The Case of the Silver Bullet

この真相、最高機密（トップシークレット）

「永遠の不在証明」（東京事変）

 

This truth is top secret

"The Eternal Alibi" (Tokyo Jihen)

Two weeks ago I discussed a book on the earliest trains in Japan, today a film focusing on a very modern train.

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, 82~100 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) in the library)

The biggest international sports event, the World Sports Games, are held every four years and this year, Japan's capital Tokyo will host the prestigious games. The opening ceremony will be viewed across the world, so it's also decided that the Hyperlinear bullet train, the pinnacle of Japanese technology, will commence operation on the same day. The Hyperlinear runs between Nagoya and the new Shibahama Station in Tokyo, connnected to the stadium where the WSG opening ceremony will be held, and the Maglev train can reach speeds up to 1000 km/h, meaning the trip between Nagoya and Tokyo won't even take thirty minutes! VIPs for the opening ceremony of the WSG will arrive by Hyperlinear from Nagoya to Tokyo. The Suzuki Zaibatsu is one of the sponsors of WSG Tokyo, allowing Sonoko to bring her friend Ran, and of course Conan and the other kids to an early reception for sponsors and other related parties to the upcoming festivities. During the party however, Sonoko's father (the president of the conglomerate) is abducted, but thanks to the Detective Boys, he's quickly found in relatively good health. It turns out that a similar incident occured 15 years ago too, in the run-up to the WSG in Boston. The directors of three major companies sponsoring WSG Boston had been kidnapped one after another. One of three was even killed by the kidnapper when the industralist was trying to run away. It appears that the same serial sponsor kidnapping case is repeating itself now in Japan with WSG Tokyo, but why? Conan of course has an interest in the case, as does the Sleeping Detective Kogorou, who is hired by automobile industrialist John Voit, fearing he may be the next victim. But there are more interested parties: high school student detective Sera Masumi and her "extraterritorial sister" seem to be involved too, much to Conan's surprise, but more dangerous are the FBI agents active in Japan right now under command of James Black, because they consider this a continuation of "their" case 15 years ago and they're determined to "clean up" themselves. When all of these interested parties learn that the likely targets will be riding the Hyperlinear on its maiden voyage from Nagoya to Tokyo to attend to the opening ceremony of the WSG, they realize that the kidnapper will likely try to strike on the "Japanese Bullet" but can they prevent a repetition of the tragedy of 15 years ago in the 2021 theatrical release Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet?

When I described Detective Conan as one of the biggest detective franchises ever, I honestly wasn't exaggerating. As a multimedia franchise, few mystery-related franchises can even come close to how absolutely massive the machine has become in over twenty-five years and one of the most obvious markers are of course the annual animated theatrical releases. Since 1997's The Time-Bombed Skyscraper, a new film has been released each year in April, and it's become a tradition of Japanese popular culture in general. Everyone just knows there'll be a new Conan movie out in April and over two decades later, they're still drawing massive audience numbers, with the movies usually ending up high on the list of best-grossing Japanese-produced movies each year. But even traditions and set plans can't stop a pandemic, so 2020 was the first year since 1997 that did not see a new Detective Conan movie released. The marketing campaign was already working full power, but due to the state of emergency declared in Japan just two before Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet was supposed to premiere, the twenty-fourth film in the franchise was first postponed, and later that summer it was officially announced the movie would be pushed back to April 2021, leaving 2020 Conan-less. I bought the home video release of The Scarlet Bullet by the way, which was released last week, and you can find traces of the "pandemic delay" in various ways by the way, with artwork, trailer and promotion material for both 2020 and 2021. So for fans, the wait for The Scarlet Bullet was certainly not short, though the push back to 2021 did make sense, because as you can guess from the summary above, the film was also created to coincide with the Summer Olympics of Tokyo, which were of course also delayed to 2021. The World Sports Games are the Olympics in all but name, though I guess it'd be hard to get official branding for a detective story about sponsors being kidnapped and killed and the FBI involved and operating in Japan and all of that! 

In the article celebrating the release of volume 100 of the Detective Conan comic, I also talked about the movies, and how the tone and atmosphere has changed in these two decades, partially because different directors with their own styles would take over. The earlier movies where basically like the original comic, with some added spectacle in the form of action scenes (explosions!). Then we got a few movies that seemed to focus more on the action, taking inspiration from panic action films and recently we had a few Detective Conan movies that seemed more inspired by political thrillers. Things come in waves though, and for example 2017's The Crimson Love Letter felt in my view a lot more like the earliest films, focusing more on a robust puzzler plot despite also featuring the bombastic action scenes of the movies we had become used to by then. In that sense, I think The Scarlet Bullet can also be described as a throwback to earlier Conan films, with the latter half of the story focusing on the Hyperlinear bullet train, the latest Conan movie reminds of the tone of the entries over a decade ago, like Magician of the Silver Sky (2004), Strategy Above the Depths (2005) and Lost Ship in the Sky (2010), but with current director Nagaoka's own touch.

