~Chizu ni nai Basho~

Detective Conan (名探偵コナン) | Tankouban: 57 Currently | Serialization: May, 1994 to Present in Weekly Shounen Sunday

The thrilling and captivating detective series that has captured the hearts of the people of Japan.

Shin’ichi Kudo is no ordinary high school student; he is actually a well-known and esteemed high school detective known as the Detective of the East. While on a date with his childhood friend, Ran Mouri, he gets in over his head and is poisoned by a mysterious man dressed in black, and his partner! However, instead of killing Shin’ichi, as the two men had intended to do, he is instead turned into a child version of himself. In order to search for the men in black and in order to find a way to return himself to normal, Shin’ichi takes on the persona of an elementary school boy named “Conan Edogawa.” While searching for information for on the “Black Organization,” Conan comes across all sorts of complex cases which he skillfully solves and brings the truth to light.

MSZ says…
I must say, when I first started the series 2 years ago, the 51 volumes it had at the time were definitely intimidating. However, once I picked it up, I just cannot stop reading it, and before I knew it, I had read through the whole series! It is certainly obvious to me why this is one of the most renowned manga/anime series in Japan, Goushou Aoyama is certainly a genius when it comes to mysteries. Over the course of 13 years, he has come up with an amazing amount of detailed and creative murders and crimes that can easily stump anyone. Though, he does need to work on his motives a bit more, as they all seem to be built on revenge for some thing or another (most commonly because a person blames the suicide of someone on another, it seems). Although it has a dark side when dealing with cases and the likes of the Black Organization, it still has a very light-hearted tone and is very amusing at times.

One thing that is very noteworthy about the series is that all the characters have their own personalities, right down to the one-time characters only made for cases. Those personalities can be easily identified thanks to Aoyama’s great storytelling abilities. Also, the addition of the friendly rivalry between Shin’ichi and the “Detective of the West,” Heiji Hattori, and Shin’ichi’s battles with his arch-nemesis, Kaitou Kid, certainly add flavor and excitement to the series when the story is not focused on the search for information on the Black Organization.

Although about all the side-cases are extremely fun to read, the real meat of story truly lies within Shin’ichi’s struggles against the Black Organization. Aoyama uses this side of the manga to show a more action-based side of Detective Conan. As the story becomes more expansive, and more related people are introduced, it becomes incredibly interesting and very exciting. Aoyama is even able to tie in these characters with cases and other stories to keep the detective side of the story going with all the action.

As a great fan of the mystery and detective genre, Detective Conan is certainly one of the best manga series I have ever read. I would definitely recommend it to any mystery fan who is looking for a straight up, exciting detective manga that has not yet lost its style and impact after so many years!

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