The Case Closed Series

Episode 1[07/01/2026]

Case 1/2

The episode starts off in the middle of a case, which makes sense a show about a detective starting of with him working on a case. The murder took place in the opening song that I wasn’t a big fan of, It would have been a lot more enjoyable if we got the full context on what actually happened so we could see Shinichi (AKA Jimmy) Kudo compile all the evidence before making a deduction. The case he solves in the intro was also just really uninteresting. Non of this really matters because the case was only short and It does a decent job of introducing the characters like Juzo and setting the overall tone of the show.

Music

The music pretty much stays the same throughout the series. You’d think that would be a bad thing but the soundtrack is just amazing it’s super memorable, fun and it has a consistent style that just instantly jumps out at you.

## Visuals

Throughout this blog post I’ve bin using screenshots from the 2021 remastered version of the series, to me this is the best version of the series, the show looks absolutely beautiful but I don’t think I need to even tell you that, I mean just look at it! I’m a massive fan of how this show looks and seeing it in such a crisp high quality is just amazing.

Case 2/2

Shinichi (AKA Jimmy) Kudo has quite the ego in this episode that kind of surprised me when coming back too it. I do find him a bit unlikeable in here like when he’s bragging about all the fan letter he’s bin receiving but It’s definitely important to show his development as a character. He starts off as this cocky naïve detective and becomes someone more mature and caring.

Ran who’s dad is also a detective gets introduced on this, who reminds Shinichi about his promise to take her to Tropical Land for winning a karate tournament. That Shinichi completely forgot about because of his detective work, Shinichi getting too caught up in cases to take care of the people he loves is something that upset me. I always felt like Shinji was very self centred in that way but there are moments were he does show he cares, which gives you hope he can improve. While on a roller coaster, somebody loses there head.

One of the girls by the name of Aiko was on the ride and was caught with a knife in there bag, despite this Shinichi doesn’t think they did the crime and suspects they’ve bin setup. This was because it wouldn't be capable of cutting someone’s head of with a clean cut. This all makes sense with the information he had but then he comes to the conclusion that it was done with a piano wire out of no where. He does demonstrate it and seems plausible but it still didn’t make sense how he came to that conclusion, that was until Shinichi pulled out the piano wire and a bunch of pearls dropped by the murderer. This just annoyed me I didn’t like that he came to a conclusion off camera it made it way less fun to watch and made for a way less interesting case. Despite that the case was quite predictable, the murderer was seen on the roller coaster with a pearl neckless, when the ride went dark and no one could see anything the pearls fell, once people could finally see someone died. This was obviously a clue that the murder was the girl with the neckless.

The Episode Ending

Later that day, Shinichi, wondering what one of the suspects from earlier was up to, eavesdrops on the completion of a blackmail transaction. Unfortunately for him, they catch him and have to decide what to do with him.
They eventually decide on give to test out an experimental drug on him to “poison” him.

Conclusion

Overall, Episode one was decent, it does a good job of laying out the groundworks of the series. It did suffer from a couple problems but it was well paced and introduced all the characters you'll be seeing later on in the series. I think it was ok for the series to start of this way the case on the roller coaster while not being the most unique idea in the world was still fun. And the mysterious organisation that drugged him is a major plot point in the series. 7/10

Episode 2[09/01/2026]

Synopsis

The episode starts of with Shinichi, who, after being poisoned by a mysterious organization, is found by the police. They believe they have discovered an injured child. Shinichi is confused by this, as the police are clearly referring to him as said child. Sensing that something is wrong, Shinichi runs past a window and is shocked to discover that he has been transformed into the body of a little boy.

Later, he meets Dr. Agasa, who is unaware of what has happened to him. In order to convince Agasa that he is not just a random boy, Shinichi reveals personal details about the doctor and makes a deduction about what Agasa had just been doing, based solely on his appearance. Shinichi’s deduction and mannerisms eventually convince Agasa, and he allows him to stay at his house. Ran, who is worried about Shinichi, eventually finds him. However, Shinichi does not want her to learn that he has turned into a child, so he lies about his identity and creates the alias “Conan Edogawa.” Dr. Agasa believes it would be beneficial for Shinichi to live with Ran, since her father is a detective, and convinces Ran to take care of him. This allows Shinichi to learn more about the secret organization responsible for poisoning him.

