Series / Furuhata Ninzaburo

Furuhata Ninzaburo (Masakazu Tamura) and just some of the perps he's caught over the years.

Furuhata Ninzaburo is a beloved Japanese Mystery of the Week series starring Masakazu Tamura as the titular police inspector who is a kind of Spiritual Successor to Columbo. Furuhata similarly uses his absent-mindedness, overt friendliness, humbleness, and over-the-top politeness to get close to and unnerve his suspects. Unlike Columbo, however, Furuhata is a neat dresser and is not afraid of dropping his mask and openly confronting the murderer when required. His tactics of Perp Sweating are also much more ruthless and occasionally border on Psychological Cold-Blooded Torture.Every episode of the series and both of the spin-offs were written by Japanese playwright Koki Mitani who is best known as the founder of the Tokyo Sunshine Boys, a theatre troupe whose members frequently appeared on the show in minor roles.Another difference between the two shows is that Furuhata does not work alone. He is assisted by his dimwitted partner (or more accurately an unwanted hanger-on) Shintaro Imaizumi. In the second season, they are joined by the Hyper-Competent Sidekick Haga who is then replaced for the final two seasons by the Suspiciously Similar Substitute Mamoru Saionji. Another regular is Officer Mukojima, a uniformed police officer whose name Furuhata can never remember.Just like the US show, Furuhata Ninzaburo is a Reverse Whodunnit (better known as the "open mystery"): For as much as the first third of each episode (or in one extreme case, the first hour of the episode), the audience sees the motive set up and then actually watches as each guest villain tries to execute the perfect murder. Furuhata and his partner(s) then appear in the second act... And (with very rare exceptions) the audience is left wondering not "whodunnit" but "how is he going to catch them".One major innovation over Columbo is that twice Furuhata Ninzaburo featured real-life celebrities as the killers. Boy band SMAP and baseball player Ichiro Suzuki.Furuhata’s mannerisms include distinctive hand gestures and a stooped posture which is meant to be a display of fake submissiveness. He shares a particular verbal tic with Columbo – the use of the legendary phrase “just one more thing” which occurs almost Once per Episode. He is a snappy dresser who almost always wears black and has perfectly quaffed shoulder-length hair. He also addresses the audience twice an episode. Once at the beginning giving a brief prologue and once at the end of the second act where he sums up the clues so far and issues a challenge to the viewer inspired by Ellery Queen.The series aired between 1994 and 2006 and produced four seasons and 42 episodes (thirty-two 45-minute episodes and 10 feature-length ones). There are also two spin-offs: Shintaro Imaizumi, a 1996 series of 10-minute sketches focusing on the comedic antics of Furuhata’s bumbling sidekick when he’s off work and a 2008 Made-for-TV Movie Junior High School Student Furuhata which focused on Furuhata Ninzaburo’s childhood as a Kid Detective.

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• Accidental Murder:
  • In "The Moving Corpse", the killer pushes the victim in a fit of rage. Unfortunately, the victim slams his head on a table and promptly dies.
  • "Broadcast Murder" is a borderline case. The murder occurs in the heat of the moment when the victim catches the killer, a Phony Psychic, setting up a trick.
  • One of the two murders in "The Contradictory Corpse".
  • "Furuhata Ninzaburo vs. The Quiz King" features a similar case as "The Moving Corpse".
  • "Death in the Clouds" is not even a murder. The victim bangs her head during turbulence and the Villain of the Week hides her body so their affair is not discovered.
• Accidental Pervert: In "This Man Is Too Busy", while Shintaro is dressed as a woman making out with Saionji in an office they are seen by the pair of lovers they are impersonating. The lovers are shocked and leave before the detectives can explain themselves.
• Action Girl: A few of the murderers qualify, especially the titular DJ from "Sayonara DJ" who is a former track and field runner.
• Actor Allusion:
  • The Villain of the Week in "Rehearsal for Murder" notes that Furuhata Ninzaburo could star in historical movies. Tamura Masakazu made his name starring in historical movies.
  • One of the guest stars in "The Resurrection of Death" is Koji Ishizaka who is best known for playing Kosuke Kindaichi, one of Japan’s most famous detectives and a big influence on Furuhata Ninzaburo. In a very rare twist of this kind on the show, he turns out to be the true Big Bad of the episode. Furuhata refers to him as the most ingenious killer he’s ever met and shows him a surprising amount of reverence and respect..
