Many anime fans might not realize that another longest-running anime series besides One Piece is a mystery series called Detective Conan—known in the States as Case Closed. Detective Conan follows a young teenager named Shinichi Kudo—Jimmy Kudo for English viewers—who ends up wrapped up in a strange mystery involving an organization that attempts to kill him but de-ages him to an elementary kid. Each episode of Detective Conan has Shinichi solving new cases and has stolen the hearts of Japanese audiences—and Westerners as well—for nearly 23 years! Yet, does anyone from the current anime generation mention Detective Conan and how well it’s done? Very rarely, sadly, and that is easily the biggest sign that mystery anime is underrated.
Just the Facts...

Mystery anime has always been known for enthralling viewers by giving them weekly entertainment that keeps them guessing what will happen next. We mentioned ID:INVADED—which is an excellent show this winter 2020 season—because we noticed so few people are discussing the beauty of this futuristic crime/mystery anime. Yet, ID:INVADED is getting decent anime reviews—based on MAL and other sites—due to how it tries to be something quite unseen in the anime world. Sadly, ID:INVADED will probably not get much praise unless we show how amazing this series truly is!

If you’re a newer anime fan—welcome to a truly amazing medium if that is the case—then you probably don’t realize some of the best/beloved classic anime were mystery series. Ergo Proxy, Ghost in the Shell, Serial Experiments Lain, Death Note, Durarara and Detective Conan are some series that rank the highest on the list of popular anime! These shows were filled with action, suspense, drama and other genres but their primary genre…mystery! As a side note, check out these series as they truly are incredible anime works.

Mystery anime can be slow, arduous and can be a bit depressing for some viewers but the real reason why mystery anime is typically overlooked is simple…it’s not well advertised. Let’s face the facts, readers, what series do you see plastered to billboards in America or advertised on Japanese commercials? Usually, shonen series or really well-known franchises get the most amount of love before a hidden gem of a mystery series. Boku dake ga Inai Machi—Erased—was advertised due to its huge popularity spike but, since then, we can’t remember the last big mystery anime that was shown on websites that wasn’t a shonen themed anime. Bottom line here, mystery anime isn’t usually as big of a deal in the anime world as an action series or shonen series and that will always make it fall to obscurity.