Merely Mystery Reading Challenge - Detective Conan

From Left to Right: Kaito Kid (who has his own manga), Heiji, Conan

To prove how "serious" I am about the challenges, I'm participating in it in my first official review post of the year. (Plus, I more or less finished it first).

Detective Conan (Meitantei Conan) is a wonderful manga written by Gosho Aoyama, and if you read my Matantei Loki review, you'll know I called it "deceptively cute", because behind the (relatively) cute graphics are some seriously brutal murders.

Although the manga is mostly episodic in nature, it's held together by one overarching plot: Shinichi Kudo, having been turned into a small child (now called Edogawa Conan, after Arthur Conan Doyle), is after those who responsible - The Black Organisation. In order to track them, he has to help his crush/girlfriend's father Kogoro Mouri's detective agency, in hope of gathering relevant information.

After reading all 802 chapters of the manga currently out (it's still a work-in-progress), I guess I've learnt some very morbid stuff, mainly to do with how people die. Hmm... and the other huge fans I know are my brother (that's my fault), and two little girls at Church (I had nothing to do with this). But I guess it just turns you into a detective-otaku, rather than a wannabe murderer, unless you have the inclination. I think.

But seriously speaking, this very long read has very lovable characters. Many many lovable characters. Although to me, the most notable thing is how likable the girl characters are. Because I don't read many shoujou manga, I tend to dislike the Mary-Sue-esque girls found in the manga/anime, like Sakuno in Prince of Tennis (A Mary-Sue, incidentally, is one of those annoyingly perfect girls).

If you're a newbie to the series (as I was about one month ago), the many characters are daunting. But no worries, the best resource is Detective Conan World Wiki. It's also a measure of how fanatical fans are. This wiki (which is far Superior to the wiki page), details the character histories, manga histories and even has the different theories about the Black Organisation (there are some larger, unsolved mysteries). And they notice every detail, to quote:

"It is unclear at this point if Scar Akai is the real Shuichi Akai or an imposter. So far, the commentary in the manga sidebars assumes Scar Akai is the real Shuichi Akai; however, the commentary has been purposefully misleading in past arcs."

I don't know about your fandom, but this one (Proud member of the Conan fandom here), will look at clues outside the manga-universe into the non-canon clues.

So yes, this is (to me), one of the best detective manga's ever. The 800+ chapters flew past, and I didn't really notice the passage of time (I average about 50-100 chapters a day). In the Merely Mystery Reading Challenge, I would put this as a Locked Room Mystery, since many of the mysteries appear impossible to the police/reader, although a second reading reveals clues that substantiate the logical explanations.

Notable Quotes:

"One Truth Prevails" (Conan/Shinichi)

Need more? A very entertaining fanfiction: It's Raining Men, Hallelujah can tide you over till the next chapter appears.