5 Best Detective Anime of All Time

5 Most Recommended Detective Anime Series including both Famous and Hidden Titles

Best Detective Anime

Detective is much more known as a genre of novels all over the world as typified by Canon of Sherlock Holmes written by Arthur Conan Doyle. The legendary works have had a lot of influence on many novels, movies and even anime.

There are a variety of cases including murders and disappearances and detective characters to resolve them in detective anime. It is typical but keeps numerous fans absorbed. Here are 5 best detective anime of all time including the long-running franchise and the recent series.

1. Case Closed

Case Closed (名探偵コナン), which is also known as Detective Conan, is one of the best detective anime of all time that everyone knows in Japan. A manga series written by Gosho Aoyama started in 1994 and its anime adaptation began in 1996. There are lots of anime movies that are spin-offs but are closely related to the main series story.

The story proceeds when a high school detective Shinichi Kudo is transformed into a kid by a poison. As an elementary school student, he solves a variety of cases hiding his true identity from the opposite Black Organization.

2. Kubikiri Cycle

Kubikiri Cycle (クビキリサイクル 青色サヴァンと戯言遣い) is one of the greatest detective anime series created as an OVA by Shaft in 2016-2017. It is adapted from the first title of the popular light novel Zaregoto Series written by Nisio Isin. The mystery anime series contains 8 episodes.

Kubikiri Cycle revolves around a young boy and his friend Tomo Kunagiza, who are involved in a murder case in a remote island. Tomo, who has blue eyes and blue hair and is introduced as The Blue Savant, tries to solve the complicated case.

3. Bungo Stray Dogs

As one of the most popular detective anime series, Bungo Stray Dogs (文豪ストレイドッグス) should be picked out here. The mystery and action anime series is adapted from the manga series written by Kafka Asagiri and illustrated by Sango Harukawa from 2012. The first season of the anime adaptation started in 2016, followed by the second and third season in 2016 and 2019.

Bungo Stray Dogs focuses on various detective characters given the same name as famous classic authors including Osamu Dazai and Yukichi Fukuzawa as well as the opposite characters named Dostoyevsky and Fitzgerald. They fight against the mafia with supernatural abilities.

4. Gosick

Gosick (GOSICK -ゴシック-) is a quality detective anime series in 2011, which consists of 24 episodes. It was produced by the famous anime studio Bones under the direction of Hitoshi Nanba and script supervision by Mari Okada. It is adapted from the original light novel written by Kazuki Sakuraba and illustrated by Hinata Takeda from 2003 to 2011.

Gosick is set in a fictional small country in Europe called Sauville in 1924. The mystery series centers on a young boy Kazuya Kujo, who studies abroad in Sauville from the east and meets a beautiful blonde girl Victorique de Blois. They are involved in lots of incidents and solve them with her high intelligence. It also depicts her mysterious backgrounds as the story proceeds.

5. Un-Go

Un-Go is a modern sci-fi detective anime series, broadcasted with 11 episodes in 2011. It was created by a Japanese anime studio Bones, inspired by the Japanese novelist Ango Sakaguchi’s novels published around 1950.

Set in a futuristic Tokyo in the postwar period, Un-Go focuses on The Defeated Detective Shinjuurou Yuuki and a young boy and his partner Inga. While Rinroku Kaishou, a famous leader of a giant corporations group, seems to solve lots of cases and gains public acclaim, Yuuki tries to uncover the truth of the cases Rinroku hides.

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