Sunday, April 19, 2009

「真実はいつも一つ!」

Went to see Detective Conan: The Raven Chaser with Els today, which was a superspecialawesome movie. We wanted to go yesterday, as that was the first day the movie was shown, but surprisingly, tickets were sold out about everywhere pretty much immediately (movie tickets here, by the way, are quite expensive. 1800 yen!).

So kinda disappointed, we settled for today. As tickets sold fast as well today, we made a quick jump to and from Ikebukero around 14.00 to get tickets for the last showing at 18:30, thus missing the rest who went to a park nearby our mansion. We wanted to join the rest after our return, but we just never found the park. We still don't have a clue where the friggin' park is. Pretty sure we went the right direction, but it was not to be. Of course, with my sense of (mis)direction, the search was hopeless to begin with.

Back at the theater, several things stood out. First was the blond gaijin Els amongst the waves of Japanese people. But besides that, it was pretty cool that the people who were going to see this animation movie were... just normal people going to the movies. I was expecting more... kids and stuff, but the Detective Conan movies seem to be regarded as just normal movies by the Japanese public (or maybe animation movies in general). Also, the people were actually quite silent during the movie, which was nice, as I could actually hear dialogue instead of people talking. And they actually stayed in their seats until the credits ended. Certainly different from the Dutch experience.

The movie was as said superspecialawesome, but only people reading/watching Detective Conan would understand the superspecialawesome-ness. It has to do with Irish Whiskey, the Big Dipper, suspenders, mahjong and the Beatles. And loose threads of plot regarding turbo-powered skateboards left in the lobby of the Tokyo Tower. Ah, it was pretty evil that The Raven Chaser merchandise was sold inside the theater and I consciencely stepped into the trap.

Detective Conan for me is a important series, as it introduced me to the world of Japanese detective novels and in a way has gotten me all the way here to Tokyo. So it was kinda full circle-ly stuff when I finally got to see Detective Conan in the theaters here.