Steam detectives is the creation of Kia Asamiya. It ran in the monthly manga magazine, Shonen Jump and has been compiled into 7 volumes which are published by Kodansha.
Unlike his other series, Nadesico, Silent Mobius, etc; the artwork of Steam Detectives is clean and simple. The whole thing has a sort of "retro" feel to it.
"The streets here are continually enveloped in a white mist. Steam comes out of everywhere, covering the streets and buildings. Because coal was the only fuel available, this city developed an incredibly advanced steam technology. Unfortunately, villains take advantage of this white fog to commit countless crimes and continually baffle the police. At night, the white mist shrouds the darkness, intimidating everyone. People call this city enveloped in mist...Steam City."
The Steam Detectives anime began it's run on 7th October 1998 and finished 24th March 1999. It was originally planned to have 12 episodes but was extended to a total of 26 episodes. A number of adjustments were made to the manga storyline for TV adaption. Narutaki's gun for example, was converted from an actual weapon to a tool. It shoots grappling hooks, wires, acts as a fire extinguisher and whatnot.
A variety of vocal songs are used throughout the series, and overall the tunes are jazzy and upbeat. The animation production company is Zebec and a large amount of computer graphics were used in the show, giving it a clean, and consistantly high quality. Kia Asamiya acted as the art director, which gave him control over character and robot designs. The series was played on TV Tokyo.
I have managed to gather a little information on the voice actors. ^^:
Hoshi Souichirou...............Narutaki
Taguchi Hiroko..................Ling Ling
Suzuki Takuma.................Goriki
Nagashima Yuuichi............Kawakubo
Ohtsuka Akio....................Night Phantom
Gusao Takeshi..................Le Bread
Nagasawa Miki..................Lang Lang
Yokoyama Chisa...............Red Scorpion
Wakamoto Norio...............Machine Baron
Nishinara Tomomichi.........Dr. Guilty
Tohita Norio.....................Onigawara
Nagasako Takashi.............Yagami
Steam Detectives is currently running in Viz's monthly Animerica Extra magazine. It was previously run in their Manga Vizion magazine. The stories has thus far been compiled into 5 graphic novels.
Vol 1: ISBN ???
Vol 2: ISNB 1-56931-405-5
Vol 3: ISBN ???
Steam Detectives revolves around the crime solving adventures of Narutaki, Goriki (a megamaton robot) and Ling Ling (his "beautiful" nurse assistant). They run a detective agency together and have solved every case presented to them. This has given them the reputation of being the best in the business, despite the fact that Narutaki is just a kid. That fact of the matter is that Narutaki is a rich orphaned genius with a knack for solving mysteries. He can often solve cases where the police are more than a little stumped.
"This great city lays veiled in a perpetual cloud of white smoke. Steam billows from evey corner and hodes the entire metropolis in a thick blanket of smoke. In this land coal was the only fuel they could find to mine. This propagated the development of steam engines to a level and numbers normally unthinkable in this world. People called that great metropolis, blanketed in its cloud of smoke, Steam City"