Detective Conan

Detective Conan (名探偵(めいたんてい)コナン ,Meitantei Konan, lit. Great Detective Conan) is a Japanese detective manga series written and illustrated by Gosho Aoyama. It has been serialized in the Japanese manga anthology Weekly Shōnen Sunday since 1994 and had been collected in 103 Tankōbon volumes by April 2023.

The manga has been adapted into an anime series by the animation studio TMS Entertainment (formerly Tokyo Movie), directed by Kenji Kodama (episode 1 to 118), Yasuichiro Yamamoto (episode 119 to 161, 163 to 218, 220 to 332, 667 to 677, 680 to the last episode to date), Masato Sato (episode 162, 219, 333 to 504), Koujin Ochi (episode 505 to 666, 678 to 679), Nobuharu Kamanaka (episode 975 to the last episode to date), and is broadcast in Japan on Nippon Television, Yomiuri TV and Animax. The series debuted on January 8th, 1996 and had broadcasted 1000 episodes by March 6, 2021. The series has seen high levels of popularity in both manga and anime formats in Japan since its reception, and has also been adapted into nineteen Golden Week movies, with the first released on April 17th, 1997 and since then followed with a movie released each year, always in the month of April. Ten of the movies held a top 10 box office position in the year they were screened. In addition, five Magic Files related to the movies and twelve Original Video Animations have been released.

Story summary

Conan Edogawa

The story follows the adventures of Shinichi Kudo (also known as Jimmy Kudo in Case Closed), a young detective prodigy who was inadvertently shrunk into a child's body due to a poison he was force-fed by members of a criminal syndicate. Neighbor and family friend Professor Agasa strongly suggested Shinichi hide his identity to prevent them from killing him and the people he cares about, so Shinichi takes the name Conan Edogawa. He goes to live with his childhood friend Ran Mouri and her father, Kogoro, and tries to use Kogoro's detective agency as a way to find the people who shrank him—without letting Ran figure out who he really is.

Internal rules

The world of Detective Conan has a set of internal rules that might catch unfamiliar readers of the manga and spectators of the anime off guard, such as the lack of information sharing and the regular illogical and irrational behavior exhibited by many characters. The universe is mostly consistent within its rules, with a few exceptions. The passing of time is difficult to judge, due to a literary device known as a floating timeline, which enables the compression of 20+ years worth of events and technological upgrades into less than one year.

Case Closed

Detective Conan in USA
Info
Language:	English
Continents:	North America, Europe, and Australia
No. of Episodes:	130 (FUNimation) 50 (Macias Group)
No. of Volumes:	86 (as of April 11, 2023)
Published by:	Viz Media, FUNimation, TMS Entertainment USA

Detective Conan is known as "Case Closed" in North America. The name "Case Closed" results from concerns of copyright conflict of the name Detective Conan. Incidentally, "Case Closed" is later used as the catchphrase for Masumi Sera (whether it's intended as a reference or coincidental is unspecified).

Manga

Viz Media licensed the manga series under the name for English-language publication in North America, which is up to Volume 86 as of April 11, 2023.

Because Victor Gollancz Ltd canceled publication of Detective Conan after 15 volumes in UK, Viz Media continues to handle UK's distribution with the American edition.

On May 2023, Viz Media introduces a new subscription service that offers the latest Simulpub for many series including "Case Closed". The subscription service is only available in the US and Canada. As May 9, 2023, Viz Media has launched chapters 1-917, and chapters 1100-1112,.

Anime and Movies

2004-2013

Funimation Entertainment licensed the anime series for North American broadcast under the name Case Closed. The character names were also adapted into English ones with some names different between the two. Fifty episodes of the English dubbed series aired on Cartoon Network as part of their Adult Swim programming block on May 24th, 2004 until January 2005 and were discontinued due to low ratings. In Canada, Case Closed premiered on channel YTV, 22 episodes were broadcasted between April 7th, 2006 and September 2nd, 2006.. A separate English adaptation of the series by Animax Asia premiered in the Philippines on January 18th, 2006, under the name Detective Conan. Because Animax were unable to obtain further TV broadcast rights, their version comprised 52 episodes. The series continued with reruns until August 7, 2006, when it was removed from the station. Funimation also released DVDs of their dubbed series beginning August 24th, 2004. Initially, the releases were done in single DVDs and future episodes were released in seasonal boxes; as of 2009, they have released 130 episodes dubbed in English. The seasonal boxes were later re-released in redesigned boxes entitled Viridian edition. The first six films were released on Region 1 DVD in North America between October 3rd 2006 and February 16th 2010, and sold very well.

