| | |  | MYSTERY | Home » » » » Case Closed, Vol. 1 | | | | | | | Product Promotions: | | | | | Description: | | Manga detective series about a teenage super-sleuth who evades death at the hands of gun smugglers, only to become trapped in the body of a child. | | | Features: | |
• ISBN13: 9781591163275
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
| | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Gosho Aoyama | | Paperback:
| 200 pages | | Publisher:
| VIZ Media LLC | | Publication Date:
| September 07, 2004 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 1591163277 | | Package Length:
| 7.4 inches | | Package Width:
| 5.0 inches | | Package Height:
| 0.7 inches | | Package Weight:
| 0.3 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 11 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
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 Case ClosedFeb 05, 2010
Very fun! I gave this as a gift to my husband (we're currently renting the series from Netflix) and he said that the manga was fantastic (and of course, now he wants to read the rest... :)
Case Closed Volume One!Jan 29, 2010
This book is GREAT! It is about a high schooler who solves mysteries. One day when he takes a friend to the amusement park, he solves a crime there. And then he follows some strange men who end up drugging him and wen he wakes up...hes a little kid!!! This book has it all: ACTION, ROMANCE, COMEDY, and FUN!!!! Please by all means.. buy this!!!
 Tiny teen SherlockOct 03, 2009
It's a rough life being a teenage detective genius -- crimes happen everywhere, and strange people may shrink you into a small child. Such are the problems for Jimmy Kudo in the first volume of Gosho Aoyama's "Case Closed," a solid little mystery manga with a healthy dollop of comic relief and romance -- the mysteries are a bit spotty, but promise to improve drastically.
Jimmy Kudo is a detecting genius, to the point where the police call him in all the times and he gets fanmail from girls. But at a trip to the amusement park with his childhood friend Rachel, he has to solve a gruesome beheading on a rollercoaster. And when he later witnesses a blackmail payoff, he's knocked unconscious and force-fed a poison by a pair of mysterious men in black. And they're not as nice as Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith.
When Jimmy wakes, he's horrified to realize that he's been shrunk into the body of a first-grader. His old friend, kooky scientist Dr. Agasa, says that he must keep his true identity a secret to keep the MIBs from returning -- and he should live with Rachel and her dad until he can find the mysterious men, nab a bit of the poison, and have Agasa make an antidote.
But while Rachel's dad Richard is a detective, he's a pretty inept one. So Jimmy -- now using the name "Conan Edogawa" -- must solve the cases through hints, dropped clues, and some James-Bondian gadgets. The first is the case of a kidnapped little girl, which takes an unexpected twist when someone ELSE kidnaps her. And then Richard's favorite pop idol needs his help -- first she's being stalked, and then a man is found dead in her apartment.
Most first volumes have some awkwardness, but Gosho Aoyama does a commendably smooth job in "Case Closed Volume 1." He introduces the characters and the beginning of an overarcing plot -- in this case a sinister syndicate, a mystery poison, and some truly gruesome crimes. One particularly nasty moment has a decapitated man's body spewing blood on a rollercoaster... definitely not for kids.
The main problem is that the first few mysteries solved (especially the one in the first few pages) are rather simplistic and easily solved. They also get a bit far-fetched at times... seriously, who dies like THAT? And for some inexplicable reason, they changed the original Japanese names to Westernized ones.
However, the story itself is pretty solid -- Aoyama weaves together a unique dilemma, some murky bad guys and odd crime-solving methods (ventriloquism! Dog-riding!). He also gives it a hefty dose of humor ("I wanna go home with big sister!"), usually from the inept Richard. And there are some flickers of he-bugs-me-but-I-love-him romance between Rachael and Jimmy, which is somewhat hampered by his tiny prepubescent body.
Jimmy is a pretty endearing character despite being a genius who is fully aware of that fact -- he's also kind, sharp-witted, and a massive detective geek who prattles endlessly about Sherlock Holmes. You really feel for him when he gets chased by cops through the rainy streets, after being turned into a seven-year-old. And while Rachael seems too grumpy at first, Aoyama soon fleshes her out into a butt-kicking yet sensitive heroine.
"Case Closed Volume 1's" mysteries aren't yet truly baffling whodunnits, but Gosho Aoyama starts off his ultra-longrunning series pretty smoothly. An enjoyable start, and it only gets better.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
 How Jimmy became Conan.Jan 03, 2008
Gosho Aoyama, Case Closed vol. 1 (ViZ, 1994)
Back before I switched cable companies, I got a station called ColoursTV of which I was greatly enamoured. Prime time weekdays was reserved for Funimation, an importer of anime that managed to come up with the some of the coolest shows I've ever seen come out of Japan. One of them, and the one I miss most dearly these days, was Case Closed. So when I found the manga sitting at my local library, I was overjoyed and immediately dove in.
Volume 1 gives us the story of Jimmy Kuda, high school super-detective, before he becomes Conan Edogawa. (Because the idea of a high-school super-detective just isn't enough weirdness for a manga, it seems.) We see him solve a few cases, meet some of the main characters, and get himself into the tangle that results in the creation of his alter ego, pint-sized primary-school sleuth Edogawa. Fast-paced and fun, a good start to the series. *** ½
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
SHRUNK TO A SIX YEAR OLDSep 30, 2006
Jimmy Kudo tries his best to be like his idol Sherlock Holmes by helping the authorities solve baffling crimes even though he's just a junior at Teitan High School. His mind has been trained by reading an extensive library of detective novels, which include those written by his own father, who along with his mother, work in the United States, leaving Jimmy to fend for himself. He might have gotten involved in one case too many as he is knocked unconscious while witnessing a blackmail payoff. Instead of killing him outright for what he's seen, a mysterious man in black slips him an experimental untraceable poison and leaves Jimmy for dead. But instead of bringing about his death, the poison transforms his body into that of a 6-year-old boy! Of course noone believes that he is Jimmy Kudo, except Dr. Agasa, a mad scientist that happens to live next door. Agasa advises the boy to keep his identity secret because if the guys that poisoned him find out he is still alive, they'll just come after him. Better to let them think he's dead. Taking the name Conan Edogawa, Jimmy must keep his secret even from the girl that loves him, Rachel Moore, even as he moves in with her and her father, who is a sorry private detective. Conan will try to use the resources in Richard Moore's office to track down those who gave him the poison and hopefully get his body back to its normal size. Along the way, he will help Rachel and her dad solve cases while at the same time never revealing his real identity.
Volume 1 of Case Closed is a promising read that is nothing if not entertaining. The art is more influenced by Disney than most manga I've read and gives you a feeling of anthropomorphized animals like Donald Duck or Goofy. While the art seems very kiddy-friendly there are some very unfriendly scenes in this book of graphic violence such as a man getting decapitated on a rollercoaster and bloody corpses. Actually, this ability to show some of the crime scenes is what makes it interesting to older readers. While Case Closed is no CSI, this book provided some entertaining mysteries even though it fumbles on its own passion to connect dots and make plot twists, which can be a failure in any mystery novel. The characters are cool, but I could have done without the needless identity secret giving Rachel an ulcer. Jimmy could have at least told HER if he told some crazy scientist so she wouldn't be worrying about him. A good start to the series.
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