Line #13 YMMV/TaiyoNiHoero


1	'''Warning! All spoilers below are unmarked.'''
2	* ArchivePanic: Being a LongRunner, the show has a whopping '''718 episodes''', all an hour long (except for the four 90-minute ones). Even just starting to focus on a character's run on the show is difficult.[[note]]Outside of DJ and Inspector Tachibana who joined the squad in the show's last 12 episodes, every main detective is featured in more than 50 episodes.[[/note]] It does not help that a portion of episodes are not available online - especially the 90-minute ones, so you either have to catch a rerun or buy the DVD releases.
3	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
4	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpNmmUDHokw The opening theme.]] WebVideo/FilthyFrank memes aside, it is pretty good!
5	** Not only are the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs1-JjyPZgc '79]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgoXPvgL3d8 '86]] themes are period-appropriate, but also catchy. The latter sounds as if it could fit a ''Series/MiamiVice'' episode!
6	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=shq9ChRh59E&list=PLZcBnBz2jEKy3XzPNXgglyrCMC5vA8A97&index=41 Boss' Love Theme.]] Usually plays as a GriefSong when someone dies, and it fits the moment very well.
7	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8zGlNMdMwU&list=PLZcBnBz2jEKy3XzPNXgglyrCMC5vA8A97&index=87&t=5s Detective DJ's]][[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THlYP7_kJt4&list=PLZcBnBz2jEKy3XzPNXgglyrCMC5vA8A97&index=87 themes]] just scream 80s.
8	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMA4ZdrKwnI&list=PLZcBnBz2jEKy3XzPNXgglyrCMC5vA8A97&index=99 Detective Doc's Theme]] also is very 80s evocative, with heavy use of synth.
9	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEDHJisudVA&list=PLZcBnBz2jEKy3XzPNXgglyrCMC5vA8A97&index=58 Rocky's theme]] fits his CountryMouse / GentleGiant character very well.
10	** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1rV0dYyTRI&list=PLZcBnBz2jEKy3XzPNXgglyrCMC5vA8A97&index=120 The Namemagari Station theme]].
11	* EnsembleDarkhorse:
12	** Despite only being on the show for a year and having the fewest focus episodes out of every main character, Gypsy is well-liked by fans due to his actor playing the BreakoutCharacter Hide in ''[[Series/{{Hissatsu}} Hissatsu Shigotonin]]'' and his chemistry with Doc and Rugger. Many fans wished Gypsy returned more outside of his single guest appearance after leaving.
13	** Scotch, mainly due to Masaya Oki's performance and CharacterDevelopment. His death remains one of the show's most tragic moments due to Oki's suicide the following year.
14	** Rocky had an unusually long run on the show, lasting 263 episodes. His run was the longest of any of the cast who did not appear in the first episode...
15	** ...before Doc broke that record, lasting 303 episodes, 315 if you count ''Part 2''. He is not a starring rookie but his relaxed and sarcastic nature lightened the mood after a long string of dark storylines. Doc's popularity was so huge that he went from being credited fifth to second in the opening after Scotch's death, which lasted for the duration of the show. By the end of the series, he is the show's oldest surviving character on the squad (other than Boss), notably outlasting three of his juniors and longer-term characters such as Bon and Rocky. In ''Part 2'' he becomes the squad's ''de facto'' field leader.
16	** Mommy appeared in older episodes as a supporting character but does not join the main cast officially until Episode 546. Her run lasted 272 episodes, which gets upped to 284 in ''Part 2''. Quite the PromotionToOpeningTitles, especially considering she was the second female detective on a show with a primarily male-dominated cast.
17	* {{Fanon}}: Most fans agree that any character that survived till the end of the show (including the ones who transferred/retired) are still alive today. The execption is this is Boss, who had passed away by the time of the reunion shows.
18	* HarsherInHindsight:
19	** Scotch initially struggling to maintain a meaningful relationship with the squad and later dying from illness is very hard to watch, as Masaki Oki committed suicide the year after he left the show. He had been battling bipolar disorder. His last line on the show was pleading not to die.
20	** Both Macaroni and Bon were both killed on a Friday the 13th. Decades later, their actors, Kenichi Hagiwara and Jun Miyauchi, passed away in 2019 and 2020 respectively due to cancer.
21	* HilariousInHindsight:
22	** Macaroni and Jiipan getting initially ridiculed by their seniors for not following the proper detective dress code. Years later, most of the detectives dressed up in more casual clothing with barely any comment.
23	** In Episode 129, Denka disguises himself as a physician. His eventual successor would be a medical school dropout.