Sadly enough, The Silver Bullet also seems inspired by those movies in terms of mystery plot, because it's rather light this time. The movie has a few minor mystery moments that are solved in a swift way with pretty good presentation too, preserving good pacing throughout these scenes: we already saw this technique in storytelling in the previous movie The Fist of Blue Sapphire, which had some fantastic scenes planned out to quickly show how KID would prepare a theft and then act, while also being clear to the viewer. The Scarlet Bullet has a few of these well-paced moments too, like the Detective Boys locating Sonoko's kidnapped father in the prologue and a few other moments, but the big storyline, regarding the series of kidnappings of the sponsors and the identity of the culprit, isn't really interesting at all. There are barely any suspects, so the moment when Conan and Sera figure out who did it doesn't even feel clever. It's basically a shrug moment, and at the same time, I can't say I was really surprised by this disappointing climax of the mystery, because throughout the film, the "overall" mystery plot just felt underwhelming, even if at specific, select moments, the film does have nice and even memorable scenes that involve some kind of mystery for the viewer to solve, like a certain chase scene at the end of the film and of course the part that actually involves the bullet. The action and explosions in this movie seem toned down compared to previous entries by the way, so for some it might might feel a bit disappointing, but after a pirate war fought out in Singapore previously and explosions and more that could wipe out whole city blocks or valleys a few movies back, I'm okay with them dialling back the chaos a bit. 

But while The Scarlet Bullet feels a bit like an "old" Conan film because it returns to the "panic on a moving vehicle" pattern, it also feels very like a modern Detective Conan film due to its character focus. Ever since The Darkest Nightmare, the spotlight of these films have been aimed at different specific persons or groups from the original comic besides protagonist Conan, allowing select members of the secondary cast a chance to shine or to show a different side to them we usually don't see in the main series. This is also the case with The Scarlet Bullet, which naturally kinda expects you to be somewhat aware of, and up to date with the storyline of the main series. But that also means that this film will casually spoil some plot elements of the main story if you're still at like volume 70, as this film basically assumes you're up to date with the latest release at the time of the (original planned) premiere (so around 98). If you don't know who Sera and her "extraterritorial sister" are, you'll understand next to nothing about their actions in this film and the appearance of shogi player Haneda Shuukichi will also be a complete enigma if you haven't read or watched Detective Conan the last few years, but for fans, The Scarlet Bullet is a pretty awesome showcase showing these fan-favorite characters interacting in ways you don't really see in the main series. It's such a shame that the actual mystery plot they are inserted into isn't anything special, because the manner in which they are featured in The Scarlet Bullet is actually done really well. I loved Shuukichi's scene in particular: he doesn't really appear very often in the comic and seldom does anything memorable there, so this was genuinely the first time I think he was really shown off as the shogi genius he's supposed to be. The film also plants a few minor seeds that tie in with the storyline of the comic, as has been the case the last few years.

By the way, the pandamic delay did lead to an interesting new project: a second film. The Scarlet Alibi is a compilation film that saw a limited release in theatres in February 2021, serving as a kind of 'refresher' regarding the story arcs of the four focus characters of The Scarlet Bullet. It uses material from the television animated series to bring the viewer up to date on the various characters and what storylines they're involved this last... decade, but interestingly, The Scarlet Alibi hadn't been originally planned for the original 2020 release of The Scarlet Bullet: they only made it because of the year delay of the main film. The Scarlet Alibi is included in the deluxe edition of the Japanese home video release of The Scarlet Bullet by the way!

Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet is by no means the best Conan movie of the last few years: the mystery plot is simply too light and due to its focus on a specific set of characters, it's also a bit difficult to recommend to casual fans because there are just so many character interactions going on that rely on context. Fans of these characters will have a blast though: I'm a fan of Sera myself, but she hadn't been featured in the films since Dimensional Sniper, and Shuukichi had never appeared before. I also think The Scarlet Bullet is worth a watch if you like the other panic action Detective Conan films, because this one feels very much like those older films, but with a modern feel to them. The teaser at the end of The Scarlet Bullet and a recently released Halloween-themed illustration has already shown us what the theme of next year's film will be, which probably won't surprise fans who have been keeping up with the spin-off series too, but we'll have to wait for the proper trailers to see what the next film will be about!

Original Japanese title(s): 『名探偵コナン 緋色の弾丸』

A Study in Black

百年ぶりの世紀末　泣けといわれて僕は笑った

「胸がドキドキ」（The High-Lows）

 

It's the first end of a century after a hundred years; I was told to cry, yet I laughed 

"The Pounding In My Chest" (The High-Lows)

It's here! 

I already wrote a post to celebrate the joyous occassion, but volume 100 of Detective Conan was released last week. When the series started in 1994, nobody, not even the author himself, could've guessed it'd become the longest running single detective series that would become an even bigger multimedia franchise, but here we are now. The last few years, the serialization schedule has slowed down significantly though: where in the past Conan would be featured in almost every weekly issue of Shonen Sunday, the pacing is less consistent now (often a few weeks consecutively to serialize one single story, followed by a few issues of absence etc.), so the volumes that collect these chapters are also released much slower. What makes scheduling even more complex is that they usually try to release a new volume in April to coincide with the release of the new annual theatrical release, so they often move things back to ensure there's a new volume in April. Last year for example only one volume was released, because they pushed a volume originally planned for winter 2020 all the way to April 2021. So the last few years, all of us saw that volume 100 was coming closer, but it was also so far away because the releases became less frequent with the year. Sadly enough, there's no "special edition" release of this volume, but I am glad to say that this volume has to be one of the best volumes in terms of consistency in story quality in years, and it features one of the most memorable, and best stories in Conan history too.