• Adam Westing:
  • Masaaki Sakai, a well-known kabuki actor plays a well-known kabuki actor in "The Moving Corpse".
  • Shingo Yamashiro, a controversial, womanizing magician/actor plays a controversial, womanizing magician in "Magician’s Choice".
  • Takeshi Kaga plays the same role in "Murder Express" as he played in a highly popular medical drama called "He Is Always There". Both were written by Koki Mitani.
  • J-Pop boy band SMAP appear as themselves in "Furuhata Ninzaburo Vs. SMAP".
  • Baseball player Ichiro Suzuki appears As Himself in "A Fair Murderer".
• Affably Evil: Pretty much all of the killers are this. The most explicit examples include:
  • Chinami Koishikawa in "Message from the Dead" is the mother of all examples. Not only do Furuhata and her develop a friendship that borders on romance during the episode, but he also continues mentioning and visiting her all the way throughout the series. He travels to America to attend her wedding and even brings her up in his final monologue in the very last episode.
  • Furuhata definitely feels sorry for Hikaru Noda in "The Laughing Kangaroo". He has a similar relationship with Sakura Odajima in "The Sad Perfect Crime".
  • Noriko Kendall in "What Happened in New York" definitely qualifies as she is one of the few killers Furuhata lets go.
  • Toru Anzai in "The Reunion" is a very unusual example. He is an old friend of Furuhata’s but acts rather coldly towards him. This all turns out to be part of a very elaborate suicide plot. The episode ends with Furuhata and him playing a childhood game while laughing.
  • Momiji in "Final Dance" ends the episode dancing with Furuhata.
  • Nonoyama in "Junior High School Student Furuhata" is very charming and nice when he’s not trying to kill 13-year-olds.
• All for Nothing:
  • The killer in "The Laughing Kangaroo" kills his research partner in order to steal a formula he devised. It turns out that the formula his research partner came up with had already been discovered in America but the news just hadn’t reached the killer in time.
  • Noriko Kendall in "What Happened in New York" gets away with the murder of her husband except that everyone knows she did it and no one wants to have anything to do with her. She is thus forced to live a lonely life suffering with guilt.
  • The killer in "The Murder in a Small Village" kills a con woman for stealing the villagers’ money and ruining their chances to get a huge distribution deal for their homemade wine. In the end, the villagers get the distribution deal anyway and the harm the con woman did is far less than the harm the murder did to the community.
  • In "Final Dance" Momiji, a timid writer, kills her outgoing twin because she wants to take her place as the beloved soul of the party. In the end, she realizes that she is bad at pretending to be her and does not enjoy her extrovert lifestyle after all.
• Always Murder: Mostly true, but Subverted a few times.
  • "The Disappearance of Furuhata Ninzaburo" has no murder. The mystery revolves around the titular disappearance but despite Shintaro's theories, Furuhata is not dead. Shintaro accidentally locked him in Chinami's basement.
  • A very interesting example in "The Terror of Dr Kuroiwa". All the serial murders are fake. The medical examiner, Kuroiwa, planted the evidence to make the police think they are real. However, he does commit an actual murder later on.
  • The supposed murder Toru is planning in "The Reunion" is actually a suicide. He wants to make it look like murder and frame his wife for it. Furuhata eventually talks him down and there are no deaths in this episode.
  • There is no murder in "Death in the Clouds", just an accidental death during turbulence in the toilet of an aeroplane which the woman's inept lover tries to cover up so his wife wouldn't find out about the affair. His cover-up is so bad that everyone on board the plane thinks it's actually a murder.
• And Another Thing...: In a direct quote from Columbo, Furuhata says the phrase at least Once per Episode.
• And Starring: From season three onward, the guest stars are featured in the opening title credits alongside Masakazu Tamura. In the fourth season, their pictures are also shown. Very special guests (such as Koshiro Matsumoto and Koji Ishizaka) are sometimes credited at the very end of the closing credits this way.
• Armor-Piercing Question: This is Furuhata’s speciality. Most episodes end with Furuhata wearing the killer down with a series of these until they confess.
• Asian Speekee Engrish: Whenever the regulars travel to English-speaking countries their English is noticeably this.
