Gosho Aoyama is the manga artist of Detective Conan. He was so angry at his editorial team that he nearly ended the manga around 27 years ago. There were two reasons for the premature ending.
Why would Aoyama have stopped? Actually, Aoyama wanted to end the manga 27 years ago. In the “Gosho Aoyama 30th Anniversary Book,” he explained that there were two reasons for this:
- On one hand, it is “really hard” to come up with new cases week after week.
- On the other hand, he hated that the editorial team dictated what he should do.
Regarding the editorial team, his colleague Kazuhiko Shimamoto, the manga artist of Kamen Rider, even has a shocking example. Aoyama was the illustrator of the Yaiba manga from 1988 to 1993, even before Detective Conan. The then-responsible editor criticized in one case that the main character’s face did not look surprised enough.
So when Aoyama asked what kind of face he meant, the editor is said to have lit the sheet of paper with Aoyama’s drawing on fire and thrown it at him.
You can watch the trailer for the 27th movie here:
Detective Conan still remains with us 27 years later
Why did he ultimately continue? Aoyama took a longer break in 1997, something he hadn’t done in a long time back then. He went to Las Vegas and decided after the trip to stop drawing the Detective Conan manga.
But he received a call from his editorial team while still at the hotel where he was staying in Las Vegas. They offered to produce a Detective Conan anime movie. Since Aoyama is a huge fan of movies himself, he accepted the offer.
What is happening with Detective Conan these days? This call likely saved the Detective Conan series. Aoyama can now look back on numerous contents related to his manga:
- The manga itself has now over 105 volumes (For comparison: One Piece is currently at number 109)
- The anime has reached over 1,130 episodes (One Piece is currently at 1,112)
- After the first movie, 26 more followed, and a 28th film is set to be released in Japanese theaters in April 2025.
It still looks like the manga artist is coming up with new cases. How long Detective Conan will last remains to be seen. Aoyama probably never thought back then that he would have to deal with the little detective for so many more years.
Detective Conan ranked third in a MeinMMO survey of the most popular animes from the RTL midday program. There are only two series you preferred to watch: You chose the best afternoon anime on RTL2 and there is a clear winner.
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