"I suppose I owe it to Holmes' apprentice?"

「人生を決めるその瞬間、自分に嘘をついてはいけない」 『名探偵コナン』

"Don't lie to yourself the moment you have to decide your life" 

"Detective Conan"

Yes, even though I'm doing my complete Conan overview posts, here's also a single review of the newest Conan volume. Mostly because I had decided I would do one, before I had even decided I would do the complete series (there is a precedent for single reviews though). Oh, and totally doing reviews of every single episode of the new Detective Conan live action series! I shouldn't be so excited about the series (as I wasn't too enthousiastic about the special), but fandom > logic in this case.

Meitantei Conan 72 starts with the conclusion to the London / Sherlock Holmes arc. The last volume ended with a common Conan-trope: the search for a single person in a big group, in this case, at Wimbledon. The solution Conan has found for this problem is a simple, yet effective way and the story wraps up in a somewhat movie-ish way. Guest appearances by a certain duo at the end was kinda surprising, but funny. And the words spoken by Conan to Ran.... I am not that foolish as to say that is the start of a new dynamic between the two characters, but it'll probably come back in a significant way. Overall, the London arc was great though and sure to go into the annals of Conan-ology as one of the better stories of the series.

The second story and the fourth story in this volume are very alike: both revolve around the Detective Boys and moments with Haibara as the main leader of the group as Conan is incapacitated. In the second story, the Detective Boys play hide-and-seek in an old building sheduled for demolishment the next week. Inside they hear a kidnappee tap a request for help to them, but Conan gets caught by the two kidnappers. It's up to Haibara to lead the the Detective Boys. For a DB story, it's pretty exciting as Conan is caught and it even features an appearance of (an important) somebody I had totally forgotten about. In the other DB story, the DBs (minus Conan because of a cold) meet a boy living on the same floor on Ayumi, who says he is being kidnapped. The 'kidnappers' say they're just his parents though and take him back in the appartment. Conan, who was talking with Haibara on the phone, deduces that they really aren't the boy's parents, but loses conciousness (because of his cold) and the DB's aren't sure how to proceed, nor how Conan came to his conclusion.

The third story is a standard which-of-the-three story. Ran, Sonoko and Conan visit Teitan University because Mouri has a speech at the university festival, and they visit the house of horrors some movie students made for the festival. The person who was playing a dead body, turns out be a real dead body though. Was it suicide, or murder? Oh, and that crime scene technician in this story? Who is he? Did he appear in previous volumes? His design is way too unique for just a throw-away character. Heck, the suspects in this story are more generic than him!

The final story is just the opening chapter of a longer story, so not much to say about that. A lady, who loves clocks, has been getting strange threatening letters signed by the Keeper of Time the last few years. Mouri Kogorou is asked to investigate the case and visits the client's house (filled with clocks). The chapter ends with the murder on the client right during her birthday party.

A so-so volume. A bit too heavy on the Detective Boys (though the first one is pretty good), and the only 'normal' story is rather standard fare. Especially with appearances of KID and Hattori lately and the London/Holmes arc, this volume just feels.... very standard. 

Original Japanese title(s):　青山剛昌　『名探偵コナン』第７２巻