What made this series stand out amongst all other Japanese, and indeed, Cop Shows in general, is its over-the-top action sequences that rivalled, and sometimes surpassed the other great action movies of the time, to the extent that the show was billed as a "Concrete Western". To put it in perspective, imagine if Die Hard, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Speed and Lethal Weapon had their production values transposed into a weekly primetime television series. And to drive home the point, it was estimated at one point the show had wrecked 4680 vehicles, used 4.8 tons of explosives, and destroyed 320 buildings.
The series became massively popular in Japan during its time on the air and is still so to this day; most of the show's Cool Cars were once on display at a museum celebrating the life and legend of Yujiro Ishihara. they were then donated to the city of Otaru, where it was located.
Seibu Keisatsu provides examples of:
- Ace Custom: Daimon's personal car is the Super Z, a specially modified and armed Nissan 280Z, while Hatomura's bike of choice in the later half of the show's run was a specially-modified Suzuki Katana-R motorcycle.
- Action Genre Hero Guy: The Daimon Force as a whole, getting themselves into firefights and car chases that would make 80s action stars blush.
- Alliterative Name: Kenzo Kogure.
- Atomic Hate: The MacGuffin of Episodes 32 and 33 of Part III is a homemade nuclear bomb, made with stolen plutonium. The Daimon Force is tasked to find the culprits and prevent Sendai from becoming the bombers' target.
- The Ace: Daimon has this trope in spades, with his Cool Shades, Badass Longcoat, Ace Custom car and shotgun, and general fearlessness in the heat of battle.
- Badass Biker: Hiroshi Tachi's characters, Sotaro Tatsumi and Eiji "Hato" Hatomura, who ere the only cast members who were bike cops.
- Badass in a Nice Suit:
- The Daimon Force in general, but Kogure and Daimon themselves are the best examples. Daimon usually has a Badass Longcoat he wears into battle, while Kogure has a grey suit with matching trenchcoat. They also have Raybans to complete the ensemble.
- The bad guys do have their fair share of nice suits as well. Expect them and their Mooks to either fight it out in army fatigues and kepis, all-black with berets, or a mix of both.
- The Force's allied cops also duke it out in full patrol uniform, motorcycle helmets and gloves included.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Kogure's first Number Two, Takeshi "Yes-Kun" Ninomiya's trademark was his high-pitched voice, his actor's Large Ham acting, and sometimes nonsensical dialogue.
- Cool Bike: Hiroshi Tachi's characters both get to cruise around in Harley-Davidson and Suzuki bikes. Hatomura in particular got an Ace Custom Nissan Katana as the show went on.
- Cool Car:
- Daimon's personal vehicle was first a modified Nissan sedan called the Machine X, then in Part II he gets his iconic Nissan Super Z, a modified Nissan 280Z armed with 20mm cannons, a computer, and extra turbo.
- The rest of the squad also get their own trio of modified Nissan Skylines called the RS Machines, which also come with turbo modifications and computer systems.
- Kogure has a Nissan Gazelle convertible as his personal car, like his actor, Yujiro Ishihara did in Real Life. Other than a police radio and car phone (how very 80s), it doesn't have much in terms of special features.
- A Nissan Safari specially modified for firefighting appeared early on in the show and was also useful for suppressing criminals.
- The Other Wiki has a list of what cars the show's villains use.
- Cool Shades: Daimon, Kogure, Hato, Riki, and Tatsumi.
- Deadly Gas / Forgotten Superweapon: The squad visits Kagoshima in Episode 17 of Part III to find an old poison gas used by the Nazis, as well as Western Terrorists Robert Carson, who wants the weapon for himself.
- Destroy the Product Placement: Nissan was the show's main sponsor, and a lot of its cars helped add to the magic "4680 cars wrecked" number. The ways they destroyed them included explosions, car crashes, chases that end with the cars crashing into water, and epic stunts that wrecked the vehicles.
- Do Not Call Me "Paul":
- Detective Takeshi Matsuda prefers to be called "Riki".
- Likewise, Detective Taku Kitajyo is called "Joe".
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Yujiro Ishihara sang the closing themes.
- Excited Episode Title!: Most of the episode titles in Part II and III.
