Sunday 18 May 2014

Case Closed



The anime dominates Japanese airwaves, while the manga has happily chugged along for 20 years.  For whatever reason the series has never caught on quite as strongly in English-speaking territories, and even though we’re still currently still over 30 volumes behind, any series that hits its 50th volume over here has done a damn good job.



Detective Conan/Case Closed is a whodunnit series following Jimmy Kudo as he solves murder cases with style and finesse.  His fame gets the better of him one day as he falls foul to a crime syndicate who poisons him with an untested drug.  The result is a physical change where he reverts back to having the body of a child.  Taking on a false identity to protect his loved, he continues to solve crimes while protecting his true identity.
 Case Closed is far too long to have a singular story with a solid beginning, middle and end, and as such it is also not the kind of series you can read in large chunks over extended sittings.  The writing is densely packed onto the pages and the segmented procession of murder cases takes precedence over Jimmy getting his old body back.  There is no hurry in solving the bigger mysteries as we get to know the wide recurring cast.  This laid back approach may bother some readers, but if you’re happy watching something like Poirot which by and large exists as individual stories, there will be little to object to here.

Buy a couple volumes and take your time, Case Closed isn’t going anywhere.