The Taiho Shichauzo! manga, which had reached up to 79 chapters (excluding a few specials), had been serialized in Kodansha’s Morning Party Extra beginning in 1986. The idea for the series had come from the two policewomen characters in Fujishima Kosuke’s first professional panel work - a comics-style report about the making of the Be Free! live action film - and had then developed to become Fujishima-san’s first contribution to the serial manga community.

As it had been his earliest work, it had been evident in the manga how much Fujishima-san’s drawing style and his method of storytelling had changed over time. The series had begun with Miyuki, Natsumi, and the Traffic Section Chief as the only consistent characters, centering around the two policewomen’s peculiar style of apprehending traffic violators and criminals. The independent chapters, or “files” as the series had called them, soon became more connected as new characters and irritating yet hardly dangerous villains were added. Also weaving itself nicely into the series’ very simple plot - which is to portray the escapades of the fictional Bokuto Station’s Traffic Control officers - was an equally simple yet intriguing love story, the results of which had eventually helped to end the manga.

The manga ended in 1992, leaving the reader with a satisfying, yet slightly open ended story. There was also a short “Taiho Shichauzo 2″ extra issue at the very end, where a teary-eyed Miyuki expressed her thanks to the readers by saying that she will never forget them. And, in my opinion, neither would we.

MANGA COMPILATION:

Volume One
Volume Two
Volume Three
Volume Four
Volume Five
Volume Six
Volume Seven