Detective Conan: Episode One - The Great Detective Turned Small

名探偵コナンエピソードONE 小さくなった名探偵 (Meitantei Conan: Episode One - Chiisaku Natta Meitantei)

7.0(1)

Otaku Den

8.3(16,675)

MAL Score

Ranked #381

Popularity #4472

Adventure
Comedy
Mystery
Detective

Episodes: 1
Duration: 1 hr 33 min
Aired: Dec 9, 2016
Status: Finished Airing

Synopsis

*Detective Conan: Episode One - The Great Detective Turned Small* revisits the story’s true starting point, presenting an “original” take on Episode 1 as written by manga creator Gosho Aoyama.

Framed as a fresh introduction to *Meitantei Conan*, it delivers the foundational setup with the franchise’s signature blend of mystery, detective work, light comedy, and adventure.

Otaku Consensus

Yasuichirou Yamamoto turns Episode "ONE" into a strong creator-supervised expansion rather than a cosmetic remake, with precise event sequencing, polished TMS Entertainment animation, and added continuity context that longtime viewers found especially satisfying. Its emotional character beats and adaptation quality carry more weight than the relatively effortless mystery-solving, but abrupt pacing and major later-series revelations make its apparent newcomer-friendly framing genuinely misleading.

Why You Should Watch

If what you want is franchise archaeology rather than another standalone whodunit, this special is one of Conan’s most useful companion pieces. Yasuichirou Yamamoto’s compressed staging and Gosho Aoyama’s supervision let longtime viewers compare the television opening with a creator-guided, expanded continuity pass, while TMS Entertainment’s 2016 production gives Masatomo Sudou’s familiar designs a cleaner showcase. It especially suits viewers who enjoy the clue-reading discipline of police procedurals but also care about romantic character beats and franchise lore. Katsuo Oono’s music and an Izumi Sakai insert song add the emotional charge that a bare recap would lack. The catch is sequencing: this is best treated as a reward after deep series progress, not as episode zero, because its wider perspective exposes information that the original opening deliberately withheld.

Key Characters

C
Conan Edogawa(VA: Minami Takayama)
Minami Takayama makes Conan’s precocious certainty both impressive and lightly comic, even when the special’s deductions arrive more easily than its strongest mysteries.
A
Ai Haibara(VA: Megumi Hayashibara)
Megumi Hayashibara’s cool, measured presence signals that this is a retrospective for established viewers rather than a narrowly self-contained recreation of the opening episodes.
R
Ran Mouri(VA: Wakana Yamazaki)
Ran provides the special’s emotional counterweight, with Wakana Yamazaki giving the affectionate and bashful moments that fans singled out their warmth.

What Makes It Stand Out

1
The special is structured like an extended continuity cut of the first two television episodes, adding parallel perspectives and connective details instead of merely reproducing the original broadcast material shot for shot.
2
TMS Entertainment rebuilds the franchise’s opening material with 2016 production polish while retaining Masatomo Sudou’s established character-design language and Shunichirou Yoshihara’s art direction.
3
Gosho Aoyama is credited as both original creator and supervisor, giving the rearranged chronology and added context a direct authorial connection uncommon for a routine anniversary recap.
4
Katsuo Oono’s score is joined by an insert song performed and lyrically credited to Izumi Sakai, tying the new production to the musical identity associated with Detective Conan.
5
Its broader-series viewpoint rewards viewers familiar with hundreds of episodes, but multiple fan reviews specifically warn that watching before roughly episode 800 can reveal major information prematurely.

Fun Facts & Trivia

Fun fact 1: Broadcast on the Nippon Television Network System on December 9, 2016, Episode "ONE" was the sixth animated television special in the Case Closed franchise.
Fun fact 2: The Japanese subtitle Chiisaku Natta Meitantei matches the title of the manga’s second chapter, creating a direct source-material reference beyond the special’s anniversary function.
Fun fact 3: The production arrived as a celebration of the Detective Conan anime’s twentieth anniversary, which helps explain its retrospective attention to events outside the immediate opening narrative.
Fun fact 4: Izumi Sakai received separate credits for both performing the insert song and writing its lyrics, while longtime franchise composer Katsuo Oono handled the score.
Fun fact 5: Steve Staley served as ADR director for the English-language version, overseeing the adaptation of its dialogue and vocal performances.