The Story of Quincy

The Story of Quincy (often billed as Ryotaro Sekizawa's The Story of Quincy) is a 2005 animated crime drama detective television series created by Garrett Fredrickson and based off the manga Quincy by Ryotaro Sekizawa. The series follows the life of Detective Quincy McShane (voiced by Steve Blum), a crime fighting detective often having to deal with all sorts of criminals in Durania.

The series premiered on TNT on May 14, 2005 and concluded on March 20, 2012. Reruns of the series have since aired in syndication and on The CW, Ion Television and Freeform. It received very positive reviews from critics and fans of the original manga, with much praise going to the animation, voice acting, tone, soundtrack, and direction. It had since won numerous accolades including several Emmy Awards, five Annie Awards, and a Writer's Guild of America award.

Overview
Set in the fictional country of Durania, the series focuses on Quincy McShane, a detective who works for the police department under Chief Aarons. Outside of the show's detective crime fighting plot, it also focuses on Quincy's personal life, such as his relations with other characters, media, his role in the police department and also his well being.

Quincy also deals with several recurring antagonists. Many of which are minor antagonists who don't appear too often, the most notable being Forrester Roland, a mobster leader who appears a few times throughout the series.

Although the series creates much of it's own original stories, it does also adapt several arcs of the manga into the show as the main plot of the season. Season three for instance adapts a plot arc centering on Quincy's developing relationship with Durania's Princess Sophie. Unlike many American produced animated television shows based on a work of fiction, the series faithfully emulated the darker and more somber parts of the manga, as a result, some reviewers warned that the series may be inappropriate for young children.

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Main

 * Quincy McShane (voiced by Steve Blum (English); Tomokazu Seki (Japanese)) - The main protagonist of the series. Unlike most detective characters, Quincy is both very straightforward and serious but can also be fairly streetwise and laid-back. He can also show emotional vulnerability and has a sometimes violent and aggressive side to his personality; he's also shown to gamble and play cards often with a couple of con men he's friends with. Quincy also cares a great deal for those he considers a friend or a loved one, especially people like Sophie. The creator of the original manga, Ryoto Sekizawa, said that he thought the show's take on Quincy was "one of the most faithful aspects of the show."
 * Princess Sophie Lanpher Williams (voiced by Cherami Leigh (English); Mamiko Noto (Japanese)) - The princess of Durania who is introduced in season three. Despite Quincy's position in the police department and her being indirectly mentioned in some earlier episodes, the two never met until Quincy had a chance encounter with her while she was trying to escape a very desperate suitor. After spending some time together, the two bonded and became good friends. Despite her regal status and being seen by society as a "proper princess", Sophie is generally rather cheerful yet practical and shows empathy towards Quincy due to his somewhat skeptic dispistion about his detective job, feeling similarly about her position as Durania's princess. As their friendship became stronger, Sophie herself began developing a crush on Quincy, though she was hesitant to tell him because she was fearful of suitors who may want her going after Quincy should they enter a relationship. Quincy himself, however, also began developing feelings for her, especially because she was the first woman in a while who geniunely cared for him and wasn't just a fan girl. By the end of Season 3, Quincy and Sophie both confess their feelings for one another and proceeded to enter a relationship.
 * Captain Saffron (voiced by Jason Marsden (English); Daisuke Namikawa (Japanese)) - The police captain who is Quincy's best friend, sometimes assisting him on his missions. He's rather flamboyant and a charmer, yet is also sophisticated and quite intellegent, even seeing through some villains' plans.
 * Louis (voiced by Sean Hayes (English); Daisuke Ono (Japanese)) - A police officer who, like with Saffron, sometimes assists Quincy on his missions. He's more comedic in nature, but he still takes his job seriously and is a skilled gunman, with Quincy stating that Louis doesn't even need to look in order to get a point blank shot sometimes.

