Case Closed, known as Meitantei Conan (???????, lit. Great Detective Conan, officially translated as Detective Conan) in Japan, is a Japanese detective manga series written and illustrated by Gosho Aoyama and, since 1994, is serialized in Weekly Shonen Sunday. To avoid copyright issues with the name Detective Conan, the English language release was renamed Case Closed. Gosho Aoyama’s work was influenced by the stories of Arsène Lupin, Sherlock Holmes, and the samurai films of Akira Kurosawa.The story follows the adventures of Jimmy Kudo, a prodigious young detective who was inadvertently transformed into a child after being poisoned.
Since its publication, Case Closed has spawned a substantial media franchise. Case Closed has been continuously serialized in the Japanese manga anthology Weekly Shonen Sunday since 1994 and has been collected in 70 tankobon volumes as of November 2010. The manga has been adapted into an ongoing animated television series produced by TMS Entertainment and Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation. The series has also spawned fourteen original video animations, fourteen animated feature films, numerous video games, and many types of Case Closed-related merchandise.
Viz Media licensed the manga series under the name for English-language publication in North America and released thirty-five volumes as of July 13, 2010. Funimation Entertainment licensed the anime series for North American broadcast. Both English adaptations went under the name Case Closed and the characters in the series were given Americanized names.Fifty episodes of the English dubbed series aired on Cartoon Network as part of their Adult Swim programming block on May 24, 2004 until January 2005 and were discontinued due to low ratings. The first six films, Case Closed: The Time-Bombed Skyscraper, Case Closed: The Fourteenth Target, Case Closed: The Last Wizard of the Century, Case Closed: Captured in Her Eyes, Case Closed: Countdown to Heaven, Case Closed: The Phantom of Baker Street, were released on Region 1 DVD in North America.
Compilation volumes of the manga have sold over 120 million copies in Japan. The anime adaptation has been well received, ranking in the top twenty in Animage’s polls between 1996 until 2001 where it dropped below the top twenty. In the Japanese TV anime ranking, Case Closed often ranked the top six. Many featured films of the series were nominated for the Japan Academy Prize.
Source: Wiki
Name: Gosho Aoyama
Born: June 21, 1963 Hokuei, Tottori Prefecture, Japan
Age: 47
Nationality: Japanese
Area(s): Manga artist and author
Pseudonym(s): Striving Star of Shonen Sunday
Notable works: Detective Conan (Case Closed)
Awards: Shogakukan Manga Awards (Yaiba and Detective Conan)
