Bayside Shakedown

is a Japanese police comedy-drama television series originally broadcast by the Fuji Television group in 1997. The series was developed by Ryoichi Kimizuka and stars Oda Yūji, Toshirō Yanagiba, Eri Fukatsu, Chosuke Ikariya, Miki Mizuno, and Yūsuke Santamaria. In 1998 and 1999, an English-subtitled version of the series was broadcast in the United States on the International Channel, under the title The Spirited Criminal Investigative Network. The series spawned three television films and a stage play, along with six theatrically released films that were produced following the end of the show. The first of the theatrical films, Bayside Shakedown, was released in 1998, and the sixth and final film, Bayside Shakedown The Final, was released in 2012. The first Bayside Shakedown film was a major box office hit in Japan, earning 10.1 billion yen (84 million U.S. dollars), and was the third highest grossing live-action film in Japanese box office history. The second film in the series, Bayside Shakedown 2, earned over $165 million at the box office, making it the highest-grossing live-action Japanese film on domestic screens. Story summary Bayside Shakedown takes place in the fictional Wangan Precinct of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Unlike most police dramas which tend to focus on action and car chases, Bayside Shakedown is largely concerned with the bureaucratic issues of the police department that are very present in many other sectors of Japanese society. The series depicted police work as office politics under a slightly different environment, complete with bureaucratic red tape, lethargic civil servants, bosses more interested in playing golf and saving face than solving crimes, interference from politicians, and conflict between police headquarters and the local officers. The officers depicted in Bayside Shakedown are only permitted to carry firearms during major emergencies. Fuji TV used the fictional "All officers are to be armed" (拳銃携帯命令 Kenjū Keitai Meirei) order, which the portrayed bureaucracy is often reluctant to hand down. (In reality, it is compulsory for a uniformed officer to be armed, and plainclothes officers are required to be armed if they expect to be exposed to any danger.)