800 Episodes Of Detective Conan!
Now this amount truly merits a post! What does it take to create an anime that rivals the best of them; runs parallel to the manga, without pause, for now almost 20 years! (And the manga for more than that.) That's almost as long as I am old! Hell, that's half of what the life expectancy was in Africa back in the 50s. What I'm trying to say is: that's a long... time!!
I made an attempt to catch up with this series about a year ago, but I didn't make it very far. I watched the first few episodes in their entirety, but then I started skimming, and eventually I gave up completely. Mostly because it's really a great series, and I didn't want to just skim through the episodes, but I didn't have the time or the devotion required to actually watch through them all in full. For anyone who wants to jump on this bandwagon now it'll be even tougher. :)
I did watch the movies though, and I received a few segments of the Manga for my 25th birthday (last year). I'm hoping to find a few more eventually, but they're rare over here. The whole franchise isn't just surprisingly unknown here, but in most of the Western world as well, even though I'd without a doubt class it as one, if not the best detective comic/manga/series/anime ever made. Each case is just as clever as the last, and the characters are an amiable bunch of people.
There's a story too, still brewing in the background, occasionally progressing between the various case encounters and crime scenes. At the rate it's going it doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon, but someday... I will catch up! I'll take a sabbatical year for it if I have to. :) Here's to another 800 episodes! Or at the very least, another hundred! And cheers, Gosho Aoyama, for creating not only the longest running, but also one of the most clever and creative series of my time.