Detective Conan
A teenage detective shrunk into a child's body solves Japan's trickiest murders, one locked room at a time.
Last updated: 10 November 2026
Detective Conan is a long-running mystery anime by TMS Entertainment, adapted from Gosho Aoyama's manga and known as Case Closed in North America. Shrunk by a criminal syndicate's poison, high school detective Shinichi Kudo lives undercover as schoolboy Conan Edogawa, solving cases through the adults around him while he searches for a cure. The TV series began on 8 January 1996, has passed 1,200 episodes, and is still airing, with a new film in Japanese cinemas almost every year.
About Detective Conan
Shinichi Kudo, a brilliant high school detective, follows two men in black and is force-fed an experimental poison. Instead of dying, he wakes in the body of a young child. Taking the name Conan Edogawa, he moves into the detective agency of Kogoro Mouri, father of his friend Ran, and quietly solves Kogoro's cases for him using gadgets built by Professor Agasa. Each case is a self-contained puzzle, while the search for the Black Organization and a way back to his real body drives the long story underneath.
Detective Conan is a TV anime from 1996, first released in Winter 1996. It belongs to the Mystery and Comedy and Drama genres and is listed as currently airing. The summary above is written by the AnimeYug team in our own words.
Story & Plot
Shinichi Kudo is seventeen, famous and bored: Tokyo's police already call the high school detective when a case turns strange. After an evening at an amusement park with his childhood friend Ran Mouri, he tails two men in black, is caught, and is fed an experimental poison meant to kill without a trace. It does not kill him. It shrinks him into a six-year-old version of himself. Sworn to secrecy by the eccentric inventor Professor Agasa, because the men in black would finish the job if they knew he lived, Shinichi takes a name from the bookshelf, Conan Edogawa, and moves into Ran's home above her father's detective agency.
Life as Conan is a double act. By day he attends elementary school with his new friends Ayumi, Genta and Mitsuhiko, the self-styled Detective Boys. By night, and at every crime scene Kogoro Mouri blunders into, Conan does the real work: a tranquiliser watch knocks Kogoro out, a voice-changing bowtie supplies the great detective's voice, and the Sleeping Kogoro takes the credit while Conan stays invisible. Ran, kind and strong and waiting for Shinichi, never quite stops suspecting the small boy who knows too much.
The long story darkens when Ai Haibara arrives: a scientist who built the poison for the Black Organization, shrunk by her own drug after defying them. With Haibara, the FBI and a string of undercover agents, the fight against the Organization becomes a slow chess game of codenames, betrayals and near misses, running underneath hundreds of standalone cases. Rival detectives, the thief Kaito Kid and Osaka's Heiji Hattori keep the lighter side alive.
That balance is why the series endures. Almost every episode is a fair puzzle a viewer can solve, the films have become a yearly cinema event in Japan since 1997, and the central questions still hang over everything: will Conan ever get his body back, and will Ran learn the truth? Thirty years in, the truth is still, as Conan puts it, one and the same.
Story Arcs & Episode Guide
The Detective Conan anime is split into story sagas. Here is every saga in order, with its episodes and years.
| Arc | Episodes | Years | About |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Great Detective Turned Small | Episodes 1-128 | 1996-1998 | Shinichi shrinks, Conan settles into the Mouri household, the Detective Boys form, and Heiji Hattori and Kaito Kid enter the picture. |
| Haibara Arrives and the Vermouth Game | Episodes 129-345 | 1999-2003 | Ai Haibara, the poison's creator, defects to Conan's side, and the long Vermouth storyline builds to its famous two-hour climax. |
| The Organisation Closes In | Episodes 346-941 | 2004-2019 | FBI agents, undercover spies and the Bourbon mystery deepen the main plot between standalone cases and yearly films. |
| The Rum Era | Episodes 942 onwards | 2019-present | The hunt for Rum, the Organization's second in command, drives the current storyline while the weekly cases continue. |
Why Watch Detective Conan
- A new puzzle nearly every week: locked rooms, alibi tricks and fair-play clues you can solve along with Conan.
- More than 1,200 episodes and still airing, one of the longest running anime series in Japan.
- A slow-burning main plot about the Black Organization that rewards long-term viewers.
- A film in Japanese cinemas almost every year since 1997, 29 films by 2026.
- Gosho Aoyama's manga has run in Weekly Shonen Sunday since 1994 and passed 100 volumes.
Who Is It For?
The series is aimed at family and teen audiences in Japan. Murders sit at the centre of almost every case, but gore is light and the tone stays bright and comedic between deductions. It suits viewers aged 10 and up who enjoy puzzles; very young children may find some crime scenes and Black Organization episodes scary.
Main Characters
View all characters →Voice Actors
The Japanese voices behind the main characters of Detective Conan.
- Conan EdogawaThe shrunken detective, hiding his real identityJapanese voiceMinami Takayama
- Shinichi KudoTeenage detective star before the poison shrank himJapanese voiceKappei Yamaguchi
- Ran MouriConan's housemate and Shinichi's childhood friendJapanese voiceWakana Yamazaki
- Kogoro MouriRan's father, the private detective famous for cases Conan solves for himJapanese voiceAkira Kamiya (episodes 1-548), Rikiya Koyama (from episode 553)
- Ai HaibaraFormer Black Organization scientist, shrunk by her own drugJapanese voiceMegumi Hayashibara
Staff & Production
- Original Creator
- Gosho Aoyama
- Animation Studio
- TMS Entertainment
- Series Director
- Kenji Kodama (episodes 1-118; chief directors have rotated across the long run since)
- Music
- Katsuo Ono
Manga & Source Material
Detective Conan adapts Gosho Aoyama's manga, a Weekly Shonen Sunday fixture for over thirty years.