• Asshole Victim: Pretty much every time. The victims are typically blackmailers or cheating spouses but also include:
  • A corrupt studio executive in "Rehearsal for Murder".
  • A murderous, philandering politician in "The Contradictory Corpse".
  • A child killer in "The Final Greeting".
  • A nagging teacher in "Goodbye for a While".
  • A con artist in "The Murder in a Small Village".
  • An abusive husband in "The Sad Perfect Crime".
  • The killer in "The Murder in a Small Village".
• Bait-and-Switch: Furuhata frequently uses this method to catch his killers.
  • Involving pianos in "The Piano Lesson".
  • Furuhata keeps pulling a particularly brutal one in "The Contradictory Corpse". The victim survives the attempted murder and Furuhata and the killer wait in the hospital for him to wake from his coma. Several times in the episode, Furuhata makes the killer believe the victim has awoken only to then reveal that he is talking about Shintaro who is also in the same hospital undergoing a haemorrhoid surgery. The killer gets so stressed out he almost has a stroke.
  • Furuhata does this with audio tapes in "Sayonara DJ".
  • He makes the killer in "The Laughing Kangaroo" reveal knowledge only the killer could know by making him think they are standing in his hotel room when, in fact, they’re on an entirely different floor.
  • The killer does this in "The Magician’s Choice" using the titular trick.
  • This trick is pulled in "The Reunion" on the audience. Throughout the episode, we are made to think that Toru is trying to kill his wife. He is actually trying to commit suicide and make it look like his wife has killed him.
  • In "The Resurrection of Death" we are led to believe that Otoya is the Villain of the Week. While he does commit the murder, the actual Big Bad is his lovable teacher Tenma who manipulated his student to commit the murder.
  • In "Final Dance" we are led to believe that Kaede killed her twin sister Momiji because she wanted to leave their partnership. Actually, it was Momiji who killed Kaede and is now impersonating her.
• Batman Gambit: Furuhata is fond of these.
  • In "The Killing Fax" he dresses Shintaro in all white knowing that the killer won’t be there to see him. When the killer claims falsely that he did see Shintaro, Furuhata asks him what he was wearing.
  • A ridiculously dangerous one in "Red or Blue" in which the Villain of the Week places a bomb in a crowded theme park. After arresting the terrorist, Furuhata asks him which line to cut in order to deactivate the bomb. The killer says red. Furuhata instructs Shintaro to cut the blue. Furuhata is right.
  • The entirety of the second part of "The Most Dangerous Game" is this as Furuhata calls the bluff of a terrorist group masquerading as cops and accompanies them, completely alone, to an imaginary drop-off point where they are supposedly meeting themselves.
• Bilingual Bonus: None of the English dialogue in "The Laughing Kangaroo" or "What Happened in New York" is subtitled.
• Billed Above the Title: Tamura Masakazu is always this. From season three onwards, so are the guest stars.
• Blackmail Backfire: Most of the victims in this show are failed blackmailers.
• Bloodless Carnage: Averted in several episodes, most prominently in "The Woman Who Never Smiled" in which the titular killer bludgeons her victim to death as blood spurts all over her face in close-up.
• Bluffing the Murderer: Most episodes feature an example of this.
• British Brevity: The final season has only three episodes.
• Butt-Monkey: Poor Imaizumi is often teased and insulted by Furuhata. In one episode, Furuhata even shoves an entire pork bun in his own mouth at once rather than give the starving Imaizumi a bite!
• Call-Back: Furuhata occasionally mentions his cases. Most frequently he talks about his friendship with Chinami, the killer from "Message from the Dead". He is also inordinately fond of telling (usually horrified) people about how the serial killer from "Terror of Dr Kuroiwa" inserted notes into his victims’ anuses.
• Catchphrase: "Just one more thing...".
  • Whenever Furuhata meets the killer he says "I am Furuhata Ninzaburo".
  • Also: "sodeska" (Japanese for "I see") spoken with a very long o sound by Furuhata while scratching his forehead.
• Character Tics: Furuhata makes some highly imitable hand gestures.
• Clock King: The murderer in "The Killing Fax" fakes a kidnapping and plans the entire night’s events, down to the movements of the detectives investigating the case, down to the last second. He spends the entire episode running around with a stopwatch in his hand.
