Case closed
'Case Closed'
Case Closed, known as Meitantei Conan (名探偵コナン?, lit. Great Detective Conan, officially translated as Detective Conan) in Japan, is a Japanese detective manga series written and illustrated by Gosho Aoyama. The series is serialized in Shogakukan's Weekly Shōnen Sunday since February 2, 1994, and has been collected in 71 tankōbon volumes as of November 2010. Due to legal considerations with the name Detective Conan, the English language release was renamed Case Closed.[1] The story follows the adventures of Jimmy Kudo, a prodigious young detective who was inadvertently transformed into a child after being poisoned.
Since its publication, Case Closed has spawned a substantial media franchise. The manga has been adapted into an ongoing animated television series by Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation and TMS Entertainment; the animated series has reached its twentieth season. The series has spawned two original video animation series, fourteen animated feature films, two live action dramas, numerous video games, and many types of Case Closed-related merchandise. A two-hour television special titled Lupin the 3rd vs Detective Conan was aired on March 27, 2009, and featured a crossover with the series Lupin III.
Funimation Entertainment 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 Cartoon Network as part of their Adult Swim programming block and was discontinued due to low ratings. The first six films were released on Region 1 DVD in North America. Viz Media later licensed the manga series for English-language publication in North America and used Funimation's renamed title and cast. As of January 2011, 37 volumes have been published by Viz Media.
Compilation volumes of the manga have sold over 120 million copies in Japan. In 2001, the manga was awarded 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 TV anime ranking, Case Closed often ranked in the top six. Both manga and anime have had positive response from critics for its plot and cases.
Plot
Jimmy Kudo is a 17-year-old high school prodigy who frequently helps the police to solve cases.[1] During an investigation, he is attacked by two criminals, codenamed Gin and Vodka, from the syndicate called the Black Organization. They force him to ingest an experimental poison, APTX 4869, which is supposed to kill him, and leave him to die. A rare side-effect of the poison, however, transforms Kudo's body into that of a child instead of killing him.
Adopting the pseudonym Conan Edogawa, Kudo hides his identity to investigate the Black Organization. He intends to pretend to be a child until he can find enough evidence to apprehend the syndicate, after which he can then safely find and administer a cure for his current condition. Edogawa enrolls at Teitan elementary school and forms the Junior Detective League with three other children in his class: Amy Yoshida, Mitch Tsuburaya, and George Kojima. To further cover up his activities, he moves in with his childhood friend Rachel Moore, whose father, Richard, works as a private investigator.Kudo continues to solve criminal cases as Conan, but usually poses as Richard Moore with the help of special gadgets invented by his neighbor and friend, Hiroshi Agasa.
Shiho Miyano, a member of the Black Organization and creator of APTX 4869, tries to leave the syndicate after her sister's murder, but is held captive by them. She attempts to commit suicide by ingesting APTX 4869; however, like Kudo, she is transformed into a child. She manages to escape and enrolls in Conan's school under the pseudonym, Anita Hailey. She joins the Junior Detective League and assists Conan in his investigations on the Black Organization. Conan's quest has led him to help the FBI to plant a CIA agent, Kir, inside the Black Organization as an undercover spy.
In 2007, Aoyama hinted he had the ending planned out but he has no intention of ending the series yet.
Media
Manga
In 1994, the Japanese manga market was experiencing a craze with the mystery genre after the publishing of the Kindaichi Case Files series. Gosho Aoyama began drawing Meitantei Conan at this time during the craze; the first chapter of his work appeared in Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday on February 2.He cites the stories of Arsène Lupin, Sherlock Holmes and the samurai films by Akira Kurosawa as influences on his work. Aoyama says he spends an average of four hours for each new case in his manga; a more complicated story can take more than twelve hours.Each case spans several chapters, and is resolved at the end where characters explain the details of their solutions in simple terms;A database consisting of all the cases from the manga was launched in 2007.Aoyama tries to keep the language simple to help his readers follow the story.
Meitantei Conan outlasted the mystery genre craze, becoming the 24th longest running manga series with over 700 chapters released in Japan. The individual chapters are collected by Shogakukan in a series of tankōbon volumes. The first volume was released on June 18, 1994; as of February 2011, volume 71 have been released. Gosho Aoyama's assistants have also written and published 36 volumes of their own side stories of Meitantei Conan.
