"The truth will always find a way to make itself known. The only thing we can do is to fight with the knowledge we hold and everything we have. Erasing the paradoxes one by one… It's never easy… We claw and scratch for every inch. But we will always eventually reach that one single truth. This I promise you"
"Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Justice for All"
As TV goes exclusively digital in Japan from tomorrow on, I guess I can't watch the Conan drama live anymore through Keyhole TV? *sigh* The third episode in the series feels a bit better than the previous two episodes: it's still troublesome at some points, but it's going the right way.
Meitantei Conan - Kudou Shinichi e no Chousenjou (Detective Conan - A Challenge Letter for Kudou Shinichi)
Episode 1 (July 7, 2011): Before he turned into Conan, the high school detective solved the mystery of the adultery murder!
Episode 2 (July 14, 2011): The locked room murder commited on air! Reveal the secret cursed by the psychic
Episode 3 (July 21, 2011): Murder Case in a Locked Courtroom! Reveal the Trick of the Hostess Murder
Episode 4 (July 28, 2011): Perfect Crime! Murder Notice at a Wedding, Reveal the Locked Room Poisoning Trick
Episode 5 (August 5, 2011): The Glamorous Murder Trick of the Actress who lost her Memory - Perfect Murder at the Summer House
Episode 6 (August 11, 2011): The Magnificent Murderous Kiss of Twenty Beauties! The Murderous Intent Hidden in the Murder Equation!
Episode 7 (August 18, 2011): Inheritance Murder Among Bloody Relatives! Reveal the Mystery of the Kidnapping Trick!
Episode 8 (August 25, 2011): A Woman's Determination, Revenge on the Molester! The Murder Trick hidden in the Security Camera
Episode 9 (September 01, 2011): Hattori Heiji and the Mystery of the Invisible Locked Room Murder Weapon! Deduction Battle between the Detectives of East and West
Episode 10 (September 08, 2011): The Mystery of the Body that Moved 200 KM Within An Instant! Reveal the Perfect Crime Scheme of the Evil Woman
Episode 11 (September 15, 2011): A Kiss Is the Reason for Murder, A Revenge Murder After 20 Years! The Mystery of the Perfect Alibi
Episode 12 (September 22, 2011): I Killed Her! 3 Single Murderers? Reveal the Mystery of the Fake Murder!
Episode 13 (September 29, 2011): Ran Dies! The Final Challenge of the True Criminal to the Genius Detective - Reveal the Mystery of the White Room
Episode three (subtitled "Murder Case in a Locked Courtroom! Reveal the Trick of the Hostess Murder") starts again with Shinichi, Ran and Kogorou locked in the white room. They learn nothing new about their situation, but at the least the case their kidnaper wants them to remember is a good one. July 09, 2010. The day defense laywer Kisaki Eri was summoned to court. Not as a lawyer though, but as an important witness. A hostess called Reika (one of Kogorou's favorites) is accused of stealing money, but Reika claims she was at a totally different place on the time of the crime. She claims to have been in the love hotel area in the Haido ward and that she saw Kisaki Eri entering a love hotel there with a man (enter an exploding Kogorou who cries about adultery and stuff) . Thus, if Kisaki testifies she was there at the time of the crime, Reika goes free. Reika is not a particular likable defendant though, even going as far as making Eri angry as Reika makes comments on the old man Eri accompanied to the love hotel. Eri makes a finger gun motion, saying that Reika should back off, or else bad things might happen.
Like Reika being shot through her head. Nobody can believe their eyes, but it seems like Eri just killed the defendant with her finger. Kogorou laments the fact that two women fighting over him led to murder (and is promptly taken away), while Shinichi comes to a surprising conclusion before the eyes of everyone: he says that it's clear the Kisaki Eri was the killer! (Cue Ran making a mom-speech)
Eri isn't the killer of course. The episode was a mix of good and bad ideas: the whole concept of a person dying through a finger gun motion is fantastic, but the trick behind is rather predictable. Furthermore, the trick relies way too much on coincidence. So the solution was sadly enough not as inspired as the image of the murder. I did like how the episode actually had quite some misdirection built into it, leading into something that almost seems a layered solution. The episode on a whole feels better than the first two episodes though. The whole image of Eri killing a defendant with her finger still overpowers the disappointing solution and the story feels a bit more complex compared to the much simpler previous two episodes.
The episode is a bit strange though in the Conan continuity: Shinichi shouldn't have met Eri in long time since Eri and Kogorou started to live seperately, so that makes this episode (and the special) err... non-Conan-canon? The fact Satou and Takagi interact with Shinichi on a friendly basis also bugs me a bit, but not as much as the Eri-thing, as that was actually a crucial plot-point for her introduction story in the series.
The other strange thing was that this episode was totally different from what I expected it to be. With a) Kisaki Eri being a laywer, b) this being a detective show, c) the episode set in a courtroom and d) the anime having special Kisaki Eri, laywer episodes, I was expecting this to be more like an orthodox courtroom mystery. However, as the detective =/= laywer in this episode (the role being reserved for Shinichi of course), it felt more like a normal mystery. It feels like a nice setting has gone a bit to waste.
The next episode doesn't like particular excting actually. So no real expectations from my side for that, but I wouldn't mind a bit more expansion on why Shinichi, Ran and Kogorou are locked in the white rooms by now.
Original Japanese title(s): 『名探偵コナン 工藤新一へのう挑戦状』 サブタイトル「密室法廷で起きた殺人事件! ホステス殺害トリックを暴け」
Date & Password: 2010.07.09; クチベニ
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