• Clueless Detective: Shintaro Imaizumi to a ridiculous extent. He finally gets to lead his own investigation in "Furuhata Goes to the Dentist" but botches it so badly that Furuhata has to abandon his sick leave to take over.
• Conviction by Contradiction: Fairly frequently.
• Cool Old Guy: The murderous katana-wielding village elder in "The Murder in a Small Village". The villagers have a fanatical respect for him and even Furuhata grows to like him.
• Correction Bait: In-Universe example: in "Murder Express", this is how Furuhata tricks the killer into revealing themselves.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: The studio boss in "Rehearsal for Murder" who gets killed by an actor/director for Executive Meddling.
• Corrupt Politician:
  • Uno Tadakuni in "The Contradictory Corpse" who tries to pay off his much, much younger mistress not to reveal their affair. When she refuses, he has his assistant kill her.
  • Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Takechi Mayuzumi in "His Excellency Did It" is a surprisingly likeable example of this trope.
• Deadpan Snarker: Furuhata definitely qualifies, especially towards Shintaro. Shintaro himself becomes this in the later season but usually in a way that backfires.
• Death by Falling Over: Happens in "The Moving Corpse" and "Furuhata Ninzaburo vs. The Quiz King".
• Deceased Fall-Guy Gambit:
  • The killer in "The Contradictory Corpse" tries this but his fall guy survives.
  • One of the killers in "Appraisal: Murder" does this to the other killer. It backfires horribly.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: Furuhata arrests his own superior at the end of "The Final Greeting". He also goes up against the Japanese Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary in "His Excellency Did It". Sadly, he kills himself before Furuhata can arrest him.
• Detective Drama: Although typically the drama is on the perp's side.
• Detective Mole:
  • Furuhata makes his superior in "The Final Greeting" believe he is this. In fact, Furuhata knew he was the killer from the beginning.
  • The terrorists in "The Most Dangerous Game" pretend to be detectives trying to catch the terrorists.
  • The bomber in "Red or Blue" is an electronics student who gets coincidentally pressed into replacing an injured bomb investigator. Unlike the previous examples, this wasn't part of his plan and actually interferes with it, since being in investigation headquarters keeps him from making further threatening phone calls as he'd promised he would, putting Furuhata on is trail.
• Dick Dastardly Stops to Cheat: Several times. Most spectacularly in "The Wrong Man" in which a man commits the perfect murder and gets clean away with it to the point that Furuhata doesn’t find out it even happened until the very last minute of the episode. However, he gets caught for getting nervous and murdering an acquaintance who just happens to see him in the vicinity of the crime scene.
• Dirty Cop: Averted. The superintendent killer in "The Final Greeting" is not corrupt. He killed a gangster in order to avenge the murder of his daughter.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Furuhata is usually completely immune to feminine charms but he falls for the killer in "Final Dance" so badly, he refuses to see the obvious until the end of the episode.
• Doesn't Like Guns: Furuhata never carries a gun and speaks against carrying a gun in "The Final Greeting".
• Downer Ending:
  • Once the extremely likeable Chinako gets caught in "Message from the Dead", she asks Furuhata if she can go have a cry for a few minutes before he arrests her. Furuhata agrees.
  • "Final Dance" is a bonafide Tear Jerker. It turns out that Furuhata’s love interest has been murdered by her twin sister. Furuhata confronts the sister and finds her to be a depressed, lonely woman who simply longed to be like her extroverted, outgoing sister. The episode ends with them dancing in an empty club where Furuhata and the victim went the night before she was killed.
  • "Junior High School Student Furuhata" ends with Furuhata moving away and his best friend Mukojima waving to him as he leaves and saying he hopes they meet again.
• Dying Clue: "Message from the Dead" replicates, in part, the one from the Series/Columbo episode "Try and Catch Me".
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Remarkably, the show stayed very consistent throughout the episodes. However, there are a few examples of this in season one.
  • Most obviously, the fact that Furuhata wears a different coloured shirt every episode. In later seasons, he would only wear black shirts.
  • There is a Running Gag in which Furuhata keeps running into broken vending machines.
  • Furuhata arrives by car rather than by his trademark bicycle he would begin using in the second season.
  • The character of Furuhata is occasionally portrayed in a more comical light. In several episodes, he is portrayed as The Klutz, something that he would never be in the later seasons.