When they arrive at Ran’s house, her father receives a call about a kidnapping. Ran’s father, Kogoro, takes a taxi to the scene. Shinichi secretly sneaks into the taxi, and Ran follows shortly after.

## The Kidnapped Debutante

A 10-year-old girl by the name of Akiko Tani was playing in the garden of her rich father’s establishment when suddenly a man dressed in black appeared.
“If he wants his daughter back, he’ll shut down his company for one month. Get the police involved and she’s as good as dead!” the kidnapper said before escaping outside.

Detective Kogoro Mouri has been tasked to figure out who was responsible. Can he do it? This testimony came directly from the father’s butler, but sadly this testimony didn’t add up. The house had a guard dog outside that would bark at anyone it didn’t recognize, but the dog never barked.

Because of this the butler was rightfully accused of kidnapping the daughter, and he eventually admitted wrongdoing, saying he did it all on his own accord.

Just as we thought the case was over, there was a phone call. Someone had kidnapped the daughter who was already kidnapped

it was a double kidnapping!

****The child yelled into the phone, telling everyone where she was located. Conan found the girl before Kogoro and saves her.

So what was the actual time line of events?

The daughter, Akiko, explains that she asked the butler to stage a kidnapping in order to get attention from her father. After that, Akiko was kidnapped again, but this time it was by her dad’s business competitors.

A Child Detective

Shinichi has to deal with no longer being in the limelight. We do not take the things kids say very seriously because most adults have so much experience that they assume there isn’t anything a kid could be better at than an adult. As a result, Shinichi struggles to get a full understanding of the case. Even once he does get an understanding, he isn’t taken seriously.

Detective Kogoro

A funny aspect of this case, and many other cases in the Case Closed series, is the dynamic between Detective Kogoro and Conan. Conan is often inserting himself into the case, asking questions and discovering possible leads. Ran and Kogoro often get annoyed at this and try to stop him. It’s always funny when Conan says something and gets scolded, only for Kogoro to reiterate the same thing.

Seeing a dumb, uneducated detective like Kogoro actually able to get to the bottom of incredibly complex cases, and the ego he gets because of that, is very entertaining. You’d think a dumb, egotistical person like Kogoro would make for a really hateable character, but he’s such an endearing and fun character that you can’t help but root for the guy. At one point in the episode Mouri gets excited that a little girl got kidnapped because that means he’s got a job is so insanely unhinged you can’t help but laugh.

Conclusion

So yeah, despite their only being one case a lot happened this episode. The best and most iconic part of this episode is when Ran takes Shinichi back to her place. Ran asks him if there is a girl that he likes. Of course, he says no, which would be expected of a kid, little boys tend to avoid topics like love. But what makes this so memorable, and enjoyable, is that Ren practically confesses to Shinichi. Shinichi starts to blush as a result of finding this out and thuss begins the weird dynamic between Conan and Ren.

In this episode Agasa puts the idea into Shinichi’s head that everyone in his life will be royally screwed if this secret get out and the Organization will comess back to finish the job. He also suggest that shinichi should stay with Ran since Ran’s home is a detective agency. Some people think this proves that Agasa is somehow related with the organisation. I have my doubts though as him being causes doesn't really mean that he's apart of the organization.

You could also figure out the case before it unfolds. The person that was believed to have been the kidnapper was not the same person as the one on the phone with Kogorou’s client. Leading us to conclude that it wasn’t anyone at the crime scene.

One of the reasons why I think murder is covered more in detective/ crime media instead of kidnappings. Is because their really is not a whole lot that can be done with a kidnapping case. Leading it to be pretty underwhelming .

I wasn’t a massive fan of the ending either, the idea that a little girl would stage a kidnapping for her fathers attention while endearing just seemed bizarre, and the fact that the butler went along with it was even more outlandish.

This episode is definitely way more memorable than the first one especially with the major plot developments. Shinichi finally turns into Conan leading us to seeing my favourite detective duo Conon and Kogoro. 7/10

Episode 3[11/01/2026]

Synopsis

It’s bin three days since Shinichi became a kid and he hasn’t made any progress on the mysterious organisation that drugged him.

