Case Closed Graphic Novel Volume 67 cover image

Ace high school detective Jimmy Kudo is trailing two suspicious men in black (Gin and Vodka).  The nefarious duo attacks him and administers a mysterious substance that physically transforms the teen into a first grader.  While searching for a cure, Jimmy adopts a new identity, becoming elementary school student, Conan Edogawa.  Acting alone and sometimes with his friends, the Junior Detective League (JDL), Jimmy/Conan continues to solve criminal cases and mysteries.

As Case Closed, Vol. 67 (“Fashion Emergency”) opens, Conan wraps up the case of the Mihiro Kuze, the “Gothic Lolita” girl found strangled to death in the stall of park restroom.  Next, the Junior Detective League jumps into action when the group meets a kindly grandfather assaulted by a “bag snatcher.”  However, Conan also notices something peculiar about 63-year-old Kyozo Daita's behavior.

Next, a department store terrorist turns into a walking bomb at Baker Department Store.  Coincidentally... that is also where Detective Richard Moore has to meet his latest client.  His daughter, Rachel, and Conan tag along and find themselves thrust into a sinister web of secrets and lies.  Plus, Jimmy Kudo's assailants, the Men in Black, Gin and Vodka, are near, staking out the department store.  It seems that FBI Agent Shuichi Akai, thought to have been assassinated by the Men in Black, might actually be alive.

THE LOWDOWN:  I love the Case Closed manga (known as Detective Conan in Japan).  Of course, you know that, dear readers, because I have been saying that for a long time.

Case Closed Graphic Novel Volume 67 offers three murder mysteries.  One is solved early.  The second  murder that is solved was the not the original intent of the case.  The third murder will have to wait for Vol. 68.  The real treat for readers is the involvement of “the Men in Black,” a group that is a big part of Detective Conan's mythology.  Regular readers of this series will really get into that.  Everything about the Men in Black is convoluted and complex; it is almost like something out of a spy novel.  However, the Men in Black injects Case Closed with the intensity it sometimes needs.

As usual, Tetsuichiro Miyaki does a stellar job and yeoman's work on translating such a text heavy comic.  Freeman Wong, also as usual, does heavy lifting in lettering this dense, but thoroughly entertaining cozy mystery series.

I READS YOU RECOMMENDS:  Readers looking for fun mystery fiction will want to investigate the “Shonen Sunday” detective manga, Case Closed.

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9 out of 10