As a part of its syndication with the Funimation Channel, Colours TV aired Case Closed at the night-time programming block, premiering on June 19th 2006. Till 2012, no more than 130 episodes (episodes 1-123 Japanese version) have been dubbed in English. Detective Conan is later broadcasted in North America on NHK's cable network TV Japan. Though anime didn't get that popular in North America, the manga enjoys high success. The first volume appeared trice in the top ten best sellers, right after its premiere, the same volume has also appeared on the ranking list conducted by Diamond Comic Distributors in August, 2004. Later manga volumes have appeared on the New York Times Manga Best Sellers lists at various times. Volume 41 broke the record making it to the top 5 in sales rank during the week ending on January 14th, 2012. The manga continues to be released in North America until today.

S. California's UTB, United Television Broadcasting's free digital television station began to re-broadcast already dubbed Case Closed episodes on August 21st, 2011. The next two-episode block was scheduled for Saturday, August 27th, followed by two more episodes on Sunday, August 28th. The episodes were broadcasted at 6:30 a.m and repeated at 10:30 a.m the same day. A one-episode block also aired at 10:00 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays as well.

As of April 2013, Funimation has renewed the Case Closed license "For Future Use". Additionally on April 2nd 2013, Funimation announced Starting April 16th 2013 seasons 1-5 would be made available digitally through many online vendors, starting with iTunes, Playstation Network and Xbox Live. Season 1 will be available April 16th, season 2 and 3 in May, and Season 4 and 5 in June. Movie release dates have not been announced, however a hint shown in the description hints at a possible new season. Each episode will be 99 cents apiece. Source

2014-present

• English Sub

On October 2014 at NY Comic Con's Crunchyroll panel, they announced that "Case Closed" would be added to their roster. Later they began subtitling the Japanese episodes at episode 754. The page for the series uses the Case Closed banner from Funimation. Originally the episodes were posted on Saturdays, a week after they air in Japan, but later they were posted on Wednesdays. Since May 2017, new episodes will be posted several hours after they air in Japan on Saturdays for premium users, while they will be available for free users a week after. Since September 2022, Crunchyroll has removed the option to watch all anime free with ads, leaving only premium option and 14-day free trial for new user. As of August 24, 2024, they have subtitled up to episode 1133, excluding specials and movies. Crunchyroll later reclaimed the original license of the series from Funimation, and from August 2021 until August 2024, streamed the first 123 episodes, all completely remastered.

As of January 2016, English language Netflix began to stream episodes under the title "Case Closed". The page for the series uses the Case Closed banner from Funimation. They obtained the rights to air fifty-two episodes in Japanese with subtitles, from episode 748-799. The show's maturity rating is listed as TV-14. However, it has been removed for unknown reason.

As of 2022, the streaming service Crackle has rights to episodes 1-82, and all episodes are available with English sub. Episodes 1-28 were added July 7, with 29-82 added on August 18

• New English Dub

Since 2019, Bang Zoom! Entertainment restarted the English dub for movies, featuring all-new casts. Unlike Funimation dub, the character names are not changed. Discotek Media release the movies in Blu-ray since 2020. As of August 25, 2024, they have dubbed 8 movies (Movie 19-25; Lupin III vs. Detective Conan: The Movie) and 2 TV special (Episode One: The Great Detective Turned Small, Lupin III vs. Detective Conan).

As February 2023, Netflix has worldwide rights to spin-off series Zero's Tea Time and The Culprit Hanzawa. Both series also come out with English dub from Bang Zoom! Entertainment.

As March 2023, Fox Corporation-owned streaming service Tubi began to stream episodes under the title "Case Closed". They have rights to episodes 965-1014, and all episodes are available with English dub. The dub is done by Macias Group, featuring Bang Zoom's casts for some characters, and all-new casts for the other characters.

Games

As of 2013, only one Case Closed branded video game was released, which was Case Closed: The Mirapolis Investigation, which was a Nintendo Wii exclusive title and released only in Japan and Europe. It features the English voice cast from the Anime for the English version, and has minor changes in script.

Critical reception

The series has been well received in Japan, with the anime adaptation ranking in the top twenty in Animage's polls between 1996 until 2000, where it dropped below the top twenty. In the Japanese TV anime ranking, Detective Conan often ranked the top six. It has even been used as a mascot to promote citizens to follow the law. The English adaptation has not been as equally popular as in Japan, and has been criticized for the character name changes.

