Mugen Shinshi

• Ja Kanji — 夢幻紳士 • Genre — Mystery

• Type — manga • Author — Yosuke Takahashi • Publisher — Asahi Sonorama • Magazine — Manga Shonen • First — January 1981 • Last — December 1982 • Volumes — 1

• Type — manga • Title — Mugen Shinshi Bōken Katsugeki-hen • Author — Yosuke Takahashi • Publisher — Tokuma Shoten • Magazine — Betty • First — August 15, 1982 • Last — October 18, 1990 • Volumes — 10

• Type — OVA • Title — Mugen Shinshi Bōken Katsugeki-hen • Director — Hatsuki Tsuji • Producer — Akio Wakana Tomoko Sato • Writer — Izo Hashimoto • Studio — Gallop JVCKenwood Victor Entertainment • Released — February 21, 1987 • Runtime — 50 minutes

• Type — manga • Title — Mugen Shinshi Kaiki-hen • Author — Yosuke Takahashi • Publisher — Tokuma Shoten • Magazine — Medium Shonen Captain • First — April 1982 • Last — June 1991 • Volumes — 1

• Type — manga • Title — Mugen Shinshi Mugen Gaiden • Author — Yosuke Takahashi • Publisher — Asahi Sonorama • Magazine — Nemuki • First — 1992 • Last — 1996 • Volumes — 3

• Type — manga • Title — Mugen Shinshi Gensho-hen/Oma-hen/Meikyu-hen • Author — Yosuke Takahashi • Publisher — Hayakawa Shobo • Magazine — Mystery Magazine • First — March 25, 2004 • Last — February 15, 2007 • Volumes — 3

• Type — live film • Title — The Dream Manipulator Mugen • Director — Misako Unakami • Studio — Beach Walkers Collection • Released — 2021 06 26 • Runtime — 92 minutes Mugen Shinshi is a Japanese manga metaseries by Yosuke Takahashi. The story follows the adventures of Mamiya Mugen, a teenage detective from the Showa era Japan, retold in multiple alternate continuities. The second and main series was loosely adapted into an OVA in 1987, while a live action film The Dream Manipulator Mugen was released in 2021.

The first manga series introduces Mamiya Mugen, the child heir of a rich family that enjoys solving crimes for the Japanese police during the Showa era. Although young, he has telepathic powers and a keen intellect, and is helped by his faithful butler Alucard. Some of the cases he gets involved with are occult or supernatural in nature. The series was revamped for the second manga publishing, Boken Katsugeki-hen, where the story remains almost the same, although containing more gags and humor. Mugen lacks any superpower now, and solves cases with the help of his butler Alucard and his love interest Atsuko. However, the shady story of his family intervenes as well, forcing him to confront his villainous father and aunt. This iteration of the series received an OVA whose story conflates and references several of the manga's chapters. A much more serious, almost horror-oriented view of the series is given in its third continuity, Kaiki-hen, where Mugen is now a suave, distinguished ladies man in his twenties. He works mostly alone and meets a long string of lovers in his cases, but is helped by his spiritual powers and his mentor Professor Yokomizo. This style was kept in the work's fourth version, in which Mamiya has a different set of powers. The last series is the trilogy Gensho-hen/Oma-hen/Meikyu-hen, in which Mugen is presented as a supernatural entity unrelated to humanity that fights monsters and demons.

• Mamiya Mugen • Keiko Toda • A child detective who solves crimes with his genius mind (and in some continuities, his supernatural powers). He wears a black suit and sometimes a matching bowler hat, and while his personality often changes between series, he is always boyish and quirky. He's 15 in Katsugeki-hen, where he is also a master of disguise and a good shooter. He abandons Japan with the outbreak of World War II, but returns years later, married to Atsuko and having a daughter named Mako. • Alucard • Banjo Ginga • Mamiya's butler, a huge, bald old man with a surprising strength. Katsugeki-hen reveals he was born in Transylvania and has vampiric blood, but swore loyalty to the Mamiya family after Kyoshiro saved his life during World War I. His name is Dracula backwards. • Inspector Edogawa • Junpei Takiguchi • Mamiya's liaison in the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, a bumbling man who often becomes skeptical or cowardly at his plans. His name comes from Edogawa Ranpo. • Atsuko Fukune • Hiroko Emori • Introduced in Katsugeki-hen, Atsuko is a girl Mamiya meets during one of his cases, after which she becomes his sidekick and eventually his wife. An orphan, she used to earn a living as an exotic dancer in Asakusa. She's intelligent and determined, though quite short-tempered and a bit uncultured. • Mako Mugen • The daughter of Mamiya and Atsuko. During the 1950s, she starts working as a Japanese vigilante named Tokyo Kid. • Kyoshiro Mugen • Mamiya's father, introduced in Katsugeki-hen. He is a professional delinquent, which brings Mamiya troubles to no end, though he sincerely loves his son and wife. At the end of the story, it is revealed that he used to be a friend of the Adolf Hitler. • Yukie Mugen • Mamiya's mother, an elegant women constantly infuriated by his husband's antics. • Neko Mugen • Mamiya's aunt, a beautiful femme fatale murderer. • Dr. Lao • Joji Yanami • Another enemy to Mamiya, a Chinese mastermind. He's ostensibly a parody of Fu Manchu, though his face is officially based on popular Japanese actor Akira Oizumi, while his name comes from Charles G. Finney's The Circus of Dr. Lao. • Koho • Koji Totani • Dr. Lao's main henchman, a plump Chinese man. Though he looks stupid, he can be surprisingly competent. He's a parody of Japanese professional wrestler Thunder Sugiyama. • Kaitō Kurenai Okoze • Another of Mamiya's enemies, a phantom thief of unknown identity. • Prof. Yokomizo • A scientist who understands psychic abilities. He only appears in the first chapters of Kaiki-hen.