Detective Conan

''Case Closed'', also known as , is a Japanese detective manga series written and illustrated by Gosho Aoyama. It has been serialized in Shogakukan's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' since January 1994, with its chapters collected in 102 ''tankōbon'' volumes as of September 2022. Due to legal problems with the name ''Detective Conan'', the English language releases from Funimation and Viz were renamed to ''Case Closed''. The story follows the high school detective Shinichi Kudo who was transformed into a child while investigating a mysterious organization and generally solved a multitude of cases by impersonating his childhood best friend's father and various other characters.

The manga was adapted into an anime television series by Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation and TMS Entertainment, which premiered in January 1996. The anime resulted in animated feature films, original video animations, video games, audio disc releases and live action episodes. Funimation licensed the anime series for North American broadcast in 2003 under the name ''Case Closed'' with the characters given Americanized names. The anime premiered on Adult Swim but was discontinued due to low ratings.

In March 2013, Funimation began streaming their licensed episodes of ''Case Closed''; Crunchyroll simulcast them in 2014. Funimation also localized the first six ''Case Closed'' films, while Discotek Media localized the '' Lupin III'' crossover special, its film sequel, and select recent films, starting with Case Closed ''Episode One''. Meanwhile, the manga was localized by Viz Media, which used Funimation's changed title and character names. Shogakukan Asia made its own localized English version of the manga, which used the original title and Japanese names.

The ''tankōbon'' volumes of the manga had over 250 million copies in circulation worldwide as of 2021, making it one of the best-selling manga series of all time. In 2001, the manga was awarded the 46th Shogakukan Manga Award in the ''shōnen'' category. The anime adaptation has been well received and ranked in the top twenty in ''Animage''s polls between 1996 and 2001. In the Japanese anime television ranking, ''Case Closed'' episodes ranked in the top six weekly. Both the manga and the anime have had a positive response from critics for their plot and cases. The manga has been sold in 25 countries, while the anime has been broadcast in 40 countries.

Plot

Jimmy Kudo (Japanese name: Shinichi Kudo) is a high school detective who sometimes works with the police to solve cases. During an investigation, he is ambushed and incapacitated by a member of a crime syndicate known as the Black Organization. In an attempt to murder the young detective, they force-fed him a dangerous experimental drug. However, instead of killing him, it turns him into a kid. Adopting the pseudonym Conan Edogawa and keeping his true identity a secret, Kudo lives with his childhood friend Rachel Moore (Ran Mori) and her father Richard (Kogoro Mori), who is a private detective. Throughout the series, he tags along on Richard's cases. Nonetheless, after Kudo solves one, he will use Dr. Agasa's hidden tranquilizer to sedate Richard and then uses a voice changer to simulate his voice to reveal the solution. He also enrolls in Teitan Elementary School where he makes friends with a group of classmates who form their own Junior Detective Club (Detective Boys). While he continues to dig deeper into the Black Organization, he frequently interacts with other characters, including his neighbor, Dr. Agasa, Ran's friend Serena Sebastian (Sonoko Suzuki), a fellow teenage detective Harley Hartwell (Heiji Hattori), assorted police detectives from different regions, and a phantom thief called the Kaito Kid.

Kudo later encounters an elementary school transfer student, Anita Hailey (Ai Haibara), who reveals herself to be a former member of the Black Organization under the code name "Sherry" and the creator of the experimental drug that shrunk him. She too had ingested it to evade the pursuit of the organization. She soon joins the Junior Detectives. During a rare encounter with the Black Organization, Conan helps the FBI plant a CIA agent, Kir, inside the Black Organization as a spy.

Production

''Case Closed'' was conceived in 1994, during the rise of mystery genre manga due to the publishing of the series ''The Kindaichi Case Files''; the first chapter appeared in Shogakukan's ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' on January 19. Aoyama cites the stories of Arsène Lupin, Sherlock Holmes and the samurai films by Akira Kurosawa as influences on his work. When scripting each chapter, he ensures the dialogue remains simple and spends an average of four hours for each new case and twelve for more complicated ones. Aoyama's older brother is a scientist who helps him out with the "gimmicks" in the series. Each case spans several chapters (except for a handful of shorter cases that only span one), and is resolved at the end where characters explain the details of their solutions in simple terms; an online database consisting of all the cases from the manga was launched in 2007. In 2007, Aoyama hinted he had an ending planned out but does not intend to end the series yet. Aoyama and his staff decided to computerize their manga creation process in early 2011, although he still draws with a pen and paper. The change began with the final page of chapter 760.

Release

''Case Closed'', written and illustrated by Gosho Aoyama, has been serialized in Shogakukan's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' since January 19, 1994. ''Case Closed'' became the 24th longest running manga series, with over 1000 chapters released in Japan, and the first series with over 1000 chapters published in ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday''. Shogakukan has collected its chapters into individual ''tankōbon'' volumes. The first volume was released on June 18, 1994. On October 18, 2021, the series reached one hundred volumes; ''One Piece'' author, Eiichiro Oda, whose series achieved the same feat a month before, sent congratulations to Aoyama. As of September 15, 2022, 102 volumes have been published.

