While anime franchises such as Dragon Ball and One Piece have found serious success in the West, there are some long-running anime properties that don’t hit the same heights as the Straw Hat Pirates and the Z-Fighters. Case Closed, otherwise known as Detective Conan, is perhaps the biggest example of a lengthy franchise that hasn’t been as big a hit in America as it is in Japan. With the pint-sized detective still releasing new anime episodes, manga chapters, and more to this day, creator Gosho Aoyama has confirmed that he is already thinking about how the story will end.
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As of the writing of this article, Detective Conan has surpassed twelve hundred episodes for its anime, not even taking into account the dozens of movies that have been a part of Case Closed. With so many stories under its belt, a final chapter release date is far from confirmed, though Aoyama has stated recently that he has a layout in mind for the last chapter. “I have drafted the thumbnail layouts for the final chapter,” Aoyama admitted, which proves that he has thought about how to end the anime franchise. Gosho is currently sixty-three years old, so the idea that the manga could end in several years makes sense.
Case Closed’s Long History
For those who might not be aware, Detective Conan actually predates One Piece by several years, though unlike Luffy and the Straw Hats’ adventures, Conan’s are quite different. Thanks to the various mysteries that the pint-sized investigator finds himself a part of, the long-running manga routinely acts as something of an anthology series more so than holding an overarching story. For example, Conan is still trapped in the body of a child, and it’s anyone’s guess if he’ll manage to return to his original form before the series’ end.
Aoyama is far from the first manga artist to hint at a potential ending for their series before the final chapter arrives. Two prominent examples of mangakas sharing their respective grand finales are Hunter x Hunter and Vagabond, with artists Yoshihiro Togashi and Takehiko Inoue sharing layouts for how their final chapter would look. In the case of Gon’s world, we witness a young girl, who might be a descendant of Gon himself, featured, while Vagabond teased the happiest ending that its characters could receive. We might not see the Detective Conan layout made public, but it’s clear that Aoyama is thinking about what should happen to the protagonist in the grand finale.
A major controversy, and perhaps a big reason as to why Case Closed hasn’t become bigger in North America, was the difficulty in streaming episodes in the West. Luckily, both Crunchyroll and Netflix have been working to bring installments to America, meaning more anime fans might fall in love with the tale of Conan.
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