24	** Sneakers was succeeded by Rugger, a rugby player. Three years after his departure, Shinji Yamashita (alongside Tappei Shimokawa) would star in ''School Wars: Hero'', a rugby drama series that made Yamashita a {{meme\|ticMutation}} due to his character's excessive crying.
25	** Both Masaki Kanda(Doc) and Yoshizumi Ishihara(Micom) played characters named Jun prior to joining the cast in sister dramas ''Oretachi Wa Tenshin Da?'' and ''Series/SeibuKeisatsu'' respectively.
26	* HoYay: Several instances. This is a show that features a dominantly male cast after all.
27	** Most notable with Boss and Yama-san who act like parents to the squad. Many episodes were dedicated to how loyal Yama-san is to Boss and vice versa.
28	*** Many Yama-san-centric episodes end with Boss comforting him after the rough cases. One time had Boss give Yama-san a piggyback ride.
29	*** In episode 65, after Yama-san loses his promotional transfer, he admits to Boss that he was glad he lost it because Boss(who he mentions specifically) and Nanamagari are his home.
30	** Texas and Bon. Episode 191 in particular had Texas mention that Bon was cute in his mind while the latter was sleeping in a stakeout.
31	** Rocky and Bon, which is one of the show's most famous partnerships.
32	*** Episode 260 had Bon let Rocky move into his apartment. Their first night had their beds together, while Bon's arm unintentionally crosses over Rocky's. Too bad Rocky was snoring very loudly, much to Bon's displeasure.
33	*** In Episode 323, both of them sit quietly next to each other on a mountain in Hokkaido, admiring the scene together.
34	** Sneakers' admiration for Bon, who saved him trouble from the ''yakuza'' and gave him a pair of sneakers. It's to the point where Sneakers becomes a detective himself and later risks his own career to find Bon's murderer. Bon is recurringly mentioned as Sneakers' savior post-death.
35	** In Episode 574, "Sea of Adventure" Doc tells Boss this as the joke-of-the-week:
36	--> ''"If I were a treasure, would you search for me?''"
37	** Doc and Gypsy remain one of the show's most popular pairings. It helps that both of them survived the show and Doc never had a serious romantic relationship throughout his long run.
38	*** This is mainly due to Episode 527, "Rainy Town, where Gypsy gets captured and injected with heroin. Doc spends the first half of the episode seemingly jealous of Gypsy wanting to protect a woman who is a recovering heroin addict. After Gypsy gets captured by the woman's ex-boyfriend who forcibly injects heroin into him, Doc willingly sends the bargain of 200 million yen in order to save Gypsy's life. When Doc rescues Gypsy, he puts him in his arms and comforts him while the latter is going through heroin withdrawal, in a similar fashion to the heroin episode in ''Series/StarskyAndHutch''.
39	*** It also doesn't help that, in his debut episode, the first thing Gypsy does with Doc and the rest of the Nanamagari youngsters after taking down their first criminal together is to... go to an ''onsen''.
40	*** After arriving there, Gypsy hands Doc a bottle of shampoo in the [[{{ShowerScene}} shower]]. Doc proceeds to analyze Gypsy's scar (which is right under his left pectoral). If you look closely, Doc's finger brushes on Gypsy's chest.
41	*** During Gypsy's last episode, he and Doc have a final conversation where the former admits to the latter that he was glad to have met everyone while looking directly at Doc's eyes for a long amount of time. Doc's eyes were noticeably wet. During their final goodbye with Rugger and Bogey, everyone is smiling, except Doc who looks like he's trying not to cry.
42	** Doc and Rugger were seen to be very close as well. There are many moments where they touch each other's faces and bicker like an old married couple. One episode even had Doc kiss Rugger on the cheek. When Rugger was killed off, Doc tearfully calls Boss to tell the news. He then walked to Rugger's body and broke down crying while holding the other's hands.
43	* LikeYouWouldReallyDoIt:
44	** To put it simply, just about every Nanamagari detective squad member has gone to the ICU at least once in the show.
45	** Sneakers actually quits in Episode 401 after a child he was trying to protect dies and he gets into an argument with Scotch that results in them fistfighting with each other. He serves as a constriction worker for a while before Gori gives him a pep talk. Ultimately subverted in Episode 476 when he quits again, and this time it sticks.
46	* MemeticMutation:
47	** ''What the hell is this?''
48	** A recurring Twitter meme where someone posts 3 pictures of characters from the show along with their nicknames with the fourth picture being a celebrity or fictional character. Replies give the fourth person a nickname, usually based on something they are infamous for.
