Locked-room murders, limited suspects, baffling clues, and a mysterious criminal mastermind lurking in the shadows. These are just some of the issues high school detective Kindaichi faces in each new case, in his return to the small screen.
Kindaichi Case Files Returns (Kindaichi Shonen no Jikenbo R) sees the return of the original 1997-2000 voice cast. Taiki Matsuno reprises his role as teen detective Hajime Kindaichi, who plays the dunce in the classroom, but is really a genius who has inherited his deduction skills from his famous detective grandfather. Akiko Nakagawa voices his childhood friend Miyuki Nanase, Juurouta Kosugi plays police inspector Isamu Kenmochi, and Toshiyuki Morikawa plays Kindaichi's rival, Kengo Akechi.
The series is based on the manga of the same name. The first manga ran from 1992 to 2001 in Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine. It started on an irregular schedule in 2004, and in 2013 returned to a regular schedule with the added "R" (for "returns") at the end of the title.
The manga series was extremely popular back in the day and still has legions of fans. Fans of whodunits and grizzly murder mysteries will absolutely love this animated version of the series.
Sadly, the show isn't being streamed by Crunchyroll due to regional licensing, so keep an eye on your favourite local anime-broadcasting channels.