- Written and illustrated by Gosho Aoyama
- Serialised in Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday since January 1994
- The manga reached its 100th collected volume in October 2021 and is still ongoing
- Viz Media publishes the manga in English as Case Closed, with localised character names
- Conan's name combines Arthur Conan Doyle and Japanese mystery writer Edogawa Ranpo
- The anime by TMS Entertainment began on 8 January 1996 and passed 1,000 episodes in March 2021
Music
Katsuo Ono's jazzy main theme is one of the most recognisable in anime, and the series has cycled through dozens of openings and endings since 1996, with rock band B'z returning again and again.
Opening Themes
- “Mune ga Dokidoki”by THE HIGH-LOWSFirst opening (episodes 1-30), brought back for the 30th anniversary special, Episode ZERO
- “Girigiri Chop”by B'zSixth opening (episodes 143-167)
Ending Themes
- “Step by Step”by ZIGGYFirst ending (episodes 1-26)
Series Timeline
- 1994
Gosho Aoyama's Detective Conan manga begins in Weekly Shonen Sunday in January.
- 1996
The TMS Entertainment anime premieres on 8 January 1996.
- 1997
The first film, The Time-Bombed Skyscraper, opens in Japan; Conan films become a near-yearly tradition.
- 2021
The anime passes episode 1,000 in March, and the manga reaches its 100th volume in October.
- 2025
The 28th film, One-eyed Flashback, opens in Japan and passes 10 billion yen at the box office.
- 2026
The TV anime's 30th anniversary year: the 29th film, Fallen Angel of the Highway, opens on 10 April, and TMS counts more than 1,200 TV episodes.
Release Schedule
- TV series
- Weekly in Japan since 8 January 1996; more than 1,200 episodes and still airing
- Latest film
- Fallen Angel of the Highway, the 29th film, opened in Japan on 10 April 2026
- Manga
- Ongoing in Weekly Shonen Sunday; over 100 volumes
- International streaming
- Curated episode selections on Crunchyroll and Netflix, with new selections added in 2025 and 2026
Streaming selections vary by country and cover part of the full run. Details as of 11 November 2026.
Quick Answers
Is Detective Conan finished?
No, not yet. Detective Conan is currently airing, which means new episodes are still being released.
What genre is Detective Conan?
Detective Conan is a Mystery and Comedy and Drama anime. You can browse more titles like it on our Mystery anime page.
When did Detective Conan release?
Detective Conan first released in Winter 1996. It is a TV series.
How many episodes of Detective Conan are there?
More than 1,200 and counting. TMS Entertainment counted over 1,200 episodes in late 2026, and new episodes still air weekly in Japan. There are also 29 films as of 2026, plus specials and spin-offs.
Why is Detective Conan called Case Closed in North America?
The North American release was renamed Case Closed for legal reasons, to avoid issues with the Conan the Barbarian franchise. The Funimation dub and Viz's manga also gave the characters Americanised names, such as Jimmy Kudo for Shinichi and Rachel Moore for Ran. Newer releases increasingly use the Detective Conan title and the original names.
Do I need to watch Detective Conan in order?
Not strictly. Most episodes are standalone cases you can solve on their own, so dipping into any era works. But the first episode explains the whole setup, and the Black Organization episodes form one long story, so new viewers get the most from starting at episode 1 and following the main-plot episodes as they come.
Is Detective Conan finished?
No. Both the TV anime and Gosho Aoyama's manga are still running, more than thirty years after the manga began in 1994, and no ending has been announced. The films also continue: the 29th, Fallen Angel of the Highway, opened in Japan in April 2026.
How many Detective Conan movies are there?
There are 29 films as of 2026. A new film has opened in Japanese cinemas almost every spring since The Time-Bombed Skyscraper in 1997. Each film is a standalone big case, so you can watch them in release order or pick favourites, though later films assume you know the full cast.
Watch Order
Here is the release order for Detective Conan and the series connected to it. Start at step 1 and work your way down.
- 1Detective Conan (TV series)Start at episode 1 (1996) and watch in broadcast order. Most cases are standalone, but character introductions and the Black Organization plot reward watching from the beginning.
- 2The films, in release order29 films from The Time-Bombed Skyscraper (1997) to Fallen Angel of the Highway (2026), including fan favourites such as The Phantom of Baker Street, Crossroad in the Ancient Capital and Black Iron Submarine. Each is a standalone case; later films assume you know the cast.
- 3Detective Conan: Episode One, The Great Detective Turned SmallTV special (2016): a retelling of Shinichi's shrinking with extra scenes from Ran's side. A good refresher for long-time fans, not a replacement for episode 1.
- 4Magic Kaito 1412Spin-off series about Kaito Kid, the phantom thief who often crosses Conan's path. Optional; watch any time after Kid's early appearances in the main series.
- 5The Culprit Hanzawa and Zero's Tea TimeShort comedy spin-off series on Netflix, one following the series' silhouetted culprit figure, the other following agent Toru Amuro's daily life. Optional extras for fans.
Where to Watch
Detective Conan is officially available to stream on these platforms:
Streaming availability changes often and differs by country. Please check the platform in your region.