Keiichiro Nagumo (Detectives These Days Are Crazy!)

Uncategorized

Created by Masakuni Igarashi

KEIICHIRO NAGUMO used to be a somebody. He was once everybody’s hero, a genius boy detective; a high school kid who could crack any problem that came his way.

But that was then. Now he’s just another grumpy, chain-smoking private eye, another professional struggling to scratch out a living. He’s falling apart, frequently complaining of the wear and tear of the years on his poor old body (“Oh, my hips! Oh, my back! Oh, my teeth!).

Thing is, he’s, like, the ripe old age of… thirty-five or so?

So it’s probably a good thing that easily excitable Mashiro Nakanishi, an impulsive (ie: mentally unstable) high school girl shows up and Nagumo’s self-proclaimed biggest fan, demanding he immediately make her his apprentice. Of course, he turns her down, but we all know where this is going.

Despite his reluctance, Nagumo reluctantly hires Mashiro after she helps him crack a big case.

Of course, this being manga, Mashiro has an unexpected skill set: she possesses almost superhuman strength and under the obligatory school girl uniform (semi-unbuttoned white blouse, very short miniskirt, knee socks, etc.), under which she carries an impressive collection of flamethrowers (her favourite) as well as other weapons and gadgets. All of which the hyper-active ditz is more than ready to use, heedless of the consequences, making the whole thing more Looney Tunes than Black Mask.

But so begins a beautiful (if slightly pervy — given the age difference) friendship in Detectives These Days Are Crazy!, a popular series of light-hearted adventures initially serialized in Dengeki Maoh, a Japanese manga magazine, that began in 2016, and subsequently spawned a 2025 anime series and a string of collection, both in Japanese and English.

Rounding out the crew are Cerberus, a talking cat (naturally) who’s become the office pet, and Taro Nezu, a minor thug who quits his gang and joins the Nagumo Detective Agency after Mashiro (and her flamethrower) destroy Yakuza headquarters.

UNDER OATH

  • “Clearly, Detectives These Days is playing on a particular fantasy: a man yearning for his adolescent glory days feels he’s over the hill, but a hot young girl bursts into his life to pull him out of his slump and put his fractured ego back together. It would be easy enough for Nagumo to recognize his own younger self in Mashiro, or to feel paternal towards her in his lonely life, but neither of those are the framing this series has opted for. It’s jokes about Mashiro being young and hot, leaping at the chance to disguise herself as his girlfriend, revering him even as she teases him about being an old man. I can’t say if it’s setting up a romance, per se, but the direction of the fan service is crystal clear.”
    — Anime Feminist

MANGA

  • DETECTIVES THESE DAYS ARE CRAZY!
    (2016-24, Dengeki Maoh)
    Written and illustrated by Masakuni Igarashi
    Serialized in Dengeki Maoh, beginning on April 27, 2016.

TELEVISION

  • DETECTIVES THESE DAYS ARE CRAZY!
    (2025, Liden Films/ATX/Crunchyroll)
    Language: Japanese
    10 episodes
    Premiere: July 1, 2025
    Based on characters created by Masakuni Igarashi
    Writer: Rintaro Ikeda
    Directed by Rion Kujo
    Animation director: Isoroku Koga
    Character design by Isoroku Koga
    Music by  Tomoki Kikuya
    Theme song: “Suffer”, performed by Taiiku Okazaki,
    End credits theme song: “GORI☆GORI Feez e-Girl!!”, performed by Kana Hanazawa (as Mashiro) and Tomokazu Sugita (as “Jolly Old Men”)
    Starring Junichi Suwabe as KEIICHIRO NAGUMO
    and Kana Hanazawa as Mashiro Nakanishi
    Also starring Chado Horii, Kengo Kawanishi, Tomohiro Yamaguchi, Aya Hirano, Fairouz Ai, Misaki Watada, Yasuyuki Kase, Hajime Iijima

    • SEASON ONE (Original Japanese Broadcasts)
    • “Former Great Detective Nagumo Keiichiro,” “Mashiro’s Pest Extermination” (July 1, 2025)
    • “With Ghosts, Go for the Knees,” “Find the Real Thief!,” “Three Minutes Until Mashiro Explodes” (July 8, 2025)
    • “Great Detective Asunaro,” “The Ones Who Don’t Realize They’re Stalkers are the Most Dangerous” (July 15, 2025)
    • “Murder at the Mansion of Screams,” “Maki-chan and the Generation Gap” (July 22, 2025)
    • “Welcome to the World of Grown-Ups,” “A Midsummer Thriller,” “Mashiro and the Agent from the Stars” (July 29, 2025)
    • “Mashiro Hosts Girls’ Night Out,” “Assistant Switch!!,” “Battle to the Death at 100° Celsius” (August 5, 2025)
    • “Nagumo’s Grown-up Allure,” “The Lost Child and Mashiro,” “The Great Detective vs. Phantom Thief, Riverfake” (August 12, 2025)
    • “Nagumo’s Cyber Case File,” “The Phantom Thief’s Method,” “A Detective Assistant’s Day Off” (August 19, 2025)
    • “Take Good Care of Your Smartphone,” “Maki-chan and Asunaro” (August 26, 2025)
    • “Catch the Sneak Photographer!,” “The Bullet Bride” (September 2, 2025)

ENGLISH COLLECTIONS

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.

Published

Leave a Reply