"A mechanical town swirling with love, death, and hatred. Beneath the unforgiving pursuit of crime investigations, compassionate warriors rise to the challenge. They are the Special Investigation Frontline."
Tokusou Saizensen (Kanji: 特捜最前線, translating roughly as Special Investigation Frontline) is a Japanese cop show created by the Toei Company that ran for 508 episodes plus one TV special from 1977 to 1987. The series was co-produced with TV Asahi. The show focused on the investigations, as well as the trials and tribulations of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police's Special Investigation Division, headed by the stalwart Kyosuke Kamishiro (played by Mighty Jack star Hideaki Nitani). Their mission was to combat all criminality in Japan ranging from kidnappings, bomb threats, and at times international criminal cases.
During its run the series, while concentrating much on the police work of the show, also ran heavy on the melodrama and the personal lives of its characters. This leads to a lot of episodes where the detectives struggle with their duty as policemen and their own personal stakes in the case, in the vein of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. Also notable was its wide cast of tokusatsu alumni, mostly from Kamen Rider and Super Sentai. This has caused fans to nickname it Tokusatsu Saizensen.
The show also had a couple of reboots in 2012 and 2013, as well as a spinoff called Onnatachi no Tokusou Saizensen, or Women's Special Investigation Division: Frontline.
Tokusou Saizensen provides examples of:
- The Ace: Detective Sakurai, being a crack shot while being a licensed helicopter pilot. Truth in Television apparently, as Hiroshi Fujioka got his helicopter pilot's license during the show's run.
- Amoral Attorney: One appears and gets whacked in Episode 50. Sakurai's father also is one, as revealed in Episode 507.
- Atomic Hate: The squad is charged with finding a homemade nuke in Episodes 29 and 30.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Kamishiro, Tachibana, Sakurai, and later the entire cast when the series winds down.
- Berserk Button:
- Kamishiro 's is corrupt cops, and law enforcement officials abusing their power.
- The serial killer in Episode 107 goes out killing when people smile or laugh, apparently because it reminds him of a painful break-up.
- The Big Guy: Takasugi and Tachibana. Takasugi, while being a bit rotund, is ordinarily tough and is just as handy taking down suspects. Meanwhile Tachibana is a head taller than most of the cast and is the squad's best shot.
- Cool Car: The show was sponsored by Nissan, so the cast and crew had access to the company's top-of-the line cars. In particular, Hideaki Nitani was also the official spokesman for the Nissan Cedric, which was used in the later half of the show's run.
- Cool Shades: Sakurai wears them a lot after he returned to the show, to reflect his darker and more serious personality.
- Corrupt Cop: A recurring menace across the series. Several get rooted out as The Mole in a few episodes.
- Corrupt Politician: The cast faces off against them every now and then, but they take center stage in Episode 317 and the Grand Finale.
- Crime Time Soap: Although Taiyo Ni Hoero started this trend, Saizensen took it to greater and arguably more tragic heights.
- Kamishiro's daughter dies in Episode 50, and he spends the next episode going full Vigilante Man to avenge her. This plot point comes back to haunt him in the final episode.
- Sakurai's return in Episode 103-104 also had him in go Vigilante Man by pursuing a drug-running syndicate that crippled his partner's son. The sad thing is, the said partner became a drug mule for the syndicate to pay off the hospital bills and Tachibana has to gun him down after he opens fire on them.
- Funamura also gets hit with this quite a lot in other episodes: His wife dies in Episode 128, which leads him to retire. This is reversed in Episode 170 his daughter separating from him. She eventually leaves him in Episodes 274-275 and moves to Hawaii. There she has a child with her unmarried partner, but Funamura reconciles with her by the episode's end. In Episodes 359 and 360, he suffers from a heart attack and starts to fear that his days as a detective are about to come to an end. However, he won't hand in his resignation until Episode 430. Then he gets involved with the squad one last time in Episodes 500-501, where he refuses to cooperate in identifying a police informant in a drug-smuggling organization. However, the organization kidnaps his daughter and grandson, which forces him into acting against his old coworkers to get them back.
- Da Chief: Kamishiro.
- Death of a Child:
- Very sadly in Episode 103, where the son of Sakurai's partner in New York is crippled for life by a hitman sent by a New York drug ring.
- Also in Episodes 107 and 136-137, where a schoolgirl is killed by a serial killer and boy, then his brother, get kidnapped and drowned before he can get rescued, respectively. The squad does end up saving his brother, thankfully.
- Thankfully averted in Episodes 227, and 499-500. Each of these episodes have a child kidnapping as part of the plot and all of the kids are alive by the conclusions.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: The Series Finale. The squad takes on a long, agonizing case where they deal with a corrupt political party that their own colleagues and family are involved in, with their very existence put into question. In the end, they successfully prosecute the criminals, and the Special Investigation Division is expanded into the Special Investigation Department, with two separate divisions led by Tachibana and Sakurai, respectively, while Kamishiro is promoted as overall section chief.
