When it comes to the success of Detective Conan, while it failed to take off in the West it certainly boomed in Japan.
Though not part of the Great Three mangas, such as One Piece, Bleach and Naruto. It is certainly up there with One Piece in terms of popularity and length.
While I could've started off with One Piece as my firsy manga, with it also using a simple art style. It didn't have a good start in terms of popularity, was even at risk of being cancelled before it blew up.
Meanwhile Detective Conan, a manga was meant to be side work for Gosho Aoyama as he works on his Magic Kaito series, immediately took off and ended up being his main series. To the point that he put Magic Kaito on indefinite hold until he finishes Detective Conan.
Not to say that Gosho Aoyama didn't put effort into Detective Conan, in fact he may use too much effort. With the walls of his office being lined with books upon books of references and information, to fact check the possibility of a idea to be possible or to think up new ideas. He even fact checks with his brothers, who are a mechanic and a doctor respectively.
If I want to make a impact on the world, I want to start it off with a bang.
From what I could find, Shonen Jump still existed except that it had manga I never even heard of. Literally, I couldn't even find it in my mind that housed all of the manga from my past life.
But what I do know is that what was trending was action fantasy, bugs and samurai. In particular it was mostly childish with little edge.
Detective Conan would seem out of this world compared to them.
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It was currently mid March. I had about half a month before I start Junior Highschool . And in 4 years the events of Death Note will begin.
If fate forces my hand, or worse, someone else's.
When it comes to sticking with canon.
On one hand I don't want to kill anyone, nor do I want anyone to die. But then the school kids and their teachers would be in danger of the shooter. Or a girl would be a victim of a bikers gang.
And I would probably never get to meet L.
I hope as time goes by, I will gain some kind of power that will allow me to help these people. Maybe in a way that could draw L's attention.
I had thought for a moment that I could be a cryptic detective myself who solves cases before they happen. But I lack a lot of information to pull that off outside of a few potential incidences. And even then, I can't guarantee them to occure with all the butterflies I'm stepping on.
I pondered for a moment of maybe development a super AI, far advanced from the current technology, able to predict crimes before they occur.
But I felt that would a massive breach in privacy and would jusy make things boring.
I wanted to be a detective so I could solve cases myself not have some AI do it for me and take my job.
Still, I will help wherever I can do at least prevent or help the crimes I am aware of. Otherwise it would way down on my consciousness.
But anyway, back to the manga.
With my study time non existant I am suddenly overwhelmed by all the free time I received.
Free time I happily used to practice Gosho Aoyama's inital art style, using volume 1 of Detective Conan as reference.
I've always been good at copying freehand, and it is certainly helping me now.
By the time dad came home with art supplies and sheets of paper, I had the art style down pat.
All that's left is to familiarise myself with the art utensils. Different ink pens for different thickness, rulers for straight lines and panelling, shapes for affects, so on and so forth.
I can't exactly go into drawing up chapter one with little no experience with the equipment I'll be using.
It's like telling someone who drew black and white all their life to suddenly do a coloured painting. They have no experience with colour theory and all you'll get is a rainbow piece.
Using my notebook I practiced recreating panels in pieces, understanding which pen is used and when and what effect is used and how it was achieved.
Thankfully, there wasn't much effects to worry about.
The thing that gave me the most struggle was the decapitation scene. Not only did I have to make the blood sprouting out of his neck look natural but also the rollercoaster which was at a specific angle.
Perspective was always my greatest enemy when drawing in my past life, and it seemed to have followed me.
I hope with time, I will soon master if. Which is a high possibility with Light's brain.
Once I was comfortable/confident with the art tools, I immediately went to work.
Page after page, I filled the blank pages with a recreation of chapter 1 of Detective Conan. From the end of the manor case at the the start, to the rollercoaster case in Tropical Land to where Shininchi comes across the Men in Black's criminal activities before being caught and poisoned. To the pinnacle moment where Kudo Shininchi wakes up and finds himself stuck in a body of a child.
It took be about a week to finish. Much longer than I would like as it was very time consuming with little breathing room as school took up most of my time away from working on it.
If I'm able to work more efficiently and cut down on the time it takes me to finish one chapter, then I would have time for other projects.
I didn't necessarily wanted to just recreate Detective Conan all my life. There was other things I wanted to do too.
As soon as I had the first chapter done, I immediately showed it to dad as soon as I had the chance to.
---
Yagami Soichiro had just arrived home after working at the NPA for long hours. Work never seems to stop at the station, leaving him constantly swamped with it.
As he was putting up his hat, his coat and his shoes away he sees Light, his son, run down the stairs with a stack of paper in his hands.
Soichiro knew he should be scolding his son for staying up so late, but knowing Light he wouldn't be able to go to sleep until he gets to share his excitement.
And judging by the paper in his hands, he can guess what it is about.
Light came up in front of me, giving me some space to walk pass to sit down on the couch, his smile wide with excitement.
"Welcome home dad!" He said cheerfully. His energy seemingly filling my body with renewed vigor.
"I'm home." I said back with a smile before nodding towards the papers in his hand. "I presume you wanted to show me something?"
"Yup!" He happily passed them over to me, his body practically vibrating in anticipation.
I took the stack and started to read through it. I wasn't an expert in manga or writing but I was a expert at solving cases and judging from the title I can give some input.