Volume 100 opens with the remaining chapters of Kudou Yuusaku's Detection Show, which started in the previous volume. Shinichi's parents are back in Japan again, but as he's bored, Yuusaku, the world famous mystery novelist and amateur detective, has been helping the police solve some difficult cases again. When he's ambushed by the media on his way home from the Metropolitan Police Department, Yuusaku announces he has also solved a series of locked room murders that has occured in the city this last month. While no connection was found between the victims and where they were killed, meaning it wasn't even clear whether these murders are connected, Yuusaku quickly recognized how the locked room murders were committed based simply on the photographs. A live television show will be shot at the Kudou residence, where Yuusaku will explain how the murders are committed, but on the day of the broadcast, he's taken down by food poisoning and isn't even capable to explain to his wife Yukiko how the murders were committed. Yukiko (the world famous actress) decides she'll dress up as her husband again and have Conan do the deducing. Going over the files, Conan manages to solve most of the case too just like his father, but right before the television crew is to arrive, his mother is also taken down by food poisoning. With the live broadcast about to start and Conan knowing exactly who the murderer is, what's he going to do?

An interesting story that shows off Aoyama's story-telling qualities. For looking solely at the locked room murder trick, this story is not remarkable at all, as the trick is very simple. But it's presented in such a well-planned manner. For example, Yuusaku and Conan quickly realize the exact same trick is used in the three murders, despite the fact that at least on the surface, the three victms were killed under different circumstances and in different kind of locations. This leads to a clever, leading hint that is basically asking the reader: Can you recognize what the similarities are between the three crime scenes and figure out how it was done? Sounds like a simple idea, but this allowed Aoyama to make something bigger of what is essentially a simple trick. The hinting that ties the victims together and points towards the culprit is also very clever, making good use of the visual format in a way only Aoyama can. And on top of all this is the storyline of Conan having to figure out what to do with the television crew on their doorstep, and while this results in a very funny denouement scene where we do get the "Kudou Yuusaku Deduction Show" from the title despite the fact Yuusaku is lying sick in bed at the moment, there's actually more playing in the background that is far more serious, setting up the climatic following story.

The FBI Serial Murder Case is one of the most exciting stories to have been featured in this series and an excellent example to show how a mystery story doesn't need to be about solving a murder or anything, but that situations can be presented as a mystery to be solved too, and that with proper clewing and hinting, even an action-packed survival thriller can be a great mystery story. The last few days, unknown foreigners have been killed across town, two every day. The victims have no ID on them, and it appears they were illegals in the country. Conan happens to find the latest victim and spots members of the Black Organization at the scene. Searching the victim's body before Vodka can get to the body, Conan finds FBI identification, which makes him realize that all the foreigners killed lately must have been undercover FBI agents in Japan and that the members of the Black Organization are assasinating them. He hurries home to reach his own contacts at the FBI, but he finds all of them already hiding in the Kudou residence: they too realize that the Organization is somehow killing all of their agents. Revealing a clue he found on the victim, Conan deduces that the Black Organization has managed to decipher the code the FBI agents were using to set-up meetings, ambushing them at their meeting spots. The remaining FBI agents decide to use that knowledge to set-up a trap themselves using the code, but this plan fails horribly, as their own ambush is ambushed by the Black Organization. More casualties follow and soon after, FBI agent Camel finds himself desperately trying to shake off the pursuers of the Black Organization hot on his trail. Conan and the other FBI agents at the home base recall that Camel's path has crossed that of a few BO members in the past and it's imperative that nobody gets a good look at Camel's face, because it'll set them on a trail that might lead them back to them. All Conan and the others can do however is guide Camel on the phone while he's trying to hide from Gin and his gang of assassins, which culminates in a game of hide-and-seek and desperate survival on an island, where Gin, Vodka, Vermouth, Korn, Chianti and Kir under the command of Rum, the number 2 of the Organization, hunt for Camel.

What an amazing story! In a way, the tale's reminiscent of 2016's Detective Conan: The Darkest Nightmare, but "remade" in a way to fit the (less explosive/action-focused) atmosphere of the manga. In The Darkest Nighmare, a NOC list of undercover agents who have infiltrated the Black Organization is leaked, leading to a series of assinations, and all the related parties start to hunt for a certain key person who could turn the tide of this covert battle. The FBI Serial Murder Case follows the same idea, with the movements of undercover FBI agents being exposed to the Black Organization, them being killed and then a thrilling chase to capture and kill Camel, while Conan and the gang try to save him. While this story is one of the most suspenseful stories of this whole series however, it is also a good showcase that Detective Conan is at the core always a puzzler, and the whole story is filled with little mysteries for the reader to solve while they root for Camel to come out of this alive. For example, the first few chapters focus on Conan showing how the code the FBI agents use can be cracked, and when the FBI lays a trap for the Organization, but it explodes in their own face, we are shown exactly how the Black Organization was able to figure out a trap had been laid for them, all properly clewed and hinted at. Even when the story shifts to overdrive literally with Camel racing away in his car while being chased by the Black Organization, the story never forgets this is supposed to be a detective story. Little mistakes of Camel allow Gin to deduce where Camel is hiding, while meanwhile Camel is given instructions on what to do to survive, but usually the meaning of these instructions is only explained later, allowing the reader to deduce what Conan is trying to accomplish with the instructions he's giving Camel. The story has a brilliant climax that shows how even thrilling, suspenseful action scenes can be clewed to be presented as a proper detective story, with both parties starting to read and react to each other's actions. I honestly can't wait for this story to be animated, and I wish they'd actually give this the budget of the annual theatrical releases, because story-wise, it's honestly perhaps the story in this series that feels closest to the atmosphere of the movies, without losing the focus on the mystery plot. Oh, and at the end of the story, it's finally revealed who Rum actually is: we were told like six years ago that the number 2 of the Black Organization had infiltrated the secondary cast of the series under an assumed identity and the mystery revolving Rum's identity had been the main focus of the overarching storyline these last few years.

