Case Closed

• 1. Introduction

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  Case Closed, a Japanese manga series by Gosho Aoyama, had more than 270 million copies in circulation worldwide by January 2023. That makes it one of the best-selling manga series of all time. It runs in Weekly Shōnen Sunday, a magazine published by Shogakukan. At its center is a puzzle about identity as much as about crime. The hero is a detective who can solve almost any murder but cannot tell anyone who he really is. How does a detective work when nobody takes a child seriously? Who is the organization that hunts him? And how did one mystery manga grow into films, video games, a theme-park show and a whole town devoted to its hero? The answers begin with an ambush.

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• 2. The Sleeping Detective

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  Jimmy Kudo, called Shinichi Kudo in Japan, is a high school detective who sometimes helps the police. During one investigation, a member of a crime syndicate known as the Black Organization ambushes him and leaves him helpless. The attacker force-feeds him an experimental drug, hoping to murder him. Instead of killing him, the drug shrinks his body to the size of an elementary school child.

  Kudo takes the pseudonym Conan Edogawa and moves in with his childhood friend Rachel Moore, whose Japanese name is Ran Mori. Her father, Richard, called Kogoro Mori in Japan, is a private detective. Kudo hides the truth from almost everyone. The exception is Dr. Agasa, an inventor and family friend, who supplies him with spy gadgets.

  Two of those gadgets make the whole arrangement work. A wristwatch fires a tranquilizer dart, and Kudo uses it to put Richard to sleep during a case. A bowtie then copies Richard's voice, so Kudo can reveal the culprit while the adult appears to speak. The ruse protects Kudo's cover. It also gives Kogoro a reputation as a brilliant detective who happens to be narcoleptic.

  Teitan Elementary School is where Kudo spends his days as a child. His classmates there form their own Junior Detective League, also called the Detective Boys. Around them moves a wider circle. Rachel's friend Serena Sebastian, called Sonoko Suzuki in Japan, is part of it. So is Harley Hartwell, known as Heiji Hattori in Japan, a fellow teenage detective. Police detectives from different regions appear too, along with a phantom thief called Kaito Kid.

  The most unexpected arrival is a transfer student named Anita Hailey, or Ai Haibara in Japan. She reveals that she once belonged to the Black Organization under the code name Sherry. She also created the very drug that shrank Kudo. She took it herself to escape the organization, and she soon joins the Junior Detectives. Conan's encounters with the syndicate are rare, but during one of them he helps the FBI plant a CIA agent named Kir inside it as a spy.

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• 3. Aoyama's Desk

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  On the 5th of January 1994, the first chapter of Case Closed appeared in Weekly Shōnen Sunday. Aoyama conceived the series that same year, as mystery manga were rising in popularity thanks to The Kindaichi Case Files. He names three influences on his work: the stories of Arsène Lupin, the stories of Sherlock Holmes and the samurai films of Akira Kurosawa.

  When Aoyama scripts a chapter, he keeps the dialogue simple. He spends an average of four hours on each new case and twelve hours on the more complicated ones. His older brother, a scientist, helps him with the "gimmicks" in the series. Each case usually spans several chapters, with a handful of shorter cases taking only one. The characters resolve every case at the end by explaining their solutions in simple terms.

  In 2007, an online database of all the cases from the manga was launched. That same year, Aoyama hinted that he had planned an ending but did not intend to end the series yet. In early 2011, he and his staff decided to computerize their manga creation process. Aoyama still draws with a pen and paper. The change began with the final page of chapter 760.

  The first collected volume was released on the 18th of June 1994. Case Closed has since passed 1,000 chapters in Japan, and it was the first series to do so in Weekly Shōnen Sunday. On the 18th of October 2021 it reached one hundred volumes. Eiichiro Oda, author of One Piece, had reached the same milestone a month earlier, and he sent Aoyama his congratulations. As of the 8th of April 2026, 108 volumes have been published.

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• 4. Screen and Sound

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  The anime adaptation premiered on the 8th of January 1996, produced by Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation and TMS Entertainment. More than 1,150 episodes have aired in Japan, which places it among the longest anime series.