Recurring

 * Zach T. Darwin (voiced by John Cleese (English); Kappei Yamaguchi (Japanese)) - Quincy's british-accented lawyer. He's quick to defend Quincy in whatever case he can by using all sorts of facts and evidence.He is presented as a rather comical lawyer and an over-the-top one as well. John Cleese has stated he really enjoyed voicing the character.
 * Megan Knowles (voiced by Rachel Leigh Cook (English); Hōko Kuwashima (Japanese)) - a friend of Quincy's who was previously his co-worker at the last job he had before he became a detective. The two still interact fairly often, and some have even quipped that they could be lovers, though Megan doesn't harbor any romantic feelings for Quincy, viewing him as more of a friend than a lover.
 * Chief Aarons (voiced by Mark Hamill (English); Takaya Hashi (Japanese)) - He's a well mannered yet also somewhat eccentric police chief who has good faith in his staff, particularly Quincy.
 * Ellis Whitfield (voiced by Jennifer Love Hewitt) - Introduced in season two, Ellis is a government spy oftentimes obtaining intel on some of the most notorious criminals in Durania, such as Forrester Roland.
 * Forrester Roland (voiced by Tim Curry (English); Takaya Kuroda (Japanese)) - Also known by his self-proclaimed monkier "Sir Roland", Forrester Roland is Quincy's archenemy. He is an evil power hungry man who is the leader of a threatening crime organization, thus giving him his title of a mobster. Although he was the main antagonist of the manga, his role in the series was greatly reduced in the TV series, as both Garrett Fredrickson and writer Alan Templeton thought that it wouldn't make sense for a mobster organization to be the main antagonist of a TV series. He makes his first full appearance in the Season 2 episode "Sir Roland's Revenge", and later again in the film Call of the Falcon: A Quincy Story in a flashback. He later appears as the main antagonists of the Season 4 episode "The Return of Sir Roland" and the Season 4 finale "The Battle".
 * Randy (voiced by Timothy Spall) - Forrester Roland's right hand partner and often the brains of many of Roland's schemes for power.
 * Daran (voiced by Maurice LaMarche) - Forrester's other right hand partner and a master jewel thief.
 * The Smugglers (voiced by Richard Kind, Jim Cummings, Neil Ross, and Jeff Bennett) - A gang of smugglers who often cause all sorts of havoc.
 * Neilson Claytor (voiced by Carlos Alazraqui) - The main antagonist of the Season 3 episode "The Detective and the Princess". He worked under Forrester Roland until he was driven out of town and, wanting to avenge him, tried to get his revenge on Quincy. He first started his plan by sneaking into the Durania Bereau of Investigation, tied the original chief in the closet, seized leadership of the board, and tricked Quincy into getting himself captured, however, Quincy escaped with the help of a member who found out just what Neilson did. Saffron manages to suspect something beforehand since if the former chief did leave, he would've announced his retirement beforehand and Sophie later caught on because she knew that if Quincy was convicted of a crime, she would've been told as well. He manages to escape prison in the episode "The Return of Sir Roland" when Roland helps to break him out, and returns to working for him until he's arrested once again.
 * Neilson's Assistant (voiced by Rik Mayall) - A man who partnered with Neilson. Despite sharing some similarities in persona, he is also a little smarter than Neilson, being more discreet about Neilson's plans.
 * Queen Amelia (voiced by Debra Mooney) - The queen of Durania and Sophie's mother.
 * Baron von Frederick (voiced by Martin Short) - The fairly eccentric and sometimes cowardly baron of Durania.
 * Roy M. Xander (voiced by Aaron Paul) - An officer for the Police Station.
 * Klay, Vincent, Jack, and Raymond (voiced by Charles Nelson Reilly (Seasons 1-2) and Rob Paulsen (Season 3-), David Lander, Tom Kenny, and Frank Welker) - A group of con men and gamblers whom Quincy is good friends with. Outside of gambling, they also sell various items for people to buy, such as scarfs. While they are relatively comical characters, they also do their best to help Quincy when he needs it.