- Extra-Long Episode: The show got four, one in the first series, one in the second, and the other two in Part III. The first three were 90 minutes, while the last, the Grand Finale, was 2 hours long.
- Evil Laugh: Henry Noguchi in Part III has one.
- Faking the Dead: Daimon in the Grand Finale by way of Retcon.
- Far East Asian Terrorists: By and large the show's most frequent antagonists.
- Good-Guy Bar: The Corner Lounge, Kogure and Daimon's favorite haunt. It's run by Kogure's old friend Asahina.
- Guns Do Not Work That Way:
- Daimon's weapon of choice is a Remington M31 shotgun with a pistol grip and a scope. While it does look cool on screen, Daimon frequently treats it as if it were a sniper rifle.
- A lot of the show's villains use bolt-action rifles that fire in semi-auto.
- Gratuitous English: Happens here and then. Notable examples include Robert Carson's orders to "Kill them! Kill them!" in Part III.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners / Those Two Guys: Daimon and Kogure, just like their actors in Real Life. They tended to hang around in the Corner Lounge by themselves, and the opening credits of Parts II and III even feature them casually strolling around Tokyo.
- Hostage Situation:
- The Daimon Force had to face a lot of these over the course of the show, but the most famous example happened in Episode 18 of Part II, where a ransom taker threatened to blow up a Hiroshima tram car. They managed to arrest him and evacuate the train, but the money dissappears. Turns out another passenger swiped it during the chaos, but he later gets arrested for his trouble.
- The first episode of Part II also features a busjacking situation in the vein of Speed, complete with mad bomber villains as the criminals-of-the-week.
- Another takes place in Episode 50 of Part III where a Louisiana-style river boat gets taken over by the episode's villains, who also threaten to blow it up should their demands not be met.
- Hoist by His Own Petard:
- A loose grenade ends up lighting a fuel trail and destroys the bad guys' smuggling boat in Episode 19 of Part III.
- Henry Noguchi gets blown up by his own missile in Episode 23 of Part III thanks to Hato and Yamagata's sabotage work.
- Improbable Infant Survival: Played straight on the whole throughout the show, but God help you if you harm a kid and the Daimon Force is on the case. If you don't get blown up after a balls-to-the-wall car chase and the subsequent shootout, prepare to be be at the other end of Daimon's No-Holds-Barred Beatdown.
- It's Personal:
- In Episode 19 of Part II, a rival of Daimon's kidnaps one of the Super Z's engineers and forces him to build an exact copy of the car. He then challenges Daimon to a race to settle their rivalry.
- In the Grand Finale, Daimon helps in the attempted capture of international terrorist Gaston Goulez, the number one man on Interpol's most wanted, but Goulez is shot and killed by cops whilst resisting arrest. A few months later, Daimon returns to Japan and gets targeted by Goulez's comrades-in-arms, who promptly begin their Roaring Rampage of Revenge by targeting major the Daimon Force and kidnapping several high-profile figures.
- Killed Off for Real:
- Happens to Tatsumi and Riki in the first series.
- Subverted with Daimon's in the Grand Finale, whose death was retconned in the Reunion Show as having been faked.
- The Lancer:
- Riki, Hato, Tatsumi, Joe, and Yamagata to Daimon.
- Daimon is also this to Kogure, being the Force's field leader and Kogure the overall section chief.
- Lemming Cops: Where do we even begin? At least one patrol car is going to be destroyed in your usual episode. The ones with the big special effects have _dozens_ destroyed during the big climax.
- Made of Explodium: The show is basically The Series of this trope. They put those 4.8 tons of explosive to good use. The things the production crew managed to destroy include (but are no means limited to) buses, tram cars, getaway vehicles, buildings, armored cars, pleasure cruisers, coastguard stations, and even a real 99-ton fishing steamer.
- MacGuffin:
- The genetic data for a new breed of super-salmon used by a fish company (Part II, Episode 26)
- A special metallic alloy, dubbed Mercalloy-X and the scientist who developed it (Part III, Episodes 9-10)
- A long-forgotten toxic gas (Part III, Episode 17)
- A short-range tactical ballistic missile that will be used in a terrorist plot (Part III, Episode 23)
- A homemade nuclear bomb (Part III, Episodes 32-33)
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Daimon's trademark move if he gets close enough to a perp. Subverted with Kogure, who only needs one punch to bring punks down.
