How Gosho Aoyama won the great detective wars.
As mentioned in the Kindaichi Files entry, over the last decade there has been a popularity of detective manga and anime. While Kindaichi Files was popular, there is one series that has risen above all competitors and imitators. Detective Conan.
The manga started in 1994, and with the anime following in 1996, with neither of them showing any signs of stopping.
The series follows the adventures of the Shinichi Kudo, a teenage detective of some repute and skill. In the course of the first case we meet him on, he discovers members of the nefarious “Black Organisation” who poison him. However the poison is experimental and rather than killing him, shrink him down to the size of an six year old. In order to protect his friend Ran and her father, the bumbling P.I. Kogoro, he dons glasses and adopts a secret identity. That of Conan Edogawa, a “relative” of local friendly mad scientist Dr Agasa. Conan being from Arthur Conan Doyle and Edogawa from Edogawa Rampo.
The relationship between Ran, Shinichi and Conan is an interesting spin on the classic silver age Lois Lane, Superman, Clark Kent relationship, even down to Shinichi using glasses as a diguise (though obviously being shrunk down helps). Ran and Shinichi slowly come to realise their true feelings for one another in their “absence”, with Conan unable to tell her he’s really Superman. Err.. Shinichi. On the whole it’s very nicely done and handled with a subtle melancholy that you wouldn’t necessarily expect from a show aimed at kids.
Something else you might not expect is the sheer number of murders and endangerment of 6 year olds this series brings. The very first episode’s murder is a decapitation on a roller coaster, and once it introduces the Detective Boys Club, Conan’s gang of 6 year old hangers on, it can seem rather odd if you stop and think how many times these little kids have been confronted/threatened/trapped/captured by murderers over the 400+ episodes of the show.
Now personally I think any qualms about the show are totally unfounded. Growing up one of my favourite shows as a kid was the Red Hand Gang which was a live action show involving a gang of kids thwarting all sorts of crimes. Likewise shows like Murder She Wrote were very appealing to me as I got a bit older.
Detective Conan’s success rests on a very winning mix of elements that appeals to range of ages. The basic whodunnit plots have an appeal across the board, with earlier episode more clearly aimed at kids, giving clues to how the crime was performed. There’s a great deal of childhood fantasy elements in the Detective Boys Club and in the gadgets Asura designs for Conan. There’s the relationship between Shinichi and Ran that can work without the fantastical elements, as shown in the pre-Conan elements of the first story and the live action prequel made last year. And there’s a wide range of supporting characters, who are increasingly well fleshed out as the series progresses. The relationship between Ran’s estranged parents is especially strong.
The whodunnits often fall into the Jonathan Creek school of extraordinary locked door murders, where the thrill comes more from how it was done, than who did it. There’s also however a more hard boiled detective element that comes into play in the stories where the Black Organisation appear and in the films. Often Conan or his friends and family will become the targets in these situations, rather than simply acting as consulting detective. However these episodes are few and far between.
The fact of the matter is that Detective Conan is a great weekly TV series that you can dip in and out of, however it is not a series you necessarily want to buy and keep. The TV episodes tend to have functional animation, and the mysteries are reasonable, but not dazzling. The appeal lies in it the gentle exercise for the little grey cells it gives you and the company of some charming creations for 20 minutes. The films are another matter, and in general are nice little thrillers that are worth making the effort to seek out. Last year’s 10th anniversary one was especially good.
The anime and manga have been released in the US and UK as Case Closed, due to possibly unfounded fears of the name Conan. The anime was broadcast on Adult Swim, which is of course entirely the wrong place for it. Chicken shit broadcasters, give the kids the murders they deserve! It’s now found a home on Funimation’s own channel. Where it’s shown at 1am…