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.
