Throwback Thursday: Case Closed

Not sure if many of you know this but my favorite anime of all time is Case Closed/Detective Conan. I used to wake up at 3 in the morning to watch it on adult swim every day. Because of my obsession with this series, when I discovered that it continued WAY after adult swim’s broadcast ended, I spent a year watching 600+ episodes of it. That’s not all! I then caught up to the manga and watched all of the movies. It was unhealthy. I can still say it was worth it. I thought now was the time to see if I can get others into watching/reading this series and maybe find others who are fans of it.

The synopsis for this series is going to be a bit odd. Mostly because when you watch some of the older series in dub, they’d completely swap out the Japanese names for English names. Understandable… I guess. I’ll do my best here.

The series is centered around young detective prodigy Shinichi Kudo or Jimmy Kudo in English.  During a date with his childhood friend, Ran Mori or Rachel Moore, he stumbles upon a shady deal between two men in black. While eavesdropping, he is knocked unconscious and given an experimental pill that they believe will kill him but instead shrunk him down to the body of a child. When he comes to, he finds shelter with Ran and her father under the guise of Conan Edogawa. To find a way to get his old body back, he solves cases by using Ran’s father, Kogoro Mori or Richard Moore, a washed-up detective. By knocking him on unconscious with a stun watch, Conan can then use his voice changer bow tie and solve the cases for him.

I cringed a bit after writing that. It makes sense why the names were Americanized. This series is pretty old and the majority of the names wouldn’t be accepted by an American audience. I find myself, even now, calling them by their English names because they just fit better. May just be nostalgia talking but that’s how I personally feel. Rachel and Richard Moore just have a better ring to it. Shinichi Kudo, on the other hand, is perfectly fine as is.

If you didn’t notice from the synopsis, this series is a murder mystery. It usually deals with a similar formula with each case.

• Episode 1: Introductions and Conflict
• Episode 2: Investigation, Interrogation, and Revelation
• Episode 3: The Reveal and Conflict Resolution

Also somewhere in between, they have a hint at the end of an episode. As much as some people would like this… I HATED IT. If I accidentally saw this, I’d be SO angry. I want to figure it out. I want to crack the case with a smug face and watch as my deduction was correct. Probably my only downside of the series when I was younger. As I watched the show growing up, The only other thing that’d bother me was the Junior Detective League. They just annoyed the hell out of me. The only real redeeming quality for this group was the addition of Ai Haibara but that is WAY down the road.

Why should you watch this show? Well, if you are a big fan of murder mystery, I can say with certainty that this is one of the best series to watch. Anime or not. You can tell that there was a ton of research and care put into the mystery. As much as the show is mostly about daily murders they seem to find themselves stumbling upon, the subplot will keep you at the edge of your seat. The Black Organization is such a vital piece of the anime and once you really dive into it, it continuously expands to the FBI and some great characters within it.

GIVE IT A SHOT. I understand that seeing a large number of chapters/episodes can scare anyone but they are that long for a reason. Popularity can only go so far. A series has to have something to keep you around. In order for me to get through a massive amount of this series, I pulled up a filler guide on a second monitor and cut the fatty part out. Another great thing about the series is you can just cut in wherever in the series in you won’t miss much. As long as it’s not related to The Black Organization, you’re fine. Thanks for taking the time to read all this and hopefully, I brought some interest to you to potentially watch it. If you’d like some recommendations of episodes to watch as a sample, you can leave a comment below or hit me up on twitter @Blackatron_.