On this day, we are celebrating the 20th year of the hit long running anime Detective Conan, since its first airing on Philippine TV last 2001. Let’s take a look back on how it first appeared on our TV sets and how it became popular in the Philippines.

On September 10, 2001, GMA Network premiered its very first episode of Detective Conan broadcasted during 4:00pm. It continued to air for about two months until it was taken down. The said anime re-aired again in October 2002 until 2003.

The English Dubbed version also aired on Animax Asia last January 2006 under the same name. Back then, they only aired 52 episodes and Animax weren’t able to obtain any further broadcasting rights for the said anime. The series aired until August 2006 until it was removed.

Due to insisted public demand by the fans, they re-aired Detective Conan on February 13, 2007 broadcasted during Weekdays at 10:00am. This was continued until July 2007. In July 2010, the new season of Detective Conan premiered on GMA Network, starting from episode 128 and broadcasted during 9:00am on weekdays. This was aired until November 2010. The live action movie of Detective Conan was aired on GMA Network last December 25, 2010 and January 1, 2011 as part of their holiday special.

During the 10th year anniversary on Philippine TV last July 2011, Detective Conan re-aired again on GMA Network. In some cases, Detective Conan was also airing on weekends apart from its weekday schedule and most of the time every Holy Week season.

In 2013, defunct pay TV channel HERO TV tried to air the drama special of “Detective Conan: The Letter of Challenge” as part of the September line up.

In 2014, Detective Conan returned on GMA Network with new episodes airing on weekday mornings under the Astig Authority block.

In 2018, new episodes of Detective Conan were aired on GMA Network on weekday mornings. The next year, the said TV network aired the sixth animated television special a.k.a. Episode One. The said TV special serve as a retelling of the entire first and part of the second episodes of the original anime series. It has newly added story elements, not seen in those episodes.

Occasionally, GMA Network tried to aired several TV specials of Detective Conan such as ‘The Time Bombed Skyscraper’, ‘The Fourteenth Target’, ‘Captured in Her Eyes’, and many more.

And lately this year 2021, Detective Conan made a comeback on Philippine TV by airing new episodes on GMA Network every weekend mornings. As of this moment, the said TV channel currently aired a total of 363 episodes of Detective Conan on GMA Network since 2001.

During the long time that Detective Conan appeared on GMA Network, the number of people who wanted to watch it also increased. Even non-anime fans are also hooked on this anime. It is no wonder why the said anime lasted 20 years on Philippine TV. Happy 20th Anniversary to Detective Conan in the Philippines. Hopefully, it will continue to air on Philippine TV for a very long time.