  • The first season also has several examples of the Bottle Episode in which the only characters are Furuhata, Shintaro, the killer, and the victim.
• Episode on a Plane: "Death in the Clouds".
• "Eureka!" Moment: Whenever Furuhata figures out the final clue, the lights dim and he addresses the audience telling us he has solved the case.
• Exasperated Perp: The cool and polite Japanese exterior is frequently broken by Furuhata’s indefatigable questioning. The most extreme example occurs in "The Contradictory Corpse" in which he makes the killer physically sweat and hyperventilate throughout the episode. The killer is actually relieved once he is arrested that the psychological torture is over.
• Executive Meddling: The victim in "Rehearsal for Murder" gets killed for this.
• Fake Gunshot: The murderer in "Final Dance" uses a firecracker to create her alibi.
• Fair-Play Whodunnit: The show is a Reverse Whodunnit except in a few cases:
  • "The Disappearance of Furuhata Ninzaburo" plays out like a whodunnit while everyone tries to figure out the secret behind Furuhata's disappearance. He's not dead. Shintaro accidentally locked him in Chinami's basement.
  • "The Terror of Dr Kuroiwa" is a whodunnit for the first third until we find out that the medical examiner, Dr Kuroiwa, is faking the serial murders. Sadly, this is very much a case of a Spoiler Title.
  • "The Resurrection of Death" is a Fair-Play Whodunnit but we don't know that until The Reveal at the very end. Even though we know Otoya killed his brother, we don't know the identity of the person who killed his father and eventually Otoya himself.
  • "Final Dance" is a similar case in that it's also a Fair-Play Whodunnit except we think we know who did it. Throughout the episode, we think that Kaede killed her twin sister Momiji. We're only told at the very end that it was Momiji who killed Kaede. She's been impersonating her all the time. The clues are all there, however.
• Fictional Country: The unnamed South American country in "His Excellency Did It".
• Flanderization:
  • Happens to an extreme level to Shintaro Imaizumi. In the first season, he is a competent if clumsy and overly enthusiastic detective. He is also a very proficient Go player, even beating Furuhata at the strategy game. From season two onward, he grows stupider and meaner until he pretty much becomes an incompetent cartoon character in the last season and an object of mockery for everyone.
  • A very unusual example happens to Furuhata himself. He gets flanderized in several episodes of season one, most notably "The Dirty King" where he seems to be a Charlie Chaplin-like figure. In most episodes, however, he is his normal polite and serious self.
• Food Porn: Furuhata loves his food, especially sweets and cannot resist ice cream.
• Friendly Enemy: Most killers are quite friendly to Furuhata. Played Straight in the case of Chinami in "Message from the Dead" who becomes a true friend of Furuhata’s and even invites him to her wedding in New York.
• Genius Slob: The victim in "The Laughing Kangaroo" is an extreme example of this.
• The Ghost:
  • Shintaro’s grandmother.
  • Mukojima’s wife.
  • Furuhata’s brother.
  • Chinami becomes this. She is mentioned very frequently but never appears after "Message from the Dead" except for a brief cameo in the Clip Show episode.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: Almost literally in "The Resurrection of Death". Furuhata races toy cars with the killer.
• GPS Evidence: There are quite a number of cases of this.
• Graceful Loser: With only a few exceptions, all the killers gracefully confess once Furuhata presents them with his evidence.
• Hidden Depths:
  • Furuhata is an excellent cook although only of a single meal as can be seen in "The Laughing Corpse".
  • Shintaro Imaizumi is a very good Go player as can be seen in "The Dirty King".
  • Subverted in "Sayonara DJ" where it is conclusively proven that Furuhata cannot sing.
  • In "The Master of Games", Furuhata proves he is pretty good at pool.
  • In "Goodbye for a While", we learn that Shintaro goes to flower arranging classes. He is terrible at it.
  • In "The Young Master’s Crime" it is revealed that forensics technician Kuwabara is a good rakugo performer.
  • Shintaro loves to play his clarinet and demonstrates his talent in "The Perfect Pitch Murder". It turns out he has none.
  • Mukojima is shown to be a terrific baseball player in "A Fair Murderer".
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Happens occasionally. The most extreme example occurs in "The Wrong Man" which consists entirely of a series of own petards exploding in the killer’s face.