Viz Media announced its acquisition of the series for North America on June 1, 2004. Following Funimation's localization, Viz released the series as ''Case Closed'' and took their character names to keep consistency between the two media. Viz Media released the first volume in September 2004 and began releasing digital editions in 2013. Gollancz licensed and distributed 15 of Viz Media's volumes in the United Kingdom before ceasing publication of manga. (Viz Media has since re-released them). In 2014 Shogakukan Asia began its own English localization of the series for Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries as ''Detective Conan''. - Go to "Detective Conan A Modern Day Sherlock Holmes " - - Release date 6 June 2014 Laura Thornton of CBR.com, citing the common Japanese ownership in both Shogakukan Asia and Viz, described the Singapore version as, compared to the Viz one, "completely identical, word-for-word, even -- save for the names and the ''Detective Conan'' logo".

The manga has also been localized in other regions such as China, France, Germany and Indonesia. (Localizations in Scandinavia ceased one by one, Finland being the last in 2013, when the publisher shut down the entire manga division).

Spin-offs

Gosho Aoyama's assistants have written an anthology series of ''Case Closed'' which are released irregularly.

A spin-off manga series, titled ''Detective Conan: The Culprit Hanzawa'', by Mayuko Kanba, began in the July 2017 issue of Shogakukan's ''Shōnen Sunday S'', released on May 25, 2017.

Another spin-off manga series, illustrated by Takahiro Arai with supervision by Aoyama, titled ''Case Closed: Zero's Tea Time'' started in issue #24 of ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' on May 9, 2018. The story centers on the agent Toru Amuro/Rei Furuya. New chapters of the manga are only published when ''Case Closed'' is on hiatus.

Another spin-off manga series by Arai, titled ''Detective Conan: Police Academy Arc – Wild Police Story'', was serialized in ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' from October 2, 2019 to November 18, 2020. Spanning 13 chapters, it again focuses on Amuro/Furuya during his years in the police academy with his colleagues.

Media adaptations

Anime

The anime version of ''Case Closed'' is produced by Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation and TMS Entertainment. Over 1000 episodes have aired in Japan since the anime's premiere on January 8, 1996, making it the fifteenth longest anime series to date. Initially, Shogakukan collected and released the episodes on VHS video cassettes from June 1996 to October 2006. Four hundred and twenty-six episodes were released on VHS until Shogakukan abandoned the format and switched over to DVDs, starting over from the first episode. For the fifteenth anniversary of the anime series, the series was made available for video on demand. The series celebrated its 25th anniversary in January 2021, and the "Moonlight Sonata Murder Case" episode (11th episode of the series) was given the remake treatment as the first part of its celebration, which featured the latest staff and production techniques, and classical pianist Aimi Kobayashi performed Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 14 for the episode. It aired on March 6, 2021.

In 2003, the first 104 episodes, as well as the first six movies were licensed by Funimation for distribution in North America, under the title ''Case Closed'' because of legal considerations. The ''Case Closed'' anime has also been released in other languages such as French, German and Italian. ''Case Closed'' debuted on Cartoon Network as part of their Adult Swim programming block on May 24, 2004; no more than 50 episodes were licensed from Funimation due to low ratings. The Canadian channel YTV picked up the ''Case Closed'' series and broadcast 22 episodes between April 7, 2006, and September 2, 2006, before taking it off the air. Funimation made the series available with the launch of the Funimation Channel in November 2005; it was temporary available on Colours TV during its syndication with the Funimation Channel. ''Case Closed'' was later broadcast in North America on NHK's cable network TV Japan. Funimation lost the rights to the series in 2018. Crunchyroll began simulcasting the series in October 2014, starting with episode 754. In September 2020, Crunchyroll began streaming the first 43 episodes (the two-part episodes 11-12 considered as a single episode).

A separate English adaptation of the series was made by Voiceovers Unlimited Pte Ltd. in Singapore. Another one by Animax Asia premiered in the Philippines on January 18, 2006, under the name ''Detective Conan''. Because Animax were unable to obtain further TV broadcast rights, their version comprised only 52 episodes. The series continued with reruns until August 7, 2006, when it was removed from the station. Both the Singapore and Philippines versions used Japanese character names. The California-based channel United Television Broadcasting (UTB) aired it with English subtitles from 2011 to 2014, until episode 421.

Funimation also released DVDs of their dubbed series beginning August 24, 2004. Initially, the releases were done in single DVDs and future episodes were released in seasonal boxes; 130 episodes have been released in total. The seasonal boxes were later re-released in redesigned boxes called Viridian edition. Funimation began streaming ''Case Closed'' episodes in March 2013. Hanabee Entertainment licensed the series for distribution in Australia.

