Nobody likes a know-it-all.

Introduction

I admit I was intrigued by the premise for Gosho Aoyama's Case Closed, a premise that goes like this: genius high school kid has a penchant for solving mysteries; drinks poison that, rather than killing him, turns him into a 7-year old version of himself; and goes right on solving mysteries only, since no one believes a 7-year old can actually solve mysteries, must do so by manipulating an inept detective into acting as his proxy by using sleeping darts, thus earning the inept detective the moniker "The Sleeping Detective" and a reputation for brilliant investigative techniques he doesn't deserve, and so on. Actually, when you put it like that it does sound pretty out-there, but prior to picking up an actual volume of the Shogakukan Manga Award-winning series one can't help but let the mind soar over the endless possibilities presented by such a premise. In reality, however, Case Closed is a rather frustrating exercise.

I always like to think I "get it" where popular culture is concerned. That's not to say I always like the popular thing; in fact, I rarely do, but I like to think I at least understand why it is so. Case Closed, or Meitantei Conan as it known in Japan, is staggeringly popular in its home country for reasons I simply do not comprehend. While the writing is engaging there is far too much of it – pages upon pages crammed full of expository dialogue that renders the actual artwork an almost unnecessary redundancy; the mysteries are compact and neatly presented, but every one seems to start with a dead body falling at Conan's feet (literally) that is more reminiscent of the murder factory detective shows of the 1980s; and the quick solutions to these mysteries, while helping to keep things tight and moving along at a commendable pace, require such extraordinary deductive acumen and dizzying leaps in logic that it is impossible to take the stories at all seriously. In the era of Law & Order and CSI, the idea that some snot-nosed little know-it-all and his entourage would be allowed to roam willy-nilly over countless crime scenes mere seconds after the crime has been committed without being wrestled to the ground and restrained in handcuffs doesn't pass the laugh test. If you're looking for competent mystery fiction, abandon all hope ye who enter here.

However, there is simply no arguing with success. Countless volumes of manga, an anime series, fourteen feature films, video games, and even a live-action TV adaptation suggest I'm in the minority when I say Case Closed is better suited for serialization as a newspaper comic strip. Where things do get interesting is in the meta-story, the long plot arc involving a secret group known as the Black Organization and Conan's epic struggle against their men-in-black agents that is reminiscent of James Bond battling SPECTRE. But it is this long story arc that exposes another vulnerability: this manga series is very hard on the casual reader. Pick this series up in the middle, as I did, and you'll find it easy enough to get into the brief "Conan solves a murder" episodes (trivial as they are), but you'll also find it impossible to get your head around the larger narrative playing in the background and revealed in short scenes cropping up periodically in each chapter. Characters and references from past volumes make brief appearances that have no connection to the murder being investigated, but instead run parallel to the main action. Without knowledge of past events, you'll lack the context for these brief interludes and have no other recourse than to shrug your shoulders and move on.  Invest enough money and time to collect and read every volume and you'll be rewarded with a byzantine plot more akin to John Le Carré than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Highlights

At the very least, Aoyama-san can draw. His illustrations – what we can see of them under all the dialogue balloons anyway – are confidently rendered with strong, solid lines and effective use of screen and tone. He half-heartedly employs contrast to mixed success and his panel composition is compromised by over-crowding elements, not the least of which is the aforementioned dialogue. The overall impression is of characters struggling just to fit, like Gandalf in Frodo's hobbit-hole wishing for a little more headroom. Character designs fit the story, the style leaning more towards the cartoonish end of the spectrum, but there is an odd disconnect in the expressions on many characters—often creepy smiles where none are warranted—that makes me suspect Aoyama-san is trying anemically to obfuscate his murder plots by having all the suspects mug the camera with a villainous leer. The net effect is not so much shuffling the deck to keep us guessing as it is Aoyama-san telegraphing his punches. Oh, one of these sinister-looking peeps must be the killer. The stories are compact and told with reasonable efficiency—I was only disoriented a couple of times—but at the expense of just about everything else, including logic. Were Conan to have the luxury of focusing on his mighty struggle against the Black Organization and not be continually distracted by the legions of dead bodies he keeps tripping over, it would be easier to sing its praises. As it is, Case Closed is a fair-to-middling effort that is far more popular than it ought to be. Go figure.

Overview

There's no getting around it: this manga is a let-down. On the premise alone I had high hopes for a fun and even funny adventure with a unique protagonist and some mystery thrown in for good measure. Instead I find a manga title that is fatally formulaic and repetitious, which goes a long way to explaining Aoyama-san's prolific output over the last sixteen years. The series is punishing to casual readers picking up the narrative in the middle and Volume 34 is a lousy entry point. If you're willing to invest the time and resources into starting at the beginning, or have been following Conan from the start, then the meta-story, rising above the pedestrian murder plots, will amply reward your devotion. Certainly, the millions of fans of this series in Japan and elsewhere whose devotion has created an economic juggernaut see something in it that I do not. 

Star Rating

ComicsOnline rates Case Closed, Volume 34 2 very maggot-ridden dead bodies out of 5.