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A review by kumo4
Case Closed, Vol. 1 by Gosho Aoyama
4.0
A really fun read! The framing lends itself well to an episodic style which I think is great. The main case is ofc the criminal organisation, which is very thrilling, especially with how intimidating and dangerous they are; they don't appear all that often, which makes it all the more exciting when they do.
All the cases themselves vary in quality, but the storytelling and especially the reveal of the criminal is always very formulaic.
The author tries to make it obvious which details are important clues so you can try to figure it out and the reveal is usually - bad guess from bad detective - build up to actual reveal, so you know that when you turn the page you get to the - actual reveal of WHO did it - then how they did it - then the crucial evidence that proves it - and in the end, the motive.
You can try to figure out each before they're stated, because they're always in the same order.
Overall, it's a lot of fun!
The author fits a lot of text into the speech bubbles, which may be unfortunate if you read in a language with long words, as the text may be a bit small, but I think the style is pretty good and you always know what to expect.
The main character, Shinichi/Conan is rather arrogant, but opinionated and likeable; throughout the series, other fun reocurring characters turn up, some fan-favourites appearing rather late in the series. Given that and the black organisation case, it doesn't get too dull, even though it's pretty long.
Given that the first volume was released in 1994, it may feel a bit out of date, but it doesn't detract from the cases and the tech in the story does update with the times; it's still ongoing afterall.
Not every case can be a winner, but that's a given. What really bothered me was the sexism; It's not quite as bad as I've seen in some other manga and I can tell that there was an attempt to introduce strong female characters (this term doesn't refer to physically strong!) but it does get better overall, for sure... And the fact that the series is rather old makes this also a bit better at least...
But it's still a bad look, especially because it's a detective story and it does make it harder to recommend to people.
Still a fun series tho.
All the cases themselves vary in quality, but the storytelling and especially the reveal of the criminal is always very formulaic.
The author tries to make it obvious which details are important clues so you can try to figure it out and the reveal is usually - bad guess from bad detective - build up to actual reveal, so you know that when you turn the page you get to the - actual reveal of WHO did it - then how they did it - then the crucial evidence that proves it - and in the end, the motive.
You can try to figure out each before they're stated, because they're always in the same order.
Overall, it's a lot of fun!
The author fits a lot of text into the speech bubbles, which may be unfortunate if you read in a language with long words, as the text may be a bit small, but I think the style is pretty good and you always know what to expect.
The main character, Shinichi/Conan is rather arrogant, but opinionated and likeable; throughout the series, other fun reocurring characters turn up, some fan-favourites appearing rather late in the series. Given that and the black organisation case, it doesn't get too dull, even though it's pretty long.
Given that the first volume was released in 1994, it may feel a bit out of date, but it doesn't detract from the cases and the tech in the story does update with the times; it's still ongoing afterall.
Not every case can be a winner, but that's a given. What really bothered me was the sexism; It's not quite as bad as I've seen in some other manga and I can tell that there was an attempt to introduce strong female characters (this term doesn't refer to physically strong!) but it does get better overall, for sure... And the fact that the series is rather old makes this also a bit better at least...
But it's still a bad look, especially because it's a detective story and it does make it harder to recommend to people.
Still a fun series tho.