Shinichi now goes to school where he meets a group of kids that desperately want to befriend him, being afraid that they’ll only be a hindrance to his mission of finding the men in black Shinichi avoids them and heads to Dr. Agasa’s house. Being 16 years old and going to an elementary school must really suck and I love how well Conan captures that feeling of boredom.

Dr. Agasa talks about how he recently saw Ran and how upset she was about Shinichi going missing, Agasa feels guilty about having to lie to her.

After that he shows Shinichi one of his new gadgets that grants him the ability to replicate peoples voices. A pop idol named Yoko Okino and her manager come to Kogorou with a stalker case. However, when Shinichi, Ran, and Kogorou arrive at Yoko’s place, they find a corpse with a knife in its back. There are three suspects and it is up to Shinichi to find out what happened.

Beware Of Idols

Being infatuated by Conan the kids from his school follow Shinichi to the crime scene only to be shocked by the crime scene.

The floor was wet near the body, the heating was cranked up to the max, their was strands of long brown hair in his hand and dent under the body. There was 3 possible suspects but none of them seemed to make sense, this was because it was a suicide set up to look like a murder. A murder that made to look like it was done by Yoko Okino to be more specific. He put Yoko’s hair in his hand, got a block of ice and wedged a knife inside of it and then fell on to the knife making it seem as if Yoko stabbed him.

## Conclusion Unlike the previous two episodes, which had something that pointed out either the culprit or the innocence of a suspect, there was not practically anything obvious about this case, except how the person died. Usually in I wouldn’t like that but the plot twist was so interesting I wasn’t even mad their was only vague hints.

The best part of this episode was definitely the revelation. The man that killed himself and framed it to be Yoko was actually Yoko's ex fiancé, who was pressured by her manager to break up with her. Wanting to amend the relationship he reached out to someone he thought was Yoko and got rejected, this was the final straw for him and he ended his life. Pretty dark stuff for a kids show XD. But seriously having a case that emotional definitely surprised me, I'm honestly impressed by the complexity of this case and how sad it was. Kogorou’s blind love for Yoko in this episode was also entertaining seeing such and obviously biased detective is always pretty funny.

Another memorable part of this episode was when Conan uses his new gadget to speak to Ran on the phone, this scene was just to wholesome to not bring up.

Overall this episode contains one of my favourite cases so far in the series both for it’s emotional and originality. 8/10

Episode 4[12/01/2026]

Synopsis

Shinichi and his classmates from elementary school have gone to a museum exhibit. After seeing some interesting stuff, Shinichi tells them that much of the undiscovered treasure in the world is gold bullion, a piece of paper with simplistic drawings flies towards them. Shinichi’s classmates think it is a treasure map but Shinichi doubts that possibility. However, others start tailing the group when they find the piece of paper. They come to conclusion that it’s a treasure map, Shinichi and his new friends form the Junior Detective Club to find out more.

## Fish Marks The Spot

As the Junior Detective club try to find out more about this treasure a group of shady looking guys start to follow them around. Shinichi notices them but for some reason doesn’t really seem to be that fazed by them. The shady looking guys in question are trying to use these kids to help find the treasure. This entire idea is dumb to me, why do a bunch of random guys trust a group of primary school students to discover a mystery and why does Shinichi not seem to care that their being followed?!?! I was going to make a summary of how they discovered the mystery but it was so uninteresting I don’t feel like covering it. After arriving out were the treasure was located the shady looking men held the kids hostage and threatens to kill them if they don’t show where the treasure is. The gold treasure was dangling down from ceiling, Conan baited them into standing below the treasure, dropped the heavy bags of gold on their heads and called the police.

