Search - Case Closed: Season 1 Set on DVD

An anime classic

R.B from KC | 07/04/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was extremely happy when Case Closed (detective conan) came to Cartoon Network so many years ago, and so very sad when it was canceled after only 50 or so episodes.

Basically Case Closed (detective conan) is the story of Jimmy (Shinichi) Kudo, a famous high school detective and devout follower of Sherlock Holmes, that is poisoned by the mysterious "Black Organization" and becomes the child detective Conan Edogawa through a side effect of the experemental drug he was poisoned with. After moving in with his childhood friend and love interest (Their first date happens in Episode 1, before Jimmy gets poisoned) Rachel (Mori Ran) and her father Richard Moore (Mori Kogorou), Conan begins to solve cases, using Richard Moore as a puppet (after being knocked out by a tranquilizer dart, and using a voice changer to sound like Richard) as he attempts to find the black organization, and restore his body to normal. All the while, Conan must keep Rachel from learning the truth of his identity, or risk her and her father being eliminated by the black organization.

The formula for Case Closed is basically 30-50 episode spans of Conan solving regular cases, as his relationship with Rachel (His relationship with her, in the form of Jimmy) begins to degrade due to their distance, and his relationship with her as Conan grows, with an episode related to the black organization every now and again. After 500+ episodes of the series in Japan, only about 20-30 have had any relation to the black organization, so when thinking about buying this series, I'd warn you that you may never get to see the end, unless you speak Japanese (I do) and have a friend that owns every single Japanese episode on DVD (which I also do). Overall, Case Closed is an at-times endearing series, with good mysteries for the first 200 episodes or so (at which point they all kind of blur together. There are only so many ways someone can get bumped off, and only so many possible motives for someone to do it) The only problem is that I doubt Funimation will be dubbing any more episodes (please prove me wrong Funi..) so set 3 or 4 or whatever might be the last they ever release, when in fact they could release 20 sets and not reach the end of the series. The Black Organization is a truly worthwhile enemy, despite this being a "For kids" anime (considering it's 10 years old now, anyone that was a kid when it premiered, is now out of highschool probably. The stories have always been mature, but they are getting even moreso now. Yes, that's right, it's 10 years old, 500 episodes in, and it's STILL GOING IN JAPAN. You may never see the ending if you prefer dubs and don't speak Japanese).

This is the cheapest Detective Conan has ever been in the US, and I believe it's finally time for me to purchase it, considering that I've been a fan for many years now, and have thus far relied on my friend and on funimation TV reruns to get my Conan fix. Case Closed (Detective Conan in Japanese) is a gigantic investment as far as time and money goes, and considering that there are entire 26 episode animes you can get for the same price, I can see why people might be reluctant about this anime (especially considering the ratings were terrible on Cartoon Network), but if you give this show a chance, you might find a full 500 episode (and counting) saga to delve into."

Finally, the Season Set.

Douglas Paul Smallish | West Concord, MN | 07/06/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've been waiting and waiting for this. Now I can get the DVD Season Sets.

Right now I have the Cartoon Network's [adult swim] made for TV recorded on my PC. The [adult swim] episodes run from season 1 to season 3 and season 3 is just a partial set. It's missing episodes: 050 - The Book Without Pages, 051 - Driving a Bomb, 052 - The Last Dive. However, the Video Quality is seriously lacking and I love watching these in the original Japanese voice over. I have the first 80 episodes spanning season 1 to season 5 and filling in after the [adult swim] recordings with DVD copies. Season 5 is only partial, I'm just missing 3 episodes: 081 - Murder and Mahjong, 082 - The Revengeful Robber, 083 - Dead Hobo.

Here's a list of the most complete list available in the English voice over (Season designation may not be exact):

Season 1
001 - The Big Shrink +
002 - The Kidnapped Debutante +
003 - Beware of Idols +
004 - Fish Marks the Spot +
005 - The Time Bomb Express +
006 - Tragic Valentine +
007 - The Case of the Mysterious Gifts +
008 - The Art Museum Murder Case +
009 - Festival Fiasco +
010 - Deadly Game +
011 - Moonlight Sonata Murder Part 1 +
012 - Moonlight Sonata Murder Part 2 +
013 - Kidnapped: Amy +
014 - Mystery Mastermind +
015 - The Shooter +
016 - The Two Faced Brother +
017 - A Loan Repaid +
018 - Case of the Hi-Jacked Department Store +
019 - Wedding Day Blues +

Season 2
020 - Fashion Sense +
021 - The Disappearing Act +
022 - Lights, Camera ... Murder +
023 - Smooth Sailing Part 1 +
024 - Smooth Sailing Part 2 +
025 - Better Off Forgotten +
026 - The Counterfeit Ransom Kidnapping +
027 - Jack Attacks! +
028 - Richard's Class Reunion Part 1 +
029 - Richard's Class Reunion Part 2 +
030 - The Computer Murder Case +
031 - The Missing Melody +
032 - Murder at the Television Studio +
033 - Murder at the Local Diner +
034 - A Hunting We Will Go +
035 - Mountain Villa Murder Part 1 +
036 - Mountain Villa Murder Part 2 +
037 - Wrong Place at the Wrong Time +

