Koichi Zenigata (usually called Inspector Zenigata) is an incredibly talented, yet often bumbling police officer who has made it his life's goal to capture Lupin III.
History[]
Zenigata is called into Cagliostro by an unknown contact (which he doesn't realize is Lupin). He meets the Count and finds him surprisingly obstructive. As he inspects the grounds, he voices his suspicions of the castle. There are too many lasers and other overblown security measures. As he keeps guard outside, he sees the water mill slowing down. Suspecting Lupin is there, which in fact he was, he goes there to investigate. He checks the water fountain, but Lupin hides himself well. He's then informed by an officer that he's been removed from the case. He confronts Gustav, who dismisses him. As he turns to leave, Lupin pretends to be him and sets the guards on him as a distraction. Zenigata escapes the scuffle, but falls down the Count's trap door.
He meets Lupin in the catacombs. He demands a way out, but Lupin tells him he got the shaft as well. He asks about the thousands of corpses in the castle. Lupin points to writing carved on the wall by a dead Japanese spy. Zenigata is moved by this and prays for the man's soul. He and Lupin share a cigarette, rest a while, then hatch a plan to escape. They exit the catacombs through a secret waterway and stumble on the Count's printing press. Lupin tells him about the secret centuries-old counterfeiting operation. Knowing Zenigata will want to uncover the injustice, Lupin offers a truce until they escape the castle. Zenigata reluctantly agrees. They create a distraction by setting fire to the counterfeit money while Zenigata preserves some of it for evidence. They hijack the Count's autogyro. Lupin tells Zenigata to take the wheel, but the Inspector doesn't know how to fly the thing. As he struggles to maneuver it, Lupin is shot, and Zenigata comes to his rescue just in time, before crashing the autogyro and unintentionally sending the thief back to his gang.
At the ICPO headquarters, he tries to convince the delegates that this is clearly criminal, but they argue that the Count has a lot of political ties and it's impossible to investigate him. Despondent, Zenigata returns to his office.
Three days later, when he's on one of his usual drinking binges, he gets a call from Fujiko, who tells him Lupin will be at the wedding. His confidence renewed, he forms a plan with her. He leads a squad of police into the castle, pretending to just hunt down Lupin. He then pretends to accidentally discover the printing press, showing indisputable evidence of the counterfeiting operation, while making a big show of it and hamming it up with merry abandon.
While Lupin escapes with Clarisse, Zenigata gets into a fistfight with Gustav. The brawl is interrupted by the ominous tolling of the bell, activated by the rings. Zenigata watches solemnly as the floodgate is emptied.
After the fight is over, he resumes his pursuit of Lupin, who had stolen Clarisse's heart.
Creation[]
Inspector Zenigata was conceived as Lupin's arch rival to create a "human Tom and Jerry".
Monkey Punch has said that he believes the Lupin III story can never end but that if he had to, both Zenigata and Lupin would have to end as equals. They would either both fail, both win or both get very old. At the end of the second manga written by Monkey Punch, Zenigata succeeds at killing Lupin and his gang, but because Lupin is meaner in the manga, he has it coming to him, whereas in the anime, from the Miyazaki written episodes onward, the two of them have a friendly rivalry and more of a mutual understanding.
He is the descendant of Heiji Zenigata, a fictional detective created by Kodō Nomura in 1931.
Personality[]
Zenigata is impulsive and temperamental, but a competent police officer. His "cowboy cop" tendencies, however, are met with disapproval by Japan's ICPO delegate when he tries to get the organization to prosecute Count Cagliostro.
Though Zenigata has failed many times to catch Lupin, many younger than him have not come as close.
Lupin describes him in the film as "truly a child of the Shoowa period, a man totally devoted to his work."
In The Castle of Cagliostro, while he is still impulsive and loses his temper, he makes sure not to do so in front of Count Cagliostro, who greets him with rudeness, racism and dismissal, and tries to stay professional.
The film shows Zenigata to be highly patriotic. After hearing that Lupin left a note, he arrives at the castle in a Nissan Bluebird. He prays for the soul of a deceased Japanese spy, and when he and Fujiko charge into the printing press, he carries a jutte, a traditional Japanese bludgeon, an echo of his ancestor Heiji who was also known for carrying such a weapon.
