A station in central Japan has been temporarily renamed "Meitantei Konan" (Detective Conan) to celebrate the upcoming release of the latest animated film about the popular boy detective with a phonetically similar name.

Fans will be able to see the novelty signboard, installed by operator Nagoya Railroad Co. on Wednesday, at Konan Station on the Meitetsu Inuyama Line in Aichi Prefecture until June 30.

Photo taken April 14, 2021, shows the giant mannequin Nana-chan at Nagoya Station transformed into Shuichi Akai, a key character in the latest "Detective Conan" film. (Kyodo)

The latest film of the Japanese serial comic and anime, "Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet" will premiere on Friday and is partly set in Aichi Prefecture.

The series, which has a strong fan base in Asia, follows the story of a genius teenage detective who shrank into a young boy after being forced to take an experimental toxin and now cracks cases while enrolled in elementary school. He adopts the alias Conan Edogawa in a nod to the writer Arthur Conan Doyle.

As part of the collaboration, the platform and some other parts of the station will be decorated with characters from the series, with various events planned to generate excitement for the release of the movie.

Nana-chan, a giant mannequin famous as a meeting spot at Nagoya Station in the prefecture, has also been transformed into Shuichi Akai, a character who plays an important role as an FBI agent in the latest film.

The mannequin, holding a rifle in one hand, will be donned in a beanie and leather jacket similar to the character until April 20.

The comic series, which has been running in a weekly magazine since 1994, is also popular overseas with translations available in over two dozen languages, including Chinese, Vietnamese, Indonesian, French, Spanish and English, under the title "Case Closed."

It has also been adapted into an animated series since 1996, as well as feature films, video games and live action television specials.

People take photos of the signboard on April 14, 2021, at Konan Station in Aichi Prefecture, which has been temporarily renamed "Detective Conan" to celebrate the latest film. (Kyodo)