One of the longest-running comic series is "Meitantei Conan (Famous Detective Conan)," about an elementary-school-age private eye named Conan Edogawa who was once a high-school-age private eye named Shinichi Kudo before the evil Black Organization (Kuro Soshiki) used some kind of "chemical" to make him younger.
In the live-action drama special "Kudo Shinichi no Fukkatsu (The Resurrection of Shinichi Kudo)" (Nihon TV, Monday, 9 p.m.), Conan is living in the home of his old girlfriend Ran, who doesn't know that Conan is her former boyfriend Shinichi. They go to a hotel where a beauty pageant is being held. The winner of the pageant is being blackmailed. At the reception, Conan eats some cake that makes him sick, but when he recovers he finds he has been restored to his old self, Shinichi Kudo. He starts investigating the blackmailing, which seems to be the work of the Black Organization, but the winner is killed.
On TV Asahi's popular variety show "Zenigata Kintaro," whose title is a parody of Zenigata Heiji, a famous fictional hero, comedians visit the homes of people who claim to be poor and learn how they get by on very little money. On each program, four contestants are profiled and a panel of judges chooses the most interesting or original survival story and awards the winner ¥200,000.