  • "Death in the Clouds" is a similar example since there was no crime until the killer tried to hide the body.
• Hyper-Awareness: Furuhata, especially in "Junior High School Student Furuhata" where he effortlessly performs the Sherlock Scan.
• Idiot Ball: "Death in the Clouds" is Idiot Ball : The Movie as the inept Villain of the Week keeps getting himself deeper and deeper into trouble for no reason at all.
• Inconsistent Episode Lengths: Most of the episodes are 45 minutes long but some of the episodes have an extended runtime and can run anywhere from 75 minutes to a whopping 135.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: In "Murder Express", Furuhata makes the killer help him re-enact the murder making him reveal something only the killer would know.
  • Again in "The Dentist Murder", Furuhata once again walks the culprit through a re-enactment, this time of the culprit's disguise. He catches the culprit when she selects a fake mustache. When Furuhata asks her why she did that, she responds that the culprit was disguised as a man, something Furuhata never told her.
• Inspector Lestrade: Saionji and Haga are competent policemen but lack Furuhata’s Hyper-Awareness.
• Irregular Series: Four seasons across 12 years.
• Italians Talk with Hands: Furuhata is Japanese but he definitely talks with his hands.
• Later-Installment Weirdness: Shintaro has very little screen time in the fourth season and is shown as having become a fairly bitter and mean person taking snipes even at Furuhata whom he once idolized.
• Limited Wardrobe: Besides wearing different coloured shirts in season one, Furuhata’s costume never changes.
• Life's Work Ruined:
  • The authoritarian headmistress in "The Woman Who Never Laughs" cannot stand to see a beloved teacher introduce more liberal attitudes to her rule-oriented school. So she kills him.
  • The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary in "His Excellency Did It" is a dedicated career politician but when his advisor threatens to reveal some of his dirty dealings which would surely ruin his career he kills him.
• Make It Look Like an Accident: Very, very often.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Not when Furuhata Ninzaburo is the investigative officer.
• Mystery of the Week
• Never Suicide: Subverted in "The Reunion" in which, even though it seems obvious Toru is planning to kill his wife, he is actually planning to commit suicide, make it appear like murder, and frame his wife.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Gloriously Averted in "Furuhata Ninzaburo vs. SMAP" and "A Fair Murderer" where the Villain of the Week appears As Himself.
• No Full Name Given:
  • Detective Haga.
  • The killer in "Motive: Appraisal" is only ever referred to as the owner of the Shunpo-do, an antique shop.
• Non-Action Guy: Furuhata. If there’s any running or fighting to be done, he makes Shintaro do it.
• Not a Morning Person: Furuhata whines if he’s called out to a crime scene before 9.
• Not So Stoic: Furuhata himself in "Red or Blue". While he is normally amiable with the Villain of the Week during the arrest scene, in this episode he begins to laugh at the bomber’s joke before smacking him right across the face. The bomber is as shocked as we are.
• No Warrant? No Problem!: Like Columbo, Furuhata just shows up wherever his suspect goes.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Furuhata sort of plays with this even though he never goes to the lengths of appearing genuinely stupid. His MO is to appear friendly and agreeable to the point where the suspect won’t consider him a serious threat. The sole exception is probably "The Dirty King" where he turns into The Klutz in what is also an example of Early-Installment Weirdness.
• Oddball in the Series:
  • The very first episode aired, "Message from the Dead", is this as it only features four characters and most of it is a two-hander between Furuhata and the killer.
  • "Broadcast Murder" is this as Furuhata and the killer don’t meet until the last five minutes.
  • "The Wrong Man" and "Death in the Air" play out like farces in which everything that can go wrong for the killer goes wrong while Furuhata merely observes the mayhem.
  • "What Happened in New York" in spades. Not only is the whole episode set on a bus, but it is also the only episode in which the murder happened many years ago and the killer has already been acquitted. The entire episode, instead, plays out in dialogue between Furuhata and the killer as she challenges the great detective to question her and prove she did it.
  • "The Disappearance of Furuhata Ninzaburo". Not only is it a Clip Show, not only is it the only episode in which Furuhata Ninzaburo does not appear, not only is there no murder, but it is also a Mockumentary.