Development
Back in the late 1980s, Carl Andy had plans to make a film adaptation of Quincy after the success of The Boy from the Blue, which was also adapted from a story by Ryotaro Sekizawa. After the failure of Astro Boy, Andy's film company, Dreidel Films, was sold to his friend Garrett Fredrickson and relaunched as Nightstorm Productions, and the film rights to Quincy were taken there. Around this time, AIC produced a four episode OVA based on the manga which was released in 1991. The OVA, however, received a mixed reception, with Sekizawa himself feeling dissatisfied with the end result due to him feeling it "strayed away from the original too much, and not in a good way, either." He would then get in touch with Garrett Fredrickson, and asked him if he'd like to do an adaptation of Quincy. Fredrickson looked at the manga, and was initially unsure about how to adapt it into a feature film due to how much media was included in the manga. Sekizawa, understanding Fredrickson's point, then suggested to try adapting it into a television series instead of a feature film, to which Fredrickson decided that would be the best course of action in order to make a "good adaptation" of multiple stories. Fredrickson took the idea to David Merkin and Barry Josephson, both of whom saw potential in the series and began looking for companies to pitch the series to, with the latter's own company, Josephson Entertainment, joining the production.

Kyoto Animation was enlisted to the do the animation for the series in 2002, and a pitch pilot for the show was created a year later. Fredrickson, Merkin, and Josephson pitched the series to various television networks, eventually finding favor at TimeWarner's TNT network, while Japanese TV channel TV Tokyo picked up the broadcast rights in Japan. In 2004, TV Tokyo and TNT both began funding the television series, and it was announced that the series would premiere in 2005 and much of the voice cast was revealed that year. Unlike other television shows aired on TNT, LIVE Entertainment self-distributed the series rather than having it distributed through another company, though they would later partner with Trifecta Entertainment & Media to syndicate the show. Geneon Entertainment invested in the show's home video rights in the United States and Japan, however, after they switched distribution platforms in 2007, LIVE forged a new deal with FUNimation Entertainment to distribute the series on home video.

Casting
Fredrickson was still in the process of developing the series when he decided to find voice actors. He was assisted by Ruth Lambert (who helped him with casting in A Penguin's Memories as well as a few other Fredrickson directed films), Jack Fletcher and Kris Zimmerman. As the cast was not yet finalized at the time, the pilot featured Eddie Frierson, Sherry Lynn, Matthew Kermit Miller, Nick Jameson, Kirk Thornton and Bob Papenbrook providing the voices. The Story of Quincy became notable for it's inclusion of movie and some celebrity actors as some of the principal voices such as Mark Hamill, Tim Curry, Jennifer Love Hewitt, John Cleese, Toni Collette and Martin Short to name a few. Tim Curry was cast as Forrester Roland based on his performance as Maestro Forte from Disney's Beauty & the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas, which even though Fredrickson thought the movie was nowhere near as good as the original film, he really liked Curry's performance as the character, while John Cleese and Martin Short were, interestingly enough, found through casting calls, much to the surprise of many media organizations. Of course, the show did contain some regular voice actors as well including Kath Soucie, Jeff Bennett, Maurice LaMarche, Neil Ross, Frank Welker, and Tom Kenny to name a few. Initially Alyssa Milano was cast as Princess Sophie but had to drop out of the role due to scheduling conflicts with the television series My Name is Earl and the movies The Blue Hour and Pathology. Eventually, the role was given to Cherami Leigh, in one of her first acting roles outside of Dallas, Texas. Following FUNimation investing in the home video rights, voice actors from their talent pool also made guest appearances in the series with them even providing their own facilities to record the dialogue.

In the process of the casting for the series, it was proven fairly difficult to find a voice actor for Quincy. Garrett Fredrickson was planning to follow the manga and hire a fairly young adult sounding actor to voice Quincy, with Vic Mignogna considered a finalist to voice him. Alan Marriott was also considered for reprising his role from the English dub of the 1991 OVA. Steve Blum, who was recommended by voice director Jack Fletcher for some of the voices, was eventually chosen to do the voice. Mignogna would, however, voice the teenager version of Quincy in some flashback scenes. Before Steve Blum was cast, Jim Cummings and Maurice LaMarche auditioned for the role (the latter using an impression of the late Dick Shawn), Joseph Gordon Levitt was also considered for voicing him. Mark Hamill also expressed interest in voicing him before he was cast as Chief Aarons.

