Kindaichi Shonen no Jikenbo: an Underrated Masterpiece

Kindaichi Shonen no Jikenbo is a Japanese mystery and crime manga.

It was written by Yozaburo Kanari and Seimaru Amagi and illustrated by Fumiya Sato.

The manga ran from October 1992 to October 2017 in Weekly Shonen Magazine.

It is one of the earliest works in the mystery manga genre and is very popular.

In 1995, it won the Kodansha Manga Award. As of June 2019, 100 million copies of the manga were in circulation.

The series follows the adventures of the high-school detective Hajime Kindaichi. He is a lazy, lecherous, and unmotivated schoolboy.

However, he possesses an IQ of over 180 and also a thirst for crime-solving. He is also the grandson of the famous fictional detective Kosuke Kindaichi.

Together with his classmate Nanase Miyuki, Detective Kenmochi, and Detective Kengo Akechi they solve impossible crimes.

The main antagonist of this series is the cold and intelligent magician Yoichi Takato, also known as The Puppeteer from Hell.

An anime adaptation ran on Nippon Television from April 1997 to September 2000. Toei Animation produced the anime.

Murderers are a unique aspect of the show. The killers in the story are not psychopaths.

The culprits have deep-rooted emotional trauma caused by others. This is the motivation for their crimes.

They are sympathetic figures as opposed to cold killers in other mangas.

As a result of its role in the genre, critics have called the manga the Japanese version of the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew.

The Manga: The Complete Guide described the mystery scenarios as “inventive and intricate, offering genuine brain teasers”, but criticized the artwork as “bland”.

It goes without saying that the show and manga are worth viewing as these mangas were the pioneer to many detective manga and animes we see today.