The manga is a huge success and it is continued to be published. It won the prestigious Shogakukan Manga Award for the shōnen category in 2000. Some of its volumes appear on the lists of best-selling manga.

The series is successful in Asia and Europe, where some countries translated most of the episodes and volumes. Due to the high popularity DC is re-broadcasting in many countries after the original premieres.

Although popular in many other countries, Case Closed was not as successful in the US, most likely due to poor advertising, name changes, and script changes around Japanese people and culture.

Due to this, FUNimation's dubbed version of "Case Closed" was cancelled at only 130 episodes.

Although, many fans wanted the anime version of Detective Conan to be successful in North America, excluding the renamed character names, it did not do well and still failed and got several negative reviews, and therefore in 2018, FUNimation Entertainment lost the rights to "Case Closed", along with "KenIchi: The Mightiest Disciple".

However, the manga is still released by VIZ Media.

Demographic

Even though Detective Conan is a Shōnen, its audience is composed of a substantial proportion of female viewers and readers. The series also seems to attract all ages.

Appearances in other media

Besides his anime and manga appearances, Conan is the protagonist for all the movies and the video games based on the Case Closed series. Several anime and games have parodied, lampooned or otherwise mentioned him or the series. Some of them include: Yakitate!! Japan, Black Cat, Inuyasha, Hayate the Combat Butler, Proposal Daisakusen, Sonic X, Kenichi the Mightiest Disciple, Angelic Layer, and Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney In case of Inuyasha, Detective Conan features Conan reading Inuyasha manga first in episode 200 (aired July 24, 2000). Later, Shinichi and Ran made their cameo appearance in Inuyasha episode 128 (aired October 13, 2003).

Conan has also been used as a character to promote people to follow the law in Japan, due to the popularity of the series.

Detective Conan cameo in Kenichi: The Mightiest Disciple

Detective Conan in Inuyasha episode 128

In other languages

Every title without a note beside it in the table below translates to "Detective Conan".

Language	Name	Notes
Japanese	名探偵コナン Meitantei Konan	Lit. "Famous Detective Conan"
Arabic	المحقّق كونان Al-Muḥaqqiq Konan
Bahasa Indonesia	Detektif Conan
Bahasa Melayu	Detektif Conan
Catalan	El Detectiu Conan	Lit. "The Detective Conan"
Chinese (Simplified)	名侦探柯南 Míngzhēntàn Kēnán	Lit. "Famous Detective Conan"
Chinese (Traditional)	名偵探柯南 Míngzhēntàn Kēnán	Lit. "Famous Detective Conan"
Czech	Detektiv Conan
Danish	Mesterdetektiven Conan	Lit. "The Master-Detective Conan"
English (US)	Case Closed	Due to copyright issues, packaging and the door closing transition still use "Detective Conan" as the title.
English (Singapore)	Detective Conan	The Southeast Asian manga released by Shogakukan Asia uses the original title "Detective Conan".
Filipino	Detective Conan
Finnish	Salapoliisi Conan
French	Détective Conan
Galician	O detective Conan	Lit. "The Detective Conan"
German	Detektiv Conan
Hindi	जासूस कॉनन Jasoos Conan
Hungarian	Conan, a detektív	Lit. "Conan the detective"
Italian	Detective Conan
Korean	명탐정 코난 Myeongtamjeong Conan	Lit. "Renowned Detective Conan"
Norwegian	Mesterdetektiven Conan	Lit. "The Master-Detective Conan"
Persian	کاراگاهان کوچک
Polish	Detektyw Conan
Russian	Детектив Конан Detektiv Konan
Spanish (Spain and Latin America)	Detective Conan
Swedish	Mästerdetektiven Conan	Lit. "The Master-Detective Conan"
Thai	ยอดนักสืบจิ๋วโคนัน	Lit. "Great Little Detective Conan"
Turkish	Dedektif Conan
Vietnamese	Thám tử lừng danh Conan	Lit. "Renowned Detective Conan"

See also

• Detective Conan in France
• Detective Conan in Spain
• Detective Conan in Italy
• Detective Conan in Germany
• Detective Conan in the Arab World
• Detective Conan in the Philippines
• Detective Conan in Korea
• Detective Conan in Thailand
• Detective Conan in Vietnam
• Detective Conan in Sweden
• Detective Conan in Indonesia