Case Closed
Case Closed, also known as Detective Conan in Japan and other countries, is a detective manga and anime series by Gosho Aoyama which has been published in Weekly Shōnen Sunday magazine since 1994. The series depicts the cases of a young private detective who was inadvertently turned into a prepubescent boy by a certain criminal organization. Although his body has been shrunk, he continues to solve many cases and is struggling to solve the mysteries of the criminal organization responsible in order to return to his normal body. 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. The anime version is produced by Tokyo Movie Shinsha and has currently aired 482 television episodes (as of August 6, 2007) and eleven movies in Japan, and is still running on Japanese television today. It airs Mondays at 7:30 p.m. on Nippon TV, 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 (including its English language network in Southeast Asia, where its English adaptation stayed true to the original, retaining the original name Detective Conan, as well as each of the characters' original Japanese names and dialogue). 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. The tenth movie, Private Eyes' Requiem was announced on December 15, 2005 and was released on April 15, 2006, debuting at the number one position in the Japanese box office and remained there for three consecutive weeks. As of May 28, 2006, it has earned $25.8 million in the Japanese box office. The latest in the series of its franchise is a live-action TV drama, which premiered in Japan on Nippon Television on October 2, 2006. It served as a prequel of the current storyline, starring Shun Oguri as Shin'ichi Kudo (Jimmy Kudo), Tomoka Kurokawa as Ran Mori (Rachel Moore), and Takanori Jinnai as Kogoro Mori (Richard Moore).
Overview
The English manga names will be used, with the Japanese original in brackets at their first mention. Japanese names are in Western order, with the surname after the given name, with the exception of Edogawa Rampo (Edogawa is the last name here). The story starts out introducing 17-year old (16 years in the manga) high school student Jimmy Kudo (Shin'ichi Kudo) and his childhood friend and crush, Rachel Moore (Ran Mori). Jimmy treats Rachel to a trip to a theme park named "Tropical Land" and encounters a murder. After easily solving the case and showing off his detective skills, he notices two mysterious men wearing black. Telling Rachel to go on home, he tracked the men to a meeting place and witnesses an illegal deal. However, one of the men in black (known only as Gin) notices him and knocks him out. Instead of directly killing him, the two black men give him an untested poison named Apotoxin-4869 (APTX4869), which was supposed to not only kill Jimmy, but also leave no trace of poison in Jimmy's body. However, Jimmy wakes to find that he is still alive, but has now been shrunk to an elementary school boy, around six years old. Following the advice of Dr. Hiroshi Agasa (Dr. Herschel Agasa in the English anime), Jimmy hides his real identity, lest the men in black find out that he is alive. When Rachel asks for his name, Jimmy spots books by Arthur Conan Doyle and Edogawa Rampo and comes up with the name "Conan Edogawa." Agasa says that "Conan" is a relative of his, but was too busy to take care of a young child, and suggests that "Conan" go live with Rachel, and both Conan and Rachel agree. Rachel's father, Richard Moore (Kogoro Mori) is an incapable detective. Conan always solves mysteries in his stead. As Conan appears to be just a boy, police don't pay any attention to him. Conan instead uses Detective Moore by putting him to sleep with a "anesthesia gun-watch" and pretending to be Moore by using a voice changer disguised as a bow tie. Other important characters that appear (some later) are Jimmy's parents Booker (Yusaku) and Vivian (Yukiko) Kudo , Harley Hartwell (Heiji Hattori), a rival detective from Osaka, a gentleman thief Phantom Thief Kid , who also appears in Magic Kaito), the inventor of the APTX4869 Shiho Miyano (codename "Sherry" within the black organization, turned into a child also after she took her own drug to escape the organization, and then lives with Dr. Agasa under her new name Ai Haibara), and the other members of the Black Organization: Gin, Vodka, Tequila, Calvados, Pisco, Vermouth, Kir, Chianti, Köln, and a mysterious "boss" who has only been mentioned so far. To maintain his cover, Conan goes to Titan elementary school (Japanese: Teitan Elementary School )and has made friends with three children at the school, George Kaminski (Genta Kojima), Mitch Tennison (Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya) and Amy Yeager (Ayumi Yoshida) who form the self-styled Junior Detective League (Detective Boys in original). Although Conan feels profoundly self conscious playing with them given his true age, the foursome have numerous adventures of their own and the trio have proved capable assistants to the detective for their age.
