamata, Katsushika Ward, Tokyo. He is b ...

. It was serialized in the ''

Weekly Shōnen Jump is a weekly Shōnen manga, ''shōnen'' manga anthology published in Japan by Shueisha under the ''Jump (magazine line), Jump'' line of magazines. The manga series within the magazine consist of many Action (fiction), action scenes and a fair ...

'' manga anthology from 1975 (Issue 39) throughout 1979 (Issue 48), with the chapters collected into 29 ''

tankōbon A is a standard publishing format for books in Japan, alongside other formats such as ''shinsho'' (17x11 cm paperback books) and ''bunkobon''. Used as a loanword in English, the term specifically refers to a printed collection of a manga that w ...

'' volumes. The manga has been adapted into two

live-action Live action is a form of cinematography or videography that uses photography instead of animation. Some works combine live action with animation to create a live-action animated feature film. Live action is used to define film, video games or ...

films (the first starring

Sonny Chiba , known internationally as Sonny Chiba, was a Japanese actor and martial artist. Chiba was one of the first actors to achieve stardom through his skills in martial arts, initially in Japan and later to an international audience. Born in Fukuo ...

and directed by

Kinji Fukasaku was a Japanese film director and screenwriter. Known for his "broad range and innovative filmmaking", Fukasaku worked in many different genres and styles, but was best known for his gritty Yakuza film, yakuza films, typified by the Battles With ...

) and a live-action television series. A sequel titled was serialized in ''

Weekly Manga Goraku is a Japanese weekly manga magazine published since 1968, by Nihon Bungeisha. The magazine is published every Friday. Serialized works Listed alphabetically by title. *''69 Denashi'' (Yasuhito Yamamoto) *''Ad Boy'' (Makoto Niwano) *''Aisu Otoko ...

'' from 2012 to 2013, and collected into two volumes.

Plot summary

The protagonist is , a detective employed by the

Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department The , known locally as simply the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD), is the prefectural police of Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. Founded in 1874, the TMPD is the largest police force in Japan by number of officers, with a staff of more than 4 ...

's special crimes division, which handles serious criminal cases. His gun of choice is a customized .44 Magnum-caliber

Ruger Blackhawk The Ruger Blackhawk is a six-shot, single-action revolver manufactured by Sturm, Ruger & Co. It is produced in a variety of finishes, calibers, and barrel lengths. History In the early 1950s, Western (genre), Westerns were popular in movies and te ...

. Kano's harsh methods are the subject to criticism by the media, but he does not mind the reputation at all. While Kano has no pity for serious criminals, he holds a respect for children and elderly people, as well as former criminals who want to reform themselves for their prior misconducts. At the beginning of the manga, the only members of the Special Crimes Division were Kano himself and Superintendent , but they would gradually be joined by additional members such as Detective , a gang specialist who was transferred to Shinjuku from Osaka; female detective ; and from the United States, female detective . While the series started with a hardboiled atmosphere, it gradually became more light-hearted as it progressed.

Production

got the idea for ''Doberman Deka'' from the film ''

Dirty Harry ''Dirty Harry'' is a 1971 American action-thriller film produced and directed by Don Siegel, the first in the Dirty Harry (film series), ''Dirty Harry'' series. Clint Eastwood plays the title role, in his first appearance as San Francisco Polic ...

''. When ''Doberman Deka'' was chosen to end serialization in a few months due to low rankings in the ''

'' reader surveys, rookie

Kazuhiko Torishima is a Japanese publishing executive and former manga magazine editor, who is currently serving as an outside director at Bushiroad. He formerly worked at Shueisha, where he began as an editor in 1976, before becoming a senior managing director ( ...

was assigned as its editor. Believing that Shinji Hiramatsu was good at action but bad at drawing women, Torishima gave him an issue of the actor and idol magazine ''Myojo'' and told him to model the face of a new policewoman character after that of the most popular idol at the time,

Ikue Sakakibara is a Japanese actress and a J-pop singer. Biography In 1976, Sakakibara took part in the Talent Scout Caravan organised by Horipro, and won the competition. She made her musical debut on January 1, 1977, with the single ''"Watashi no Sensei"'' ...

. After which, ''Doberman Deka'' jumped from around seventeenth in the reader rankings to third.

Media

Manga

Written by

and illustrated by

, ''Doberman Deka'' was serialized in ''

'' from 1975 (Issue 39) to 1979 (Issue 48). The chapters were collected into 29 ''

'' volumes. An '' aizōban'' edition was later published, as well as a '' bunkoban'' edition, which compressed the number of volumes to 18. Buronson and Hiramatsu created a sequel titled that was serialized in ''

'' from 2012 to 2013, and collected into 2 volumes.

First film

A live-action film version of ''Doberman Deka'' was released theatrically in Japan by Toei on July 2, 1977. The film was directed by

and starred

as Joji Kano.

TV series

A TV series based on the manga, titled , aired on

TV Asahi JOEX-DTV (channel 5), branded as , and better known as , is a Japanese television station serving the Kanto region as the flagship station of the All-Nippon News Network. It is owned-and-operated by the a subsidiary of , itself controlled by ...

affiliates in 1980. 22 episodes were produced, which aired from April 7 to October 27. Other than the main character Jōji Kanō (portrayed by Toshio Kurasawa), very few elements from the manga were adapted to the series. In the TV series, Kano was a member of a motorcycle cop unit.

Cast

* Toshio Kurosawa as Jōji Kanō * Tatsurō Nadaka as Yuji Yabe * Masato Hoshi as Ichirō Sakai *

Jirō Yabuki also known as Jirō Chiba is a retired Japanese actor. His older brother was Sonny Chiba. He is known for playing the role of Kazuya Taki in the tokusatsu superhero series ''Kamen Rider (1971 TV series), Kamen Rider''. He started his acting car ...

as Kyōsuke Hirata * Chu Arai as Tetsunosuke Mori *

Etsuko Shiomi , now known by her married name , (born October 29, 1955 in Okayama City, Japan as ) is a Japanese actress and martial artist who appeared in several Japanese martial arts films and samurai film and TV productions of the 1970s and 1980s. Life a ...

as Kaoru Igarashi *

Yosuke Natsuki was a Japanese actor. He had participated twice in the Dakar Rally as a racing driver. He did a lot of work for the Toho Company and made his debut in the film ''The H-Man''. He appeared in Akira Kurosawa's ''Yojimbo (film), Yojimbo'' in 1961. ...

as Masamichi Nishitani

Second film

straight-to-video Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, television series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strateg ...

film titled ''The Doberman Cop'' was released by Gaga Communications in 1996 starring

Riki Takeuchi is a Japanese actor best known for his roles in v-cinema yakuza movies. Takeuchi has starred in many yakuza films and action films, such as ''Dead or Alive'' by Takashi Miike. Takeuchi also starred in '' Battle Royale II: Requiem'', in which h ...

in the title role.

References

External links

''CR Doberman Deka'' Pachislot gaming machine site
a
Olympia
{{Weekly Shōnen Jump - 1968–1979 1975 manga Detective anime and manga Shōnen manga Shueisha manga Toei Company 1980 Japanese television series debuts 1980 Japanese television series endings TV Asahi original programming Yoshiyuki Okamura Nihon Bungeisha manga Manga adapted into films Manga adapted into television series