  • "The Terror of Dr Kuroiwa" in which Furuhata Ninzaburo pursues a serial killer.
  • "The Reunion" in which we follow the Villain of the Week go through his plan in the presence of Furuhata throughout the entire episode.
  • "The Most Dangerous Game" which is a remake of The Taking of Pelham One Two Three.
• Orgy of Evidence: A major weakness in "The Laughing Corpse" is that Furuhata has more than enough evidence to convict the killer in the first 20 minutes.
• Out-Gambitted: Eventually all of the culprits' plots turn out to be this.
• Out-of-Genre Experience:
  • "Red or Blue" and "The Most Dangerous Game" are terrorist action thrillers.
  • "The Wrong Man" and "Death in the Clouds" are out-and-out comedies.
  • "The Disappearance of Furuhata Ninzaburo" is a comedic Mockumentary Clip Show that has no murders.
  • In a minor example, parts of "Furuhata Ninzaburo vs. SMAP" are a straight Concert Film probably due to Padding.
• Out of Order: The first three seasons suffer extremely badly from this. Here are a few examples:
  • Furuhata and Shintaro first meet in the second episode "The Moving Corpse" even though they worked together in the previous episode.
  • Furuhata and Shintaro are on a business trip in episode five of the first season. Episode seven shows their return trip to Tokyo even though they were back in episode six.
  • Season three suffers the worst of all. For example, the first 10 minutes of "The Terror of Dr Kuroiwa" are an elaborate introduction of Saionji even though he appeared in the previous episode.
  • An even more egregious example is that Furuhata, Saionji and Shintaro are shown in episode four to be returning from a trip. But they don’t actually go on the trip until episode six!
• The Perfect Crime:
  • The killer in "The Wrong Man" actually pulls one off. His second one, however, is a complete disaster.
  • Furuhata himself agrees that Tenma in "The Resurrection of Death" cannot be prosecuted for the murders of the Horibe brothers. However, he committed those murders to cover up the murder of their father which happened more than a decade ago and which Furuhata manages to arrest him for.
• Perp Sweating: To an extreme and literal degree in "The Contradictory Corpse".
• Phoney Call:
  • The killer does this unsuccessfully in "The Contradictory Corpse". Furuhata easily proves the victim couldn’t have called him by the simple use of the redial button.
  • The killer in "Final Dance" does it successfully, however, by stealing the victim’s mobile phone and then returning it upon discovering the body.
• Police Procedural
• Psychopathic Manchild:
  • The killer in "Red or Blue" is a young man who decides to place a bomb on a Ferris wheel because it blocks the view of the sea from his apartment.
  • Otoya from "The Resurrection of Death" also qualifies. He kills his older brother for being overbearing using a plan for a perfect murder he wrote when he was in fifth grade.
• Real Men Cook: Furuhata is a pretty good cook.
• Reverse Whodunnit
• Running Gag:
  • Once per Episode, Furuhata (and occasionally other people) will slap Shintaro’s forehead for saying or doing something incredibly dumb. It makes a cool slapping sound.
  • Furuhata’s inability to remember Mukojima’s name.
  • There’s one in the first season which revolves around Furuhata’s inability to operate vending machines.
• Series Continuity Error: Furuhata and Mukojima first meet in the second episode of the show, "The Moving Corpse". However, the prequel Made-for-TV Movie "Junior High School Student Furuhata" reveals they were childhood friends.
• Smug Snake: Some of the killers, though nowhere near as much as in Series/Columbo.
• The Sociopath: Quite a few of the killers over the years.
  • The bomber in Red or Blue is easily the number one example. Not only does he not care about killing large amounts of people (including many children), he does it for a completely banal reason. Furuhata is so shocked by his callousness that he slaps him.
  • Dr Kenichiro from Master of the Game also counts. Furuhata gives him a "The Reason You Suck" Speech at the end for treating his crimes like fun games.
  • The Professional Killer from The Most Dangerous Game who works with the eco-terrorists. While the rest of the group care for the environment, he is only in it for the cash and doesn’t care who he has to kill to get it.
  • Tenma in "The Resurrection of Death" who manipulates his favourite student to kill his brother. He then kills the student and all of that in order to cover up the fact that he killed their father more than a decade ago. None of this murdering disturbs him in the slightest and he easily keeps up his jovial facade.
