Onihei 

Heizou Hasegawa, chief officer charged with sustaining safety, suppresses evils that are threatening a peaceful Edo.

Stars:

Ken'yû Horiuchi, Hideyuki Tanaka, Megumi Hayashibara

Cast

Series cast summary:
Ken'yû Horiuchi	...	Heizou Hasegawa 3 episodes, 2017
Hideyuki Tanaka	...	Samanosuke Kishii 2 episodes, 2017
Megumi Hayashibara	...	Ofusa 2 episodes, 2017
Shôzô Îzuka	...	Hikojuu 2 episodes, 2017
Daisuke Namikawa	...	Tatsuzou Hasegawa 2 episodes, 2017
Junko Iwao	...	Hisae / ... 2 episodes, 2017
Hidenobu Kiuchi	...	Koyanagi Yasugorou 2 episodes, 2017
Kenji Hamada	...	Yuusuke Sakai 2 episodes, 2017
Nobuhiko Okamoto	...	Chuugo Kimura 2 episodes, 2017
Yoshimasa Hosoya	...	Kumehachi 2 episodes, 2017

Storyline

Heizou Hasegawa, chief officer charged with sustaining safety, suppresses evils that are threatening a peaceful Edo.

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Genres:

Animation | History

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

8 January 2017 (Japan)

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

23 min

User Reviews

Thrilling, violent action crime drama, with a dose of humour and nostalgic poetic justice

+ good voice actors deliver touching dialogues between characters + sword fights are tense, e.g. Heizo the inspector/ protaganist fending off an assassin + no out of character behaviour: plot and decisions are driven by characters' consistent personality + promotes social justice, empathy towards inequity prevalent in Edo period society, and leniency / rehabilitation towards redeemable thieves, especially the Robinhood types + flashbacks show how Heizo grew from a bitter, impulsive trouble maker to a wise inspector with iron fists and a warm heart + violent scenes were plot driven, not gratuitous. Some cases are solved by simply tracking and arresting non-violent thieves; murderous criminals meet swift and violent end + social commentary / philosophical remarks, e.g. Heizo laments a female thief's downfall, "women, they have no paat or future; just survive in the present" elevates this series beyond a simple action crime series, because characters prompt viewers to observe the story and case in a humanized way with social context, making the episodes more meaningful

• opening theme song is jazzy with saxophones, which doesn't complement the period of the series, and took me some time to get used to
• plot twists are few, since you can predict characters' decisions
• some episodes include intense sword fights between robbers and police, with gore and dismemberment; there are also cases of sexual assault (hinted, not shown). These episodes are unpleasant, but realistic of the crimes committed in that period

* I enjoy the series because it partly reminds me of Samurai Champloo, the characters are interesting and likeable, Heizo is the 200% chilvarous ideal friend, boss, and husband: he's fun and generous with his friends, fair and kind to his squad, empathetic and respectful towards women, youths and children; his virtues and awareness is almost ahead of his time.

I saw news that season 2 may be released in summer 2019. I look forward to seeing the characters again!