The manga has been licensed for publishing across the world in countries such as China, France, Germany, Indonesia, and Finland. In the United States, it is published by Viz Media, who obtained the license on June 1, 2004.[20] Following Funimation Entertainment's lead, the Viz Media translation released under the name Case Closed with renamed characters.[21] Viz Media released the first English-language volume on September 7, 2004, and the latest—volume 37—on January 11, 2011. Victor Gollancz Ltd used Viz Media's translations to distribute the series in the in the United Kingdom.
Anime
The anime version of Meitantei Conan is produced by Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation and TMS Entertainment.[25][26] Directed by Kenji Kodama and Yasuichiro Yamamoto, Conan's cases have been adapted into 25-minute episodes.[25] More than 600 episodes have aired in Japan since the anime's premiere on January 8, 1996 making it the sixth longest running anime series.[27][28] Initially, Shogakukan collected and released the episodes on VHS video cassettes between June 1996, and October 2006.[29][30] Four hundred and twenty-six episodes were released on VHS until Shogakukan abandoned the format and switched over to DVDs, starting from the first episode.[31] The fourth volume of season 19 is slated for release on April 22, 2011.[32] For the fifteenth anniversary of the anime series, the series is being made available for video on demand.[33][34] Meitantei Conan is later broadcasted in North America on NHK's cable network TV Japan.[35]
In 2003, the first 104 episodes of the regular animation series were licensed by Funimation Entertainment for distribution in North America and was retitled Case Closed because of legal considerations.[1][36] Meitantei Conan has also been released in other languages.[37][38] Case Closed debuted on Cartoon Network as part of their Adult Swim programming block on May 24, 2004;[39] no more than 50 episodes were licensed from Funimation due to low ratings.[40] 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.[41][42][43] Funimation made the series available with the launch of the Funimation Channel in November 2005 and was temporary available on Colours TV during its syndication with the Funimation Channel.[44][45] A separate English adaptation of the series by Animax Asia premiered in the Philippines on January 18, 2006, under the name Detective Conan.[46][47] 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.[48][49][50]
Funimation also released DVDs of their dubbed series beginning August 24, 2004.[51] 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.[52] The seasonal boxes were later re-released in redesigned boxes entitled Viridian edition.[53][54] [edit] Films See also: List of Case Closed films
Fourteen 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.[55] The first seven were directed by Kenji Kodama and the eighth film onwards were directed by Yasuichiro Yamamoto. The films have been released in April of each year, starting in 1997 with the first film, Case Closed: The Time Bombed Skyscraper.[56] The fifteenth film, Detective Conan: Quarter of Silence, is slated to be released on April 16, 2011.[57] The second film and onwards were the top twenty grossing anime films in Japan.[58][59] The revenue earned from the films funded Toho's other film projects.[60] Each film was adapted into two film comics which were released in the fourth quarter of the same year.[61][62] Funimation Entertainment released an English dubbed version of the first six films on Region 1 DVDs between October 3, 2006, and February 16, 2010.[63][64] [edit] Original video animations See also: List of Case Closed OVAs
Two original video animations (OVA) series and a single OVA 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.[65] The first Shōnen Sunday Original Animation was available in Weekly Shōnen Sunday's 26th issue in 2000 and the tenth OVA was available in the 20th issue in 2010.[65][66] Nine of the ten OVA series were later encapsulated into four DVD volumes titled Secret Files and released between March 24, 2006, and April 9, 2010.[67][68] An OVA series entitled Magic File are yearly direct-to-DVD releases. The first Magic File was released on April 11, 2007, and contained four episodes from the anime series.[69] The next three Magic File's contained an original plot with background ties related to the Case Closed theatrical films Detective Conan: Full Score of Fear, Detective Conan: The Raven Chaser, and Detective Conan: The Lost Ship in the Sky respectively; the Magic File were released the same day their respective films were made available to theaters in Japan.[70][71][72] A single OVA episode titled Meitantei Conan Supesharu ｢Kaitō Kiddo Tanjou no Himitsu｣ (名探偵コナンスペシャル ｢怪盗キッド誕生の秘密｣?, lit. Detective Conan Special: Secret of the Birth of Phantom Thief Kid) was aired on NNS during Case Closed time slot on April 24, 2010. The plot reveals the origin of the Phantom Thief Kid.[73] [edit] Television special
