Hakozume: Kouban Joshi no Gyakushuu (Police in a Pod)

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Alternative Titles

Japanese: ハコヅメ～交番女子の逆襲～

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Information

Type: TV

Episodes: 13

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Jan 5, 2022 to Mar 30, 2022

Premiered: Winter 2022

Broadcast: Wednesdays at 23:30 (JST)

Producers: Magic Capsule, Kadokawa

Licensors: Funimation

Studios: Madhouse

Source: Manga

Genre: Comedy

Themes: Adult Cast, Workplace

Demographic: Seinen

Duration: 23 min. per ep.

Rating: PG-13 - Teens 13 or older

Statistics

Score: 7.18¹ (scored by 22,403 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #3447²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #3028

Members: 52,881

Favorites: 165

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7.18

Ranked #3447Popularity #3028Members 52,881

Winter 2022TVMadhouse

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Episodes: /13

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Synopsis

After graduating from high school, Mai Kawai's top priority was to find a job with a stable income to avoid turning out like her father. However, despite having taken a variety of civil service exams, she was faced with a harsh reality: nearly every institute denied her entry. The only place that accepted her was a police academy, which she reluctantly joined.

Even now that she is an actual police officer, the world continues to be cruel to Mai. Due to her profession, she unexpectedly receives constant criticism from disgruntled citizens. Disheartened by the hostile treatment, she decides to submit a letter of resignation after just a few months of employment.

But on the same day Mai chooses to quit, she meets Seiko Fuji—the former ace of the Criminal Affairs Division who is assigned as her new instructor. Finding her new coworker to be enchanting, Mai delays leaving and gives her uninspiring job a second chance.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Hakozume: Kouban Joshi no Gyakushuu will be released on Blu-ray and DVD in two volumes from March 30, 2022 to April 27, 2022.

Episode Videos

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Adaptation:

Hakozume: Koban Joshi no Gyakushuu

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Characters & Voice Actors

Fuji, Seiko

Main

Ishikawa, Yui
Japanese

Kawai, Mai

Main

Wakayama, Shion
Japanese

Makitaka, Miwa

Supporting

Hanazawa, Kana
Japanese

Yamada, Takeshi

Supporting

Tsuchiya, Shinba
Japanese

Chief Higashiiwa

Supporting

Kuroda, Takaya
Japanese

Deputy Chief

Supporting

Kobayashi, Kendou
Japanese

Houjou, Tamotsu

Supporting

Koyama, Rikiya
Japanese

Minamoto, Seiji

Supporting

Suzuki, Ryouta
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Tanaka, Shou

Producer

Watase, Shouta

Producer

Ogata, Mitsuhiro

Producer

Maruyama, Hajime

Producer

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Opening Theme

"Shiranakya (知らなきゃ)" by Riko Azuna

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Ending Theme

"Change" by nonoc

Reviews

Mar 30, 2022

KANLen09

Recommended

Of all the series starting off the new year of a very dry Winter season, mangaka Miko Yasu's Hakozume a.k.a Police in a Pod definitely stood out for being one of the most interesting works ever made. A manga that clinched a win in the 66th Shogakukan Manga Awards in the Best General Manga category, alongside Inio Asano's Dead Dead Demon's Dededede Destruction last year (which is now finally getting an anime adaptation), it's no secret that this work is truly something special, and it all had to do with the fact that Miko Yasu herself, was once an ex-cop working in Japan's kouban (a.k.a ... police box) police force.

Before I go further, I would like to elaborate specificially that the police culture of the East and the West are vastly different, and that has lead to some unnecessary triggering of comparisons made that could extend itself into a hate rant (I'm looking at you ANN), so please do not snare up any hateful rants here as well.

Back to the main topic, Hakozume's main episodic stories and arcs are based off of Miko Yasu's personal real-life experiences working in the police force for approximately 10 years, but was saddened by Japan's culture of overwork, and this manga was her way to spread understanding about the profession to encourage public support. She joined the police force in her local kouban as a low-level officer doing crime prevention publicity campaigns, her inspiration for joining being that she felt empathy for families of crime victims, but ultimately left when the officer that filled her role when she took her childcare leave, died of overwork. Being the victim of someone's death can instill emotional guilt, and as best as Miko Yasu tried to cope with the trauma and rallied recruitment efforts, there is yet another turning point of disheartenment to see that the younger generation wasn't all that interested in being a police officer. One boy whom she asked, said that he expressed interest but had some skepticism of the profession, claiming that it was too high of an order for someone like him whom struggled to take care of himself. It was this reason that Miko Yasu decided to convey the message that police officers aren't necessarily upright and honourable people, just regular human beings doing their best on the job. And being a low-level officer herself, it was easy to pitch to publishing companies like Kodansha's Morning magazine to get her work serialized, but although she had experience drawing portraits during her time in the police force, it's because of her inexperience drawing manga that forced her to quit the profession and focus on refining her art to be suitable for serialization. So, to see all the effort finally getting an anime adaptation produced by Madhouse under Kaiji director Yuuzou Satou (aside from last year's Nippon TV live-action drama), everything has come around full circle.