• Sore Loser: Kusaka from "The Most Dangerous Game" is probably the only killer not to go quietly. He kidnaps a nurse at knife-point in order to escape.
• Special Guest: At least Once per Episode.
• Spotting the Thread
• Suddenly Shouting: Several of the authority figures do this.
• Suspect Existence Failure: Otoya Horibe is killed in what appears to be an accident in "The Resurrection of Death". It wasn’t an accident and the episode from there plays out as a Fair-Play Whodunnit.
• Sympathetic Murderer: Most of the killers are at least likeable and most of the victims are Asshole Victim. The best examples include:
  • Chinami in "Message from the Dead" is the most obvious example. Furuhata likes her so much they become good friends after the episode.
  • The wise and cool Jushiro Omiya in "Rehearsal for Murder".
  • Hikaru Noda in "The Laughing Kangaroo". Subverted in that she’s not actually the killer, she only thinks she is.
  • Noriko Kendall in "What Happened in New York" who ruined her own life by killing her cheating husband is at least pitiable.
  • The SMAP members from "Furuhata Ninzaburo vs SMAP" who kill a particularly nasty man who was blackmailing one of the members in a one for all, all for one plot.
  • Despite using Furuhata as an alibi, Haruko Kanamori from "Furuhata Goes to the Dentist" qualifies for being a generally kind, sweet, and bubbly dentist.
  • Toru Anzai from "The Reunion" though this one is a major case of Rewatch Bonus.
  • Sakura Odajima from "The Sad Perfect Murder". She is an abused wife who kills her awful husband. You really want her to get away with it.
  • Tai Shuzo in "Death in the Clouds" is sympathetic simply for being a completely inept criminal and a henpecked husband.
  • Ichiro Suzuki, the titular "Fair Murderer" who kills his brother’s blackmailer and then leaves clues that lead Furuhata directly to him. It also helps that his brother is none other than Officer Mukojima himself.
  • Momiji from "Final Dance" even though she kills probably the most likeable victim of the entire show, Furuhata’s love interest. She qualifies on the pitiable scale as she’s clearly a very depressed and deeply disturbed individual and not evil.
  • A very entertaining subversion occurs in "Reward for Hypocrisy" when the killer is Furuhata’s favourite TV writer. At first, she seems like a charming and erudite old lady but, by the end, everyone’s sick of her overbearing, manipulative nature.
• Thriller on the Express: "Murder Express".
• Title Drop:
  • "Which wire do we cut? Red or blue?"
  • Furuhata keeps trying to figure out how to pull off a trick called Magician’s Choice.
  • "This is a programme about the mysterious disappearance of Furuhata Ninzaburo."
  • "I think His Excellency did it."
  • "I would like the honour of thefinal dance."
  • Pretty close in "The Laughing Kangaroo". Hikaru says: "They say that when you're unlucky in love, the kangaroos laugh at you".
• Unwitting Pawn: Otoya Horibe in "The Resurrection of Death".
• Vacation Episode: Several:
  • "The Laughing Kangaroo" in which Furuhata and Shintaro win a trip to Australia.
  • "The Dirty King" in which Furuhata and Shintaro go on a business trip. They are then shown returning from the business trip in "Murder Express".
  • "What Happened in New York" in which Furuhata goes to New York to attend Chinami’s wedding. Shintaro tags along even though he’s not invited.
  • "Death in the Clouds" in which Furuhata, Shintaro, and Saionji investigate a death on a plane.
  • "The Reunion" in which Furuhata, Shintaro, and Saionji go to visit Furuhata’s old friend at his picturesque cabin in the forest. On the way back, they stop at a spa in"The Murder in a Small Village".
  • "His Excellency Did It" in which Furuhata, Shintaro, and Saionji go on a holiday to an unnamed South American country. On the day of the return, Furuhata loses his passport and is left alone at the Japanese embassy.
• Villain Opening Scene: Almost every episode begins with a meticulous sequence showing the killer executing his plan. In "Furuhata Ninzaburo vs. SMAP" this lasts for 56 minutes.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Furuhata often gets called out for being very mean to Shintaro and Saionji. He doesn’t care.
• Worthy Opponent:
  • Furuhata himself refers to Tenma from "The Resurrection of Death" as this.
    Furuhata: This killer is the most ingenious I've ever met.