His blood relation with Heiji Zenigata would even be erased as he was renamed Koichi Zenigata when Part 2 started airing. In early points of the Lupin III franchise, he was directly related to the fictional detective, to the point where his full name was Heiji Zenigata VII, though his blood relation to Heiji Zenigata doesn't come into play as much as Lupin III's and Goemon Ishikawa XIII's relations to Arsène Lupin and Ishikawa Goemon, respectively.

Zenigata's handcuff throwing technique is his own take on the character's choice of weapon. The character is a few hundred years old and was best known for throwing coins as a weapon. Zenigata is based on a famous Japanese crime-fighting character named Heiji Zenigata. They would either both fail, both win or both get very old. Monkey Punch has said that he believes that despite the fact that he ended the manga with Zenigata winning, the Lupin III story can never end but that if he had to, both Zenigata and Lupin would have to end as equals. Inspector Zenigata was conceived as Lupin's arch-rival to create a 'human Tom and Jerry'.

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