is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Tsukasa Hojo. It was serialized in Shueisha's manga magazine Weekly Shōnen Jump from 1985 to 1991, with its chapters collected in 35 volumes. The manga was adapted into an anime television series by Sunrise Studios in 1987. The anime series was popular in numerous Asian and European countries.
City Hunter spawned a media franchise consisting of numerous adaptations and spin-offs from several countries. The franchise includes four anime television series, three anime television specials, three made-for-television animated films, two animated feature films for theatrical release (Shinjuku Private Eyes in February 2019 and Angel Dust in September 2023), several live-action films (including City Hunter, a Hong Kong film starring Jackie Chan, and Nicky Larson et le Parfum de Cupidon, a French film), video games, and a live-action Korean TV drama. It also had a spin-off manga, Angel Heart, which in turn spawned its own anime television series and a live-action Japanese TV drama.
Plot The series follows the exploits of Ryo Saeba, a "sweeper" who is always found chasing beautiful girls and a private detective who works to rid Tokyo of crime, along with his associate or partner, Hideyuki Makimura. Their "City Hunter" business is an underground jack-of-all-trades operation, contacted by writing the letters "XYZ" on a communal at Shinjuku Station.
One day, Hideyuki is murdered, and Ryo must take care of Hideyuki's sister, Kaori, a tomboy who becomes his new partner in the process. However, Kaori is very susceptible and jealous, often hitting Ryo with a giant hammer when he does something perverted. The story also follows the behind-the-scenes romance between Ryo and Kaori and the way they cooperate throughout each mission.
Characters
Ryo is the main protagonist of the series. At the age of three, Ryo was the only survivor of a plane crash in Central America. He was raised as a guerilla fighter and has no knowledge of his prior identity. After the war, Ryo makes his way to the United States, before eventually moving to Tokyo. While in Tokyo, he forms the "City Hunter" team with Hideyuki Makimura, but after Hideyuki's death, Kaori takes his place as Ryo's new partner. A highly skilled gunman, Ryo is known for executing the "one-hole shot", a series of shots that all land in exactly the same spot on the target. His preferred weapon is the Colt Python .357 Magnum. Ryo invented the nickname Umibozu for his fellow colleague Hayato Ijuin, and he answered giving Ryo his own, (an ironic name, because Ryo is a real pervert who tries to hit on any beautiful woman he meets or sees, failing every time). Ryo is an accomplished marksman with revolvers, semiautomatic guns, machine-pistols, rifles, carbines and crossbows; he knows hand-to-hand combat very well and drives as a real daredevil when needed; his car is a Mini.
Kaori is Ryo Saeba's partner. She is primarily responsible for arranging clients and other managerial tasks. Ryo's skirt-chasing rouses her ire more than just once. Though the partners frequently pick on fights or arguments, they actually form a great team together. She might have been mistaken as a man sometimes due to her hairstyle. She is Hideyuki's adoptive sister, her birth name being .
Hideyuki is Kaori's adopted older brother and Ryo's partner at the beginning of the series. Kaori is not related to him by blood, his father had adopted her when she was a child. He is a former police detective with a strong sense of justice. Kaori become Ryo's partner and takes over her brother's role after he is murdered by gangsters. His last wish before he died was for Ryo to take care of his sister. His first name is not specified in the original manga, but when it was adapted into an anime, the official setting for his first name was established as 'Hideyuki', the same as the voice actor who voiced him.
Umibōzu is another "sweeper" working the rounds in Tokyo. Umibozu is a Special Forces enemy of Ryo's from the Central America conflict. Despite being on opposing forces, the two develop a friendship and mutual respect. Between his jobs, Umibozu works as waiter at the Cat's Eye café, owned by Miki, his former fellow soldier and lover. He goes by the professional name and his real name is ; the kanji haya in his name can also be read hayabusa (falcon in Japanese), hence his professional name; the nickname "Umibōzu" was given by Ryo. His favorite weapons are the S&W M29 .44 Magnum six-inch revolver, the Saco-Defense M60 machine-gun (sometimes he uses the M249) and the M1A6 bazooka. Despite his fearsome appearance he has a phobia of kittens, he is very shy with women and much more unselfish than Ryo. His vision is very weak because a fight he had with Ryo in Central America, when Ryo was a guerrilla fighter and Umibozu was a mercenary; since then, Umibozu wants a duel with Ryo to close that story; during the series, he will go permanently blind and he'll have to learn how to use the other four senses to move and fight; however, he decides to not retire before finishing their matter. Later Shin Kaibara, Ryo's adoptive father and former guerrilla fighter who became a drug lord, comes in Japan; his drug was tested on Ryo during his youth, causing him to attack Umibozu and his unit; when Umibozu learns this from Bloody Mary, an old acquaintance of Ryo's and daughter of the other Ryo's fatherly figure in the jungle, he joins Ryo and Kaori against Kaibara. During the last story arc he marries Miki, but she is shot by enemy soldiers deployed by a new enemy of Ryo; Umibozu enters the firefight trusting Miki will not die. The Umibōzu is a yokai (spirit) from Japanese folklore; he is said to turn ships upside down if someone aboard talks to him; he is portrayed bald as a (Buddhist monk); the character umi means 'sea'.
