Onihei Hankachō

鬼平犯科帳
Onihei Hankachō
Genre	Drama, Historical, Mystery
Manga
Written by	Takao Saito
Published by	LEED Publishing, Bungeishunjū
Magazine	Comic Ran
Original run	1993 – present
Volumes	100

Onihei ~Sono Otoko, Hasegawa Heizō~
Onihei
Anime television series
Directed by	Shigeyuki Miya
Music by	Kohei Tanaka Ryū Kawamura
Studio	Studio M2
Original network	TV Tokyo, TVA, TVh, TVQ Kyushu, TSC, TVO, Jidaigeki Speciality Channel
Original run	January 10, 2017 – April 4, 2017
Episodes	13
Original video animation
Directed by	Shigeyuki Miya
Studio	Studio M2
Released	February 22, 2017
Runtime	40 minutes

Onihei Hankachō (鬼平犯科帳^?) is a series of Japanese historical novels written by Shōtarō Ikenami, and a popular stories of jidaigeki based on it.

At first, Ikegami wrote the complete novel that Onihei appeared in the December 1967 issue of the light novel magazine "All Yomimono ()" published by Bungei Shunjū which published the first hard cover the following year. It gained good reputation and was serialised from the next year.

Onihei Hankachō developed into adaptations into TV programs, a film and theater followed. A TV anime adaption aired in 2017.

The title character is Hasegawa Heizō, Hasegawa Nobutame (), a historical person who was a Hitsuke Tōzoku Aratamekata Chōkan (Superintendent General of the investigation agency specialized in theft and armed robbery and arson). He started as a chartered libertine before succeeding his father as an heir and was appointed the head of the special police who had jurisdiction over arson-robberies in Edo. Since there was no child between his father and the legitimate wife, he was brought to the Hasegawa family at the age of 17. Heizo was looked down upon by mothers-in-law saying that he was a child by a concubine. He rebelled it and ran away from the house. He became a head of the hoodlums and led a fast life. His street name was "Honjo no Tetsu" which comes from his childhood name "Tetsusaburō." His father died, and he inherited birthright. Nicknamed by the villain "Onihei," meaning "Heizō the demon," he led a band of samurai police and cultivated reformed criminals as informants to solve difficult crimes. Later, he was titled "Hitsuke tōzoku aratamekata" (police force for arson and theft), and opened an office at his official resident. While he was called "demon" and was afraid, he was forgiving and merciful to those who committed a crime out of necessity or are faithful even if they were criminals. He dedicated himself to establish and maintain the Ishikawajima Ninsoku Yoseba which was a vocational training school for criminals, and served concurrently as a Yoseba magistrate for a while.

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Wikipedia