Season 3
038 - Prickly Past +
039 - Flames of Confusion +
040 - Billionaire Birthday Blues Part 1 +
041 - Billionaire Birthday Blues Part 2 +
042 - Left in Tatters +
043 - Karaoke Killing +
044 - Conan is Kidnapped +
045 - Unhappy Birthday +
046 - Unexpected Visitors +
047 - A Game of Murder +
048 - No Immunity for the Diplomat Part 1 +
049 - No Immunity for the Diplomat Part 2 +
050 - The Book Without Pages +
051 - Driving a Bomb +
052 - The Last Dive +

Season 4
053 - The Mist Goblin Murder Part 1 +
054 - The Mist Goblin Murder Part 2 +
055 - Weapon of Choice +
056 - Game Gone Bad +
057 - Train Trick +
058 - The Sunfish Murder +
059 - Footsteps of the Hero Part 1 +
060 - Footsteps of the Hero Part 2 +
061 - Shopping Can Be Murder +
062 - Illustrated Murder +
063 - Ghost Ship Murder Part 1 +
064 - Ghost Ship Murder Part 2 +
065 - Movie Mayhem, Gomera! +
066 - The Three Fingerprints +
067 - The Crab and Whale +

Season 5
068 - Moonless Murder +
069 - The Case of the Murdered Actress +
070 - The Stalker +
071 - Knight Baron Mystery Part 1 +
072 - Knight Baron Mystery Part 2 +
073 - Knight Baron Mystery Part 3 +
074 - Triple Terror +
075 - The Ship Wreck Murder S.O.S.! +
076 - Jinnai, King of Death +
077 - Phantom Thief 1412 Part 1 +
078 - Phantom Thief 1412 Part 2 +
079 - Mysterious Masked Murder Part 1 +
080 - Mysterious Masked Murder Part 2 +
081 - Murder and Mahjong -
082 - The Revengeful Robber -
083 - Dead Hobo -"

Famous Detective Conan

Zack Davisson | Seattle, WA, USA | 11/10/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Case Closed" ("Metaintei Conan" or "Famous Detective Conan") was a series that was hugely popular when I lived in Japan, on the same level as Naruto and One Piece, but one that I just never got around to viewing. There was no particular reason for this, and I always wanted to check it out, but...I didn't. (Strange too, because I am a huge fan of the two authors Conan takes his name from, Edogawa Rampo and Arthur Conan Doyle.)

When I finally go this Funimation release of "Case Closed Series One," I popped in the first DVD to expecting to give it a quick watch and that was the end of my Saturday. I got sucked in and spent the next several hours watching episode after episode until I had almost watched the entire box set in a single day. I polished off the rest of the set the next day!

Obviously, "Case Closed" is a lot of fun, and a great anime series. There is a reason it is as popular as it is. Telling the story of teenage detective Kudo Shinichi, a popular and handsome high school student who is also a famous detective, Shinichi finds himself caught up in a case featuring black-coated members of a secret crime organization who poison Shinichi to keep him off their tails. Instead of killing him, the poison shrinks Shinichi down to a child-sized body while keeping his intellect intact. Realizing he is better off playing dead for the moment until he can find a cure for the poison, Shinichi adopts the alias of Edogawa Conan after two of his favorite mystery writers and continues on solving mysteries.

"Case Closed" is only about half "boy Sherlock Holmes" with the other half being "boy James Bond." Conan's ally Professor Agasa serves as Conan's "Q," setting him up with high-tech gadgets to help Conan compensate for his childlike body and to add some action to the series. The episodes are pretty evenly split between mystery-orientated showing off Conan's detective skills and full on action/adventure.

There is a big ensemble cast to help along, like Mori Ran, Conan's lady interest back when he was the full sized Kudo Shinichi, but who now treats him like an Elementary school student, and Ran's father Mori Kogoro, a bumbling detective who manages to take the credit for all of Conan's discoveries. Conan also gets himself a little gang of "junior detectives" made up of his elementary school classmates who help out from time-to-time.

The big laughs of "Case Closed" comes from Conan having to deal with being trapped in a kid's body. Here is someone with a genius IQ being sent back to elementary school and being given rabbit-shaped balloons from girls when he would rather get a kiss. The series does a lot of good with this rather odd plot point, especially when dealing with Ran and her "babying" of Conan all the while longing for Shinichi, never realizing they are one and the same.

The only real drawback of the series is a nitpicky minor one. I realize that there are some legal entanglements from using the name "Conan" here in the West, due to its association with Conan the Cimmerian rather than Arthur Conan Doyle, but I am not a fan of the new title "Case Closed." Also, when doing the English-language track Funimation did more than just dub the series but gave it a whole "Western overall." Kudo Shinichi became Jimmy Kudo. Mori Ran became Rachel Moore. I didn't like this when it was done with the series Card Captor Sakura (Daidoji Tomoyo becoming "Madison Taylor") and I don't like it here either. Fortunately, with a quick swipe of the remote control button, the Japanese-language soundtrack can be selected and all such worries fall away.

I am definitely a Conan fan and will be picking up the rest of the series!"

It's like Scooby Doo for a slightly older audience.

Michael S Moore | 06/11/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

"It's a fun show, but the episodes that aren't chiefly a mystery feel like scenes from a generic children's show. The mystery episodes, however, are all very good."