- Rated M for Manly: The shows screams this trope. The over-the top action and 80s style action pretty much define the show as a whole.
- Reality Is Unrealistic: Japan actually has a very low violent crime rate, but this series tends to differ in its portrayal of it. Then again, the producers decided from the get-go that it wasn't a priority.
- Reluctant Mad Scientist: The inventor of the Mercalloy-X in Part III.
- Reunion Show: The show had one in 2004 to commemorate twenty years since the Grand Finale, as well as to celebrate Yujiro Ishihara's 17th death anniversary.
- Spoiler Title: The Grand Finale's: The Death Of Daimon! Men and Eternity... Averted when the Reunion Show reveals Daimon was Not Quite Dead.
- Special Guest:
- Shintaro Katsu, of Zatoichi fame, and Tetsuro "Tiger Tanaka" Tanba of You Only Live Twice and G-Men '75 appear in Part III's New Year's Special.
- Yasuaki Kurata of G-Men '75 cameos as a terrorist in the Grand Finale.
- Godzilla veteran Akira Takarada, of the the original 1954 movie, Mothra vs. Godzilla, Invasion of Astro-Monster, Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for Earth, and Godzilla: Final Wars, makes an appearance in the Grand Finale.
- Tank Goodness: The first two episodes have the Daimon Force pursue the TU-355 Lady Bird, a massive armored car hijacked by a trio of mercs working for a Right-Wing Militia Fanatic.
- The Cavalry:
- Episode 47 of Part II has the Daimon Force aided by entire police department of Sapporo chase the bad guys into the Orofure wilderness.
- Episode 10 of Part III has the Fukushima police aid them in assaulting the bad guy's mountaintop base.
- Episode 23 of Part III has the Yamagata police help hold off Henry Noguchi's men until their sabotaged tactical missile can arrive.
- Episode 33 of Part III have the entire Sendai police force deployed to assit the Daimon Force's search for the episode's homemade nuke.
- Episodes 19 and 48 of Part III take the cake however: the former episode has an entire fishing fleet tag along to bust the bad guys while the later has three helicopters and what appears to be the entire Osaka Police Department box in the bad guy's cool truck.
- The Rival: A few of the villains Daimon faces off against have had a history with him, most notably the villains in Episode 19 of Part II and the Grand Finale.
- Transatlantic Equivalent:
- Might as well be the Japanese answer to every classic 80s action movie ever made.
- On the TV side of things, it is arguably be an answer to S.W.A.T. (1975) and The Sweeney.
- Japanese fans have made a point of comparing this series with Alarm für Cobra 11. Indeed, when one considers how mundane the nature of the police organizations portrayed on both shows actually are, it's easy to see why.
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Spiritual Successor:- The show was this to Daitokai (The Big City), an earlier three-part series produced by Ishihara and starring the Watari-Ishihara tandem with a special emphasis on the stunts and action. In fact, Seibu was originally developed as Daitokai Part IV during preproduction.
- The show would get one in another Cop Show produced after Ishihara's death: Gorilla Metropolitian Police 8th Squad.
- The Triads and the Tongs: The bad guys in Episode 23 of Part III were these and were outsourced to perform an assassination of West African leaders using a stolen tactical ballistic missile.
- Trailers Always Spoil: The episode previews, which showed the epic climatic car chases and destruction scenes well before the episode aired.
- Train Job: Inverted in Episode 23 of Part III. It's the Daimon Force who have to hijack the train the bad guys are using to store their stolen tactical ballistic missile.
- Vacation Episode: No less than 14, all across exotic locations in Japan. Expect the Daimon Force to relax at the episode location's tourist spots after solving the a case.
- Viking Funeral: The Machine X gets one in Episode 48 of Part III thanks to the criminal-of-the-week's plot to use it as a moving bomb. The episode ends with Kogure toasting a brandy glass and praying to its memory as Daimon has a final Imagine Spot of the car running free across the highway.
- Western Terrorists: A frequent enemy across the series. They prominently feature in Episodes 10 and 17 of Part III and the Grand Finale.
- Weapon of Mass Destruction: Quite a frequent threat across the series. There's stolen tactical ballistic missiles, homemade nuclear bombs, and poison gas in Part III.