The Murder Case at the Match-Making Shrine is a rather tame story in comparison, being one of the usual "Which of the three" stories, but it's written competently and fairly amusing. Kazuha has invited Ran to visit the Haido Shrine to get an omamori that will help her get hooked up with her love interest. Which is of course Hattori, who's also secretly visiting the shrine at the same time, though Conan immediately recognizes him. The search for love turns into a search for a murder whenever when a man is found lying dead beneath a staircase, having been hit on the head and falling down the stairs. It turns out the victim was a police officer, specialized in finding people on the wanted lists. Ran and Kazuha had overheard him saying he had spotted three of them here, and the police indeed quickly find three wanted people on the shrine grounds, and it's suspected that one of them killed the officer when he tried to arrest them. The problem however is that the murder weapon, assumed to be a missing flag pole, can't be found and it's difficult to stick the murder to any specific person. While the story is simple, there's a nice chain of reasoning laid you where you must tackle the problem from two different angles if you want to solve this. Not a remarkable story perhaps, but it's presented in a very capable manner.

Volume 100 of Detective Conan was well worth the wait not only because of the milestone, but also because all the stories in this volume manage to reach a very consistent level of quality, with the outliers being the first story, and especially The FBI Serial Murder Case, which was one of the best Conan stories in years. It has the usual thrills of the big FBI vs Black Organization stories, but the manner in which it constantly throws new minor mysteries at you despite also being a real-time suspenseful chase story simultaneously is really good, showing that a) a puzzler doesn't need to be about the usual impossible crime to still be darn good as an intellectual challenge to the reader and that b) Conan's fictional world and stories simply have the range to pull this off in a satisfying and convincing manner, as this story is bookended by two "normal" detective stories and yet The FBI Serial Murder Case doesn't feel out of place. The FBI Serial Murder Case certainly feels like Aoyama wanted to have a big story to be featured in volume 100 and he definitely succeeded with that, and I can safely say that even after 100 volumes, I'm still eager to see what will happen next. Next volume is scheduled for a spring 2022 release, which I assume will be April 2022, but there'll be more Conan material soon as The Scarlet Bullet was finally released on home video...

Original Japanese title(s): 青山剛昌 『名探偵コナン』第100巻

99.9

「まさかここまでとはな」

『名探偵コナン』

 

"I can't believe it has come to this..."

"Detective Conan"

Today is the release day of volume 100 of Aoyama Goushou's Detective Conan, one of the biggest detective franchises to have ever graced this world and while I'll still have to wait for my copy to be delivered, I figured this might be the best occassion to look back on this long, long-running series. It was in 1994 when high school student detective Kudou Shinichi accidentally became witness to a shady deal, got caught by two men of the Black Organization and fed an experimental drug that was supposed to kill him. Instead he was turned into a child and while staying low as "Edogawa Conan" with his childhood friend/love interest Mouri Ran and her private detective father Kogorou (who don't know his real identity), Conan tries to find a way to turn back into his old self and catch the Black Organization, figuring that the easiest way is to secretly help Kogorou solve as many cases as possible, as this will likely bring him on another lead connected to the Organization. More than 25 years later and 100 volumes down the story, Conan still hasn't succeeded in his goal completely, but readers have been treated to more than 300 different mystery stories that have been consistent in quality, with regularly brilliant entries. And I'm just talking about the original comic here! With an arguably even bigger animated series that adapts the comic, but also has original stories and an incredibly succesful series of annual animated theatrical releases, Detective Conan (or Case Closed as it's known in select regions) is commercially probably the biggest active detective franchise at the moment worldwide. 

When I reviewed volume 99 in April, I mentioned that "the special occassion is a great excuse to do a special Conan-themed post" and I got suggestions like a list of Top 10 stories/tricks or at a greater scale, looking at Detective Conan's influence on Japanese mystery fiction in general. But I think the suggestion to look back at when I started with the series and how my thoughts on the series have changed over the years, and how the series itself has changed over these years resonated the best with me. For while I haven't been reading Detective Conan since the very start, I have been with the series for about twenty years now, and it's also been a large part of this blog in general (it's the series with the most tag entries by far!). Heck, this blog probably wouldn't have existed without Conan: it was also the series that introduced me to a lot of mystery fiction, as the individual volume releases include an Encyclopedia of Great Detectives each time that introduces various fictional detectives, both Japanese and non-Japanese, and it were the names I first saw in these entries that got me interested in Japanese (prose) mystery fiction, and now many years later, there's this blog and I even translate these novels myelf. So perhaps it's time for a bit of reminiscing.