A two hour television special titled Lupin the 3rd vs Detective Conan (ルパン三世 vs 名探偵コナン Rupan Sansei vs Meitantei Conan?) was produced by TMS Entertainment, Nippon Television, and Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation and aired on March 27, 2009.[74] It was first announced in the 9th issue of Weekly Shōnen Sunday in 2009.[75] 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.[76] VAP released the special on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on July 24, 2009.[77][78] [edit] Video games See also: List of Case Closed video games
Meitantei Conan's expansion into the video games industry followed behind its foray into animation. On December 27, 1996, Meitantei Conan: Chika Yuuenchi Satsujin Jiken (名探偵コナン 地下遊園地殺人事件?, lit. Detective Conan: The Underground Amusement Park Murder Case) was released for the Game Boy.[79] Since then, 18 games have been released. The 19th game, Meitantei Conan: Aoki houseki no Rinbu Rondo (名探偵コナン 蒼き宝石の輪舞曲?, lit. Detective Conan: The Blue Jewel's Rondo) is slated for April 21, 2011 on the Nintendo DS.[80] 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.[81] All dedicated Meitantei Conan games released for the Game Boy, Sony's consoles, the WonderSwan, and the Nintendo DS have been developed by Bandai.[79][82][83][84][85] Banpresto developed the Case Closed titles on the Gameboy Color and Gameboy Advance while Marvelous Entertainment developed Case Closed: The Mirapolis Investigation.[81][86][87] [edit] Audio CDs
Katsuo Ono composed and arranged the music in the Case Closed animation.[25] Twenty-one CDs of Ono's work have been compiled as of 2011; each film in the franchise has its own soundtrack, and compilations of the soundtrack in the TV episodes number seven CDs.[88] Two image albums, comprising several songs sung by Japanese voice actors of the characters in the animation, were also released.[89] Several theme music were performed by pop musicians such as B'z, Zard, and Garnet Crow. All together, 79 theme songs from the Case Closed series have been released: 29 opening themes, 36 ending themes, and 14 themes from the films. The first four theme music were released by Universal Music Group and all releases thereafter were by Being Inc.
TV live action
In 2006, a live action drama focusing on Jimmy Kudo was aired by Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the manga's first publication.[92] Another episode was aired in the following year.[93] These TV specials were produced by Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation and TMS entertainment, and featured award-winning actors; Shun Oguri portrayed the teenage Kudo, Takanori Jinnai as Richard Moore and Tomoka Kurokawa was cast as Rachel Moore.[94] Both dramas were released on DVDs after their broadcast on television.[95][96] A third special with a new cast is planned for release in 2011.[97]
The dramas present stories in which Jimmy Kudo investigates mysteries in his teenage form. The scenario of the first drama, "Meitantei Conan: Kudo Shinichi he no Chosenjo" (名探偵コナン- 工藤新一への挑戦状?, lit. Detective Conan: Shinichi Kudo's Written Challenge), takes place before Kudo's ingestion of APTX 4869 and is about an abduction case on board a cruise ship.[94] In the second drama, "Kudo Shinichi no Fukkatsu! Kuro no Soshiki to no Taiketsu" (工藤新一の復活!〜黒の組織との対決?, lit. Shinichi Kudo Returns! Showdown with the Black Organization), Kudo returns to his teenage form after eating a certain cake and has to protect Miyano, who likewise has returned to her adult state, from the Black Organization.[96] [edit] Other related media
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Weekly Shōnen Sunday and Weekly Shōnen Magazine, the two companies collaborated to publish twelve biweekly magazines consisting of chapters from Weekly Shōnen Sunday's Case Closed and Weekly Shōnen Magazine's Kindaichi Case Files.[98] The magazine ran between April 10, 2008, and September 25, 2008.[99][100]
Shogakukan have also produced many books spun off from the series. Fifty volumes of a film comic series were published in Japan between June 1996 and August 2000, covering the first 143 episodes of the anime, though some episodes were skipped.[101][102] Five additional film comics entitled 5 Juuyou Shorui (5重要書類?, lit. 5 Important Documents) were published between July 2001 and January 2002 and covered selected episodes between 162–219.[103] Five novels were published between May 2005 and July 2008.[104] Thirteen official guide books were published between June 1997 and April 2009.[105] Shogakukan has also published digest books, educational and puzzle books.[106][107][108]