49	* NeverLiveItDown:
50	** In-universe, the high fatality rate at Nanamagari (11 fatalities out of 24 characters) is one of the main things brought up about the show as it ran along, to the point Boss considers the deaths his greatest failures. It doesn't help that a majority of the surviving detectives had several close calls as well.
51	** Rugger's weight gain by the last year of his run is usually mentioned when someone discusses the character. It got to the point that his death scene led to several jokes that he died getting stuck between the elevator doors his body was found. Behind-the-scenes footage revealed that Toru Watanabe ripped his pants during his last action sequence, ruining the seriousness of the scene to anyone involved in the filming.
52	* NightmareFuel:
53	** Bogey's death. A bunch of strange men surround him and stab him in the heart in broad daylight. In his dying moments, he proceeds to shake very violently and then fall to the ground. His eyes being opened and his final position makes it look uncannily and more realistic compared to previous deaths.
54	** Macaroni and Yama-san's as well, given they were both ambushed by a random thug in the middle of the night.
55	* QuestionableCasting: Episode 118 introduces a new office worker named Chaco, who is... '''only 14 years old.''' Viewers are left confused on how Nanamagari hired a teenager for a full-time job. The showrunners apparently caught on to this and Chaco disappeared 12 episodes later.
56	* RetroactiveRecognition:
57	** One major example from dozens: A young Creator/KenWatanabe appears in Episode 574.
58	** A fair bit of ''seiyuu'' appeared across the show's run, namely Hiroshi Masuoka ([[Franchise/DragonBall Master Roshi in the final episodes of Dragon Ball Z and all of GT]]), Kazue Takahashi ([[{{Anime/Gigantor}} Tetsujin-28]]), Creator/IemasaKayumi, Creator/HiroyaIshimaru, Creator/JojiNakata, Creator/YoshitoYasuhara, Osamu Saka ([[Franchise/DragonBall Grandpa Gohan]]), Creator/RyuseiNakao, Creator/MamiKoyama, Issei Futamata (Anime/UruseiYatsura), and Creator/ShuichiIkeda.
59	* SignatureScene:
60	** The scene in the opening that shows TheSquad running.
61	*** In fact, ''any'' scene when anybody runs. It's been calculated that, if you add up the collective length the entire cast ran for the entire show, it adds up to ''half'' the Earth's circumference.
62	** Macaroni's death. At the time, it was very shocking to audience members that the show killed off the lead character as it wasn't a common practice at the time. The detectives' speechlessness to his death was supposed to reflect viewers' surprised reactions to it.
63	** Jiipan's death scene and ad-libbed FinalWords to the point that it gets parodied years later.
64	** Boss' five-minute speech to the criminal's sister in the final episode, which succeeds in convincing her to give up the location of her brother's hideout, where Blues was being held. Made even more awesome due to it being entirely on the fly, and was Ishihara's last salute to his fans.
65	* StockFootageFailure: Any of the times Boss flashes back to a detective's death. The problem is that the footage is supposed to be based on his point of view, which makes zero sense since he was only truly present watching Gori-san die[[note]]Even then, montages would show Gori falling after getting shot, which Boss himself was not present for.[[/note]].
66	* SuspiciouslySimilarSong: [[https://youtu.be/IgoXPvgL3d8 The '86 theme]] sounds very similar to the [[https://youtu.be/jswHsTJQL_c theme]] from ''Series/MiamiVice''.
67	* TooCoolToLive: All of the detectives that died. Mainly Yama-san, Jeans, and Scotch.
68	* TropeCodifier: For just about every Japanese CopShow since it went on air. For example, winks and nods to it happen in ''Manga/CaseClosed'', especially with the theme songs since both shows share a composer in Katsuo Ohno.
69	* ValuesResonance: The show's message on the use of guns. Several episodes clearly state that civilians should not have access to firearms in the first place as it would always lead to violence. And the people that do have the power to wield them should only use them for two things: to defend civilians against armed criminals and to intimidate them to surrender their weapons. People who heavily abuse their power (I.E., DirtyCops) are called out and disciplined heavily in their respective episodes.
70	--> Boss: ''If a human shoots another human without hesitance, then it's over for society.''
71	* VindicatedByHistory: The series struggled to maintain ratings for most of Sneakers' era due to airing at the same time as Series/KinpachiSensei. While Sneakers is generally liked, many fans didn't think he lived up to Bon's time on the show and his dynamic with Rocky is barely seen compared to his predecessor. Nowadays, this era is looked at more favorably for its overall darker tone than the rest of the series and Sneakers' more serious character contrasted with the more lighthearted rookies that is seen in other portions of the show.
