Case Closed volume 1
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(quoted from the back of Case Closed volume 1)
Ghastly beheadings, bloody murders, and cold-hearted child abductions--
Precocious high school student Jimmy Kudo uses his keen powers of observation and astute intuition to solve mysteries that have left law enforcement officals baffled. Hot on the trail of a suspect, Jimmy is accosted from behind and fed a strange chemical which physically transforms him into a grade schooler! Taking on the pseudonym Conan Edogawa, he attempts to track down the people who did this to him. But until he finds a cure for his bizarre condition, Jimmy continues to help the police solve their toughest cases.
Can you crack the case before Conan does?
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Case Closed volume 1 contains:
File 1: A Modern-Day Sherlock Holmes
File 2: The Great Detective Turned Small
File 3: The Unwelcome Great Detective
File 4: The Sixth Smokestack
File 5: The Other Perpetrator
File 6: From Third-Rate to Great Detective
File 7: The Bloody Case of the Lovely Pop Idol
File 8: Resemblance
File 9: An Unfortunate Misunderstanding
Storyline:
Case Closed doesn't exactly have the strongest plot/storyline but it does offer an excellent variety of mystery cases that walk you step-by-step through each one. This series probably wouldn't win any awards for its originality, but the mysteries are top notch.
Artwork:
The first thing I noticed when I read Case Closed was that the artwork seemed very outdated. I haven't seen art like this since some of the older series back in the day (good times...). Also, the artwork seemed very childish when I first opened up this volume, it struck me as odd when I read the first murder case. The murder and gore shown during the crimes doesn't fit the overall feel of the artwork. Still, the characters and backgrounds do an excellent job developing a sense of individuality towards the series. Also, I never had any problems trying to tell the difference between characters or the settings (and in a series like this, this is very important).
Characters:
Case Closed is a series that focuses mostly on the mysteries and the characters/character development definetly take a backseat because of this (though, this is a lot more noticeable in future volumes). Even though this is true, the characters aren't necessarily bad but they just aren't great either. Jimmy Kudo, the main hero of this lovely story, is a cocky bastard and the author makes this clear from page 1, but he seems to be missing something which makes him seem very undeveloped. Still, Jimmy manages to build a relationship with his classmate, Rachel Moore, but that is about as far as the series goes into that. Actually, most of the characters in Case Closed seem incomplete, though this isn't a huge deal to this series because it doesn't need as strong of characters. Thankfully, the author did one brilliant move, Aoyama added the character Richard Moore into the series. Richard is the dumbass who manages to hide most of the faults in the series with his stupid accusations, horrible logic, etc.
Summary (Warning: May Contain Spoilers)
Since Case Closed is a mystery series I don't want to give away any of the ends to the cases so I'm pretty much just going to summarize each of the chapters and the cases (I know i usually tell every spoiler but I'm being lazy today).
In the first chapter Jimmy Kudo solves two cases. The first case is on page one involving some mansion murder. The next case happens when Jimmy takes his high school crush, Rachel Moore, to an amusement park. During a rollercoaster someone gets murdered and Jimmy quickly reveals the culprit. After the investigation, Jimmy ditches Rachel follows some mysterious men in black. He finds out that they were performing in illegal operations and then he gets hit on the back of the head and poisoned, shrinking him into the body of a grader schooler.
In chapter two Jimmy has shrunken and he sneaks away from the scene of the crime and meets up with his neighbor, Dr. Agasa. After a long conversation Jimmy makes him believe that he is in fact Jimmy, bite-size. Dr. Agasa tells Jimmy that he can't tell anyone his secret or they could get killed. Right then, Rachel bursts into the room where Dr. Agasa and Jimmy are talking. Dr. Agasa says that the bite sized Jimmy is his nephew and then Jimmy comes up with the name Conan Edogawa (I will be referring to Jimmy as Conan for the rest of my future reviews and this summary). At the end of the chapter Conan and Rachel meet up with her father and go to solve a case.
Chapters 3, 4, and 5 are about a ransom mystery. Conan, Rachel, and Richard go to a huge house and find out that a man's daughter had been kidnapped. At the beginning of the case no one believes Conan even though he pretty much solved the case (because he looks like a kid now) so he walks Richard through the case and everyone finds out that the girl had been kidnapped twice. Conan does some of his own investigating and finds where the girl is being held but he is helpless against the killer because of his small size. Rachel comes to the rescue, kicks the shit out of the criminal, and everyone lives happily-ever-after at the end of this chapter (until the next case!)
In chapters 6-9 Conan gets on a new case with one of his new gadgets, the voice modifier! With this gadget he can change his voice to fit any wavelength! His new case is about a young popstar going to Richard because someone is stalking her. Richard is obsessed with this popstar so he immediately agrees to take on the case. After going to her apartment, this case quickly goes from stalking to murder as a young man is found dead in her room. After calling over the police Conan quickly solves this case and has to walk everyone through the case until he gets mad, kicks a stone at Richard's head (which knock's him out) and uses his voice modifier to tell who killed the young man. At the end of chapter 9 Conan uses his voice modifier to call Rachel and tell her that he is on a new case (he's using his old voice to talk to Rachel) and he'll be back ASAP.
Extras:
Not much to say here. Except for the measily author commentary, that is under a paragraph long, and a Sherlock Holmes recommendation, there is absolutely no extras in this novel. No preview of the next volume, no teasers, no porn (wait...no...), no nothing...Quite sad.
Content Warnings:
-Language: Yes
-Violence: Yes
-Nudity: No
-Sexual Situations: No
Overall:
Case Closed is a good series that definetly gives the reader some excellent cases to give a crack at. But if you aren't a mystery fan or you're looking for something with a little more plot, better artwork, or stronger characters look elsewhere. The best part about this volume is that it is probably one of the few volumes actually required to read if you want to know about the simple story. From here on out you can pretty much just read any volume because each of them have their own cases and stuff, and until Conan encounters the "men in black" (not until somewhere around volume 30) not much plot progression should happen.
+ Excellent mysteries that only get better in future volumes; they also do a good job of walking you through the mysteries so that if you like solving the cases this is the perfect series for you.
- Undeveloped characters that don't exactly leave any memorable experiences, very little reread value, and if you don't like mysteries you
probably won't like Case Closed.
Score: 6.5/10
