On paper, Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway looked like just another yearly anime movie. Then it opened to ¥1.13 billion on a single Friday — the biggest opening day in the franchise’s 32-year history — and every studio in Japan suddenly had to pay attention. By the time its theatrical run slowed down, the 29th Conan film had piled up ¥13.65 billion at the Japanese box office and quietly rewritten what a long-running anime series is allowed to achieve.
Conan Just Secured a Record Even Demon Slayer Never Claimed
The manga by Gosho Aoyama has dominated Golden Week for decades, but 2026 brought something unprecedented: the franchise has now delivered four consecutive films past ¥10 billion each — the first time in Japanese film history that any franchise has ever achieved that. The chain: Kurogane no Submarine (2023, ¥13.88 billion), 100 Man Doru no Michishirube (2024, ¥15.8 billion), Sekigan no Flashback (2025, ¥14.74 billion), and now Fallen Angel of the Highway (2026, ¥13.65 billion and climbing).
An Opening That Broke Every Franchise Pattern
Released on April 10, 2026 across 526 theaters, the film sold 739,000 tickets on day one — ¥1.13 billion — the biggest single-day opening in Conan history. Its opening three-day weekend pulled in ¥3.52 billion with 2.31 million admissions, another all-time franchise record. The run then never stopped accelerating: ¥6.3 billion by day 10, ¥10.88 billion by day 27, and ¥13.57 billion by day 94. Entering Japan’s all-time Top 100 in just 17 days, it now sits beside Hollywood blockbusters like The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
What Is Fallen Angel of the Highway About?
Set in Yokohama and the Hakone region, the film introduces Chihaya Hagiwara — voiced by Miyuki Sawashiro — a white-motorcycle officer of the Kanagawa Prefectural Police traffic unit, nicknamed the Goddess of the Wind. When a mysterious black motorcycle nicknamed Lucifer begins causing deadly chaos on the highways, Chihaya chases him against the ultramodern police bike Angel. Conan, Ran, Sonoko, Kogoro and Masumi Sera watch the pursuit from the Kanagawa Motorcycle Festival — and slowly discover the accidents aren’t random at all.
The voice cast carries the weight: Minami Takayama returns as Conan Edogawa, Wakana Yamazaki as Ran Mouri, and Rikiya Koyama as Kogoro Mouri. Directed by Takahiro Hasui with a screenplay by Takahiro Okura, music from Yugo Kanno and a theme song by MISIA (Last Dance, Anata To), the film is produced by TMS Entertainment and distributed by Toho — a true assembly-line of the industry’s heavy hitters.
Why the Formula Never Stops Working
Detective Conan has spent three decades mastering the annual event film: a new mystery, a slick action sequence, and a crumb of continuity bread for veteran fans. The movies also act as an entry point — newcomers can enjoy a standalone case (here: a runaway motorcycle that might settle a motorcycle club turf war), while veterans comb every scene for hints about the Black Organization. And the timed Golden Week release consistently floods theaters nationwide with family audiences.
It proves that a yearly anime franchise can out-gross the biggest single movie events — the Demon Slayer Infinity Castle film broke every record before its finale arrived, as we covered, but a franchise building four straight ¥100 billion pictures in a row is a different kind of monster entirely.
What Do You Think?
Do you think Conan Movie 29 can still catch Sekigan no Flashback‘s ¥14.74 billion and become the #2 Conan film of all time? Will the four-peat streak survive in 2027? And is a highway battle between Lucifer and Angel the best direction for a detective franchise? It might even be the defining viral entertainment moment of 2026. Drop your take in the comments — we’re genuinely split on whether Conan is the most bankable anime franchise on Earth right now, and whether that’s a good thing.
