The Great Stupid Detective Kogoro Hakuchi

The cover to Akebono vol.1, featuring Kogoro and Kobayashi.

**The Great Stupid Detective Kogoro Hakuchi** (大バカ探偵はくち小五郎) is a gag manga series by Fujio Akatsuka and Fujio Pro. It parodies Edogawa Rampo's famous detective character Kogoro Akechi, as well as that of Kobayashi Boy from the *Boy Detective Club*.

## Overview

The series revolves around a madman of a detective known as Kogoro and his sidekick son Kobayashi, as they go solving strange mysteries and other affairs. Once informed of an incident, Kogoro will pursue who he believes responsible and engages in a struggle to arrest, but his own stupidity and delusions will complicate that procedure and destruction and violence may result in his wake. However, sometimes Kogoro and Kobayashi will find themselves taking part in adventures that have little to do with any detective work at all.

A pilot chapter of this series was printed in Weekly Shonen Sunday, with commentary asking readers to show their interest in a sequel or full series. Another pilot (which has never seen reprint) would appear years later in Manga Gorak, with an altered design for Kobayashi.

Eventually, the reworked series version of *Kogoro* would be serialized in Adventure King. The art for the feature was initially by Akatsuka himself but was taken over at the midpoint by Akira Saito, one of Akatsuka's assistants that had become more prominent in the 1970s.

## Characters

The series features guest appearances by Akatsuka's Star System, as they become involved in the investigation or meander around in the background. This treatment increased dramatically with Akira Saito becoming the full artist on the feature.

### Kogoro Hakuchi

The titular foolish detective. His surname means "Idiot", fitting of his nature, though such a word these days is now considered highly problematic along with the fact that the very work revolves around his boneheaded madman nature. He will accuse innocent civilians of being criminals, disrupt serious investigation work with his own tactics, and wind up destroying happy relationships with his chaos.

### Kobayashi Boy, "Kobayashi-kun"

The young sidekick of Kogoro, in actuality his son when it comes to their living situation. He can be identified by his asymmetrical face and mucus-filled nose, along with his habit of wearing short shorts with a long shirt (similar to Ichiro).

Kobayashi is notable for having gone through drastic redesigns from the pilot chapters to the version seen in the series, with none of his iterations looking very alike at all.

### Inspector Dekahana

Kogoro's boss, a man with a big nose as his name would suggest. He is a re-use of the Police Chief from *The Genius Bakabon*, and in contrast to his silly appearance, is shown to be married to an attractive woman and have a young daughter.

### "The Phantom Thief of 30 Faces"

One of Kogoro's more common enemies, who can take on a different disguise each time.

### A Troubled Family

A three-person family unit consisting of a man, his wife, and a young son. These three wind up menaced by Kogoro now and then when he believes that they're the fiend of 30 Faces masquerading around. They are usually at home when his break-ins occur, but can also be spotted at other locales and happening to be bothered by the man.

## Serialization

* Weekly Shonen Sunday (Shogakukan): Pilot chapter in issue #33 (1969)
* Weekly Manga Gorak: Pilot chapter in January 13-20 merger number issue (1972)
* Adventure King (Akita Shoten): June 1972 to December 1974

Chapters:

1. **The Starving Detective is Here Now!!** (はらぺこただいま参上!!)
2. **The Phantom Thief Kame-Rider Appears!** (怪盗カメライダー現わる！)
3. **The Reunion of the HenoHeno Family** (へのへの一家へなぐり込みだーい)
4. **When a Man Has a Headache** (男はくちがおこるとき)
5. **Nyantomo and Wantomo Got Me Beat** (ニャンともワンともまいったまいった)
6. **Sour** **Like the Dried Plum Blossoms in the Wind** (世の中梅ぼしみたいにすっぱいぜ)
7. **Don't Believe the Rumors!** (うわさを信じちゃいけないよ！)
8. **Detective Kogoro Hakuchi vs the Phantom Thief of 30 Faces!!** (名探偵くち小五郎対怪人三十面相!!)
9. **A Mysterious TO-TO Toilet Appears!** (怪TO-TO便器現わる!!)
10. (わしをナメないで一つ)
11. **The Hakuchi Detective Office Opens!!** (はくち探偵開店!!)
12. (ぶたかひつじか執事かぶたか！？)
13. **When the Prince Looks Like a Bill** (王子がお札に見えるとき)
14. **Please Leave the Security of the Department Store to Me!** (デパートの警備はわしにまかせろ！)
15. (みたか銀翼この勇姿!!)
16. **Blossoms Bloom in the Hot Water** (お湯の中にもこりゃ花が咲く)
17. (怪盗カーニファイブ対迷探偵はくち小五郎!!)
18. (乙女の目ン玉しばし開かん！)
19. (出家鼻警部の優雅な生活!!)
20. (福笑いは三十面相だ!!)
21. (名探偵1嚇少年初てがら)
22. (煙のケロ子にもんくあっか！？)
23. (恐怖のキッス魔ドスケベ天狗登場！)
24. (殺し屋が町へやってくるとき……)
25. (花は見どころぼくとしごろ)
26. (名刑事オンボロ参上!!)
27. (大爆発でオワリ!!)

## Reprints

* Akebono: 3 volumes (1974-1975). The pilot chapter from 1969 was also reprinted as part of the Akebono release of "We are 8 Pro". As with other Akatsuka reprints of the time, colored chapters were either traced or (poorly) photocopied to remove color. Evidence of photocopying can be seen with some stories where the dark watercolor inks used to color Kogoro's suit show up as a blotchy black, rather than the tracing that'd make sure only the lineart was copied over.
* Shogakukan: The 3 Akebono volumes are digitized for the 2002 "Fujio Akatsuka Complete Works" collection. The 1969 pilot chapter is included in the "We are 8 Pro" DVD-ROM book.

There is currently no comprehensive reprint of the series that features all the stories, in print or digital form.

## Media

### Unproduced Anime Adaptation (1970)

After the release of the first Kogoro Hakuchi pilot chapter, Toei Animation had expressed interest in adapting it as a full TV anime. In the planning booklet, Toei made note of the one-shot but had also revealed plans as early as then for Kogoro to be done as a full serialization manga in a magazine. The launch of a serial version may not have happened due to Akatsuka being busy at the time; as it was, the Akatsuka Gag Laughter Reserved Seating feature in Shonen Jump only featured his input on a biweekly basis while other large magazines like Weekly Shonen Sunday still were priority commitments (the failure of *Bakabon's transfer* to Weekly Shonen Sunday and Extraordinary Ataro still being a priority feature there may have also not made it ideal to launch a full *Kogoro* series in that particular magazine).

The planning book would reprint the pilot chapter as example material, and would also list some characters that were planned for the series that did not yet exist in any Kogoro source material at the time:

* Arsene Lupin
* The Phantom Thief of Two Faces
* The Invisible Man

## External Links

* Write-up on the scrapped Kogoro Hakuchi anime at the Akatsuka Preservation Society (Japanese)