In North America, Score Entertainment published the Case Closed Trading Card Game on June 29, 2005.[109][110] The game entails the use of three customized decks of cards, which players buy and collect. Representing characters, events, and objects in Case Closed, these cards are used by players to fulfill certain conditions to solve a case and win the game. Certain cards are used to foil the progress of the player's opponents.[111][112] An English unofficial guidebook to the series titled The Case Closed Casebook: An Essential Guide was published by DH Publishing Inc. on March 25, 2008.[113]
Reception
Meitantei Conan has sold more than 120 million volumes volumes of manga in Japan;individual volumes frequently appear on the lists of best-selling manga there.It won the 46th Shogakukan Manga Award for the shōnen category in 2001, and respondents in an online poll for Japanese citizens in their mid-twenties voted Meitantei Conan as one of the top three manga they wanted to continue running in publication.Case Closed appeared in The New York Times best selling manga during the week ending on October 24, 2010.In France, the series was nominated for the Angoulême Festival Graphic Novel award among the Japanese selection.In the United States, Case Closed received praises from Mania.com's Eduardo M. Chavez and IGN's A. E. Sparrow for its stories—telling the mysteries and how they were unfolded by the investigations of Conan and gang. Sparrow called the style of the series a mix of Scooby-Doo and Sherlock Holmes, while Chavez believed the manga had appeal to readers of all ages.
The animated adaptation of the series was also popular in Japan, appearing in the top six of Japanese TV Rankings at various times.The television series ranked among the top twenty in polls conducted by anime magazine Animage from 1996 to 2001.[126] It also placed better than twenty-third in polls for the top-one-hundred anime conducted by Japanese television network TV Asahi in 2005–06.The series received considerable airtime in China; it was the second most broadcasted animation there in 2004.[130] Several of the franchise's films were nominated for awards in their home country. The ninth film was nominated for the feature film category at the 5th Annual Tokyo Anime Awards, and the next five films were nominees for the Japan Academy Prize for Animation of the Year in their respective years of release.
In the United States, the dubbed series faced several negative reactions toward its changes to localize the content for North American audiences. Jeffrey Harris of IGN found it pointless to change the names of the characters, and Anime News Network's Carl Kimlinger said that the changes of certain Japanese cultural references rendered several parts of the mysteries and their investigation illogical.The voice-overs proved to be a mixed bag for Carlo Santos, who reviewed the first DVD release of Case Closed for Anime News Network; he said that while the main characters sounded like "real people", the secondary ones "[came] off as caricatures".Lori Lancaster of Mania.com described Case Closed as "a clever series that had mysteries at every corner", noting the "bizarre" and "interesting" nature of each case.IGN's Chris Wyatt was positive to the manner the cases were set up, relating them to Agatha Christie's "closed room" mysteries. He described the series as "Inspector Gadget meets Law & Order but in an anime style." His colleague, Harris, however, expressed annoyance with repetitive elements in the show and the contrived methods the series uses to keep Conan's identity a secret from certain characters.
In 2006, the Japanese government used Conan in campaigns to help promote crime awareness among children.Targeting the same audience, Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs used Conan and his friends in two pamphlets: one to promote the ministry's mission, the other to introduce the 34th G8 summit held in the country in 2010.Several characters in the series featured in the sixth installment of the Anime, Heroes and Heroines commemorative stamp series issued by Japan Post in 2006.Aoyama and his creations are celebrated in his hometown Hokuei, Tottori; a museum with exhibits of his work is located there, and several bronze statues of Jimmy Kudo, Conan Edogawa, and Rachel Moore are installed in various locations throughout the town.
