Case Closed, Volume 1
Gosho Aoyama
Originally published in Japan in 1994
Viz Media, 2011
$9.95, Paperback
978-1591163275
April 14th, 2012
Genre:
Mystery
Age: 12+
Description:
Precocious high school junior, Jimmy Kudo, is obsessed with detective stories
and uses his own powers of observation and intuition to solve mysteries that
baffle the local law enforcement. After solving a murder on a roller coaster
ride, Jimmy follows some suspicious men in black and discovers some illegal
behavior—all to have his reputation be his downfall as the men drug him with a
mysterious chemical. When Jimmy wakes up he discovers he is now trapped in the
body of his six-year-old self. Taking on the pseudonym of Conon (after Conan
Doyle) Edogama (after Edogawa Rampo) he moves in with his best friend and love
interest, Rachel, and with use Rachel’s father’s connections as a former cop
and private investigator to hopefully figure out who these men in black were.
Until he can find a clue he’ll still try to help solve tough cases.
Opinion: A
super popular manga (and anime) that began in Japan in 1994 and is coming up on
its 45 volume, Case Closed is a
classic series. It might surprise people that the series is actually for older
tweens and teens because the covers of a cute elementary student are
deceiving—Conan actually deals with some serious crimes that are gruesome (the
boy who got killed on the roller coaster ride was decapitated with a piano
wire—and we see it in all its gruesomeness—at least 1990s style). New readers
might also find the manga art style a little jarring because it is really a
solid, classic style—it’s dirty and gritty, there are no big boobed, wide eyed people
here. It actually is a little refreshing to me because it reminds me of my
favorite manga series by Ben Dunn called Ninja High School,
which began in 1986. The stories are engaging and are broken up into one or two
crimes a book all while Conan is trying to find clues to his condition. Give
this to fans of Sherlock Holmes, mysteries in general, and graphic novels. Each
volume also ends with a profile on a famous literary detective.
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