I don't remember the exact year, but it was around 2000 that I had my first encounter with the franchise through the second animated film: Detective Conan: The Fourteenth Target, which I still consider one of the best films of the series. It's an excellent introduction to the series, as it incorporates a lot of the recurring characters of the series (at that moment in time), but their appearances are actually heavily tied to the plot, as the film deals with a series of murders on people connected to Mouri Kogorou. The story is a nice serial killer whodunnit (with a very memorable motive for the murders!) that is tenseful and also cleverly connected to the background stories of the main characters, while also having just enough action to really sell the "theatrical release" feel. The film had me hooked, so then I watched the first movie, and from there I started reading the manga, which by that time was already around volume 35-40 in Japan. At the time, the easiest way for me to read Detective Conan, besides scanlations, was either through the French or German releases: German was infinitely easier for me to read than French and with the help of a friend (whom I'm ever grateful to), I found a shop that would actually import German comics for me and once in a few months I'd binge-buy Detektiv Conan volumes. Which incidentally also greatly improved my grades for German at school. Thank you, Conan.

So what was it that captivated me so? For me, Detective Conan: The Fourteenth Target was an eye-opener in the sense that it was the first original animated detective story I had ever seen that actually dealt with murder and death: besides some Sherlock Holmes cartoons and Basil of Baker Street (where there's no death), I had seen none. That combined with the James Bond-esque gadgets and occassional over-the-top action got me hooked, but the manga was more subdued in tone of course. Being a comic serialized in Shonen Sunday, it's no surprise it has clear rom-com roots, but the stories featured in the comic were also quite memorable as detective stories. Early stories like The Piano Sonata "Moonlight" Murder Case brought us to creepy islands with serial murders or to mountain villas with murderers who decapitate their victims. While the earliest stories might not be exceptional by any standard in terms of originality in plot, plots greatly improve after the aforementioned The Piano Sonata "Moonlight" Murder Case, with several brilliant tricks that could have featured in any classic of the genre: the impossible hanging of a monk that only a Tengu could have done is one of the more memorable early entries for example. One notable thing about Conan is of course that it's not always murder, and there are a lot of puzzle/quiz stories, or treasure hunt stories too, which help make the series feel diverse. One important aspect Detective Conan did perfectly since the beginning was the use of visual clewing: the visual format allows for different possibilities than the prose format and mangaka Aoyama's solid artwork has been used very deviously to literally place clues right in front of your eyes, and still you're likely to miss them. Readers who mostly read detective novels might have to adjust to Detective Conan at first, as it's not just the text in the balloons that's important, but also what is shown in a panel and how, but Aoyama's been great at using the visual traits of the medium. This is especially the case when it comes to stories that feature mechanical tricks for for example locked room murders: even complex Rube Goldberg-esque string & needle tricks are shown very naturally and often, the reader is given a better chance at solving these kinds of stories because they have a better idea of the actual layout of a room/building. I have a feeling these more "complex" locked room murders are more prominently seen in "waves": there were a lot of these impossible stories in Detective Conan like after volume 15, and after a few years you'd get a period with fewer of those stories, and then they'd be back for a while again.

One of my favorite aspects of Detective Conan however is that besides "classic locations" like manors, isolated islands and modes of transportation like trains and ships, the series is often very contemporary and urban, and that is also reflected in its mystery plots. This makes Detective Conan one of the most diverse detective series, because it can very naturally go to any setting and it still feels natural. Personally, I love the urban setting of Conan a lot. While the locations in the earliest stories often feel a bit "isolated", you already get a glimpse of modern urban when Conan is confronted with a murder case occuring inside a karaoke box, with people singing and going and out of the room all the time and once the animated series started and the first film was made in 1996-1997, Aoyama knew he had a hit at hand and started to build more on more on the fictional setting of "Beika Town", setting more and more cases in this fictional part of Tokyo. Because of that, we also see more recurring locations and with them, recurring characters. Detective Conan has a gigantic fictional world nowadays, because Aoyama does re-use locations and characters, so a classmate of Ran who's only mentioned in an earlier story might turn up for real another time with a case for Ran's father, or a television director who was a suspect in an earlier story might return in another story involved with the media. It makes the world feel alive, but also allows the series countless of possibilities to bring Conan to a certain setting. A series like Columbo or Murder, She Wrote also feature a lot of diverse story settings, but Conan has an ever wider range, as it also has a lot of stories featuring children. The contemporary, urban setting is also reflected in the mystery plots, which is also an aspect which sets Detective Conan apart. The series started in 1994, and we're now in 2021. The reader will know consumer society has changed drastically. Fads came and went, as did technology. In 1994, few people would have had internet at homes, then we went through dial-up modems on desktops with their iconic dial-up tune, then we got small i-Mode pages on select phones and now probably more than half of the readers of this blog are reading this very article on a mobile device. Unlike most detective series however, Detective Conan is a series that has been serialized from the beginning, being published at a pace of (in theory) one chapter a week. Because of that and the contemporary urban setting, consumer technology has always been a part of Detective Conan and it's a joy to read detective stories that don't pretend like modern technology like mobiles have made a detective puzzle story impossible because old tropes can't be used as-is anymore. Detective Conan embraces whatever modern society considers "the norm" and uses whatever is available to the modern man living in contemporary society to present an entertaining detective story. Tablets, the Internet of Things, smartphones, chat applications: why should a detective story pretend like we don't use these things all the time? In Detective Conan, modern technology is not a "cheat", but used in the same way as "telephones" or "trains" in Golden Age detective stories: the norm and nothing out of the ordinary for both the culprit and the detective. And because Detective Conan is such a long-running story with a rolling time-line (ergo: the story is always set in the same "present", whether it's a story from 1994 or from 2021), it also serves as an interesting reflection of how the world around all of us has changed too, and how it has changed the possibilities for the modern puzzle plot detective story.