  A film has arrived nearly every year since 1997. Twenty-nine have been released in total, and the only year skipped was 2020. The latest, Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway, premiered in Japan on the 10th of April 2026. Each film tells an original story rather than adapting the manga.

  Katsuo Ono composed and arranged the music for the animation, and several CDs collect his work. Two image albums feature songs sung by the Japanese voice actors of the characters. Theme songs came from pop musicians including B'z, Zard and Garnet Crow. Universal Music Group released the first four themes, and Being Inc. handled every release after that. The Best of Detective Conan and The Best of Detective Conan 2 together sold over 2.2 million copies. Singles from The Best of Detective Conan 3 collectively sold over 1.6 million.

  On the 25th of July 2017, the singer Mai Kuraki received a Guinness World Record for singing the most theme songs in a single anime series. She had sung 21 songs for Detective Conan, beginning with her hit "Secret of My Heart" in 2000.

  Live actors have also played the roles. Shun Oguri portrayed the teenage Jimmy Kudo and Tomoka Kurokawa played Rachel Moore in television specials that aired in 2006 and 2007. Junpei Mizobata and Shioli Kutsuna took over as Jimmy and Rachel for specials in 2011 and 2012. That cast then starred in a television series, which aired between the 7th of July and the 29th of September 2011.

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• 5. Spin-offs and Tie-Ins

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  On the 27th of December 1996, Detective Conan: Chika Yuuenchi Satsujin Jiken arrived on the Game Boy. Twenty-four games have followed. Most have been released only in Japan, though Nobilis localized Case Closed: The Mirapolis Investigation for the PAL region. Bandai developed the dedicated games for the Game Boy, Sony's consoles, the WonderSwan and the Nintendo DS. Banpresto made the Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance titles, and Marvelous Entertainment developed The Mirapolis Investigation.

  The manga has spawned its own offshoots. Aoyama's assistants have written an anthology series that appears irregularly. Mayuko Kanba began Case Closed: The Culprit Hanzawa in the July 2017 issue of Shōnen Sunday S, released on the 25th of May 2017. Takahiro Arai illustrates Case Closed: Zero's Tea Time, which Aoyama supervises. It started in issue 24 of Weekly Shōnen Sunday on the 9th of May 2018 and follows the agent Toru Amuro, also named Rei Furuya. New chapters appear only while the main series is on hiatus.

  Arai also created Detective Conan: Police Academy Arc - Wild Police Story. It ran in Weekly Shōnen Sunday from the 2nd of October 2019 to the 18th of November 2020, across 13 chapters. It returns to Amuro, this time during his years at the police academy with his colleagues.

  In 2008, Weekly Shōnen Sunday and Weekly Shōnen Magazine each marked their 50th anniversary. To celebrate, the two publishers collaborated on twelve biweekly magazines. They paired chapters of Case Closed with chapters of The Kindaichi Case Files, the rival series that had helped inspire it. The run lasted from the 10th of April to the 25th of September 2008.

  Shogakukan has produced many related books. Fifty film comic volumes appeared between June 1996 and August 2000, covering the first 143 episodes of the anime, though some were skipped. Five more followed between July 2001 and January 2002, covering selected episodes from 162 to 219. Thirteen official guide books were published between June 1997 and April 2009. The publisher has also issued novels, digest books, educational books and puzzle books.

  On the 29th of June 2005, Score Entertainment published the Case Closed Trading Card Game in North America. Players buy and collect cards, build three customized decks and try to meet conditions that solve a case, while other cards foil their opponents. DH Publishing released an unofficial English guidebook, The Case Closed Casebook: An Essential Guide, on the 25th of March 2008. Universal Studios Japan hosted a themed event from the 19th of January to the 24th of June 2018 as part of its Universal Cool Japan 2018 attractions. Its Detective Conan 4-D Live Show: Jewel Under the Starry Sky opened on the 22nd of March 2024. Characters also joined a crossover event in the survival horror game Identity V, first on the China server in 2020 and then worldwide in 2021.