In January 2016, 52 episodes of the anime appeared on Netflix, initially under its original title ''Detective Conan'' before changing to its English moniker ''Case Closed''. The episodes were listed as "season one", although in reality they are episodes #748 to #799. The episodes were only available in Japanese, but were subtitled. The availability was likely part of Netflix's efforts to expand its anime catalog. In January 2021, Netflix removed the episodes. As of 2018, the ''Detective Conan'' anime has been broadcast in 40 countries around the world.

Films

Twenty-five feature films based on the ''Case Closed'' series have been released. They are animated by TMS Entertainment and produced by Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation, Nippon Television, ShoPro, and Toho. The first seven were directed by Kenji Kodama, films 8–14 were directed by Yasuichiro Yamamoto, films 15-21 were directed by Kobun Shizuno, film 22 was directed by Yuzuru Tachikawa, films 23 and 24 were directed by Chika Nagaoka, and film 25 was directed by Susumu Mitsunaka. The films have been released in April of each year, starting in 1997 with the first film, '' Case Closed: The Time Bombed Skyscraper''. The 25th film, '' Detective Conan: The Bride of Halloween'' was released on April 15, 2022. The second film and onwards were the top twenty grossing anime films in Japan. The revenue earned from the films funded Toho's other film projects. Each film was adapted into two film comics which were released in the fourth quarter of the same year. Funimation released English dubbed versions of the first six films on Region 1 DVDs between October 3, 2006, and February 16, 2010. Bang Zoom! Entertainment has begun to release English dubs of ''Case Closed'' films through Discotek Media, starting with the '' Episode One'' TV special on July 28, 2020.

Original video animations

Two original video animations (OVA) series were produced by TMS Entertainment, Nippon Television, and Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation. The OVA series ''Shōnen Sunday Original Animation'' are yearly mail order episodes available to subscribers of ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday''. The first ''Shōnen Sunday Original Animation'' was available in ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday''s 26th issue in 2000, with eleven OVAs released as of 2011. The first nine episodes of the OVA series were later encapsulated into four DVD volumes titled ''Secret Files'' and were released between March 24, 2006, and April 9, 2010. The second OVA series, entitled ''Magic File'', consists of yearly direct-to-DVD releases. The first ''Magic File'' was released on April 11, 2007, and contained four episodes from the anime series. The subsequent ''Magic File'' OVAs contained an original plot with background ties related to their respective ''Case Closed'' theatrical films, beginning with the twelfth film '' Detective Conan: Full Score of Fear''.

Television special

A two-hour television special titled was produced by TMS Entertainment, Nippon Television, and Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation and aired on March 27, 2009. It was first announced in the 9th issue of ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' in 2009. The plot follows Kudo as he investigates the death of the Queen of Vespania while Arsène Lupin III from the '' Lupin III'' series attempts to steal the Queen's crown. The special earned a household record rating of 19.5 in Japan. VAP released the special on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on July 24, 2009. The special is followed by '' Lupin the 3rd vs. Detective Conan: The Movie'' which takes place after the television special.

Video games

''Case Closed''s expansion into the video games industry followed behind its foray into animation. On December 27, 1996, ''Detective Conan: Chika Yuuenchi Satsujin Jiken'' was released for the Game Boy. Since then, 20 games have been released with ''Detective Conan: Kako Kara no Zensōkyoku Prelude'' set for Spring of 2012 for the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable. Currently, the majority of the games have only been released in Japan, though Nobilis has localized '' Case Closed: The Mirapolis Investigation'' for the PAL region. All dedicated ''Detective Conan'' games released for the Game Boy, Sony's consoles, the WonderSwan, and the Nintendo DS have been developed by Bandai. Banpresto developed the ''Case Closed'' titles on the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance while Marvelous Entertainment developed ''Case Closed: The Mirapolis Investigation''.

Audio CDs

Katsuo Ono composed and arranged the music in the ''Case Closed'' animation; his works have been released on several CDs. Two image albums, comprising several songs sung by Japanese voice actors of the characters in the animation, were also released. Several theme music were performed by pop musicians such as B'z, Zard, and Garnet Crow. The first four theme music were released by Universal Music Group and all releases thereafter were by Being Inc.

''The Best of Detective Conan'' and ''The Best of Detective Conan 2'' albums collectively sold over 2.2million copies, while singles from ''The Best of Detective Conan 3'' collectively sold over 1.6million copies. On July 25, 2017, the singer Mai Kuraki was awarded a Guinness World Record for singing the most theme songs in a single anime series, having sung 21 songs for ''Detective Conan'', starting with her hit song " Secret of My Heart" (2000).

Live-action drama

Four live action drama TV specials and a TV series were created by Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation and TMS entertainment based on the series. The first two specials aired in 2006 and 2007 featuring Shun Oguri portraying the teenage Jimmy Kudo and Tomoka Kurokawa

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