Furuhata Ninzaburō

Furuhata Ninzaburō (古畑 任三郎^?) is a Japanese television series that ran periodically on Fuji Television from 1994 until its final episodes (specials) 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 (boy-band), television hosts like Sanma Akashiya (variety) and even sports figures like Ichiro Suzuki (baseball) 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.

Furuhata opens each episode with a humorous monologue that, at first, appears to be a non-sequitur, but really contains a hint or clue relevant to the following mystery. Then the opening credits appear.

The viewers witness the ingenious murder and watch as the killer covers up the crime (usually by staging the murder as an accident). The murder is then discovered, and Furuhata is usually called in by the police to investigate; but sometimes he just coincidentally happens to be nearby when the crime is discovered. The murderer hangs around the scene of the crime to misdirect the investigation by throwing in several red herrings.

Despite the killer's interference, Furuhata spends the episode trying to spot the real evidence and determining exactly how the crime was committed. Furuhata does this by obnoxiously hanging around his chief suspect (much to the exasperation of the criminal, of course). Just before the final act, Furuhata "breaks the fourth wall" and challenges the audience to guess:

A) what tiny slip-up the killer made which let Furuhata know who the killer was.

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