- Extra-Long Episode: The show aired one 90-minute TV special after Episode 435. However, it's not counted as Episode 436 and is billed as a special.
- Family Drama:
- Detective Junichi Kano, who joins the cast in Episode 148, is the illegitimate son of a politician, and in Episode 317 he has to confront his father as part of a case.
- Tachibana is a divorced cop with two sons to take care of, who are constantly at odds with each other. This forms the B-plot of Episode 506.
- Sakurai too has to deal with the fact that his lawyer father is in cahoots with the episode's criminals in Episode 507.
- Finale Credits: The ending credits of Episode 508 have the cast power-walking in a corridor of the Tokyo MPD headquarters after having received their promotions.
- Final Season Casting: The show introduced three new detectives, Tokita, Inukai, and Sugi after Funamura's second retirement and Hoshino's death.
- Formula-Breaking Episode:
- Episode 70 involves the squad attempting to salvage a spy satellite that fell out of orbit, in a plot more suited for a Spy Fiction story.
- Episode 418 is a Courtroom Episode, in sharp contrast to the show's standard police procedural fare.
- Frame-Up:
- Vartaion: Episode 277 sees Tachibana and the squad making it look like he was framed to take down a corrupt cop ring that's joined hands with the Yakuza.
- Also happens to a serial killer for a murder-robbery in Episode 506.
- Grand Finale: Episodes 506-508 serve as this as the squad faces against a powerful but corrupt political party that their own friends and family are involved with.
- I Have Your Wife" A child is kidnapped in Episodes 136-137; Funamura's own daughter and grandson are kidnapped in Episodes 499-500.
- Imagine Spot: One of the show's most famous examples happens at the end of Episode 351. Shigeru Araki returns as Tsugami, who had long since been killed off, just as his former comrades solve his last case.
- Interpol Special Agent: Sakurai becomes one during his first absence. When he returns, he gets reassigned to the Special Investigation Unit as punishment for pursuing is vendetta.
- It's Personal:
- Episode 51 is this for Kamishiro as he hunts for his daughter's killer.
- Episodes 103-104 have Sakurai returning after a long absence to chase the head of a drug syndicate that he tried to bust while he was in New York. The syndicate also crippled the son of his partner, and he's in no forgiving mood.
- Episodes 275-276, the Hawaiian Vacation Episode two-parter, has the squad chase a murderer to the shores of Hawaii, while Funamura encounters his long-estranged daughter.
- The last episodes also prove to be personal for both when Sakurai's father and Kamishiro's protege are revealed to be working for the episode's villains.
- Killed Off for Real: Natsuko Kamshiro, Tsugami, Hoshino, and Superintendent Gamo.
- Long Runner: 508 episodes and a TV special spread across ten years.
- MacGuffin:
- Episode 70 has a spy satellite that fall into the ocean and the squad be tasked with its recovery.
- Episodes 29 and 30 also has the squad investigating a theft of stolen plutonium, which soon turns into a hunt for a miniature nuclear bomb and its creator.
- Minor Crime Reveals Major Plot: Although not exactly "minor", Episode 506 begins with Tachibana investigating a murder-robbery involving a serial killer who may not have been guilty of the crime. The killer is proven to be innocent, with the actual culprit being the patrol cop who supposedly answered the crime. However, the reason he robbed the bank was because it contained incriminating evidence against a corrupt political organization he was in cahoots with.
- Multi-Part Episode: The series has many examples, with the average two-parter and the occasional three-parter. Curiously, the show tended to air two sets of two-parters back to back on occasion, and there's at least one case where they aired a three-parter episode right after they aired a two-parter.
- Nebulous Evil Organisation: In the Series Finale, the squad faces against a ultra-right wing party calling itself the National Council for the Salvation of Japan, or Nissho-ren for short (an abbreviation of the group's Japanese name). The Nissho-ren has ties to the country's five most powerful yakuza syndicates while being chock full of Corrupt Politcians and Corrupt Cops to the point that the East Shinjuku Police Department is riddled with its informants. It also supposedly has ties to cults and The Klan.note
- Old Soldier:
- Funamura is a veteran cop with almost 20 years of experience under his belt.
- By the time the series ends, Kamishiro and Tachibana have become this, with their actors approaching their sixties by 1987.
- Professional Killer:
- One shows up in Episodes 103-104 as an enforcer for a New York drug ring who also crippled the son of Sakurai's partner.
- Another shows up to kill Kamishiro in the Series Finale. The rest of the squad arrives to the rescue before he can finish the job.
- Promoted to Opening Credits: Takasugi's cousin, Mikiko, though her brother left the show long before it happened.
- Put on a Bus: Detectives Funamura, Yozo Takasugi, Jiro Taki, and Policewoman Mikiko Takasugi (Yozo's sister) all were dropped from the series. However, they would return as guests performers in later episodes.
