Original title
古畑任三郎
Released
4/13/1994
Origin country
JP
Genre
Crime, Drama
Production companies
Fuji Television Network
Status
Ended
Number of seasons
4
Number of episodes
36
Furuhata Ninzaburō is a Japanese television series that ran periodically on Fuji Television from 1994 until its final episodes in 2006. It was written by Japanese playwright Kōki Mitani and is often referred to as the Japanese version of Columbo. The series is a police detective drama starring actor Masakazu Tamura as Furuhata Ninzaburo and Masahiko Nishimura as his stereotypically bumbling sidekick, Shintaro Imaizumi. The program aired weekly and featured a guest villain each time, usually a famous talent in Japan. Pop-stars like SMAP, television hosts like Sanma Akashiya and even sports figures like Ichiro Suzuki have been featured on this program. It was one of the most popular television dramas in the history of Japanese television, having spawned several seasons and TV specials.
A love triangle turns deadly during an awards ceremony in Australia. Unfortunately for the killers, however, Furuhata and Shintaro are on a well-deserved holiday in the same hotel.
The head of a flower arrangement clan murders her overbearing teacher and rival during a flamenco recital. The one thing Furuhata, who was in the audience, can't quite figure out is how the killer found her victim in the dark auditorium.
Famous detective Furuhata Ninzaburo has disappeared, so a TV crew decide to make a documentary about his career interviewing his associates and the killers he caught.
Furuhata is called in to investigate a murder committed by the well-known Japanese boy band SMAP.
Furuhata comes out of retirement to investigate a series of bizarre serial killings which would look like deaths by natural causes except for the notes found inside the victims' anuses.
An employee at a Japanese embassy in a South American country is kidnapped but Furuhata, who is there on holiday, begins suspecting that the man was killed by none other than the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary himself.
Furuhata investigates a series of bizarre, seemingly random accidental deaths. He zeroes in on the suspected murderer, but loses faith in his instincts when the suspect is himself killed. However, in the end, he ends up solving three murders and catching the real suspect.
Ichiro Suzuki, a baseball player obsessed with fair play, murders a man who was blackmailing his brother who is none other than Furuhata's faithful friend Mukojima.
Kyoko Kagami is a pen name for a pair of twin writers. After one sister kills the other, their technical advisor Furuhata investigates. His investigation is complicated by his feelings for the surviving sister.
Young Furuhata, a 3rd-year junior high student from Tokyo, transferred to a school in the countryside due to family circumstances. He doesn't fit in at first, but he eventually gains a reputation as a detective and opens his own detective agency. One day, he hears about the town's legend of buried treasure, and he immediately begins unraveling the mystery.
On a dark and stormy night, Chinami kills her business partner in her remote manor house in the hills. Then the doorbell rings. As luck would have it, it's none other than Inspector Furuhata seeking refuge from the rain.
After killing a woman in a hit and run, a famous Kabuki actor decides to kill the only witness, a theatre security guard, and stage it to look like an accidental fall. Only Furuhata Ninazburo is not convinced.
Furuhata is called to a scene where a woman has just killed a burglar but a chicken in the oven and a cigarette in the bin make the wily inspector suspicious.
An action-packed night is in store for the police department after a famous writer's wife is kidnapped and he is tasked with delivering the money by the fax-using kidnapper. However, a grammatical question niggles at Furuhata.
Shogi 8-dan Yonezawa is no match for Furuhata Ninzaburo after murdering the overseer at the Ryujin Tournament.
Furuhata Ninzaburô gets involved in the drama surrounding an elite musical academy when he begins suspecting a fierce piano teacher of murdering the school's headmaster.
During a rehearsal, a beloved samurai movie star kills the despised studio executive. Was it an accident or murder? Furuhata Ninzaburo investigates.
A trip should be enjoyable but Dr Nakagawa's trip was ruined when he realized he was being tailed by his wife's private eye. He decides to kill the nosy gumshoe on the train home but unfortunately for him, Furuhata Ninzaburo is on board.
During a live broadcast, a TV psychic desperately in need of validation pretends to find a corpse of a man he himself had killed earlier. The only person in the audience not convinced is Inspector Furuhata.
A politician's secretary murders his boss and the boss' mistress staging the scene to look like a murder-suicide. However, one of his victims survives and is taken to the hospital for recovery.
Furuhata and Shintaro are assigned to bodyguard a radio DJ who's been receiving threatening messages. However, the DJ turns out to be the killer with a devious plan and a watertight alibi.