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• 6. Crossing Oceans

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  Legal problems with the name Detective Conan forced several American English releases to use a different title. That is why the series became Case Closed in North America. Viz Media announced that it had acquired the series on the 1st of June 2004. Funimation had already localized the anime, and Viz adopted its character names so the two versions would match. Readers in North America therefore know the hero as Jimmy Kudo. Viz released the first volume in September 2004 and began releasing digital editions in 2013.

  On the 9th of May 2023, Viz launched its Viz Manga digital service. Chapters now appear in English in North America at the same time as they are released in Japan. In the United Kingdom, Gollancz licensed and distributed 15 of Viz's volumes before it stopped publishing manga. Viz has since re-released them.

  In 2014, Shogakukan Asia began its own English localization for Singapore and other Southeast Asian countries. That version keeps the title Detective Conan. Laura Thornton of CBR.com pointed to the common Japanese ownership of Shogakukan Asia and Viz. She described the Singapore edition, compared to the Viz one, as "completely identical, word-for-word, even -- save for the names and the Detective Conan logo".

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• 7. Conan Town

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  Hokuei, in Tottori, is Aoyama's hometown, and it celebrates him and his creations. A museum there displays exhibits of his work. Bronze statues of Jimmy Kudo, Conan Edogawa and Rachel Moore stand in various locations around town. Hokuei also has a Detective Conan themed airport and train station, and it promotes itself as Conan Town.

  The government of Japan has put the characters to work. In 2006, it used Conan in campaigns to raise crime awareness among children. Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs used Conan and his friends in two pamphlets aimed at the same audience. One explained the ministry's mission. The other introduced the 34th G8 summit, held in Japan in 2010. In 2006, Japan Post also featured several characters in the sixth installment of its Anime, Heroes and Heroines commemorative stamp series.

  In 2018, the series caught the attention of the American late night host Conan O'Brien. He discussed the character Conan Edogawa and Conan Town on his show Conan. In September 2018, he traveled to the town himself.

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• 8. Critics and Numbers

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  By October 2021, Case Closed had over 250 million copies in circulation, and it had been sold in 25 countries. Individual volumes regularly appear on Japan's best-seller lists. In 2011 it was the nineteenth best-selling manga, with 2,120,091 copies sold. It was seventeenth in 2012 with 2,430,572 copies, and 24th in 2013 with 1,966,206. In its September 2011 issue, Nikkei Entertainment ranked the top 50 manga creators by sales since January 2010, and Aoyama placed sixteenth with 3,320,000 copies. In Vietnam, volumes 93 to 96 each surpassed 1.5 million digital copies by 2020. Later volumes have also appeared on The New York Times Manga Best Sellers lists.

  American reviewers have praised the mysteries. IGN's A. E. Sparrow called the style a mix of Scooby-Doo and Sherlock Holmes. Mania.com's Eduardo M. Chavez believed the manga appealed to readers of all ages. Mania.com's Lori Lancaster called it "a clever series that had mysteries at every corner". IGN's Chris Wyatt compared the setups to Agatha Christie's locked-room mysteries and described the series as "Inspector Gadget meets Law & Order but in an anime style". Melissa Sternenberg of THEM Anime Reviews gave it 5 out of 5 stars.

  Awards and polls tell a similar story. The manga won the 46th Shogakukan Manga Award in the shōnen category in 2001. In France, it was nominated for an Angoulême Festival Graphic Novel award among the Japanese selection. In 2024, it shared the grand prize of Rakuten Kobo's second E-book Award in the "Long Seller Comic" category with Space Brothers. In TV Asahi's Manga Sōsenkyo 2021 poll, where 150,000 people voted for their top 100 manga, it ranked fourth, behind One Piece, Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba and Slam Dunk.

  Da Vinci magazine's "Book of the Year" list has tracked its standing year by year. It ranked fifth in 2012 and reached first place in 2018. The most recent list, for 2025, placed it 22nd.

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