I have seen some mystery bloggers approach Detective Conan who seem more familiar with American comics, not realizing that Conan is a serialized, on-going series that is released in chapters. Without that knowledge, the fact that stories are often "cut off" only to continue in the next volume might seem weird, but that's what happens with an ongoing story. For the fact that the series features an ongoing narrative is of course also quite unique for a detective series. Some stories form a set together, like a budding love story between the police detectives Takagi and Sato that develops over the course of several stories involving the Homicide division of the Metropolitan Police Department, while the phantom thief KID appears once in a while in heist stories with an impossible crime element. While the bulk of the cases in this series have no direct relation to the overall main story, Conan's path has crossed that of the Black Organization a lot of times in these 100 volumes and the story has grown to a much larger scale than you'd suspect readin the first volume. The ongoing serialized nature of the series has allowed for some memorable stories that take their time build up foreshadowing/clues. As I mentioned before, when I started reading the manga the Japanese release was around volume 40 and I remember that the Halloween story in volume 42 was one of the biggest events of the series, showing off what Aoyama could do with this format: while on the surface, the story involves a murder case happening during a Halloween party, the reader is also treated to a grand face-off between Conan and a member of the Black Organization, which recontextualized a lot of the events that had occured until then. While the attentive reader might have noticed something had been brewing for the last few years, it was at this point that Aoyama revealed he had been plotting this confrontation for years, hiding relevant clues and information necessary to solve the plot here in various previous stories, even stories that at first sight seemed irrelevant to the overall plot. The way Aoyama showed how he could patiently build a proper detective story over the course of many years was impressive and he'd use this technique more often in the rest of the series, where he'd have larger storylines develop over the course of many years and very different stories. The Scarlet Series in volume 85 for example was the conclusion of a storyline Aoyama had been working on for 7 years, dropping hints and clues now and then and allowing the reader to deduce the thing themselves, but even if you guessed what was going on, it was still incredibly satisfying to see Aoyama pull off the thing succesfully.

As mentioned before though, the series has changed a lot over the course of these years. My first encounter was through the films. While the first one I saw was The Fourteenth Target, the first one I actually saw in Japanese theatres with a friend was The Raven Chaser, which was already more thriller-ish in tone than the early movies. Especially the last ten years, these films have grown out to be (explosive!) action spectacles and the quality of the core mystery plots may vary a lot depending on the year: the mega-hit Zero the Enforcer was very unlike any other Conan film for example, but was a very entertaining political thriller and while The Crimson Love Letter follows the format we know of beloved early films like The Fourteenth Target, Captured in her Eyes and Countdown to Heaven, a film like The Fist of Blue Sapphire was more action-focused. While the manga has seen less drastic changes in tone in general, you can definitely feel changes as you go through the volumes. For example, you'll see more stories that build up the fictional world after volume 20 and after the aforementioned Halloween story in volume 42, Aoyama starts working more often on similar storylines covering several years, using minor stories to drop hints as he builds towards a climax. You're also more likely to see "classic" mystery settings like manors in the woods, small islands etc. in the first half of the series, with more urban stories in the second half of the series. Character popularity also changes, and it's often easy to pinpoint when a character suddenly explodes in popularity, because you'll see a lot of them then, even if they don't really add much to a story.

But that's perhaps the strength of Detective Conan: while the puzzler core with a rom-com tone is always intact, the series has always been quite diverse in what it offers to the reader in terms of style of detective story, offering both a broad selection, but also a selection that changes with time, and if you're a fan of puzzlers, it's likely you will find at least one story, or a set of stories, that will suit your taste. Whether it's inverted mystery stories, cozies, locked room murders, pure whodunnits, howdunnits, stories using modern technology, stories set in isolated, old-fashioned places, closed circles, political thriller, folklore-based mystery, non-lethal crimes or even non-criminal mysteries of everyday life, and anythng you can think of, there's probably at least one story in the manga, or the extended animated universe that will appeal to you. And despite that range, everything still feels like it's part of one Detective Conan franchise, and while not all stories are as strong as others, the quality of the plots is also fairly consistent.

Anyway, this is enough of me reminiscing about what got me first started on the series and why I have been following the series for over twenty years now, and still looking forward to each new release. Many readers of this blog are also fans of the series I know (the Conan posts always attract most commentators), so to celebrate the release of volume 100: what are your favorite Conan stories? What are your Top 10 stories/tricks? What got you into the franchise? Any memorable happening related to Conan? Feel free to talk about anything Conan-related in the comment section, and try to be generous with your use of ROT-13 spoiler tags, as a courtesy to all the readers here!

Another

Been a while since I wrote an editorial...

