One of my favorite series I've been reading is "Case Closed" from Viz Media ("Detective Conan" for my Japanese brothers and sisters). As far as ongoing serials go this is not one of the holy grails of comics. Truth be told, it's mainly a one trick pony. It's really about nothing more then a teenage detective whose been turned into a little boy and now solves murder crimes with voice changing bow ties, radar glasses, and solar powered skateboards (not kidding). It's strange, but the formula is basically this:
- Someone gets murdered .
- There are several possible suspects.
- Conan uses his thinking skills and catches the culprit.
I guess the easiest way to describe this series is a cross between "The Hardy Boys" and "Murder She Wrote." Though it may not be known for it's twists, volume 25 in the series just gave us two twists. Two BIG twists! The first one you can see above you. Without getting too much into the circumstances, lets just say Conan and the Jr. Detective League (the weakest characters in the series I hate to admit) walked in on a shady crime and got noticed. Because of this one of the criminals tried to shoot Amy and Conan bravely protected her. Of course, now he's greatly wounded and can't help them, while the criminals are still marching onwards. Just to let you guys know the kids get away. But what to do about Conan? Well he's taken to the hospital and given an operation. They don't show whether or not he survives, but they end the book with this odd shot:
Now I want to say upfront that there is no doubt in my mind Conan's going to live. I mean, there are 50 volumes of this series printed in Japan and counting, so I doubt he's going to bite the dust so early. But what a shock of an ending. This picture above strongly suggests that Rachel knows that this little kid with the big glasses is actually Jimmy Kudo. I figured she would figure this out eventually as, unlike her father, she is not a useless idiot. But the fact that it's happened could potentially change the conflict in the series. Will Rachel still be over protective of Conan after this? Maybe not because she knows who he is. Though maybe she will seeing that she loves him so much. Will he share the story of what happened to her? Will he burden her with information that could get her killed? If he doesn't will it hurt their friendship? Either way the next volume can't get here fast enough.
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