Thoughts on the new rhythm of publication

[Valentin]

While Aoyama has been hospitalized several times during recent years, it wasn’t until his stay in late 2017 that consequences arose for the long term. Following a four-month hiatus and starting with File 1009 released on April 11, 2018, cases generally have been published without breaks—in return, though, Aoyama’s far more healthy working schedule entails that it would take a month or so before the next case can be published, effectively halving the number of chapters released and, measured quantitatively, making the series biweekly.

As a little reminder, here’s a rough overview of what has been released in this new rhythm of publication:

• Black Bunny’s Club Case (File 1009 – File 1012 / April 11, 2018 – May 9, 2018)
  An attempted poisoning, Akai and Bourbon clashing out of nowhere, and a revealing flashback of the Miyano family.
• Policewomen Serial Murder Case (File 1013 – File 1017 / June 6, 2018 – July 4, 2018)
  The first serial murder case in a while, the first police-centric case in a while, and Kuroda talking to “Bourbon.”
• Kaitou Kid and the Fairy’s Lip (File 1018 – File 1021 / August 29, 2018 – September 19, 2018)
  Kaitou Kid returning, Heiji failing to confess yet again, and Koumei being revealed as Scotch’s brother.
• TV Drama Filming Site Murder Case (File 1022 – File 1026 / November 28, 2018 – January 9, 2019)
  Makoto visiting a film set, Makoto being suspected again, and Masumi suspecting Conan.
• Nagano Snowy Mountains Case (File 1027 – File 1031 / February 13, 2019 – March 14, 2019)
  A classic setting, Wakita showing up again, and Conan asking Bourbon about Rum.
• Edible Wild Plants Collecting Case (File 1032 – File 1034 / April 10, 2019 – May 8, 2019)
  The Detective Boys returning, Rumi returning as well, and Conan contemplating her back pocket.
• Antique Facet Case (File 1035 – File 1038 / June 12, 2019 – July 3, 2019)
  The first murder with robbery in years, Masumi approaching Haibara, and another flashback of the Akai family.

Seven cases in twelve fourteen [Thanks, Kor] or arguably even fifteen months isn’t excessive. As they’ve been distributed over thirty chapters, though, they’re longer on average, and that’s what I like about them. After all those three-parters in the nine hundreds could achieve relatively much by allowing the Rum suspects to appear more often, some of the cases themselves were quite shallow. In this regard, I especially enjoyed reading the Policewomen Serial Murder Case, which reminded me of the early era.

Although the plot progresses far less quickly than I thought when I saw Akai and Bourbon point a gun at each other, I appreciate that each story is given a clear emphasis. Combined with the increased length and extended pauses, the cases have become more memorable to me, particularly the Nagano Snowy Mountains Case.

The only downside is probably the obvious one: if the last case didn’t contain something outstandingly interesting and I don’t remember exactly when the next one will begin, the series isn’t as prominent on my mind as it used to be. For example, I almost didn’t think of it at all between the Policewomen Serial Murder Case and Kaitou Kid and the Fairy’s Lip; since I wasn’t so much interested in the latter either, that didn’t really change even during the case; when it was announced that the TV Drama Filming Site Murder Case wouldn’t arrive before the end of November, it got even worse, and once I learned it would focus on Makoto, I basically just skimmed the spoilers instead of reading the chapters—as a result, for me, Detective Conan virtually went on a hiatus in July 2018 and didn’t return until Februar 2019, when the Nagano Snowy Mountains Case proved to be convincing on many levels. Then, after the Edible Wild Plants Collecting Case had been quite the disappointment again, the most recent Antique Facet Case was able to win me back and stir an extent of interest in me that I hadn’t experienced in a long time. Heck, that I didn’t write this post when I originally intended to—in April 2019, when the new rhythm of publication turned one year old—is mainly due to the lack of updates starting in March and the Edible Wild Plants Collecting Case being so underwhelming.

Now I’d be interested to read your thoughts on this. How have you been affected by the reduced output? Have you been enjoying every case even more thanks to new material becoming rarer or do you have a hard time reminding yourself the series even exists? And what do you think of the content itself, is the quality higher or lower, and do you find it satisfactory?

[k11chi]

I don't particularly care as it's mainly about health... but. The franchise being as humongous as it is with Gosho's input as a key animator in the adaptation of the Scarlet School Trip, the massive popularity of Zero the Enforcer putting Gosho now into a spot where he has to personally supervise the Zero's Tea Time side story, added on top of the huge amount of time it takes to create those Conan films... It's quite something to say the least.

Now. Let's talk about the actual real downside of this whole thing. After 1930's where the soft boiled detective fiction style had exploded, we were fed so many stories across the next 20 years that people had gotten really exhausted of that writing style by 1950's and detective fiction was practically dead until something happened in Japan in 1981 as the trash truck driver Soji Shimada released his widely acclaimed The Tokyo Zodiac Murder Case novel and was a finalist in the Edogawa Ranpo awards with it. Later Tokyo Zodiac Murder Case was even translated into English. Shimada is known for Detective Mitarai Series and the Detective Yoshiki Series and his authenticity in old school mystery writing gave him the title "Shin Honkaku" Shimada with his own Soji Shimada Awards, which in combo began an entirely new type of genre of mystery fiction translated as New Orthodox detective fiction that began gaining popularity in the late 1980's and is still very popular to this day.

The series this rising popularity of Shin Honkaku detective fiction gave birth to in the 1990's is obviously Kindaichi Case Files and Detective Conan, two of the most popular new orthodox detective fiction series on the planet due to their comic style that appeals to the masses, both of these series have been translated and they've sold millions of copies, both of these series tended to print out volumes not only at the same pace but also at the same time, making the competition very real and present in the community, and both of these series are almost certainly what made new orthodox detective fiction not only stay relevant but also be as popular as it was in the 2000's. It's very likely it wouldn't even be fragment of what it has been if it wasn't for Conan and Kindaichi together pushing it out. With so much money being printed these series gave content creators hope of doing something new with the genre and we've gotten other very popular detective fiction series in the form of manga series like Q.E.D/C.M.B, games such as Ace Attorney (6 main games+2 side character spinoff games+2 side games+VS game+anime seasons...), Danganronpa (games+anime seasons...), Kyle Hyde DS games and the Zero Escape game series, along with mediums like visual novels with Umineko no Naku Koro ni and Higurashi, many japanese TV dramas, you name it. I heavily doubt most of these most known mystery series would even exist if it wasn't for the popularity brought in by the two kings of new orthodox detective fiction in Japan.

So here we have an entirely new resurgence of golden age themed detective fiction begin with a boom from Japan at the same time as they aired 13 seasons of Hercule Poirot on TV likely globally for 25 years - until early 2010's. At the same time as Poirot started to enjoy its final seasons we began to get constant breaks for Detective Conan, lessening the amount of volumes that are out there in print. The Kindaichi series getting constantly canned and rebooted for other series made the series fall back in volumes compared to Conan but it still managed to keep up with the weekly schedule, well, until recently. Now in the recent years we're at a point with Kindaichi being now monthly and Conan being practically bi-weekly, both series putting out far less chapters on their magazines; far less presence on the front covers of the magazines they once represented and carried, and Conan only focuses on putting out a volume still at the same time as the annual film gets released. Neither of the series focus on being released at the same time anymore, there is literally no art of competition left.

I wonder what this means to Shin Honkaku detective fiction in general with the lack of presence in media for the series that make it matter.