Taiyō ni Hoero! (太陽にほえろ!), lit. 'Roar at the Sun!', was a long-running prime-time television detective series in Japan, which ran from 1972 to 1986 for a total of 718 episodes. The lead star was Yujiro Ishihara. It also helped further the career of actors such as Yūsaku Matsuda and Kenichi Hagiwara as well as Hiroshi Katsuno and Masaya Oki. It was a police procedural set mostly in a police station. It was one of the most popular and iconic detective dramas in Japanese television history. A sequel was aired from 1986 to 1987, airing for 12 episodes.
Contents
Setting
The series takes place in the fictional Nanamagari police station in Shinjuku and portrays the investigations of Nanamagari's detective squad. Headed by Superintendent Shunsuke "Boss" Todo, it initially consists of Inspector Seiichi "Yama-san" Yamamura with Detectives Makoto "Gori-san" Ishizuka, Kimiyuki "Denka (His Highness)" Shima, Taro "Chosan" Nozaki, and Policewoman Shinko "Shinko-san" Uchida. In the first episode they were joined by Detective Jun "Macaroni" Hayami, who dies in Episode 52. Macaroni was replaced by Jun "Jiipan" Shibata, who dies in Episode 111. These episodes started a series tradition of killing off characters when the actors who play them depart from the show. The television drama garnered high viewer ratings, especially for episodes where regular cast members were killed off.
While the metropolis of Tokyo is the Nanamagari squad's usual jurisdiction area, sometimes they are assigned cases that take them to various other locations across Japan, such as Okinawa and Sakurajima. Other cases involve the overseas travel of Nanamagari squad detectives to prosecute fugitives in Hawaii, Paris, Canada, and Australia.
Regulars
Semi-regulars
Yoko Machida as Takako Yamamura (Wife of Seiichi Yamamura) (1972–78)
Kin Sugai as Taki Shibata (Mother of Jun Shibata) (1973–74, 78, 85)
Takuya Fujioka as Samejima (1973–86)
Akihiko Hirata as Nishiyama (1973–83)