"Detective Conan: The Case Will Be Close!"
Case Closed, also known as Meitantei Conan (名探偵 コナン, Detective Conan), is a Japanese detective manga series written and illustrated by Gosho Aoyama and is serialized in Weekly Shōnen Sunday since 1994. The name "Case Closed" for the English language release results from concerns of copyright conflict of the name Detective Conan. As of April 2009, sixty-four volumes have been released in Japan. The story follows the adventures of Jimmy Kudo, a prodigious young detective who was inadvertently transformed into a child due to a poison.
Conan Sketch
Case Closed was adapted into an anime series by the animation studio Tokyo Movie Shinsha, directed by Kenji Kodama and Taiichiro Yamamoto, and is broadcast in Japan on Nippon Television, Yomiuri TV and Animax. The series debuted on January 8, 1996 and has since broadcast 536 episodes as of May 30, 2009. The series has seen high levels of popularity in both manga and anime formats in Japan since its reception, and has also been adapted into twelve Golden Week movies, with the first released on April 17, 1997 and since then followed with a movie released each year. Ten of the movies held a top 10 box office position in the year they were screened. In addition, nine Original video animation have been released.
Case Closed Manga Cover
Viz Media licensed the manga series under the name for English-language publication in North America and released twenty-nine volumes as of April 2009. Funimation Entertainment licensed the anime series for North American broadcast. Both the English adaption went under the name Case Closed. The character names were also adapted into English ones with some names different between the two.The series has been well received in Japan. It has even been used as a mascot to promote citizens to follow the law. Meanwhile, the English adaption has not been as equally popular as in Japan, and has been criticized for the name changes. The show is also very popular in Germany, where it is running at the children's programm block "Pokito" with its original Japanese names and dialogue kept.
"The Case is Open..."
Detective Conan is about a 17 year old boy, Kudo Shinichi 「工藤新一」 who was shrunk into a 7 year old boy by given a specific medicine called the APTX-4869 by a criminal organization. Under Professor Hiroshi Agasa's suggestion he decided to hide his identity and start living at his childhood friend's house, Mouri Ran 「毛利蘭」 whose father is a hopeless private detective. While gathering information about the criminal organization which is known as the B.O he gets through and solves many cases, although his body had shrunk, his brain remains the same.
The Kudos...There are only a few persons who knows his true identity, those are his parents, Kudo Yuusaku 「工藤優作」 and Kudo Yukiko 「工藤雪子」, his detective mate from Osaka, Hattori Heiji 「服部平次」, his classmate who was also shrunk by taking the APTX-4869, Haibara Ai 「灰原哀」, the world's most wanted thief known as Thief 1412, "Kaitou Kid" and later in the series by a member of the black organization, Vermouth a.k.a Sharon/Chris Vineyard.
One of the Black Organization
Everything is now up to him to track down the black organziation and get his body back...
source: Wikipedia.org, Conachi.com (Article) , Google Image Search (Pictures).