This story is supported by the fact that the main female police officer Mai Kawai, serves as a fictional person of the mangaka herself, who's all but done from the police force. Kawai joined the force to earn a stable income, unlike her crude father that ended up on the opposite end of the spectrum. Being a fresh graduate from the Police Academy, she wasn't treated all that well when she was transferred to the local Machiyama Police Box, being hurled hurting remarks that are spokesbeing of the culture and the reception of the outside people. These issues are serious enough for Kawai to throw her letter of resignation, but that was stopped when a new instructor steps in: Seiko Fuji, a once detective chief that got demoted to a sergeant and transferred out for harassing her junior. And man, is Seiko-chan such a ruthless woman to stand her grounda amidst pressure, guiding the almost-resigned Kawai into comedic antics from the usual rank-and-file cases ranging from burglary to assault. And every single one of these chapters has a purpose, referencing back to how Miko Yasu had seen and heard the exact same issues in her police lifetime.

To edge the profession ever further, there's the Astro Brothers of Sergeant Seiji Minamoto and his detective sidekick helper Takeshi Yamada. Like Seiko-chan, Minamoto has an eerily similar personality to Fuji, so much so that they tend to clash a lot, putting both Kawai and Yamada as their juniors to shudder in fear. And since everyone knows each other from Police Academy, it's easy to say that both Fuji and Minamoto were in loggerheads with one another, brought to the real work life where the troubles never end. But as much as these two are tutors to their junior counterparts, they do act the role as superiors when life matters most in the fight against crime, solo or syndicate. The Machiyama Police Box has also Miwa Makitaka as a backup force, mainly dealing with stalkers and sex crimes, but with a drawback that her entire world was surrounded with girls and not being accustomed to men. Despite this, she's an iron-fist clad of a woman to stand her ground against the criminals oppressing her, and male-centric divisions like Criminal Affairs will step in if she needs help to handle the most difficult of men. Overall, to bring similar figures that Miko Yasu has known in her 10-year cycle in the police force be replicated to the manga, it really shows how much the audience can really mistake police control in the horrid ways of the real world, though depending on where you live, police brutality will always be the the central taboo.

It's glad to have Madhouse produce more shows outside of their comfort zone, now with the studio's recent revival and dabbing into other genres. Along with last season's vampire comedy show Kyuuketsuki Sugu Shinu a.k.a The Vampire Dies in No Time, Madhouse is chosen to adapt yet another comedy series, albeit one that's focusing more on the police force, and I think like the many recent works Madhouse still has that unmistakable quality that's instantly recognizable. The elephant in the room is with director Yuuzou Satou, of which I've mentioned that he is famous for the Kaiji series. He hasn't had a breakout work since Kaiji Season 2 a decade ago, and finally found his stride with this show. It'll be a long while before he comes back with another work, so for now, enjoy while you can Satou-san.

Music is pretty decent too with Riko Azuna and nonoc at the helm. I'd think that I gravitate more towards nonoc's ED "Change" because of famous Vocaloid composer DECO*27, and I know this because DECO*27 composes really good songs that I've heard before, so the standard is there.

Works like this are rare to find, even one that's worth the inspiration to be adapted into anime, and I thank mangaka Miko Yasu for being a source of inspiration to draw and illustrate what was once her life's job into manga form, that you can't really find anywhere else. And because this is the AniManga industry, I hope that you don't carry over the overwork culture from your police days to drawing manga. Nonetheless, regardless of where you live in the world, try and see this show from a different perspective, and you might find something to like about it.

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Mar 30, 2022

Mareep-chan

Mixed Feelings

It is really just a dumb show about policemen work with a low budget. Everything about this show is average. The jokes and funny situations aren't extra funny, but I find them funny sometimes. Especially if the characters grow on you a little you start to enjoy it more.

But I wanted to highlight something else. The show doesn't forget to remind us of the harsh reality, that world is a cruel place and people die sometimes. And imo portrays it very well and in just right ratio to the funny situations.

If this show was just a plain comedy I probably would've give it lower score ...

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Jan 10, 2023

Nightscape00

Not Recommended

Had this been a pure police drama, I would probably be giving this anime an eight or nine right now. During the few times the anime strictly focused on the drama and dropped the jokes, it was quite good, but those times are so few and far between that it just highlighted how bad the rest of the show is.

The problem is that the anime has a bad case of identity crisis. It doesn't know if it wants to be a gag comedy or a serious drama. The anime will go from all out comedy one minute then become knee-jerkingly serious the next. There ...

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Poll: Hakozume: Kouban Joshi no Gyakushuu Episode 10 Discussion Stark700 - Mar 9, 2022	37 replies	by Nnightwing »» Aug 30, 2023 10:50 AM
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Hakozume: Kouban Joshi no Gyakushuu

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