Case closed

Case Closed (名探偵 コナン, Meitantei Conan?), known as Detective Conan in Japan and most other countries, is a detective manga and anime series written and illustrated by Gosho Aoyama and serialized in Weekly Shōnen Sunday since 1994.

Case Closed follows the adventures of Jimmy Kudo, a young detective inadvertently turned into a prepubescent boy by a secret criminal organization when they force him to take a drug that is supposed to kill him, but backfires.

Case Closed is adapted into an anime series by the animation studio Tokyo Movie Shinsha, directed by Kenji Kodama and Yasuichiro Yamamoto, and airs in Japan on Nippon Television, Yomiuri TV and Animax. The first episode aired on January 8, 1996, with 504 episodes as of May 19, 2008. 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 12 Golden Week movies, with the first released on April 17, 1997, and one movie released each year since. Ten of the movies held a top 10 box office position in the year they were screened. In addition, seven OVAs have been released.
Contents
[hide]

* 1 Plot
* 2 Media
o 2.1 Manga
o 2.2 Anime
o 2.3 TV drama
o 2.4 Movies
* 3 Reception
* 4 References
* 5 External links

[edit] Plot

See also: List of Case Closed characters

17-year-old high school student Jimmy Kudo, while investigating a blackmail case, is attacked by two members of the Black Organization and forced to take a newly-developed drug that is supposed to kill him. However, due to a rare and generally unknown side effect, the drug doesn't kill him, but transforms his body into that of an eight-year-old grade schooler.

In order to hide his identity and investigate the whereabouts of the Black Organization, he adopts the pseudonym Conan Edogawa, moves in with his childhood friend and crush Rachel Moore, and enrolls in elementary school. He continues investigating criminal cases with Rachel and her inept private investigator father, Richard Moore. Jimmy also performs investigations through the Junior Detective League (少年探偵団, Shōnen Tantei-dan?), a group he forms with his friends at the elementary school. As the series progresses, so does the relationship between Jimmy and Rachel.

Later in the series, his investigation into the Black Organization catches him in the crossfire between the members of the Black Organization and the FBI and CIA agents that were sent to investigate the Black Organization.

[edit] Media

[edit] Manga

Main article: List of Case Closed chapters

The manga was first serialized in the fifth issue Shōnen Sunday in 1994. Since then, it has spanned 61 volumes, and continuing. The manga has been highly popular in Japan; the tankoubon has received multiple first places in bestselling lists [1].

Viz Media publishes Detective Conan manga in English as Case Closed for American audiences. The comic uses the original right-to-left format and the English anime names for the main characters while it uses the original Japanese names for the minor characters.

Many references to other detective literature can also be found for fans of detective novels, and also includes a Detective Encyclopedia, where many characters of detective, mystery, and crime literature and film are profiled. In America, currently, there are twenty-three books.

[edit] Anime

Main article: List of Case Closed episodes

The anime version is produced by Tokyo Movie Shinsha and has currently aired 504 television episodes (as of May 19, 2008) and twelve movies (as of April 19, 2008) in Japan, and is still running on Japanese television today. It airs Mondays at 7:30 p.m. on Yomiuri TV Nippon TV, considered the prime slot for anime[2], and is also broadcast in Japan by the anime CS network, Animax, who have also aired the series across its networks in Southeast Asia and East Asia.

In July 2003, FUNimation announced that they licensed Detective Conan for a release in North America, to be released as "Case Closed" due to legal issues concerning the name Conan (Conan the Barbarian, although Conan can be considered a regular name as in Conan O'Brien). In the United Kingdom VIZ's releases are published by Gollancz Manga with the same naming conventions. Because of the long Japanese tv seasons, the show has also been able to air 500 episodes as well[3].

