Shinji Ohara’s Nij?-Mens? no Musume crime manga will be adapted into an anime series that will premiere on Japan’s Fuji T.V. in April. The Hontsuna book retailer pre-announced the anime when it posted the front cover of the February issue (on sale on January 5) of Media Factory’s monthly Comic Flapper seinen magazine. Ohara’s manga is loosely based on the Kaijin Nij?-Mens? (The Fiend with 20 Faces) novels by the famed suspense and detective novelist, Ranpo Edogawa.

Ohara’s Nij?-Mens? no Musume manga centers around the adventures of Chiko, a female thief. Despite the manga’s title, which literally translates as “The Daughter of 20-Faces,” Chiko is not actually related to the criminal lead character of Edogawa’s Kaijin Nij?-Mens? novels. However, the Kaijin Nij?-Mens? character and another Edogawa creation, the detective Kogoro Akechi, do appear in Ohara’s manga. The first Nij?-Mens? no Musume manga ended in 2007 after five years and eight volumes, but Ohara started a new manga called Nij?-Mens? no Musume: Utsushiyo Yoru in the November issue (released in October) of Monthly Comic Flapper.

The anime series will be the latest in a long series of fictional works inspired by Edogawa’s Kaijin Nij?-Mens? novels. The female manga quartet CLAMP created their own crime manga, Man of Many Faces (20-Mens? ni Onegai!!), which featured a young boy as a spiritual successor to the original Kaijin Nij?-Mens? character. A spinoff novel by playwright So Kitamura is itself being adapted into a December 2008 live-action film by director Shimako Sato and Asian superstars Takeshi Kaneshrio, Takako Matsu, nd Toru Nakamura. “Conan Edogawa,” the main character’s pseudonym in the Detective Conan manga series, was coined after Ranpo Edogawa and the creator of Sherlock Holmes, Arthur Conan Doyle.