is a fictional character who serves as a recurring

antagonist An antagonist is a character in a story who is presented as the main enemy or rival of the protagonist and is often depicted as a villain.Kogoro Akechi is a fictional private detective created by Japanese Mystery fiction, mystery writer Edogawa Ranpo. Overview Akechi first appeared in the story in January 1925 and continued to appear in stories for a quarter of a century. Edogawa Ranpo (a ps ...

Edogawa Rampo , better known by the pen name , was a Japanese author and critic who played a major role in the development of Japanese mystery and thriller fiction. Many of his novels involve the detective hero Kogoro Akechi, who in later books was the ...

mystery fiction Mystery is a genre fiction, fiction genre where the nature of an event, usually a murder or other crime, remains wiktionary:mysterious, mysterious until the end of the story. Often within a closed circle of suspects, each suspect is usually prov ...

. A

gentleman thief A gentleman thief, gentleman burglar, lady thief, or phantom thief is a stock character in fiction. A gentleman or lady thief is characterised by impeccable manners, charm, courtesy, and the avoidance of physical force or intimidation to stea ...

and master of disguise, he is considered Akechi's

archenemy In literature, an archenemy, (sometimes spelled as arch-enemy) or nemesis is the main enemy of the protagonist — or sometimes, one of the other main characters — appearing as the most prominent and most-known enemy of the hero. Etymolog ...

or most famous adversary.

Creation and origin

Edogawa Rampo, already known as a successful detective and horror writer, gained an assignment writing for ''

Shōnen Club ''Shōnen Club'' (''Shōnen Kurabu'' / 少年倶楽部, later 少年クラブ in 1946) was a monthly boys' magazine begun by Kodansha in November 1914. The magazine initially featured articles, poetry and serialized novels, but it began to focus ...

'', a magazine aimed at young children. Government regulations and societal norms meant that many of Rampo's normal plot elements were off the table, such as putting the protagonist children in direct danger. Rampo decided to create a villain related to his existing world and created a new rival for his detective character

Kogoro Akechi is a fictional private detective created by Japanese Mystery fiction, mystery writer Edogawa Ranpo. Overview Akechi first appeared in the story in January 1925 and continued to appear in stories for a quarter of a century. Edogawa Ranpo (a ps ...

. Rampo based his new character on

Arsène Lupin Arsène Lupin () is a fictional gentleman thief and master of disguise created in 1905 by French writer Maurice Leblanc. The character was first introduced in a series of short stories serialized in the magazine '' Je sais tout''. The first ...

, a gentleman thief. He originally intended to name the character Kaitō Nijū Mensō ("The Phantom Thief with Twenty Faces"), as Lupin was referred to as a kaitō, but this was ruled out by his editors. "Kaijin" ("Strange Person", "Fiend") was approved, however, giving him his published name. He makes his first appearance in ''The Fiend with Twenty Faces'' published in 1936, the first installment of Rampo's "The Boy Detectives Club" series. The titular antagonist threatens Tokyo, but with the country's greatest detective Kogorō Akechi away on overseas business, it is up to his 10-year old assistant Kobayashi Yoshio and the Boy Detectives Club (''Shōnen Tantei-dan'') to save the day. In these stories, Akechi is generally busy in the first half, Twenty Faces will either steal or threaten to steal some valuable item, the kids will come close to foiling him, and Akechi will dramatically return to foil the plan and ensure the kids were never overly threatened.

In other media

The Fiend with Twenty Faces has appeared in other media and served as inspiration for other works, including the two novels by Sō Kitamura and its film adaptation, the

manga are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long history in earlier Japanese art. The term is used in Japan to refer to both comics ...

series ''

Man of Many Faces is a manga by Clamp (manga artists), Clamp about a nine-year-old boy named Akira Ijyuin who steals beautiful and valuable objects to please his two mothers and is known to the public as the dashing, clever thief named the ''Man of 20 Faces''. ...

'' by Clamp and ''

Nijū Mensō no Musume is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by manga author Shinji Ohara. The manga was serialized in the seinen manga magazine ''Comic Flapper'' between 2003 and 2007, but continued serialization in the same magazine with the titl ...

'' by Shinji Ohara, and anime ''

Trickster In mythology and the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a character in a story (god, goddess, spirit, human or anthropomorphisation) who exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge and uses it to play tricks or otherw ...

'' in which he was voiced by Japanese singer-songwriter

Gackt , better known as Gackt (stylized in all caps), is a Japanese singer-songwriter, musician, record producer and actor. Born in Okinawa Prefecture, Okinawa to a Ryukyuan people, Ryukyuan family, Gackt learned the piano at a young age and was rai ...

. In March 2021 it was announced that a new adaptation, produced in a dramatic reading format with a modern noir twist, would be performed at the Shinagawa Prince Theater and star Yabana Rei of the J-pop boyband 7 Men Samurai in the role of protagonist Akechi. An alternate version of him serves as the

main protagonist A protagonist () is the main character of a story. The protagonist makes key decisions that affect the plot, primarily influencing the story and propelling it forward, and is often the character who faces the most significant obstacles. If a ...

of ''

Persona 5 is a 2016 role-playing video game developed by P-Studio and published by Atlus. The game is the sixth installment in the ''Persona'' series, itself a part of the larger ''Megami Tensei'' franchise. It was released for PlayStation 3 and PlayStat ...

'' who uses his talents as a Gentleman/Phantom Thief to correct injustice. The game solidifies the protagonist as being the Fiend by incorporating a unique take on Kogoro Akechi. This version of both characters portrays them as two sides of the same coin; both fighting for justice, but forever at odds with each other over the methods.

References

Characters in children's literature Fictional gentleman thieves Literary characters introduced in 1936 Male literary villains Characters in novels of the 20th century Thriller film characters {{child-lit-char-stub

Creation and origin

In other media

See also

References