Ad

"Case Closed" Anime to Get Second Lease on Life?


It's hard to believe, but I've been watching/reading "Case Closed" for sixteen years.  That is an insane amount of time to be dedicated to a series.  The reason I still support the series though is obvious: It's a good series.  I first saw the show years ago on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim programing block.  I loved the show instantly because I've always been a fan of the 'whodunit' genre.  Sherlock Holmes, Hardy Boys, "Murder She Wrote," Agatha Christie...you name it, I love it!  Heck, I've spent a good chunk of my time in quarantine finally pouring over J.K. Rowlings Cormoran Strike mystery series!  Sadly, the anime never quite caught on in a way that original distribution company Funimation was happy with.  Despite releasing it in multiple formats, they never got beyond 130 episodes and six movies.  Since then the license has lapsed and subtitled only episodes of the series stream on Netflix and Crunchyroll.

The manga is evidently MUCH more profitable, as Viz Media continues to churn those out (I believe they're on volume 78 as of this writing)!  I'm thankful that the manga had some amount of success in the states as it provided me a way to keep up with the series.  Still, I was always a little sad that the anime was never a bigger hit.  However, it appears "Case Closed" has a second chance to make it's 'case' (ho ho) in America as being worth a companies time.  For one of the many anniversary events, the company behind "Case Closed" decided to make a TV special called "Detective Conan: Episode 'One'," which took the first episode of the TV series and remade it in high definition.  It makes sense since in Japan the series has been on the air since 1996 (more than TWENTY YEARS ago), and this would be a good launching pad for new fans who might not understand why the old stuff looks so crusty in comparison to what's currently airing.

Well, Discotek Media (likely bolstered by good sales of their "Lupin III vs. Detective Conan" DVD's) has decided to dip their toe into the "Case Closed" world!  They have confirmed that they have already dubbed a couple movies but will actually use the aforementioned special as a 'soft reboot' of the series in America.  This makes sense; "Case Closed" has largely been out of the anime conversation in America for years, so this is a great way to re-introduce the series to western audiences.  The new dub does not appear to use any of the old voice actors *sniff* and will be reverting back to the original Japanese names (I have no idea where this leaves the manga from Viz Media).  Even better is that this will be the first "Case Closed" release in the west to be on BluRay!  Obviously if you are a "Case Closed" fan who thought you'd never see another official anime release in America probably owes it to themselves to buy this release.

It will be interesting to see if the series sells well enough for Discotek Media to continue with new releases.  If successful they'll likely at least bring a few more movies over.  If more success follows those, maybe they'll decide to give the show itself another shot.  I don't know what that would look like.  It would be nice if they could just relicense the Funimation dub and pick up where they left off, but with the new voice actors and original names that's likely off the table (except as a bonus feature).  Also, do they want to spend money redubbing episodes that have been readily available for years?  Is the solution to do a "great hits" dub, where as only the best and (story wise) most important episodes dubbed, while standard mystery episodes are skipped?  Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, but I will say that whatever happens it's exciting to think that Conan is going to have a second chance at life in America!  Who knows, maybe Conan O'Brien could make a big stink about it?!

Your Comic Book Guy - Kevin

Post a Comment

0 Comments