Magic and Tricks

If there's somethin' strange 

In your neighborhood 

Who ya gonna call?

"Ghostbusters" (Ray Parker Jr.)

So the film didn't release on Halloween, but in April, and then the home video was released the week after Halloween... I guess the theme was Halloween because of ghost of the pasts returning, but still, they could have at least released the home video in the week of Halloween...

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, 82~102 and the films Quarter of Silence (15), The Eleventh Striker (16), Private Eye in the Distant Sea (17), Dimensional Sniper (18), Sunflowers of Inferno (19), The Darkest Nightmare (20), The Crimson Love Letter (21), Zero the Enforcer (22), The Fist of Blue Sapphire (23) and The Scarlet Bullet (24) in the library or via the Detective Conan tag)

A Russian man blown up with a bomb which engulfed him in purple flames right in front of the Metropolitan Police Department is a shocking event on its own, but the police detectives at the Homicide division are very surprised to find among the unknown victim's belongings a business card bearing the name of Matsuda Jinpei, a police detective who was posted to the Homicide division for one week, but died in the line of duty several years ago. Conan is given information by his contacts within Public Security that in the week when Matsuda worked at the Homicide division, he and some friends he knew from the police academy stumbled upon a bomb terrorist by accident and while they failed to apprehend the terrorist, they did manage to disarm the bomb that was going to blow up a building. This terrorist has recently re-appeared in Tokyo, and the distinctive purple flames of the bombs used by this terrorist make it clear they are also involved with the death of the man who exploded right in front of the MPD. Meanwhile, the Homicide division and Kogorou are also asked to help secure the upcoming Halloween wedding of Muranaka, an old friend and co-worker of Inspector Megure, who had to retire early due to an injury, but has now finally found someone to tie the knot with. Muranaka has received threatening letters for his wedding, something sadly expected due to the many people he caught while he was with the police, but as the wedding approaches, they learn the bomb terrorist is apparently behind these threats on Muranaka and his soon-to-be wife, but why? The story comes to a climax on Halloween, as ghouls and ghosts come out to play, but some of them are carrying rather dangerous surprises in the 2022 theatrical release Detective Conan: The Bride of Halloween.

And once again, this new film managed to break the previous earnings record of this film series. Detective Conan may have been running for nearly thirty years, and even if we look at the annual animated films series alone, this is the 25th film already, but they still draw huge audiences! Can you think of a different mystery franchise that's been going so strong so consistently?

As an extension of the animated television series (itself an adaptation of the original comics by Aoyama Goushou), the theatrical releases have always been in flux, trying to find different ways to present themselves to bring the "Detective Conan" experience on the big screen. The tone and atmosphere of the films have changed greatly too in these 26 years, as they adapt to the tone and atmosphere of the original series, but also because different directors and screenplay writers try something else. The earlier movies felt relatively close to the original comic, with some added spectacle in the form of action scenes (explosions!). These films were followed by few movies that seemed to focus more on the action and in more recent years, you even had a few Detective Conan movies that seemed more inspired by political thrillers. Things come in waves however, with 2017's The Crimson Love Letter for example featuring the focus on the core mystery plot the earlier movies had, without sacrificing the bombastic action scenes we had grown accustomed to by then. Last year's The Scarlet Bullet also felt like a "modern" throwback to the style of earlier Conan films with a plot revolving around a moving vehicle, invoking earlier films like Magician of the Silver Sky (2004), Strategy Above the Depths (2005) and Lost Ship in the Sky (2010), but with a lot more stylish action and also the typical character focus we have seen in recent years.

