Kindaichi Case Files (金田一少年の事件簿, Kindaichi Shōnen no Jikenbo?) is a serialized Japanese mystery manga series based on the crime solving adventures of a high school student, Hajime Kindaichi, the supposed grandson of the famous (fictional) private detective Kosuke Kindaichi. They are written by Yozaburo Kanari or Seimaru Amagi (depending on series) and illustrated by Fumiya Satō. The Kindaichi series is one of the earliest works in the mystery manga genre. In 1995, the manga won the Kodansha Manga Award for shōnen. The collected stories are published in English by Tokyopop with the title The Kindaichi Case Files.

Kindaichi has also been adapted as an anime television series with 148 episodes, 2 anime movies, a live-action movie, and three live-action series. Toei Animation handled the anime adaption of the Kindaichi series.

Currently, the series has been restarted with four additional cases. The writers plan to restart Kindaichi but not on a regular basis. The fourth case started in January 2007. Only the first 19 cases (the first series) have been licensed by Tokyopop; the rest are unlikely to see print in the United States unless their relatively poor sales improve.

Kindaichi mysteries are whodunnit stories featuring (usually multiple) gruesome murders, often with a supernatural tinge. They are typically of the style of John Dickson Carr, and frequently feature a locked room mystery or other seemingly "impossible" crimes, such as a murder occurring when all surviving suspects have (apparently) airtight alibis.

A notable distinction of The Kindaichi Case Files is that the killers are not depicted as psychopathic murderers and the murders are never committed for financial reasons alone. The identified killers all have deep rooted problems, often involving great emotional trauma through the greed or thoughtlessness of others, as their reasons for committing the murder(s). Thus the killers are often portrayed as sympathetic figures, as opposed to cold, calculating killers in some other mystery series.

Source: Wikipedia