City Hunter

The series follows the exploits of Ryo Saeba, a "sweeper" who is always found chasing beautiful girls and a private detective who works to rid Tokyo of crime, along with his associate or partner, Hideyuki Makimura. Their "City Hunter" business is an underground jack-of-all-trades operation, contacted by writing the letters "XYZ" on a communal message blackboard at Shinjuku Station.

One day, Hideyuki is murdered, and Ryo must take care of Hideyuki's sister, Kaori, a tomboy who becomes his new partner in the process. However, Kaori is very susceptible and jealous, often hitting Ryo with a giant hammer when he does something perverted. The story also follows the behind-the-scenes romance between Ryo and Kaori and the way they cooperate throughout each mission.

By 2016, the City Hunter manga series had sold over 50 million tankōbon volumes worldwide. In addition, the series was circulated in an estimated 900 million copies of Weekly Shōnen Jump manga magazine between 1985 and 1991, with those Jump issues generating an estimated $2 billion. The series voted as the 19th "Most Powerful" series to have featured in Shonen Jump. On TV Asahi's Manga Sōsenkyo 2021 poll, in which 150.000 people voted for their top 100 manga series, City Hunter ranked 57th.

In Manga: The Complete Guide, Jason Thompson described the manga stories as "well told and entertaining". Writing for Mania.com, Eduardo M. Chavez describes the series as "funny, sexy, action packed and at times just plain whacked" and praises the mix of action and comedy. Patrick King of Animefringe described the series as "not the most intellectually stimulating piece of fiction I've experienced lately" but called it "a blast to read".

A replica of Kaori's "100-ton hammer" raised ¥1.832 million ($17,150) on Yahoo Auctions in 2007. It was the biggest selling charity item of the year for the service.

In 2012, the characters of Ryo, Kaori and Umibozu appeared in a video for the virtual musician Mana. Mana is a collaboration between Hojo and Tetsuya Komuro of TM Network.