2022's The Bride of Halloween is both a very interesting Detective Conan film, but also a very not interesting Detective Conan film. It does things I hadn't expected a Detective Conan film to do, but also didn't do a lot of things I expect, or at least hope to get from a Detective Conan film. To start with the negative: as a mystery film, The Bride of Halloween is pretty disappointing, and that's right after the also, but not as disappointing The Scarlet Bullet last year. The film kinda wants to make the identity of the bomb terrorist and their master plan a mystery, but it really isn't considering the cast of suspects is incredibly small, which reminds me of the very first film, 1997's The Time-Bombed Skyscraper, but that film at least had more "puzzle solving" segments sprinkled through the story, whereas you simply have less of that here. You do get minor mysteries like why the Russian man had Matsuda's business card and what he was doing at the MPD, or how this all connects to Muranaka's wedding, but ultimately doesn't really manage to impress because there's just too little body to the mystery. I like a certain repeated clue pointing to the identity of the terrorist, because it makes good use of the visual aspect of the film, but it also feels wasted because there wasn't really any mystery about it in the first place. So you won't be watching this film for the mystery, that's for sure.

 

So why would you watch The Bride of Halloween? Well, surprisingly, this may be the first Detective Conan film that feels so strongly connected to the main series. The previous few films already featured a bigger focus on characters besides Conan, giving them more time to shine here than they can in the original comics, but the Detective Conan films have always been something of a Schrödinger's cat when it comes to their connection to the storyline of the original comics. They never refer specifically to events that occured in the films, but often, the films will feature small segments that are absolutely canon to manga, for example having small character snippets where some background information is revealed that is considered canon to the manga, introducing new characters that are reverse-imported to the manga and Dimensional Sniper even making a big reveal before the big reveal occured! The Bride of Halloween goes further however, and feels much more tightly connected to the main storyline. The film for example starts off with very specific references to the Trembling Metropolitan Police Department storyline from volumes 36-37 that first introduced the (by that time already deceased) Matsuda Jinpei and the way the first half of The Bride of Halloween builds on that storyline, focusing on the police detectives Satou and Takagi who also starred in that previous story, makes this film feel like a kind of sequel or epilogue. The first half of the film also focuses a lot on the five characters who starred in the Detective Conan spin-off Wild Police Story, which is set quite some years before the events of the main storyline, and focuses on five young cadets in the police academy, Matsuda Jinpei being one of them. By the time the main storyline starts, they have all gone different ways, but this story brings the group together again in an extended flashback and in that sense, this film also serves as a sequel/epilogue to Wild Police Story, as we get one final look at them helping each other out again. And that is where The Bride of Halloween does manage to surprise and be captivating, as long-time fans of the series will find this film quite rewarding with its more open connections to the main series compared to previous films. I think the film is still understandable for newcomers, but it does juggle with a lot of established characters, so it's defnitely more enjoyable to longtime fans.

And wow, they dared to do that to a manga canon character in one of the films? Makes you wonder if they'll dare to do something similar in future films!

We have a new director for this film by the way and the somewhat denser pre-title card sequence can perhaps be seen as a sign of change, and the new and stylish, but still familiar opening where Conan narrates the premise of the series looks gorgeous. The above-mentioned closer ties to the main storyline may also be a sign of things to come, though I do have to say the action scenes in this film felt a bit lacking. I have grown used to the over-the-top action of the Detective Conan films of recent years, and while The Scarlet Bullet already felt more tame compared the films preceding it directly, I think The Bride of Halloween lacked... the type of dynamic action set pieces that build on the mystery element, putting Conan in a seemingly unwinnable situation, but him still turning things around with everything properly clewed. That's still here in a way, but the set pieces were just less... surprising/clever than we had seen in earlier movies. I looooved having that track back though!

Detective Conan: The Bride of Halloween will not be my favorite Detective Conan film, and as a mystery film, it's even quite disappointing, but it is still a film I can easily recommend to fans of the franchise, because of the way it meaningfully ties back to certain big storylines in the original comic, and in a way none of the films have ever done. Watch it as a kind of epilogue to both Wild Police Story and The Trembling Metropolitan Police Department and you have a film that is quite entertaining overall, even if leans a bit much on these connections to actually shine and isn't as interesting as a standalone film. The next one is already announced for of course a Golden Week release, and considering the few lines we hear in the teaser, it's clear who the focus character will be this time, and if that film will also build more strongly on specific storylines from the original manga, this might turn out to be very interesting!

Original Japanese title(s): 『名探偵コナン　ハロウィンの花嫁』