Last year, I wrote a post on a few original episodes of the animated series of Detective Conan, so episodes that are not based on the comic, but written especially for the anime. One episode I shortly talked about was episode 961 Glamping Kaijiken ("The Curious Glamping Incident"), which I wanted to discuss not because it was such a good mystery, but because it was absolutely insane. The story was written by Yamatoya Akatsuki, best known for his work for Gintama and this episode of Conan definitely was more focused on crazy comedy, with loads of story elements that didn't make any sense at all in the context, and just there to confuse/amuse the viewer. The animated series has been running almost non-stop since 1996, with over 1000 episodes now and while most of the episodes are in fact based on the manga, about a third of the episodes each year are anime original episodes, written by a variety of scenario writers. And these scenario writers usually have their own angles/gimmicks they like, like there was an early scenario writer who often wrote plots revolving around animals. So the anime original episodes often do feel very different from each other because of the different writers (even if they use the same basic setting/characters), so once in a while, you get an episode like episode 961 Glamping Kaijiken because they decided to go with a writer who aims to just write something completely silly.

Yesterday, on June 26th 2021, the newest episode of Detective Conan became trending on Japanese social media, because they had another of those batshit insane episodes. Episode 1010 Egao wo Keshita Idol ("The Idol Who Erased Her Smile") was written by Urasawa Yoshio, best known as chief writer for chaotic comedy series like Ranma 1/2 and Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo and renowned for his surreal, wacky stories. In fact, Urasawa was the mentor of Glamping Kaijiken's writer Yamatoya Akatsuki and the last few years, Urasawa has written a few Conan episodes and each time, they were considered "masterpieces" in the series because they were just so silly, making no sense at all and just being unlike a normal Conan episode in every way. I couldn't contain my curiosity, so I decided to watch all of the episodes of Urasawa just to see how insane they could be.

In terms of hilarious surprises, they certainly didn't disappoint. By the end of episode 1010 Egao wo Keshita Idol ("The Idol Who Erased Her Smile"), you'll realize it's the most unnecessary story ever, but the way the story is brought and the countless of little jokes (the Akira bike!) sprinkled throughout the visuals just make it a weirdly captivating story, that manages to hold your attention better than an "average, nondescript Conan story" would. Explaining the story would be a fruitless action, because the story is honestly very, very forgettable and yet I kept watching the episode because I never knew what kind of silly joke it would throw at me next. The same holds for other episodes written by Urasawa. Episode 997 Smile no Sato no Inbou ("The Smile Village Conspiracy", original broadcast on February 13, 2021) has cartoon stock villains and a granny who flies away in a jetpack and a old lady with a veeeeeery creepy collection and it's just a parade of surreal gags and almost Monty Python-esque comedy. Episode 976 Tsuiseki! Tantei Taxi ("The Chase! The Detective Cab", July 18, 2020) comes closest to having an actual detective plot, but also features so many story elemenets that are never explained (like two brothers who sing all their lines for no reason at all!) and like most of Urasawa's episodes, it almost feels like they were originally written for another series, but reworked for Conan. There are more by Uraswa, but each one of them is nuts.

But that got me thinking. While these comedy episodes of Conan are very unlike the normal stories in Detective Conan, especially the ones based on the stories of the manga, they still work because the anime series has always had a variety of scenario writers who provide different kind of stories, even though they all still use the same basic characters. So while these episodes won't serve as a good introduction to Conan for newcomers, they can be quite fun for veteran viewers exactly because they are so different from the norm, providing a different angle to what's supposed to be a familiar setting and cast. So I was wondering, were there other examples I could think of with different authors working on a series/established cast created by someone else, and where these other writers managed to add something substantial not present in the work of the original writer (and of course something I liked)?

My first thought went out to the Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney videogame series, which was originally created and written by Takumi Shuu, but later Yamazaki Takeshi was made director and writer of a spin-off series and eventually took over the main series (being head writer of Ace Attorney 5 and 6). Personally, I think Yamazaki and his team of writers managed to come up with much more solid mystery plots than Takumi, with plots written closer in the tradition of Queen with theories being built on the currently available evidence etc and turnabouts in theories based on new evidence introduced throughout a story. Yamazaki and his team brought the series much closer to puzzle plot mysteries of modern Japanese detective fiction, and I honestly feel they managed to bring a lot to the series that the original writer hadn't done.

I guess that the Gyakuten Saiban/Ace Attorney videogame series with varying teams working various entries, and Detective Conan as an ongoing animated series that has a history of featuring both stories based on the comic by Aoyama Goushou, and other scenario writers are a bit of an exception though. I guess when people think of "persons other than the original author tackling a mystery series" they are likely to think of either adaptations of pastiches. Which isn't exactly what I was thinking of at first, but for example, I remember I really liked how BBC's Sherlock 'translated' a lot of Sherlock Holmes staples into a modern day variant, or for example how the Ellery in the Ellery Queen television show was nothing like the Ellery from the novels but still presented an Ellery I could see working in the original novels. 

Anyway, what are some of the examples you can think of where other people get to work on an existing mystery franchise/established world/cast created by someone else, and they managed to add something or tackle the series from a completely different angle in a way that worked surprisingly well? Perhaps a different writer managed to write more interesting mystery plots with a certain premise of another author, or perhaps an adaptation that seems to surpass the original work? Or perhaps like the Conan episodes mentioned above, where someone manages to pull off something you had never expected of the franchise (positive or negative)?

