Color of Memory

ああこの世界はあなたの色になるよ

「 世界はあなたの色になる」（B'z）

Oh this world will be painted in your colors

"The world will be pained in your colors" (B'z)

Man, I had to wait long for this release! Usually, a Detective Conan film is released late April in theaters, with a home-video release following late November. This time, the home-video release was scheduled early October, but unbelievable pre-order figures (three times the usual number) led to a three week delay. But now I finally have it!

Detective Conan manga & movies:
Part 1: Volumes 1 ~ 10
Part 2: Volumes 11~20; The Timebombed Skyscraper (1) / The Fourteenth Target (2)
Part 3: Volumes 21~30; The Last Wizard of the Century (3) / Captured in Her Eyes (4)
Part 4: Volumes 31~40; Countdown to Heaven (5) / The Phantom of Baker Street (6)
Part 5: Volumes 41~50; Crossroad in the Ancient Capital (7) / Magician of the Silver Sky (8) / Strategy Above the Depths (9)
Part 6:  Volumes 51~60; Private Eyes' Requiem (10) / Jolly Roger in the Deep Azure (11)
Part 7: Volumes 61~70; Full Score of Fear (12) / The Raven Chaser (13) / Lost Ship in the Sky (14)
Part 8: Volumes 71~80; Quarter of Silence (15) / The Eleventh Striker (16) / Private Eye in the Distant Sea (17)
(You will find the links to the reviews of volumes 70, 72~76, 78, 82~90 and the films Quarter of Silence (15), The Eleventh Striker (16), Private Eye in the Distant Sea (17), Dimensional Sniper (18) and Sunflowers of Inferno (19) in the library)

Doctor Agasa has brought high-school-student-detective-turned-child Conan, Haibara and the other Detective Boys to the newly reopened Touto Aquarium, an aquatic themed entertainment park with a gigantic double ferris wheel as its new main attraction. At the entrance of the park, the kids run into a mysterious woman, who appears to be suffering from amnesia. The kids decide to help her find out who she is, and drag her along with them inside the park. What Conan however does not know is that this woman is a dangerous operative who last night managed to steal a highly confidential NOC-list from the National Police Agency, detailing the identities of undercover agents from various international intelligence agencies infiltrated inside the Black Organization, the criminal entity responsible for turning Conan into a child. A hectic highway chase prevented the woman from conveying the names of all the traitors to her boss, and while she did manage to escape from a major car crash and the ensuing explosion, the trauma of the accident caused amnesia. With the identities and lives of the remaining spies inside the Black Organization at stake, the National Police Agency Security Bureau, the FBI, CIA and the Black Organization all move in to get their hands on the mysterious woman and the information in her memories in the 2016 film Detective Conan: The Darkest Nightmare.

The twentieth Detective Conan film! I remember I started watching the films around the time the sixth film (2002's Phantom of Baker Street) hit the theaters, but who would have thought that the Detective Conan films would have become such an important part of Japanese popular culture and that they'd come this far? Not even the original makers apparently, because the first film, 1997's The Time-Bombed Skyscraper, was originally intended to be the definitive Detective Conan movie. But the immense popularity of the TV series and the film was enough reason to make this an annual event. And so every April a new Detective Conan film is released. In Japan, Detective Conan is not just a mystery show. It's a family show, with a very wide audience. I've been lucky enough to see the films in Japanese theaters three times now, and at an afternoon showing you'll see groups of children in the audience, but the evening showings will feature couples and many, many adults. The fact that The Darkest Nightmare became the highest-grossing film in the franchise shows that the audience still loves these flicks.