He shows his goofy and eager side when, Fujiko's help, he pretends to "discover" the counterfeit printing presses, through Fujiko's live camera.
He reciprocates kindness when it is given to him, even grudgingly so from the likes of Lupin.
Appearance[]
Zenigata is a muscular, square-jawed, ruddy-skinned man of about average height (5'10''), with black hair cropped into a flat-top haircut and black eyes. He has a fairly similar build to Lupin, which makes it easier for the latter to impersonate him. He is also more handsome in The Castle of Cagliostro than in the manga and some of the anime series. In this film, he wears a brown suit with green pants and a red tie.
The fight in the catacombs shows that he wears a corset over his underwear, possibly for back support.
Relationships[]
Lupin III[]
As shown in the anime series, Zenigata views Lupin as much of a rival as he does a friend, and, rather surprisingly, will come to him in times of need. Here he still views Lupin as something of a threat and vows to arrest him at some point, but circumstances here have forced them to work together. When they discover the printing press, they form a temporary truce. This incarnation, as with some others, cares about Lupin; when he is thrown out of the Count's autogyro, he hopes aloud that Lupin doesn't die before he arrests him. At the end of the film, he eagerly goes off in pursuit of Lupin and his gang once they escape the castle and drive off.
Lupin affectionately calls him "Pops", which he doesn't object to and sometimes even likes.
Count Cagliostro[]
Zenigata views the Count as a rude, condescending, stuck-up, racist, privileged, entitled man, and that's before he learns the truth about him. He takes care to stay professional in front of him and his staff, knowing the delicacy of his job situation.
Gustav[]
As with the Count, Zenigata looks at Gustav unfavorably, but tries to keep the relationship as professional as possible, even as Gustav calls him an "Oriental" to his face.
Clarisse[]
Zenigata only sees the innocent and gentle Clarisse for a few seconds, but is kind and courteous towards her. He feels some degree of pity for her that Lupin stole her heart, as he puts it, even though he knows as well as she does that he didn't steal anything else.
Fujiko[]
Although the two are on opposite sides of the law, Zenigata tentatively trusts Fujiko in the film, but is more than eager when he hears that Lupin is going to be at the Count's wedding, and unhesitatingly works with her to expose his counterfeiting operation.
Etymology[]
- The name Koichi means "happiness, good luck" (幸) (ko) and "one" (一) (ichi), which literally means "One happiness" altogether.
- Koichi's surname Zenigata means "coin, .01 yen, money" (銭) (zeni) and "form, shape, type" (形) (gata), which literally means "Money-shaped" altogether.
Trivia[]
- The Streamline dub incorrectly gives his name as "Keibu", which is in fact his title. The confusion stems from the fact that, like Lupin and Jigen, he is seldom if ever addressed by his given name. In the context of the film, either he slipped up and said "Keibu" instead of "Kôichi", or he introduced his title in both French and Japanese, saying "Inspector (Keibu)".
- The Streamline dub omits all references to Zenigata's nationality, for example Jigen identifying his vehicle as a Japanese police car.
- The Streamline dub depicts him as a little less sympathetic than in the original. In the catacombs, in the dub he reads a warning and asks what the hell it means, while in the original the inscription he reads is from a Japanese spy, and he prays for the man's soul. When he lands in a tree, in the dub he shouts for the injured Lupin to come back, as he's his only witness to the investigation, while in the original he shouts for Lupin not to die before he arrests him.
- He is the descendant of the famous literary character Heiji Zenigata, a detective known for throwing coins at the scene of the crime. In The Mystery of Mamo he was identified as Heiji Zenigata the Seventh, although Kôichi remains his official given name in other media, thanks to a typo written in the book Lupin III Famous Scenes. The author had meant to write "Heiichi", but instead wrote "Kôichi".
- The scene where the ICPO react to his reveal of the counterfeit money has been translated in different ways. On the DVD subtitles, it's translated to "He's such a bad actor". The Netflix subtitles translate it to "Talk about hamming it up."