Title: Case Closed Volume(s): 44+ Creator(s): Gosho Aoyama Format: Unflipped; Right-to-Left Publisher: VIZ, LLC. MSRP: $9.95 Genre(s): Mystery/Action Rated: Older Teen (16+)

I love mysteries. Ever since I was a kid I've loved to read great mystery books. Why do I love mysteries so much? The reason is very simple really; I love mysteries because I love to see if I can solve the mystery before the detective can. As a kid I watched "Murder She Wrote" every week without fail. When that show got cancelled I got hooked on "Diagnosis Murder," and I watched that show almost as religiously as I did "Murder She Wrote." Since then, though, there hasn't been a REAL good detective show in a LONG time!! Oh sure we've got those "CSI" shows on the air, as well as all the countless spin-offs of "Law & Order" on the air, but those aren't REAL mystery shows in my mind, as they're more about you watching the cops solve the case instead of giving you enough clues to try and solve the case BEFORE the cops do!! Yes mom, there IS a difference between the two! When "Case Closed" premiered on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim block I was immediately hooked on the show! Finally, here was a show that could fill the mystery void that was still empty since the days of "Murder She Wrote" ended, and not only that, but the show was also a very good mystery show!

In fact, it's one of the smartest new shows that has aired on TV in a long time PERIOD! With that in mind I think you can figure out why I was getting excited about the original manga finally being released in America for the first time. And so we finally have "Case Closed" sitting on store shelves, but not without some controversy. The story of "Case Closed" revolves around a teenage boy named Jimmy Kudo, who has dreams of being the next Sherlock Holmes. He's smart, he keeps his eye out for things that other people might miss, and he's an ace soccer player. Jimmy's father is an author of lots of popular mystery books, and one year both his father and mother moved to America, leaving Jimmy to live alone in his big mansion with the wacky inventor Professor Agasa. Jimmy also hangs out on a daily basis with his best friend Rachel, who has an interesting relationship with Jimmy. You see, she's secretly in love with Jimmy, but because Jimmy has been helping out the police with so many murder cases, Rachel's father, Detective Richard Moore, has lost lots of work. Luckily for Rachel, Jimmy and Richard don't see each other very much, so at least her dad can't tell Jimmy not to see his daughter anymore. Aside from this, Jimmy spends every week solving murder mysteries with Inspector McGuire (who seems to be the only police chief who is employed in Tokyo), and Jimmy has gained quite a reputation for skills in solving murder mysteries. Rachel however wants to spend one quality day with Jimmy that doesn't involve detective work, so they agree to go out on a (so-called) "friends' date" at the fair.

However, at the end of the day Jimmy sees a man in a black coat run into a dark alley, and Jimmy follows him out of curiosity. Jimmy sees the man cutting a deal with some businessman about some secret that could expose the businessman's crimes to the world; however, before Jimmy can report this to the police another man in a black suit hits Jimmy on the back of the head with a metal pipe, and in an attempt to murder Jimmy, he gives him an untested drug that should be able to kill him as well as be untraceable to the cops. However, the drug does NOT kill Jimmy, but instead turns him into a 9 year old boy! Puzzled (and frustrated) by this new turn of events in his life, Jimmy seeks Dr. Agasa's help in the situation. Dr. Agasa tells Jimmy that to make an antidote Jimmy will need to find the men in black and get one of their pills before an antidote can be made. Before a full plan is planned, Rachel shows up at Dr. Agasa's house looking for Jimmy, and when she sees little Jimmy (who is now wearing fake glasses), she just thinks he's the cutest thing in the world. At this point Jimmy tells her that his name is Conan Edogawa, and Dr. Agasa asks Rachel if "Conan" can live with her and her dad for awhile.

Dr. Agasa believes that if Jimmy works to make Richard a famous detective, then cases will start pouring into his office like crazy, and that sooner or later he would have to get some information about the men in black (there's a pun in there somewhere, see if you can spot it). So that's the plan, but how are you supposed to solve mysteries when you are 9 years old? If there is one glaring problem that people will have with this series, it's that since the series is 44 books long with no end in sight, then it's pretty obvious that the main case of this series hasn't been solved yet. Still, this interesting twist does give the series a unique hook that is hard to not fall for. Another potential problem people might have with "Case Closed" is the fact that after the whole story is set up, the series more or less becomes a "murder of the week" series, where there is murder mystery, after murder mystery, after murder mystery solved. However the reason the series has been able to get away with this formula for so long is because like "Law & Order," it's not the STORY that's interesting, it's the way the story is told! Fans of "L&O" will tell you that each episode is essentially about the same thing, but it's the twists and turns during the episodes that keeps them watching. With "Case Closed," every book is about someone being murdered; however, the way Conan solves the cases is what makes each book such a page turner. If you don't have a remote interest in murder mysteries then this series is not for you.

After you read several books in this series the author will throw the readers a bone with a new clue as to the mystery behind the big mystery surrounding Jimmy's condition, but these clues only come once in a blue moon, so I'm going to warn you now that the main mystery is NOT the focus of this series! Now let's talk about the controversy surrounding this title, which will make some people take the controversy seriously, while others will take the controversy as complete idiocy, depending on who you are. The controversy comes in with the fact that "Case Closed" was originally called "Detective Conan" in Japan (a fitting name if you ask me). But due to fear of being sued for using the name Conan (remember that silly "Spike TV" thing?), FUNimation changed the name of the show to "Case Closed" when they aired the show on American TV. FUNimation also received a request from the Japanese company that produces "Detective Conan" to change the Japanese names to English names so that the show would have more potential to get to a wider audience. Originally Viz was going to release the manga as "Detective Conan" and leave all of the Japanese names intact, but the Japanese publisher of the manga requested that Viz change the title of the book and the main characters names to the dub names in order to be a better crossover for the average American anime fan who might be puzzled by the different names in the manga (and who might not even realise that "Detective Conan" and "Case Closed" are the same series).

As you can see, many hardcore "otaku's" (and I say that word with venom in mouth) aren't too pleased with this change. At the moment, fans of this series are split into two groups: those who don't see the name changes as a big deal because they don't hurt the story, and fans who are screaming bloody murder and threatening to boycott Viz because of this. My opinion of the situation is that these changes are indeed disappointing, but they are not fatal. On top of that, I understand the reason behind the name changes, and I may tackle that issue in a future editorial, but in the end I don't see the name changes as being enough of a drastic change to skip out on the series because of them. I am going to take a few points away from the grade since the changes were made in the first place, but ultimately I think people who are screaming "Boycott!" about these changes really need to get over themselves and ask themselves this question: did I have any interest in this series BEFORE the changes were announced, or am I just complaining about them because I'm a hardcore "otaku" who hates it when my favorite series is being "butchered?!" Personally, I think the only question that should be asked when buying this is, "Am I a big enough fan of murder mysteries to justify investing in this series?" If the answer is no, then get off your soap box and buy something else. However, if the answer is yes, then please, by all means buy this series and enjoy some really great detective mysteries. Because when it comes to detective comics, "Case Closed" is the best series out there, and nothing has even come close to matching it in quality, name changes or not.

- -Review By Kevin T. Rodriguez- -