- Reunion Show:
- Averted, post-series wise. When the series ended, the producer said that though the show was over, he didn't mind reviving it for a few reunion shows every now and then. Sadly, unlike its rival shows at the time, which did get a few reunions in the 90s and 2000s, the series never did get one.
- That being said, Episode 351 featured the special guest appearances of three detectives who had long since left the show, so it counts as this.
- Sacrificial Lamb: When it's clear that neither he nor the squad can find any solid evidence to prosecute the Nissho-ren, Kamishiro decides to let them kill him and attempts to film the murder as evidence so the investigation can succeed. Thankfully, his protege, who was in cahoots with the Nissho-ren, turns informant and the squad rescues Kamishiro before he can be killed.
- Serial Killer:
- The squad faces against one in Episode 107, a sniper who targets people when they smile or laugh (apparently because it reminds him of a painful breakup he had).
- Another one appears in Episode 169, who targets victims in Tokyo's extensive subway system.
- In Episode 506, where Tachibana exonerates one of a murder-robbery he didn't commit.
- The Smurfette Principle: The squad only had one female member per line up and even then they weren't full-on members, but rather the squad's secretaries.
- Thanking the Viewer: In place of the usual "next time on Tokusou Saizensen segment", the viewer instead gets a thank-you from Hideaki Nitani and the rest of the cast:"Thank you very much for having supported Tokusou Saizensen for the past ten years. Arigatou gozaimashita!"
- That One Case: The murder of his daughter for the Kamishiro; his grudge against a New York drug ring for Sakurai.
- TV Movie: To commemorate the show moving to TV Asahi's 9pm Thursday evening slot, the show premiered a 90-minute movie. In it, the squad faces three separate cases that are oddly interconnected: a series of bombings, a child kidnapping, and a 20-year-old murder. It also featured some new cast members since Funamura retired for good and Hoshino was killed off. This is not counted as Episode 435.
- Twist Ending:
- Episode 104 has a particularly cruel one. Sakurai's old partner, whose son was crippled by a hitman working for a New York drug syndicate, is revealed to have become a drug mule for them so he can pay off the medical bills. Before Sakurai can book him, Tachibana has him shot for having a gun and firing on police officers. The episode does ends a ray of hope however: Sakurai sends a remittance for the kid's bills.
- The ending of Episode 506. Tachibana succeeds in exonerating a serial killer of a murder-robbery he didn't commit, and it's revealed that the victim's policeman boyfriend was responsible.
- Vacation Episode: Several. Episodes 200-201 involved the cast traveling to Paris and Rome for a case with Interpol, Episodes 275-276 had them go to Hawaii, and Episodes 407-408 had them visit Belgium.
- Video Credits: The Title Sequence was one for Episodes 54-102.
- Wham Episode:
- Episode 50 features the death of Kamishiro's daughter, who had been a recurring character since the series started. He spends the next one trying to avenge her.
- Episodes 103-104 featured the return of Sakurai after a year-long absence.
- Episode 127-128 centered around the death of Funamura's wife his first retirement.
- Episode 170 featured Funamura's return, although it comes at the cost of his relationship with his daughter.
- Episodes 274-275 featured the squad visiting Hawaii to solve a long-unsolved murder, while Funamura's daughter separates from her father, gets pregnant, then becomes a hostage for the murder suspect, and reconciles with her father all in the space of two episodes.
- Episode 430 saw Funamura retire for good.
- Episode 434 saw Hoshino's death, and the last time the show aired TV Asahi's 11pm Wednesday slot, which it had held since the show started.
- Episodes 460-461 featured longtime semiregular Superintendent Gamo's murder - and to top it off, Kamishiro of all people is one of the suspects. It also marked the debut of Detective Nishioka, Gamo's son-in-law, a Corrupt Cop who will appear again for Episodes 500-501 and the final episode.
- Episodes 500-501 featured Funamura's last appearance on the show, as the squad is looking for his help in identifying a long-time police mole in a yakuza gang's drug-running operation. It also saw Naoya Makoto's brief return as a yakuza goon who looks like Hoshino.
- Written-In Absence:
- Hideaki Nitani was absent, twice, for Episodes 93-96 and 99-109. This was due to a skiing injury during Episodes 97 and 98's filming, and it was explained in-series as Kamishiro going abroad for business.
- Hiroshi Fujioka temporarily left the show from Episodes 54 to 102, with the show explaining he had been seconded to Interpol. Episodes 103 and 104 have him pursuing a New York-based drug-smuggling ring back to Tokyo.
- Hideji Ōtaki, who played Detective Funamura, was absent for Episodes 129 to 169. As a result, his character was described as having retired his return in Episode 170.
- Yakuza:
- Another recurring menace in the series, and they get the spotlight in Episodes 50 and 51 where they have Kamishiro's daughter murdered.
- They also serve as the Man Behind the Man in the Grand Finale, working as the Nissho-ren's silent partners.
