Kindaichi looks like he's barely awake, then systematically dismantles every assumption you built while watching the case unfold. The mysteries here are written tight enough that you can actually solve them yourself, which means you're not just watching a detective work, you're working alongside him. 148 episodes of cases, and it never confuses volume with depth, never wastes a clue, never insults you by pretending the answer was something you couldn't have figured out. Detective Conan gets the shelf space. Kindaichi gets the fans who remember what it felt like to actually think while watching anime.

Kindaichi Hajime wears his slacker image like a disguise. His scruffy look and easygoing attitude make everyone assume he is just an ordinary high school student. The truth is far different: he is a brilliant sleuth, and the grandson of the man once considered Japan's finest detective. Honoring that legacy, he takes on one baffling mystery after another alongside his best friend, Miyuki Nanase, and the odd inspector Isamu Kenmochi. Their cases lead them to isolated islands, foreboding towns, dark seas and other dangerous places, where Hajime works to expose the truth behind some of the cleverest and most unsettling puzzles imaginable.