72	* TheWoobie: The series does not hold back on traumatizing its cast. Anyone can be considered this, even one-off characters and criminals of the week.
73	** Boss is one by the end of the series. He's watched so many of his subordinates die over the years, including Yama-san who's been with him for over 13 years. He is shown to blame himself many times and even considers reassigning when Denka dies. He was stopped by his superior, but eventually then watched six more detectives get killed. Even sadder, Boss considers the squad to be his family and is forced to watch them go away as the years go by. It's no wonder why he came back to save Blues because he couldn't go through with it again.
74	** Yama-san. His sick wife, who he spent years caring for finally succumbs to her illness in Episode 206, leaving him devastated. In addition, he's watched several of his juniors who greatly admired him die in actions he would perform safely, leading to several HeroicBSOD moments. This climaxes in his final episode when he has to say goodbye to his adopted son after his real parents are found, not to mention him being KickedUpStairs in the middle of a high-profile case and to say goodbye to Nanamagari. Though he ends up arresting the ones responsible, he is attacked by a gunman. Despite killing his attacker in self-defense, quickly loses blood and is about to die. His last actions are to call Boss, then his son, one last time.
75	** Pops. He generally acts as a grandfather type to everyone, but the shock of seeing Rocky die is enough for him to retire and become an instructor. By 1997, he is the only surviving member of the initial squad, outliving many of his juniors, most never reached his age when the show started.
76	** Gori, to a degree. Despite being the tough guy of the Nanamagari squad, the death of Macaroni upsets him greatly since he was the last person he saw alive. He tries to not make the same mistake by mentoring newer detectives only to see them get killed as well. By the end of his run, breaks up with his girlfriend, rekindles his love with a deaf girl he met on a case... then dies after busting a drug ring by himself.
77	** Macaroni had to learn the hardships of being a detective very harshly. From realizing he can't sympathize with every criminal in multiple cases, it came to a climax in Episode 20, where he accidentally kills a criminal. He practically breaks down in hysteria, repeating for him to wake up. Even with all the struggles he suffered, he still was glad to be a detective. And then he was killed, cutting his life and career short.
78	** Mommy, after Rocky was murdered, leaving her to raise their two kids alone. In episodes after her return, she's still understandably frustrated and couldn't understand why he kept risking his life in a dangerous job.
79	** Sneakers, big time. A US tank murdered his parents during their occupation in Okinawa and the people who killed them were never caught. To support his sister, they travel to Tokyo, causing him to wind up in a yakuza when he could not make ends meet. His life lightens a little when he was saved by Bon and aimed to be a detective just like him, only to learn that he was killed by someone who got away. His time in Nanamagari is full of moments where he doubts that he is not good enough to be a detective. And when he finally becomes confident, his sister, with whom he spent most of his life taking care of, is also killed during a shooting. He leaves the show alive but his story still ends on a tragic note. You just want to give him a hug whenever he is onscreen.
80	** Scotch started out as a chipper young detective at Jonan Police Station... before a criminal shot and killed his partner. Cue him turning into a cold, calculating detective on Spock's level. Even when he joins the Nanamagari squad, it takes a while before he settles into the camaraderie. And one of the few times he warms up to the squad is after his fiancee gets murdered. Even when he returns in Episode 399, he still exudes the no-nonsense attitude he started out with (it is implied he becomes this again due to Bon's death). Then he finds out he has a case of hemoptysis as the squad's tackling a big drug-running case. Ignoring his health issues, he broke out of the hospital to take down the syndicate. He captures one of their men and plays Russian roulette with him to make him talk. Scotch succeeds... but then his hemoptysis kicks in and he dies in the hospital with Gori on his side.
81	** Doc by the end of the series. Being one of the longest-running characters, Doc watched many of his friends die or leave, which becomes tragic when you realize he was very close with many of them. Rugger's death basically broke him and he spends the rest of the series being more professional to his juniors instead of being casual like he had with Rugger and Bogey. To put the nail in the coffin, Doc's last focus episode in Part I had himself only near seconds from death had the criminal not passed out from injuries before he pulled the trigger.
82	** Denka's second girlfriend. She is introduced sometime after his first one died during a case. She, like Gori's second fiancee, is introduced with a disability (a form of foot disease that leaves her almost crippled). After she had Denka get together, they gradually raise the money for her to get foot surgery in America. By Episode 414, Denka is eager to pick her up from the airport... and dies in a car crash on the way. Boss arrives to pick her up and tells her the bad news. When we see her again in Episode 665, it reveals she keeps refusing to date anyone else.

Context YMMV / TaiyoNiHoero