A (Would-Be) Murderer’s Daily Life.
"Heh, don’t worry... I’ll be the one doing the killing..."
— Hanzawa
Detective Conan: The Culprit Hanzawa - Hanzawa-san the Criminal (犯人の犯沢さん Hannin no Hanzawa-san) is a spinoff manga of Detective Conan It is written and drawn by Mayuko Kanba. It is being serialized in Shogakukan's Shonen Sunday S starting May 2017, first Volume released in December 18, 2017. TMS Entertainment announced that an anime version was released on October 2022 via Netflix worldwide.
This manga is about the black-silhouetted "criminal" that appears in Detective Conan media to represent the mystery culprits, and is a Deconstructive Parody of what life would be for normal people (and our would-be murderer protagonist) in the Detective Conan universe.
The Culprit Hanzawa provides examples of:
- Adaptation Personality Change: Ran in the main series is an upbeat and fun girl who despite being a Cowardly Lion Agent Mulder takes her numerous misadventures in stride, and possesses Charles Atlas Superpower due to karate training. In Hanzawa, Ran is a world-weary Seen It All teenager who always has a blank look on her face, as well as an outright Comically Invincible Hero able to bend knives and send grown men flying without moving an inch. Also, her “horn” stands up instead of slightly slanted.
- Anti-Villain: While he's technically a criminal, Kaito Kid is beloved by the people of Beika because almost nobody dies in the city whenever he appears and everyone's busy dealing with him.
- Ascended Extra: Watson, Hakuba's pet hawk, was only seen during one case in the main series. Here, due to Hanzawa being Hakuba's co-worker and thus the former often ends up caring for him, Watson appears as a reoccurring character.
- Breakout Villain: Parodied. The “Breakout Villain” in question is the franchise’s iconic “culprit silhouette”.
- Conditioned to Accept Horror: A lot of people, especially Ran, are quite adjusted to Beika’s murdering ways and some even take it in stride.
- Continuity Cavalcade:
- One of the apartment rooms Hanzawa checks in Beika has a bathtub where a young woman killed her sister by slashing her wrist and dunking the victim's wounded wrist on the hot water to make the bleeding faster (Case Closed Episode 121-122), and a wooden drawer full of sword slashes which contains a dying message from the victim (Case Closed Episode 16). As in real-life Japan, such properties became associated with bad luck and are stigmatized.
Beika Real Estate Agent: it really is a great apartment, so long as you can deal with its history.
- In Chapter 20, Hanzawa thinks he will be able to devise a proper murder plan if he creates a creepy atmosphere in his room. To do so, he buys several stigmatized equipments related to actual cases from the main series, such as a Statue of Liberty figurine lighter from "An Idol's Locked Room Murder Case" (Case Closed Episode 3), a bloodied suit of armor used by the culprit to commit a murder from "Art Museum Owner Murder Case" (Case Closed Episode 30-33), a bloodied tablecloth from "Alpine Hut in the Snowy Mountain Murder Case" (Case Closed Episode 46), a mysterious clock with three goblin statues from "The Mysterious Mansion of a Band of Thieves Case" (Case Closed Episode 104-105), and a speaker on a humanoid puppet with a cassette tape containg cryptic messages from "The Gathering of the Detectives! Shinichi Kudo vs. Kaitou Kid" (Case Closed Episode 219). It works too well and Hanzawa ends up getting too scared to enter his own room.
- Deconstructive Parody: This series completely lampoons Detective Conan. Not its mysteries or other story elements, but its Victim of the Week formula. Characters like Inspector Megure joke about Conan and Kogoro being Shinigami, but this series analyzes what it would be like to live in a city where somebody is murdered by a criminal genius essentially everyday entirely comedically.
- Dissonant Serenity: Ran seems to be permanently locked in this state, living in Beika her whole life.
- Don't Make Me Destroy You: In File 6: Nightmare Ran gently warns a shady bar owner she has at her mercy after she (in this order) attempted to rip off her drunk father, let loose her goons on him, insinuated making Ran pay with her body and shot at with a gun.
Ran: Let’s not turn me into a murderer, hm?
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: If you haven't known that Tooru Amuro is a Double Agent serving both Black Org (Bourbon) and PSB (Rei Furuya), you will know after reading this manga.
- Mistaken Identity: Hanzawa sees Kaito Kuroba/Kaito Kid on the street and mistakes him for his target Shinichi Kudo, and ends up briefly joining his crew (which is led by his fangirl, Sonoko Suzuki).
- One Dose Fits All: Defied; Dr. Agasa recruits Hanzawa as a test subject for Conan's wristwatch Tranquilizer Dart, as he has increased the dosage over the years to account for Kogoro Mouri's increasing tolerance and now it's strong enough to instantly sedate an elephant. He falls asleep for three weeks and sees The Ferryman in his sleep.
- Once per Episode: Hanazawa fantasizes about murdering some (usually for a mild slight or minor inconvenience). This fantasizes range from mild and funny to slightly disturbing.
- In every chapter a character from the main series will make a minor or major Cameo.
- File 1: Sonoko Suzuki, Ran Mouri, Inspector Megure, Conan Edogawa.
- File 3: Minami Takayama and Shiina Nagano, the Detective Boys.
- File 4: Professor Agasa.
- File 5: Heiji Hattori.
- File 6: Kogoro Mouri.
- Running Gag: Numerous people will comment “That guy looks suspicious.” when Hanzawa is scheming or deeply in thought.
- Seen It All: Ran and a couple of workers seem a little too used to the bloodshed that occurs in Beika. After Sonoko laughs at Hanzawa being unable to get into the train station, her best friend Ran tells her this.
Ran: Don’t blame me if you get killed.
- Slice of Life: The story mostly revolves around Hanzawa's daily life in the world's crime capital.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: This series goes out of its way to analyze the world of Detective Conan and point out how things would really be.
- Rent in a city with constant murders is dirt cheap, except places where murders have not taken place which are ridiculously expensive.
- The news is very blasé about the numerous deaths and the professionalism stoicism definitely leans into apathy.
- Tons of self-defense weapons are sold and due to the high demand, they are exorbitantly priced.
- People are constantly attempting to move out and to prevent population decline, leaving the city is made into a Sisyphean ordeal, where even the slightest writing error which doesn't even affect legibility would cause the request to be rejected.
- Beika City at night is a ghost town due to the high crime rate. As a robber succinctly put it:
Robber: Anyone wandering around at Beika at such a time…is practically begging to be murdered.
- Wearing all black in Beika will get you suspected as a member of the crime syndicate, thus getting on PSB watchlist.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Hanzawa's coworkers are the detectives from the main series case The Gathering of the Detectives! Shinichi Kudo vs. Kaitou Kid. However, one of said detectives, Shukuzen Ogami, was the victim of that case, so his role in the group is taken by a man named Shukujiro Ogami, a man with the exact same face, but a different voice actor.
- Wretched Hive: Despite its modern exterior, numerous murders and other incidents have turned Beika into a hilarious hellhole and the crime capital of the planet. To the point where in the first chapter alone, the passengers try to dissuade Hanzawa from exiting into Beika in sheer horror.
Narration: The city with the highest crime rate in the world, Beika.