With a lot of dramas and live-action films produced for Shotaro Ikenami’s novel series Onihei Hankacho since it came out in 1967, things are firming up for the first anime project based on it. With a January 9th, 2017 debut ahead of it, the first TV spot has finally arrived to give us a better look at the show in motion. The series is going to be called Onihei and will be directed by Shigeyuki Miya, who will also be doing the character designs, and it’ll be animated at Studio M2. TMS Entertainment is producing the project.
The Japanese cast includes Kenyuu Horiuchi as Nobutame Hasegawa (Onihei), Romi Park as Omasa and Daisuke Namikawa as Tatsuzou.
Plot concept: The title character is Hasegawa Heizō, who 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. 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.
