Hyper Police

is a Japanese manga series and written and illustrated by Minoru Tachikawa. It is set in a period in the far future, in which humanity is almost extinct and most of the population are monsters. The series mostly follows the offices of a private police company and focuses on the life of Natsuki Sasahara, a young catgirl, and her co-workers: foxgirl Sakura Bokuseiinmonzeninari, werewolf Batanen Fujioka and his cousin Tomy Fujioka.

The manga was adapted into a 25-episode anime television series animated by Pierrot and directed by Takahiro Omori in 1997.

For many years, the only western language to have official translations of the ''Hyper Police'' manga was Spanish. English translations have been completed by US company Tokyopop.

Setting

The anime takes place in the year 22 HC (Holy Century), in the Tokyo ward of Shinjuku. Although theoretically about the competition of rival private police corporations (licensed bounty hunting firms) in an Earth where humanity is in danger of extinction, in actuality it focuses more on the lives of the main characters, such as; Natsuki Sasahara, Sakura Bokuseiinmonzeninari, and Batanen Fujioka. The monsters are usually taken from Japanese mythology, updated for the modern era. In the anime, repeat criminal offenders in Tokyo have their memories wiped. However, in the manga version, they are castrated. Mithril exists in this world/setting; it is a sort of specially enchanted silver that is especially effective against supernatural characters.

Characters

Some of the characters in ''Hyper Police'' are hybrids of human and "monsters"; which occurred during the Holy war when the doorway between the human world and the Monster World opened up, thus allowing humans and monsters to co-exist and interbreed.

; Natsuki Sasahara
:Natsuki is a 17-year-old half-human/half-nekomata. She is the daughter of a human father and a nekomata mother. Natsuki is very sweet and kind to everyone and always eager to help protect the weak and uphold the law. Her personality is very feline; she will eat cat food, grooms herself like a cat, and will play with string and other moving objects (including Sakura's tails). Her favorite drink is catnip-milk, which has an alcoholic effect on her. Batanen hired her to join Police Company when he saw her ability to create electrical shocks being put to good use, while she was inadvertently taken hostage by a criminal he was chasing, then proceeded to fry him to a crisp. However, this is also her major problem, since Natsuki is so young, she still has trouble controlling her powers and has been known to spark at random when frightened, frying everything within several meters of her. She is also a dangerously bad shot with a gun and has shot her allies at least twice by accident, thus she only uses a short dagger as her melee weapon of choice. When angry or scared, her tail temporarily splits in two. She prides herself on owning an orihalcon blade, and is in control of two "parasites", which is unusual for the setting; even having one is considered to be powerful. As of volume nine, it has been revealed that she is the daughter of the Ancient Egyptian goddess Bast.

:Note that she has 2 sets of ears, human normal position and feline on the top sides of her head.

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; Parasites
: These magical familiars are able to focus their owner's magical energy and turn it into electricity. The names of Natsuki's parasites are Fujin and Raijin (named after the Japanese gods of wind and thunder). Sakura has one too, but it is rarely seen. In the manga, it was revealed in volume seven, that Fujin and Raijin were engagement "rings" from a prince in china, but due to misunderstandings through Natsuki's father's translator, Natsuki was unaware she was engaged.

; Bob
: Bob is Natsuki's super intelligent pet bobtail cat. He is older than she is, and thus is her legal guardian when her human father is away on his archaeological digs.

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; Sakura Bokuseiinmonzeninari
: Sakura is a kitsune (fox spirit) and Natsuki's partner for a time. Though she is 191 years old, she claims that she looks to be only 19. She has human ancestors, thus she was born with only 8 and 1/5 tails and was teased as a child, because of it. Kitsune must have a full nine tails in order to have full use of their power, thus Sakura has spent many years hunting for a powerful being to consume, in order to attain that full power. Sakura joins the Police Company after seeing Natsuki in action, in hopes of consuming her, in order to gain her full ninth tail. She can fly, has some minor electrical power and is an excellent shot with a gun. Sakura is from Osaka, thus has a knack for bartering and handling money. Later on she gives birth to three mischievous kids from her mating with the time-displaced samurai Sakunoshin, by episode 17. Justifying the age-old lore of a kitsune being a mother and housewife. It is not completely clarified if the two are officially married or not though, Sakura's mother is seen to ask her at one point "when are you two coming to Osaka to get married?"

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; Sakunoshin Chikura
: Sakunoshin is a displaced samurai from Japan's Tenshō era, who ended up in the Holy Era due to Natsuki's power surges that unbeknownst to her have been opening up temporary time portals in various parts of the city. When he first arrives, he mistakes Sakura for his love, ninja Kasumi. Later, when he realizes that Sakura is not Kasumi, he falls in love with her. It is revealed in the anime that Kasumi may be Sakura's direct ancestor. Sakunoshin is very calm and even tempered, though in battle he becomes extremely fierce and deadly, and is able to best even experienced monster fighters. He has an entire kit of samurai armor, along with his katana, equipment, and a set of Japanese smoking pipes (only seen in the manga). In the manga, Sakunoshin is often apprehensive of his wife's romantic advances, as they humorously leave him extremely exhausted. Still, he loves her very much and sets out on an epic journey in search of a cure, when Sakura is affected by magic weapons in later issues. Being human, he and his family are awarded food, clothing and housing from the government.

:Sakunoshin is a very skilled swordsman and to her horror, has even sliced through Natsuki's orihalcon Blade.

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; Batanen Fujioka
: Batanen is a 35-year-old werewolf, and a senior officer at Police Company, as well as the top earner. He is very protective of Natsuki and often acts as a big brother figure to her. He is secretly in love with her and despite being somewhat of a lecher, Batanen is very shy and unsure of himself when it comes to making a move on Natsuki, thus she is totally unaware of his feelings for her. However, he also seems hesitant to make a move even when (for various reasons) Natsuki is trying to be flirty with him. His abilities are quick regeneration (when injured, he becomes fully healed by the next full moon) and near-immortality, as well as being a competent detective and an excellent shot. In the manga, he is always called by his first name, but in the Japanese version of the anime, most everyone refers to him as "senpai" (senior). At the end of the manga he and Natsuki are married.

:Batanen has a large collection of guns in his apartment and is usually portrayed as carrying what looks like a Magnum Research Desert Eagle (only much larger).

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; Tommy Fujioka (Tomy in the manga)
: Tommy is Batanen's cousin and partner only a year older than Natsuki. Unlike his cousin Batanen, Tommy has the appearance of an anthropomorphic wolf. Although somewhat naive, he is honest and quite skilled, with his specialty being information gathering. He is very adept at problem solving and is skilled in computer systems and possesses a large knowledge of varying subjects (he has demonstrated he can tell when a katana was made just by looking at it). He later falls in love with the human spirit-summoner Peau and being inexperienced in love, comes on a bit too strong. He apparently has a kink for being servile and tries to get Peau to pander to this. He bought her a pair of scarlet slippers and said "Please take these as a gesture of my feelings and step all over me!" By the end of the series, he marries Peau and they have nineteen offspring.

: Tommy carries a rathe