As of August 2007, Detective Conan is airing on Yomiuri TV (producing TV station), NNS TV stations, and TV Miyazaki on Mondays at 7:30 p.m., after Kekkaishi, which is also from the same comic group. While its ratings have declined over the years, it is still one of the highest rated anime on Japanese television.[citation needed]

Cartoon Network began broadcasting Case Closed as part of their Adult Swim programming block on May 24, 2004. Although a family series in Japan, the mature content of the crimes portrayed prevented it from gaining prime time exposure to its proper audience. Only 50 episodes aired in the United States, and in January 2005, Adult Swim announced that it would not purchase additional episodes due to low ratings. They gave back the rights to the series later that year, and it has now debuted on a syndicated FUNimation Channel programming block airing on CoLours TV on June 19, 2006. However, episodes are still being released on DVD. Funimation claims that they will continue dubbing episodes into English. Up to only 80 episodes (83 by English numbering) have been released, with no additional episodes purchased. Funimation has recently announced a new Season Box Set for Case Closed to be in stores on July 22, 2008, and that future releases will most likely be in this manner, due to the exceeding length of this show. [4] [5] [6]

FUNimation's English dub of Case Closed made its Canadian television debut on YTV's Bionix programming block on April 7, 2006 at 10:30 p.m. Beginning on June 2, 2006, Case Closed was still part of the Bionix block, but it had been airing at a later timeslot of 12:00 a.m. The reason for this, however, is likely not so much because of low ratings (as was the case on Adult Swim), but because the station needed to meet their annual Canadian Content quota by airing a certain amount of Canadian programming before 12 a.m., effectively leaving the series out of the main line-up. After broadcasting 21 episodes, YTV has since stopped airing Case Closed, with its final broadcast at 12:00 a.m. on September 2, 2006.

The series was also later dubbed and translated into English by the anime television network Animax for broadcast across its English-language networks in Southeast Asia (including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines and several other countries in the region)[7][8], with Animax's unedited dub staying true to the original, retaining the original name Detective Conan as well as the original dialogue and each of the character's original Japanese names.[7] Animax, whose founders include the studio behind the production of the anime series, TMS (along with other studios such as Sunrise, Toei and NAS) has also aired the series in its original network in Japan (in Japanese), as well as its other networks worldwide, including Hong Kong and Taiwan (where it was aired in Chinese).

[edit] TV drama

The latest series in the franchise is a live-action TV drama, which premièred in Japan on Nippon Television on October 2, 2006. It served as a prequel of the current storyline, starring Shun Oguri as Shinichi Kudo (Jimmy Kudo), Tomoka Kurokawa as Ran Mouri (Rachel Moore), and Takanori Jinnai as Kogoro Mouri (Richard Moore).[9]

Episode 2 of the live-action TV drama premiered on December 17, 2007, With added characters such as Yu Kashii as Shiho Miyano, Sasaki Kuranosuke as Gin, Tayama Ryosei as Agasa, Fujisaki Nao (Conan) and Shibata Kyoka (Haibara).

[edit] Movies
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The tenth movie, Private Eyes' Requiem[10] was announced on December 15, 2005 and was released on April 15, 2006, debuting at the number one position in the Japanese box office[11] and remained there for three consecutive weeks. As of May 28, 2006, it has earned $25.8 million in the Japanese box office.[12]

The twelfth movie, Full Score of Fear[13] was announced on February 20, 2008[14] , and released on April 19, 2008, debuting at the number one position in the Japanese box office.[15] [16] It is unknown how long it remained there for at this time. There have been reports that the advertising for the film was limited, yet normal for a Detective Conan movie.[17] It was reported that (an estimate of) 350,000 people watched the movie in its opening weekend alone.[18] This film is expected to surpass the profits of the previous film released the year before, Jolly Roger in the Deep Azure[citation needed]. As of May 5, 2008 the movie has earned over 420.03 million yen.[19]

FUNimation's English dub of The Time-Bombed Skyscraper was released on DVD on October 3, 2006. Unlike the series, the movie left the original animation entirely intact with no translations except for the opening title and ending credits. The opening title was replaced with an English version. The original Japanese credits were changed from a tour of Tokyo and recap of the movie to an endless loop of fire engines and police cars with their lights from the final scene with the credits displayed over it.

FUNimation's English dub of The Fourteenth Target was released on November 20, 2007. Due to the americanization of the majority of the character's names, many of the explanations for names have been changed to completely random bits of information(For example, instead of Santos' name, Santos says he is one of three children.) The ending of this movie as well was changed to and endless loop of police cars with their lights from the final scene with the credits displayed over it.