"Detective Conan?" I said, looking at Light. "Does it have something to do with Conan Arthur Doyle?"
Light shyly scratched his cheek. "Maybe."
When I saw the first chapter being called 'A Modern Day Sherlock Holmes', I knew I was right.
"Uh huh." I said with a chuckle.
Light and his love for detectives.
Reading through the first case, while it didn't give the reader a chance to solve it themselves. It allowed the reader to get to know Kudo Shininchi as a Ace Highschool Detective.
But I couldn't help but ask. "Did you write this for your own self indulgence?" Kudo Shininchi's behaviour showecased a lot of confidence and a big ego to boot. It felt like I was reading about my own son just without any restraint.
Light looked to the side. "No comment."
Chuckling again I continued to read through the chapter.
I found Mouri Ran an interesting character, she's strong and is able to keep Shininchi's ego in check. As well as stubborn, she made a good fit for Shininchi.
A part of me wondered if this was the kind of girl Light likes. But it was too early to say right now.
When the two characters went to Tropical Land, I knew that a murder would occur as I remembered the disturbing drawing I saw in Light's notebook. I wondered how he'll pull it off, as it looked unnatural.
Reading further, I applauded Shininchi's accurate deductions but also glowered at Light for the blatant panty shot of the gymnast. I thought I raised him better than that.
As soon as they sat onto the rollercoaster I paid close attention to anything that could provide me a clue to who would die and who would kill them.
The men in black drew most of my attention with how imposing they were, they looked like bad news. But they could also be a red hearing.
As I followed along the rollercoaster ride, I took note of the water droplets falling on Shininchi's face in the dark tunnel before being horrified by the gruesome scene of the next page.
Blood everywhere, I thought the drawing I saw on the notebook was bad but this was worse with how high quality and detailed it was. It was such a clean cut and sudden that the blood was still pumping, sprouting out of the victim's neck like a fountain.
Like myself, all the surviving passengers were also shocked. Screaming as they were stuck on a ride with a dead body.
Once the ride came to a stop, Shininchi immediately took action. Using his fame to clear the area of bystanders and to call in the police as fast as possible.
As soon as they arrived, the investigation began.
Both Shininchi and Inspector Megure went over the seating plan of the passengers to judge who could possibly kill the victim and the most likely culprit was the victim's girlfriend who sat beside him.
The men in black could also have done it, and their current behaviour wasn't helping them. Even Shininchi himself said he tall one had the eyes of a killer but doesn't believe they could've done it.
A knife was later found in the girlfriend's bag and the case seemed to have been solved.
But a knife like that couldn't have cut through skin and bone that cleanly and in such short time. And to still have it on hand made it look like it was planted.
The only other clue I had was the water drop that hit Shining face, but I didn't know how that could relate to the case.
Unless, it wasn't water...
And right when the girlfriend was about to be arrested, Kudo Shininchi announced that it wasn't her and that it was the gymnast instead.
I was surprised, I had a feeling but the question remains on how she was able to kill him when she wasn't even close to him.
As I watched Shininchi demonstrate how she could have killed the victim, it was slowly starting to piece together.
She was a gymnast... keeping her balance with bars wouldn't be difficult even under high speeds.
Then the kicker, the one clue I failed to notice.
Her pearl necklace, where did it go?
Once it was revealed that she was he murderer, she broke down and confessed.
It was sad to hear her story, and it explained the tears she shed on the ride. Her plan to take her own life also weighed down on my heart, and I felt sorry for her.
But nothing can bring back the life that was lost.
Kudo Shininchi showed great resilience over the close contact with a murder as well as the tragic reasoning behind it.
Meanwhile Mouri Ran cried her heart out, showing great empathy.
They showcased a dichotomy of reaction towards reality of murder.
One is used to it and sees it as a normal occurance that allows him to withstand the cases he needed to solve. While other is not used to it and doesn't believe it should be normal, able show heart and compassion to those affected by it.
They would be great together I think.
I hope Light finds someone like that, someone that could help compliment him.
As the chapter was drawing it's end, Shininchi noticed the men in black one again and went to investigate what they were doing.
Which resulted him being caught and knocked out. As soon as they gave him poison, for a moment I thought that he'd die.
The manga was called Detective Conan, yet I never seen hide or hair of anyone called Conan.
Was Kudo Shininchi going to be replaced?
Just when I thought Shininchi's life came to an end, I was surprised to find him younger by about 10 years on the very last page.
For a manga that stayed pretty consistent and grounded, for it to suddenly turn sci fi took me off guard.
I wanted to read more to find out what exactly happened, but that was it.
There was no more pages left to read.
I neatly out the oages back into a neat stack and looked up at Light who was standing in front of me looking anxious.
I couldn't help but smile.
"It's good" I confessed.
Light lit up, "Really?"
I gave him a nod.
"Really good actually, while I'm not sure how people will receive all the blood from the rollercoaster murder, the murder mystery was well thought out with plenty of clues for people to take note of it they were paying attention. And the added mystery of Shininchi shrinking to the body of a child, it would surely hook people into reading more."
It was probably the longest review I've ever given to a story, much less a manga.
And the fact that this came out of my own son.
He's going to a great detective when he grows up.
"Light, I think this is the start of something great."