Danjō Tozawa

* Manga
* Anime

**Danjō Tozawa** (戸沢 弾正 *Tozawa Danjō*) is the assistant manager of Materials Compiling Group No.3.

## Appearance

Tozawa is a slim older man with a smiling disposition. He has short hair and facial wrinkles and is usually seen wearing a business suit.

## Chronology

At some point before the start of the series, Tozawa transfers into the Shinjuku Police Station's Community Safety division and at some point reprimands Kōzaburō Arase for his previous participation in illegal undercover operations. By the time of the Shakuzawa Building fire and Human Knot incidents, Tozawa is a member and assistant manager of the Community Safety division's third materials compiling group (Comps-3).

Following the two incidents, a subsequent Comps-3 clash with Lemmings, and Fire-breathing Bug's murder of Know, Comps-3 experiences additional trouble when troublemaker Phantom Solitaire escapes from prison and subsequently seek his recapture. However, it is with Solitaire's dirigible stunt in Shinjuku airspace over a week later that Solitaire becomes Comps-3's top priority case: the same day as the incident, police superintendent general Jirotarou Takanosu restructures the Solitaire investigation and appoints Comps-3 manager Tsubaki Iwanome the head of the case's jurisdictional side.

The restructuring and prioritization of the Solitaire case necessitate cooperation between Comps-3 and members of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police, and so do Tozawa, Arase, and other Comps-3 members attend Iwanome's case briefing at the metropolitan HQ alongside Tokyo police officers assigned to the investigation. Two of the Tokyo investigators engage Iwanome in a hostile confrontation after the meeting, one of them going so far as to shove Iwanome against a wall, and Tozawa and Comps-3 comrade Ranmaru Yatsu intervene: Yatsu 'accidentally' trips the assaulter with his cane, and Tozawa 'accidentally' dislocates the assaulter's shoulder when helping him to his feet—though he genially pops it 'back into place' immediately afterward.

All the commotion draws the attention of Chief Superintendent Habaki, with whom Iwanome speaks in private while Tozawa and the rest of the present Comps-3 members assemble in the corridor. Once Iwanome rejoins Comps-3, he tells Tozawa they will need "all the manpower they can get" should Lemmings and other troublemakers also be involved in the case and requests that all present try avoid conflicts with the central office.

On Iwanome's instruction that night, Tozawa and Yatsu set out to stake Polka Shinoyama's current residence building at 3 AM. They encounter a teenage girl standing outside the building when they arrive, which they deem odd given the girl's age and the late hour; finding it similarly strange that she is wearing a raincoat despite a lack of rain, they approach her and question what she is doing out and about.

The girl explains that she and her father have been looking for their runaway family dog, which she thought might have gone inside the salient building; however, her father had since called with the news he found the dog in the interim. Her apparent father arrives seconds later to corroborate the dog search claim, so the pair take leave.

Shortly after the pair disappear around the corner, the hot, humid air abruptly turns cold; Yatsu asks Tozawa if he has felt the temperature shift, and Tozawa—no longer smiling—replies he is "picking up some bad vibes." The two idle on the street for one or two minutes until an apparent explosion of smoke and balloons erupts upward from the building's rooftop—and the sight of Solitaire clinging to one of those balloons is enough for Yatsu to presume this is all Solitaire's doing. The sight of enormous spectral arms chasing after Solitaire is enough to take him and Tozawa aback, though he still attributes it to Solitaire; he then places a call to Iwanome, who instructs him and Tozawa to "try and catch [Solitaire] in the act."

Neither Tozawa nor Yatsu can accomplish that, as Solitaire's getaway into the sky is swift and out of their reach. Neither can they blockade the building without a warrant or the landowner's permission, so they stay on the premises until morning and wait for Iwanome to arrive.

When Iwanome and Arase join Tozawa and Yatsu, a large morning crowd of rubberneckers has already formed outside the building in response to the night news. Tozawa asks Iwanome what their next move should be, and Iwanome considers entering the building again with Arase—but Yatsu spots reporter Kochou Eightport in the crowd and advises against the idea.

All four policemen return to the office by the afternoon to do some desk work, with Yatsu and Iwanome each sifting through laptop surveillance footage. When Yatsu remarks on the abnormal height of a man spotted in that morning's footage, and Arase and Iwanome look over, Arase says he recognizes the man's companion as someone affiliated with an organization he destroyed a few years ago. However, the man's face is familiar to Iwanome, not Tozawa, who was in a different department when the investigation was ongoing.

Iwanome reminds Arase that they have to focus on Solitaire. Still, Arase declares that the man is indirectly related to Polka via Polka's friend Takumi Kuruya: Takumi is a former member of the organization Sons of the Styx, and the man—Kuon Higuro—is the gang's former leader.

Somewhere between one and two days later, Tozawa and Yatsu are walking down a corridor at the Metropolitan police department when Yatsu's cell phone rings. Yatsu stares at the caller's ID without answering it; Tozawa asks if he does not plan to accept the call, but Yatsu slips the phone back into his breast pocket and says he shall not answer a personal call while he is still on the job. Later, Tozawa and Yatsu look over documents on a couch when Yatsu's phone vibrates again. At Tozawa's prompting, Yatsu apologizes and exits the corridor to take the call privately. Tozawa stares after him, face unreadable.

## Etymology

* The name **Danjō** means "correction" (弾正).
* Danjō's surname **Tozawa** means "door" (戸) (**to**) and "marsh" (沢) (**sawa**/**zawa**).

## Trivia

* Tozawa's name is mentioned for the first time in Chapter 21, and he is identified in Chapter 29 eight chapters later in a single panel; however, Chapter 30 may be considered his official debut. He may also be the gentleman in the far right of Chapter 6, page 2's bottom panel, in which Yatsu is identifiable.
* The initial chapter release of Chapter 30 spells Tozawa's given name as "Danjo." However, the chapter, as printed in Volume 4, spells his name as "Danjou" (Danjō), which better reflects the proper pronunciation.

## References

1. ↑ *Dead Mount Death Play* (Manga): Volume 5, Chapter 38.
2. ↑ *Dead Mount Death Play* (Manga): Volume 4, Chapter 29.
3. ↑ *Dead Mount Death Play* (Manga): Volume 4, Chapter 30.
4. ↑ *Dead Mount Death Play* (Manga): Volume 4, Chapter 33.
5. ↑ *Dead Mount Death Play* (Manga): Volume 4, Chapter 34.
6. ↑ *Dead Mount Death Play* (Manga): Volume 5, Chapter 37.
7. ↑ *Dead Mount Death Play* (Manga): Chapter 49.