Black Cat Detective

Black Cat Detective (, "Black Cat Sheriff") is a Chinese animated television series based on a 1982 manhua written by Zhu Zhixiang produced by the Shanghai Animation Film Studio. It is sometimes shortened as Mr. Black. The main character, Black Cat Detective. was created by Zhu Zhixiang (诸志祥).

During the middle of the 1980s to this day, China had a zero-tolerance against crime, which inspired the themes of the series and also at the time the series was a popular amongst Chinese children and adult audiences alike. The series was also dubbed in Japanese as Kuro Neko Keibu (黒ネコ警部).

Sheriff Black Cat is a police officer and his duty is to protect citizens. He has a righteous, brave and heroic demeanor. Sheriff Black Cat is a cute and clever Chinese classic cartoon character. An unsmiling police sergeant.

The early 1980s when "Black Cat Sheriff" was born coincided with the "Strike Hard" period. At that time, prison vans were used to escort death row prisoners and parade along the streets. The purpose of shock was self-evident. The righteous image of Sheriff Black Cat and the story of the forest police officers fighting various evil forces in the film were all refracted and influenced by the social atmosphere at that time.

Premise and plot
The story takes place in a forest, where the Black Cat Detective wanders around on his motorcycle stopping villains. Cases range from clashing with mice and other characters.

The White Cat
The White Cat Squad Leader is a character who appears in the domestic cartoon "Black Cat Sheriff", the squad leader of the Forest Police Department and the most capable officer of Sheriff Black Cat, who has made great achievements in many cases. In the cat-and-mouse case, in order to protect the key to the archives room, he was brutally persecuted by One-Eared Uncle Cat-Mouse and died heroically.

Detective White Pigeon
Detective White Pigeon is a heroic and combat-savvy investigator who is a subordinate of Sheriff Black Cat. On a thunderstorm night, huge monsters attacked the forest residents, and many small animals were taken away.After Sheriff Black Cat learned that the monster was disguised as a monkey-eating hawk, he immediately sent Detective White Pigeon to investigate the nest of the monkey-eating hawk. Detective White Pigeon was unfortunately discovered when he reported to Sheriff Black Cat at the destination and was beaten by the monkey-eating hawk. He was seriously injured and fell into a coma. He was finally rescued by Sheriff Black Cat and others who came to support him.

One ear
One ear is the villain, a mouse, his uncle is a cat-eating mouse, and his eldest brother is a monkey-eating eagle and Dr. Great Ape.

Cat-Eating Mouse
Cat-Eating Mouse is a one-eared uncle who comes from Africa and is so powerful that he can pick up a huge cat's paw with one hand and beat away crocodiles with an oar. There were three of them in the play, and they once led everyone to attack the police station and killed the white cat squad leader. In the end, except for one Er Sanjiu who was shot dead, the rest were captured by Black Cat Sheriff.

Mantis young man
Mantis young man fell in love with Mantis girl at first sight while fighting against the locust plague, and got married. On their wedding night, in order to raise stronger offspring, he was voluntarily eaten by Mantis girl, and left a suicide note to prove that Mantis girl was innocent.

Mantis girl
The mantis girl fell in love with the mantis young man at first sight while fighting against the locust plague, and they got married. On their wedding night, they ate the groom in order to raise stronger offspring.

Zhu Zhixiang's original manhua (February 1982-1991)
The manhwa was published by Fujian Children's Publishing House which was first featured in the Chinese science fiction anthology Science Fiction World which ran from February 1982 to 1991.

1984-1987 original series
The original version of Black Cat Detective aired from 1984 to 1987 on CCTV in China and NHK in Japan, lasting 5 episodes on the first season (and also an unmade 6th episode).

The protagonists in the 1980s have some limitations due to the influence of the times, and are somewhat "tall, big and complete". At that time, the police officers in life were dressed in a somewhat "unfashionable" style, with a gun on their waist, a motorcycle, white clothes, and blue trousers. Basically, after taking off the hat and getting the collar badge, he looks almost like a chef. It's not that powerful anyway. The black uniform of Sheriff Black Cat is very similar to that of the police today, and he also wears such high riding boots, which makes him look very time-traveled.

Controversy
Critics bemoaned the series for its depiction of gore and weapons (such as guns, knives and swords) and it did not have the same "harmless" type of cartoon violence like in Tom and Jerry.

2006 rerun
Not much is known about the reruns that aired in 2006.

2010 digitally restored film
The digitally restored animated film was released on April 23, 2010, with the general director still Dai Tielang (戴铁郎). The new movie version is actually a cut from the original 5 episodes of the show, with dialogue rewritten and dubbed for the times, and the movie theme song sung by Lin Miao Ke (林妙可).

2015 animated film
Mr. Black: Green Star has been released in theaters on August 7, 2015.