Kochi Kame (こちら葛飾区亀有公園前派出所)

Today Tezuka sensei commented on me reading a certain manga known as "Kochira Katsushika-ku Kameari Kōen Mae Hashutsujo" or known by its nickname "Kochi Kame". This manga that started in 1976 has been a legend among all the other mangas.

The story stars the horse race betting, beer drinking, trigger happy police officer Ryotsu and his mis-adventures of working in a downtown Tokyo police box. This simple yet highly entertaining story has gone on for 168 volumes now while selling over 135 million copies!

Not only has there been 168 volumes of manga made for this story, there has also been 373 episodes of the anime and a live action drama as well!

This manga will always have a soft spot in my love for Japanese comics. The reason being that it didn't require giant swords, big breasted females, or a ton of explosions to be a good manga. It just had (semi) reasonable real events that we all can relate to in real life every now and then! Also, this manga really helped me practice my reading and speaking after reading the same first volume over and over again!

If the sheer fact that this manga's main character has had a statue made for him doesn't show how popular this manga is, I don't know what will!

An advertisement for the Kochi Kame drama starring Shingo Katori as Ryotsu.

An issue of Shonen Jump with the Drama version of Ryostu and the Manga version glaring at each other!

Overall, this is a great manga that fires jokes faster than an AK-47 fires bullets! I hope you have to oppourtunity to check it out sometime! The first few chapters of the manga and a few newer ones can actually be found here online at:
http://www.onemanga.com/Kochikame/

Enjoy folks! Thanks for listening!

Zack