Miki was a war orphan who Umibozu found in a completely destroyed village. Contrary to her habits, Umibozu decided to take her with him and teach her everything she knew so that she would one day be able to get by on her own. Only when Miki shows her intentions of joining the Umibozu guerrilla squad will she understand that she has radically changed her life, and feeling guilty will he try to make her a "normal" girl again by abandoning her, after making her believe that he would return to the civilized world with her. Miki, however, does not give up and after much research she manages to find her Falcon and make him accept a pact: if she manages to kill Ryo Saeba, Umibozu will agree to marry her. To do this Miki will become the owner of the Cat's Eye, where Ryo will begin to go more and more often attracted by the beauty of the woman. In the end Miki does not kill Ryo, but thanks to Kaori's complicity and that of Ryo himself, she is still able to have him next to her in the Cat's Eye, until they get married. The Cat's Eye becomes a staple of the anime and a favorite bar for the two sweepers, as that's where they will always take their customers and give rise to the most spectacular fights.
Saeko is a Tokyo police detective and Reika's older sister who often outsources certain tasks to the City Hunter team. Ryo keeps a long and detailed list of what Saeko owes him for the various favours he has done for her, which she always manages to avoid paying.
She is the private investigator of "RN Detective Agency", the younger sister of Saeko Nogami and the neighbor of Ryo Saeba.
She was one of Ryo Saeba's clients after Ryo himself finds out that Kasumi is Phantom 305, a night thief in the making with similar motives as to the members of Cat's Eye,
He was a guerilla fighter fighting alongside Ryo Saeba and Bloody Mary's father. Currently he is the leader of Union Teope, a drug syndicate.
Media Manga
Written and illustrated by Tsukasa Hojo, City Hunter started in Shueisha's manga anthology Weekly Shōnen Jump on February 26, 1985, and ran until the December 2, 1991, issue. Its chapters were collected by Shueisha in 35 volumes, under the Jump Comics imprint, between January 15, 1986, and April 15, 1992. In these volumes the series is grouped into 55 different stories or "episodes" instead of as their original individual chapters. Each story is centred on a different female character or "heroine". An 18-volume edition was released by Shueisha from June 18, 1996, to October 17, 1997. A third edition City Hunter Complete Edition of 32 volumes was published by Tokuma Shoten from December 16, 2003, to April 15, 2005. To celebrate the 30th anniversary of the series, a fourth edition, City Hunter XYZ edition, was published by Tokuma Shoten across twelve volumes from July 18 to December 19, 2015. In 2019, a fifth edition, City Hunter Zenon Selection, was released in 29 volumes by Coamix to coincide with the French live-action adaptation of City Hunter, Nicky Larson et le parfum de Cupidon.
Attempts were made to license the series for the American comic market during the 1980s; however, Hojo insisted the manga should be released in the right-to-left format. In 2002 Coamix created an American subsidiary, Gutsoon! Entertainment. City Hunter was a flagship title in their Raijin Comics anthology. Raijin switched from a weekly format to a monthly format before being cancelled after 46 issues. In 2022, Coamix's MangaHot service began publishing City Hunter manga in English digitally. In April 2025, Abrams ComicArts announced that it will start releasing the manga in an omnibus edition in print under its Kana imprint on September 9 of the same year. Kana is using a new English translation for the release.
Spin-offs From 2001 to 2017, Hojo serialized a spin-off series titled Angel Heart. The series takes place in a universe parallel to City Hunter, where the character of Kaori Makimura is killed and her heart transplanted into Xiang-Ying, Angel Hearts protagonist.
A spin-off manga by Sokura Nishiki, , was launched in Tokuma Shoten's Monthly Comic Zenon magazine on July 25, 2017. It is centered around a 40-year-old unmarried woman who is a fan of Ryō Saeba and the City Hunter manga, and suddenly dies in a train accident and is reincarnated into the world of City Hunter.
A spin-off manga by Est Em, , was serialized in Monthly Comic Zenon from April 29, 2019, to August 27, 2021, and compiled into five volumes.
Anime
The series was adapted into an anime series produced by Sunrise, directed by Kanetsugu Kodama and broadcast by Yomiuri Television.
City Hunter was broadcast for 51 episodes between April 6, 1987, and March 28, 1988, and released on ten VHS cassettes between December 1987 and July 1988. City Hunter 2 was broadcast for 63 episodes between April 8, 1988, and July 14, 1989, and released on ten VHS cassettes between August 1988 and March 1990. City Hunter 3 was broadcast for 13 episodes from October 15, 1989, to January 21, 1990, and released on six VHS cassettes between November 1990 and April 1991. City Hunter '91 was broadcast between April 28 and October 10, 1991, and released on six VHS cassettes between February and July 1992.
The series was later reissued as 20 video compilations.
A 32-disc DVD boxset, City Hunter Complete, was published by Aniplex and released in Japan on August 31, 2005. The set contained all four series, the TV specials and animated movies as well as an art book and figures of Ryo and Kaori. 26 of the discs comprising the four series were then released individually between December 19, 2007, and August 27, 2008. 30,000 box sets were sold, grossing (), in Japan.
For the 30th anniversary of the original manga, buyers of all 12 volumes of City Hunter XYZ edition were entitled receive a "motion graphic anime" DVD. The DVDe adapted a special Angel Heart chapter entitled "Ryo's Proposal" and was voiced by the original City Hunter cast.