Detective Conan Announces Its First Viewer-Participation Mystery Anime

Detective Conan is expanding its television anime's 30th-anniversary program with Misohitojima no Satsujin, the franchise's first original anime built around viewer participation. Yomiuri TV and Nippon TV announced the project on September 5, asking audiences to deduce the culprit, while a separate two-hour anniversary special is set for September 25 in Japan.

A mystery designed for the audience

Miso Hitojima no Satsujin will turn the series' familiar whodunit structure into a participatory event. Viewers are expected to study the case and identify the culprit themselves, making the act of solving the mystery part of the program rather than simply watching Conan reveal the answer. The broadcasters call it a first for the Detective Conan anime, which began airing on January 8, 1996 and marked its 30th anniversary in 2026.

The project has a script by mystery writer Takahiro Okura, whose previous Detective Conan credits include the television story The Birdman Contest Bombing Case. Director Yasuichiro Yamamoto originated the concept, and the announcement included his rough image of a mansion that appears to establish the setting. A broadcast date and the exact method for submitting or judging viewers' deductions have not been announced.

The idea has been waiting for decades

Yamamoto said he first conceived the format more than 20 years ago after watching the Japanese mystery drama Anrakuisu Tantei. The anniversary finally created an opportunity to pursue it. After the franchise scheduled the Shinichi Kudo Aquarium Case special and the larger 30-go Satsujin Jiken anniversary production, he requested another project that could close the commemorative year in the regular television slot.

The director also said the initial creative target was to produce a mystery that would leave no correct solvers. The official description presents the participation element as a deduction challenge, with Okura's mystery-writing background attached directly to its screenplay. The released mansion sketch is the only visual story clue disclosed with the initial announcement.

A two-hour anniversary case airs first

Before the interactive story arrives, Detective Conan will return to Friday Road Show on September 25 at 9 p.m. for the two-hour 30-go Satsujin Jiken. The program will air across Yomiuri TV and Nippon TV's national Japanese network. Its plot begins after a new 10,000-yen note featuring Toto Tower enters circulation and counterfeit money is found at a murder scene.

Conan, the Detective Boys, Professor Agasa, Ran and Sonoko visit a banknote printing facility in Nagano, while a counterfeit investigation leads Conan and Heiji toward Osaka. The production describes the case as a national-scale crisis bringing together one of the television anime's largest ensembles. Fumihiro Kamanaka directs from a screenplay by Takeharu Sakurai, separating its creative team from the Yamamoto and Okura pairing behind the viewer-participation story.

That broad scope was a deliberate story choice. Kamanaka said Conan, Kogoro Mouri, Heiji and police organizations from across Japan would confront the counterfeit case. Sakurai explained that he wanted the anniversary production to feel celebratory and to include as many regular characters as possible, so a crime capable of drawing officers from different regions became the basis of the screenplay. He also described the result as a television-original mystery with action suited to a two-hour slot.

Actor Elaiza Ikeda joins the special as Toko Satomi, a document examination specialist at Japan's National Research Institute of Police Science. The character evaluates currency connected to the victim and determines that it is an unusually convincing counterfeit, placing her expertise near the center of the case. The role is Ikeda's first voice-acting performance.

Together, the September special and Miso Hitojima no Satsujin give the anniversary two different television mysteries: one built as a large-scale two-hour case and another intended to test the audience directly. The next confirmed milestone is the September 25 broadcast of 30-go Satsujin Jiken.