The first season of the series was also the last Garrett Fredrickson production to feature Carl Andy in any sort of cameo appearance, due to his retirement from the entertainment industry in 2005.

For the Japanese version, the dubbing crew followed in the footsteps of the English version and decided to get a well-known cast of actors to provide the voices, in order to attract a wider audience. The Japanese voice cast included Tomokazu Seki, Mamiko Noto, Daisuke Namikawa, Daisuke Ono, Kappei Yamaguchi, Hōko Kuwashima, Takaya Hashi and Takaya Kuroda. Ryotaro Sekizawa contributed a lot to the dub, such as directing the voices, writing some episodes and translating various songs in Japanese.

Music
The music for the series was composed by Julian Nott and was performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Fredrickson stated he had long been a fan of Julian Nott's orchestral compositions, especially after seeing the Wallace and Gromit series. Some music was also composed by Gregory Magee, who did the music for the 2004 animated series The Fairytaler. Many additional tracks and even some episodes were scored by other composers as well, including Adam Berry, Shirō Sagisu, Gregor Narholz and Robert Folk.

Animation
The series was animated by Kyoto Animation in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture, Japan, who was also several other works at this time like ''Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid and Air''. The studio was recommended by Ryotaro Sekizawa after seeing their work on The Boy from the Blue: Adventures of Poloi. Because of the large amount of projects they had at the time, Kyoto split the animation team into three, with one part working on ''Full Metal Panic! The Second Raid, another team working on Air, and the third team working on The Story of Quincy''. Due to this choice in production, the series was sometimes co-animated by other Japanese production studios such as Studio 4°C, Pierrot, Gonzo and Production I.G. Many of the episodes' directors were also directors in Japanese animation, including Tekkonkinkreet director Michael Arias.

Themes
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Reception
The Story of Quincy proved to be quite a ratings success for TNT, with the first season alone garnering in 14.2 million viewers. The series received very positive reviews from critics, with praise towards it's writing, characterization, animation, voice acting, and faithfulness to the source material. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 95% of critics have given the first season a positive review based on 20 reviews, with an average rating of 8.4/10, the site's critical consensus reads "The Story of Quincy 's first season gives off a promising start with spectacular visuals and compelling writing that separates this show from other adult animated programs." On Metacritic, the first season has a 84 out of 100 indicating "universal acclaim".

Home Media
Geneon Entertainment distributed the DVD release of the first season and were initially due to release the second season on DVD, but due to them shutting down their American division, the release was delayed until 2008 while LIVE Entertainment looked for a new distributor. The season was later released on DVD and Blu-ray by FUNimation Entertainment, who distributed the rest of the seasons on videodisc under license from LIVE Entertainment.

Film
In 2010, a movie adaptation of the series entitled Call of the Falcon: A Quincy Story, was released. It was directed by Garrett Fredrickson, with Ryotaro Sekizawa serving as a producer, and was distributed in the United States and Japan by Universal Pictures and internationally by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film's plot concerns Quincy McShane, who has returned to Durania after the events of the final episode of season three and is trying to adjust back to his life as a detective, but a new enemy in the form of a cult known as "The Falcons" has come to wreak havoc in the town, and things start to get more personal when Captain Saffron aspires to protect a female member of the group, leading to the police force becoming one of their prime targets. However, with what happened on Quincy's mission before going on vacation still being in his mind, and effectively being triggered by one of the cult's actions, he begins to wonder if being a detective was the career he should've taken in his life.

Like the series, the film received largely positive reviews, with massive praise towards it's story, characters, animation and voice acting, and grossed a worldwide total of $246.3 million at the box office. The film won two Annie Awards for Directing in an Animated Feature Production and Best Achievement in Voice Acting and was nominated a Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film.