## Conclusion I really didn’t enjoy this episode it was so boring and uneventful you knew exactly what was going to happen from the very beginning. You knew the criminals were following them and you knew they were going to kidnap them. The lead up to them solving the mystery was even more uninteresting it basically boiled down to them looking for things that corelated with the drawings that was it, no interesting complex puzzle they had to solve, it was just looking for two things that looked the same. I also just find the Junior Detective Club annoying, they add very little to the episode other than being dumb and unfunny, they did attempt humour but sadly I didn’t find the jokes about underwear that amusing. The fact the episode was entirely based around this one mystery made it all the worse, they completely skipped over how this trio convinced Conan to be their friend which would have been interesting considering Shinichi is 16 and these kids are still in primary school. Too weird? Maybe, but not weird enough for Japan. 4/10

Episode 5 [14/01/26]

Synopsis

Shinichi, Ran, Kogoro, and for some reason the Junior Detective Club are all going on a trip to celebrate a wedding. However, the train ride is not so peaceful. There are two men are board that look similar to the ones who gave Shinichi the drug that returned him to childhood while leaving his mind intact. Noticing that fact, Shinichi decides to eavesdrop on their conversation using one of Dr. Agasa’s new gadgets. While listening in, Shinichi finds out that the men planted a bomb on the train in the form of a briefcase. As the only one that knows this fact, Shinichi must track down the location of the bomb before the person that has it unknowingly sets it off.

## The Time Bomb Express

The two men go to leave the train and Conan chases after them, Ran stops Conan and the men get away. Conan warns the Railroad Police but sadly they don’t take him seriously. When listening to the conversation that the two men had about the bomb one of them mentioned that they could finally smoke again, meaning they were previously in a non smoking area. They also spoke being able to look down at the scenery, there was only one place that met both criteria's, the top floor of train cart number 7. When he arrives there are only 4 people one of them must have the briefcase. Sadly with all the snooping around Conan has bin doing Ran starts to get concerned and takes him back to his seat, with little time left Conan considers revealing who he really is. Until suddenly a member of the Junior Detective Club mentions how you can only see the mountain on a specific side of the train. One of the people at the top of train cart number 7 can’t see the view meaning they did it and lied to cover up their shady business deal. With only a minute to spare Conan rushes to them and kicks the briefcase out the window saving everyone on board.

### Music

When Conan reaches out to the Railroad police there is the awesome funk song that plays. I couldn’t find it online but It’s super groovy and has a really nice bassline.

Derp

On the train Ren looks over at the Junior Detective Club causing her to make a pretty goofy looking face. I think it was too good for me to not point out.

Conclusion

Kogoro wasn’t really in this episode much and usually that’d be a bad thing but honestly this episode was really good despite his lack of involvement.

I had a flash back to episode 4 watching this. Shinichi makes an excuse to retrieve his paper airplane, in order to check some guy’s briefcase, but when Shinichi opens the case, the guy gets shocked, as does Shinichi, since he thinks it is a bomb. However, the contents turn out to be boxer shorts. The cute girly boxers land on Shinichi's head, which is made all the funnier because of the guys tuff gangster looks. In the last episode I mentioned that I didn’t really like the jokes about underwear but honestly this one executed it much better.

There is a blogpost by Magicbox were he points out some of the issues he had with the Anime adaptation if your a fan of the manga and have seen the original sauce material you might find this episode a bit underwhelming. To put it short in the manga Gin and Vodka , the people who drugged him, were involved in this case but in the anime they were omitted out of it instead we got two people who look like them. In the manga Conan learns who Gin and Vodka are, skipping past how Conan even figures out there names creates a massive plot whole in the series. The overall case was fun but the ending could definitely have bin executed in a more interesting way. Despite all that this episode is a classic, it’s honestly really memorable I could recall exactly what happened from back when I originally watched it a year ago. 7/10

Episode 6 [17/01/26]

Synopsis

It’s Valentine’s Day, and Ran’s friend Sonoko is daydreaming about a guy called Minagawa whom she recently met. Eager to go out with him, Sonoko arranges a double date at a party: she’ll be paired with her crush, while Ran will go out with his friend. Ran isn’t remotely interested in any guy other than Shinichi but she still agrees to come along, since Shinichi hasn’t asked her out or made any plans with her. Conan hears about this double date and isn’t happy, he decides to follow Ran and Sonoko to the party.  