What happens when the killer you are hunting is your superior? Furuhata is about to find out after he begins suspecting the legendary Superintendent Kogure of murdering the man who killed his daughter.
A successful lawyer kills his mistress and frames Shintaro Imaizumi for the murder. When the lawyer convinces Shintaro to plead guilty, Furuhata becomes suspicious.
A hated, strict headmistress of an all-girls priory school murders a liberal teacher beloved by all the students. In order to catch her, Furuhata will have to play by her rules.
A devious doctor manipulates a mystery writer into staging his own murder to look like a suicide. The doctor is surprisingly good at all kinds of games (darts, pool, chess etc.) but he is no match for Furuhata when it comes to mind games.
Shintaro is trapped on a Ferris wheel with a bomb on board and if the amusement park doesn't pay the bomber until noon, it will go off. His only other hope is a young explosives expert whom Furuhata suspects is the bomber.
Furuhata's favorite screenwriter murders her domineering sister with an unknown murder weapon. In order to find the weapon and prove her guilt, Furuhata makes Shintaro become the old woman's servant.
While competing on a TV game show, Furuhata investigates the murder of a costumer found dead in a locked room. He begins suspecting that the killer is none other than the undefeated quiz show champion.
A scheming antique dealer murders an old potter who was blackmailing him but his accomplice's thoughtless actions jeopardize his plan.
A highly respected magician falls in love with his much younger assistant and murders her boyfriend in front of a captive audience which just so happens to include Furuhata and Shintaro.
A magazine editor concocts and executes the perfect murder in the snowy hills around Tokyo only to then encounter an acquaintance. He kills him too but his streak of bad luck has only just begun.
During a long bus trip to New York, a Japanese woman sitting next to Furuhata challenges him to a game. She will tell him about the perfect murder she committed and see if he is able to figure out how she got away.
A rakugo comedian kills a fellow student and makes it look like a suicide by faking two alibis. Both take each other's places at different points of the day, leaving a complicated mystery for Furuhata to solve.
A perpetually busy media director murders a politician in his hotel room while engaging in a phone call he would later use as his alibi. His meticulously planned schedule soon meets an obstacle in Furuhata Ninzaburo.
Furuhata catches a cold and stops in a small village to recover with his colleagues, getting caught up in the entire community's attempt to cover up a murder.
A dentist murders her ex-boyfriend and attempts to use Furuhata as his alibi, tricking him and another witness into thinking she was cleaning his teeth at the time of the crime.
Furuhata receives a mysterious invitation to an old friend's house. Beginning to suspect his friend plans to murder his cheating wife, Furuhata realizes this may be his chance to prevent a murder instead of solving one.
A conductor murders a violist he was having an affair with an seeks to frame her new boyfriend. Strangely, he also kills all of the victim's fish, which Furuhata used to deduce the killer's identity.
A presenter of a Go-based TV program kills her manipulative husband who wanted her to remain a housewife forever. The behavior of their cat proves to be a clue to the crime.
A wheelchair-bound scientist kills his colleague and old friend using a deadly gift and some well-timed phone calls. Saionji quickly suspects the scientist's ex-girlfriend of the crime, but Furuhata remains unconvinced.
An archaeologist's affair partner accidentally dies during a fight in an airplane bathroom and flees, desperate to hide his secret from his wife. While covering up the crime, he's forced to masquerade as the co-pilot and avoid the child who witnessed his escape. Imaizumi's witnessing of a gremlin on the wing of the plane becomes a dangerous clue.
A shady group kills a young man but fails to recover the bag he stole. To get it back from a subway lost and found, they hack into its control room and stage a train hijacking. Furuhata happens to be on the scene, but the plot proves too complex for him to unravel in one episode.
Furuhata leaves the station with the suspect, intent on dropping off the ransom money. How will he prove the culprits true identity, and what is his opponent planning?
Furuhata investigates a series of bizarre, seemingly random accidental deaths. He zeroes in on the suspected murderer, but loses faith in his instincts when the suspect is himself killed. However, in the end, he ends up solving three murders and catching the real suspect.
Ichiro Suzuki, a baseball player obsessed with fair play, murders a man who was blackmailing his brother who is none other than Furuhata's faithful friend Mukojima.
Kyoko Kagami is a pen name for a pair of twin writers. After one sister kills the other, their technical advisor Furuhata investigates. His investigation is complicated by his feelings for the surviving sister.
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