Series format
Case Closed has the format of classical mystery fiction, with such classical set ups such as the Closed-Room-Type murder case, and cases with a limited number of suspects. It also includes the wrap up of the case and conclusion/solution of the case as in typical crime fiction. Most episodes are self-contained, especially in the anime, which uses an episodic format (though multi-part episodes abound.) Occasionally there are also long story arcs. A typical Conan episode begins with the main cast (usually either Conan, Richard, and Rachel, or Conan and the JR Detective League, or occasionally both groups together) arriving at a location and meeting several new characters. One of them eventually turns up dead, and the others are all possible suspects. Conan investigates (usually clandestinely) and uses various tricks to call the adults' attention to the different clues, usually in such a way that they won't suspect that he recognized them as being pertinent to the case. Eventually, Conan will discover some important clue that will confirm his suspicions of who the killer is; however the viewer will not be told the conclusion he has reached. At this point, Conan will wait until Richard and all the suspects are in the same room and then knock Richard out with a dart from his watch which has a tranqulizing substance on the tip (occasionally when Richard is not around, he will use another character). Then he impersonates Richard's voice with his bowtie and to make it look like Richard is the one who solved the murder (this is why Richard is called "The Sleeping Richard", or "Sleeping Moore" in the manga, because he always seems to be sleeping when he solves a mystery). At this point, the viewer is informed of Conan's deduction along with the characters themselves. The explanation usually starts with an explanation of how the murder was committed, ending with "Richard" revealing the killer's identity. The killer will usually deny it and point out that there is no proof, at which point Conan calls his/her bluff and reveals that he has found conclusive proof. At this point, the killer usually confesses and gives him/herself up, though occasionally they try to make a break for it. Either way, the story ends with the culprit safely behind bars. Often the final scene involves some sort of gag (usually involving Richard doing something stupid) to lighten the mood. There are a few cases when the killer's identity is already known, however, he/she usually has an alibi of some sort, and Conan must figure out "how" they did it. At the end of each episode, a hint is given as to how the following episode's murder is committed, and is shown on the screen. 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 introduced. These include: Sherlock Holmes; Kogoro Akechi; Hercule Poirot; Arsène Lupin; Jules Maigret; Kōsuke Kinda'ichi; Lieutenant Columbo; Zenigata Heiji; Philip Marlowe; C. Auguste Dupin; Ellery Queen; V. I. Warshawski; Father Brown; Cordelia Gray; Heizō Hasegawa; Matsuhiko Asami; and Nero Wolfe, so far. In Japan, a new theatrical movie of Detective Conan is released every year in April during Golden Week. Also, regular appearances of one-hour specials as well as the yearly two-hour New Year special define the series.
Music
To date, Detective Conan/Case Closed has 20 Opening themes and 27 Ending themes in Japan. Most of the themes were sung by Giza Studio singers or groups.
Opening animation
The 4th is the first to show officer Wilder. The 5th is the first to introduce Shiho/Ai. The 6th is the fitrst and only to show the music artists who sing the intro in the intro. The 7th is the first to show all the main officers that work with Inspector Meguire as well as Rachel's mother (Eva Kadan). The 10th is the first to show Gin and Vodka thoroughly in the intro credits. The 13th is the first to show ALL the officers including those who don't work with Meguire, plus, Jodie, Shuichi, Araide, Yukiko, Yusaku, and the new BO member Vermouth. The 15th introduces James Black and the FBI Agents (Jodie Santemillion and Shuichi Akai). And the 16th Opening is the first to introduce new members of the Black Organization (Kir, Chianti, and Korn). The 17th Opening recycles visuals from the previous openings (13-16), however, it adds Kir to Vermouth, Gin, and Vodka's group as the main black organization members. The 18th opening shows almost every contributing minor character in the series, and Kir as the only black corps member. The 19th and 20th Opening focuses mainly on Conan and Rachel's relationship and, unlike the previous, eliminates almost all the minor characters.
Ending animation
From ending 1-18, the animation begins and end with the same video, however, in between they show different scenes of the currently aired episode. Starting ending 19, this differs and the animation displays a picture of Rachel and Jimmy in a photo sitting on a desk while things around the desk change. Ending 20 shows Conan wandering through the city passing various characters. Ending 21 shows Conan and Rachel as children. The 22nd and 23rd ending show an animation based on the relationship of Rachel and Jimmy. The 24th shows character outlines while displaying different views of the city. From endingb 25-27, the animation resorts back to showing scenery of the episode while the beginning and end remain intact.
Adaptations elsewhere
In the U.S. version the original songs were replaced by new songs using the same melodies and an English translation of the original lyrics. Seven of the original Japanese themes have been dubbed.
Broadcast and adaptations
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. It is regularly one of the highest rated programs on Japanese television. There have been unconfirmed reports that the Fox Network (pre-Fox Box) considered licensing the series at one point, but decided not to as it was thought to be far too violent[15]. Indeed, there are many situations that involve disturbing homicides, such as human corpses, dismembered bodies, and in a very few cases, even murdered children. (In the very first episode of the anime, the young man, Kishida, is beheaded on a roller coaster, with actual graphic detail and gore. The anime version has gouts of what appears to be intense light spouting from where Kenneth's (as "Kishida" is known in the English anime) head was. In every other part of the world, in the many countries where Detective Conan was released and aired, the name "Detective Conan" (or the literal translation of it), remained intact, including the anime TV network Animax's English adaptation. Detective Conan has aired in Turkey,Argentina, Chile, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, China, Taiwan, the United Arab Emirates, Philippines, Malaysia and other nations. 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. Also, one glaring example of an inaccurate translation was an episode where TNT was discounted as the cause of an explosion because of the lack of burnt gunpowder smell or traces of gunpowder (which hurt the series' credibility) - originally, it was the mention and doubt of dynamite instead of TNT. 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, though no news has been given on renewing the license for additional episodes. 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., leaving, effectively forcing 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. FUNimation's English dub of The Time-Bombed Skyscraper was released to 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 is scheduled to be released in November 2007. It is said since the plot deals with names invlovling numbers, FUNimation will use middle names for the characters since their original names were altered by TMS.
Animax adaptation
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) , 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. 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).
Awards
At the 5th Annual Tokyo Anime Awards competition, the ninth Detective Conan movie, Detective Conan: Strategy Above the Depths, won the Feature Film category, together with Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam: Heirs To The Stars.
Release Date : April 17, 2004