On the day of the party, Ran, Sonoko, and, secretly Shinichi attend. Things are going peacefully. Until suddenly, during dessert time, Sonoko’s crush Minagawa turns up dead outside with some chocolate found next to his body. The prime suspect is the one the victim truly loved, but another member had a motive. Now, Shinichi must find the guilty party before the possibly wrong suspect is taken away. ## Tragic Valentine

Kogoro arrives at the crime scene ready to make a complete mess of this case, while conan does all the work.

It seemed as though everyone in this case had some sort of motive for killing Minagawa, and considering all the items he received on Valentine’s Day, determining who poisoned him was incredibly difficult.
One of Minagawa’s acquaintances, who was often mistreated by him, gave Minagawa a cigarette. Because this person had a clear motive and there was evidence pointing towards him, he was quickly questioned. The acquaintance had in fact poisoned the cigarette, but the case does not end there. The poison was placed in the cigarette’s filter, but Minagawa removed the filter before smoking it, meaning he was not poisoned by the cigarette.

After this Conan notices something strange, Minagawa’s own mother was washing the dishes, this is incredibly bizarre. Why would you be washing the dishes in the middle of an investigation on your own sons murder? Conan finding this weird attempts to take control over the situation, using his new stun gun he received from Dr. Agasa and his voice changing device, he stuns Kogoro and impersonates him. Conan points out that he didn’t smoke the cigarette through the filter and suspects Minagawa’s own mother to be the murderer. She gave everyone a coffee and a cake, the coffee was poisoned and the cake was a cure the poison, she knew Minagawa didn’t like sweet stuff and wouldn’t eat the cake. There was poison all over the plates and cups so she immediately got to cleaning to remove the evidence but it was too late Conan had sussed her out. She tried to frame other people by poisoning chocolate and placing it near the body but the chocolate melted, showing on her clothes. Minagawa’s “mother” actually isn’t his real mother his real mum died in a tragic accident and Minagawa was taken in by her. His “mother” was desperate for money and tried to kill him to take his property.

Sonoko Suzuki

Sonoko was introduced for the first time in this episode and you immediately get a sense to what kind of character she is, blinded by love she ignored all the toxic traits that Minagawa has, Minagawa would shout and berate someone for not dancing like a monkey for him and Sonoko will for some reason just characterize that as a positive trait. The best way of describing her in my opinion is that she’s the complete opposite of Ran. Sonoko is careless and energetic while Ran is cautious and more reserved.

### Tropes

They do a very classic anime trope in this episode, the guy that Ran is on a date with tries to make his move to kiss her and mistakenly grabs Conan’s hand, saying he was waiting for so long. He then kisses Shinichi on the lips and realizes that he kissed another guy instead of Ran, this leads to Conan losing it and hitting him right on the head. This type of scenario is pretty common especially in ecchi anime:

Sexual scenario → Both parties get embarrassed → Violent altercation

Am I a bit sick of it?

Not really, tropes within media are often pretty comforting for the viewer. In times of stress or emotional irregularity, predictable tropes provide a sense of control and comfort, the predictability is what relaxes the viewers insuring them that everything will be alright. Yes I am saying this about a trope witch usually involves sexual harassment…. Oh Japan…

“Filler Episode”

I will not take the slander that this is a filler episode!!! This episode doesn’t appear within the manga people have quickly come to the conclusion that it’s a filler episode this is not true! In this episode we get introduced to Sonoko who is Rens friend and is incredibly important to the series, we also get introduced to one of the most overused gadgets in the series the stun gun. With all this in mind how can you consider this a filler episode?!?!?!

Conclusion

I honestly really enjoyed this episode it does a really good job at subverting your expectations both a cigarette and a piece of chocolate where both found near the dead body but none of them killed Minagawa. Despite them subverting expectations we did actually get given some clues for example there was a little boy who got scolded by the mum for eating sweet things but then is told to eat a cake. This obvious contradiction was pretty easy to pick up on and after you see the mum cleaning the dishes it just confirms whatever suspicions you might’ve had. Despite everything that happened this episode Kogoro the fucking legend takes the plate for the best moment, the dude just appears from out of nowhere inside of this house full of people he’s never met before only to make the most braindead deduction ever. What a legend! 7/10