Detective Conan, also known as Meitantei Conan or Case Closed, is a Japanese detective manga series written and illustrated by Gosho Aoyama and is serialized in Weekly Shonen Magazine 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 Shinichi Kudo, a prodigious young detective who was inadvertently transformed into child due to a poison.
Case Closed was adapted into an anime series by the animation studio Tokyo Movie Shinsha, directed by Kenji Kodama ang Taiichiro Yamamoto, and is broadcasted in Japan on Nippon Television, Yomiuri TV, and Animax. The series debuted on January 8, 1996 and has since broadcasted 530 episodes as of April 18, 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 fourteen Golden Week movies, with the first released on April 17, 1997 and since then followed with a movie released each year. Eleven of the movies held a top 10 box office position in the year they were screened. In addition, eleven Original Video Animation have been released.
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 Transcendental Detective 