Kodama Kenji, known for his work on the classic anime series City Hunter, was the director of the first seven Detective Conan films, and his films are fairly classic whodunnit films, with usually about two large set pieces to give it the necessary action movie feel (the set pieces usually happen halfway and at the climax). The whodunnit plots were the main driving power of these films however. Yamamoto Yasuichirou took over with 2004's Magician of the Silver Sky, and his direction was definitely more action-focused, with more set pieces set at diverse settings like planes, ships and a snowy mountain. The mystery plots in turn were simplified, with usually less murders per film. The latest change in directors came in 2011~2013: Shizuno Koubun was first billed as director together with Yamamoto, but took over as main director in 2013. Shizuno's films are marked by ridiculously over-the-top action and even less a focus on a whodunnit plot. Films like 2013's Private Eye on the Distant Sea and 2014's The Dimensional Sniper are more thriller than detective at times and while they're absolutely fun to see as action movies, they are very, very different from the more sober classic mystery films early in the film franchise.

2016's The Darkest Nightmare continues this line set by Shizuno. The script, penned by Sakurai Takeharu who also wrote Private Eye in the Distant Sea and Sunflowers of Inferno, does not even feature a murder mystery! The Darkest Nightmare is from start to end a gripping spy action thriller, about various government organizations and the Black Organization trying to outwit each other as they all hunt after the mysterious woman and the stolen NOC-list. It's more James Bond than Detective Conan, to be honest, but I did really enjoy this film. For a large part it's because this film is so strongly connected to the main storyline of the comic. Usually, the films are set in their own little world and have their own atmosphere, but this film really felt like one of those grand storylines that feature the Black Organization, like volume 49's Black Impact, volume 57's The Clash of Red and Black and volume 85's The Scarlet Truth. It reminds of the thirteenth film, The Raven Chaser, which also featured a Black Organization-focused story, but The Darkest Nightmare does not feature a murder mystery subplot that dilutes the impact of the Organization's presence. And while director Shizuno definitely does not go for realistic action in his films, I have to say his action set pieces are absolutely thrilling to watch. It's ridiculously over the top, but in a good way.

The fact this film is so much about various organizations from the Detective Conan universie going against each other does make this one a fairly inaccessible one. I would never recommend watching this film without being up-to-date with the corresponding manga storyline. The earlier Detective Conan films are much, much better as an introduction to the series. The Darkest Nightmare is great for the fans, less so for newcomers. Oh, and after years of awful guest voice actors in the Detective Conan films, I have to say actress Amami Yuuki did a fairly good job as the mysterious woman! (Let me remind you that Eikura Nana was awful in Sunflowers of Inferno)

The Darkest Nightmare is also a great Gundam film. Mobile Suit Gundam is an iconic science-fiction animated series from 1979 which is grown out to a gigantic franchise. Its influence on Japanese popular culture is basically what Star Wars or Star Trek was to American popular culture. Gundam is everywhere and everybody knows it. Sequels and spin-off series are still made to this day (in fact, Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans is running right now on TV). Two rival characters in the Detective Conan universe are actually based on Amuro and Char, respectively the protagonist and antagonist of the original Mobile Suit Gundam series, and these characters are even voiced by the original voice actors of Amuro and Char. The rivalry between Amuro and Char, and their voice actors, is thus given new life in Detective Conan, and especially in The Darkest Nightmare, which is full of little Gundam references. Already from the first chase scene on, we see these characters drive off in white and red sports cars, mirroring the colors of the Mobile Suits (gigantic robot suits) Amuro and Char use in Mobile Suit Gundam, and they even get to fight over a woman and basically have to stop a Colony Drop. Seriously, the more I think about, the more I'm convinced I didn't watch a Detective Conan movie, but a Gundam movie. Furuya Tooru, the voice actor of the character based on Amuro, even confessed that during the voice recording session for The Darkest Nightmare, he accidentally cried out Char's name during a fight scene, recalling his iconic role!

So in short: I really enjoyed Detective Conan: The Darkest Nightmare as an action-packed thriller featuring many characters from the Detective Conan universe, which also doubles as a Gundam movie, but it's also very different from what you'd actually expect from a Detective Conan movie. There isn't even much detecting going around here. It's definitely not the movie to use if you want to introduce a friend to Detective Conan, but as a piece of entertainment for the fans, The Darkest Nightmare was really, really awesome.

Original Japanese title(s): 『名探偵コナン　純黒の悪夢（ナイトメア）』