Countdown

Neunundneunzig Luftballons

Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont 

"99 Luftballons" (Nena)

Oh, I finished Twilight of the Golden Witch earlier this week by the way, so I'm now done with Umineko no Naku koro ni. Due to the type of story being told in that episode, I didn't add much to the my Umineko no Naku koro ni playthrough though. Now to find some time to organize my thoughts...

Gee, it's been a while since I last read a new Detective Conan volume, I thought after volume 99 was delivered. Looking up the release date of the previous volume explained things, at it's been exactly a year since volume 98 was released. While the Detective Conan release schedule hasn't been regular for some years now, the one constant is that they'll release a new volume in April to coincide with the annual Detective Conan theatrical release. Last year's volume 98 was released to accompany the scheduled April 2020 release The Scarlet Bullet, but that film first got delayed to the summer and then all the way to April 2021. And while Detective Conan 99 was originally slated for a Winter 2020 release, they decided to push that release back to April 2021 too (for the new The Scarlet Bullet release), so that means we only got one Conan volume last year. Interestingly, the release of volume 98 was announced first by Aoyama himself... on his Animal Crossing: New Horizons island, months before the official listings came!

The Truth Behind Poisons and Drugs started in the previous volume, where Ran, Sonoko and Sera are invited by their classmate Yumi to her joint birthday party with her older sister Remi, a succesful model. The party is held at a small restaurant where an old classmate of Remi works as a cook, and among the other guests are also people in the modeling and entertainment industry, including the sleazy (but talented) hair artist Hanasaki, who's infamous for trying to hit on all the models, including Remi and her sister Yumi. After the birthday cake is brought to the room, the lights in the restaurants are dimmed for a short slide show while everybody is given cake, but Hanasaki cries out at that moment. At the same time, the projector suddenly switches off, leaving the room in total darkness. After the lights go on, they find Hanasaki lying dead on the floor, with the words "Heavenly Punishment" written on his head with permanent marker. The victim's piece of cake was apparently poisoned and afterwards, the murderer wrote something on his forehead. While the layout of the room and other circumstances limit the number of suspects to Remi, Yumi, Remi's manager and Remi's old classmate/the chef, none of them seem to have been able to do it for various reasons, like Yumi having a permanent marker, but sitting too far away from the victim to have poisoned his cake, to the chef who could easily have poisoned the victim's piece of cake, but not being in possession of a permanent marker.

It's the familiar poisoning story in Conan, which seldom really disappoint. It's not a bad story, but after 99 volumes, it's pretty easy to see how Aoyama structures these stories, by combining smaller tricks in a calculated manner to make the mystery seem more baffling than it actually is, but if you can identify the two 'core ideas' you can see that the individual problems can be solved fairly simply and that also makes the identity of the murderer obvious. That said, this story is definitely worth a read for long-time fans who follow the big storyline, because as the poisoning case in the restaurant unfolds, Sera also reflects on past events, which include some pretty big reveals and also introduces a very neat tie-in to an earlier story that I hadn't expected! Great to see how Aoyama reveals how some past stories we read like 10 years ago turned out to be a puzzle piece in current storylines.

The Tragedy at the Farm is a very unique story in comparison to the first story, as it follows a slightly different story format than the usual ones. The Detective Boys and their two elementary school teachers Kobayashi and Wakasa are riding a bus to visit a chicken farm outside of town. Teitan Elementary's pet chickens have recently died, but the owner of Hatoyama Farms has kindly offered two chickens to the school. In the bus, they also meet a few other people who also get out at the same stop, but they seem to have some business in the woods around the farm. The kids and their teachers arrive at the farm only to find it completely deserted though, and the chicken coop outside is damaged with a big hole in the side, with not one chicken inside. They split up in two groups and explore the farm, but Ayumi is taken hostage by someone claiming to be the brother of the owner of the farm, and he locks the group up in a cellar, where they find the body of Hatoyama himself. Meanwhile, the other group of Haibara, Genta and their teacher Wakasa is still roaming outside, but they too stumble upon hints that something odd is going on at the farm, but what?

An interesting story because the tale really focuses on presenting a mystery that doesn't seem to make very much sense. Why is there a body in the cellar? Why did the man lock them up in that same cellar, and didn't he kill the kids and Kobayashi? What are those men on the bus looking for? Why are the chickens gone? As things develops, things slowly come together to reveal a fairly unique story, with an original background story to the motive. The story is in some ways similar to other "Detective Boys in the woods meeting new people" stories, but the way the story is told is different from the usual pattern. Meanwhile, this story too has some ties to the overall story, as Kazama of Public Safety is also involved as he's tracing a stolen load of explosives, but that too leads him and his superior to a curious connection to another major storyline in this series.

The Locked Room Murder in the Attic starts with Kogorou in desperate trouble in his own office bathroom: there's no toilet paper, but he is too embarrassed to ask for paper because his beloved idol Okino Youko is in the office, with a new case. Youko recently went on location scouting with the network producer Heijima Wanya for a detective drama with a ghostly theme. They eventually found the perfect villa to film, which is also the holiday villa where the producer's older sister disappeared from a few years ago: the villa is owned by his brother-in-law Baba Nukiyasu. Nukiyasu happened to be staying at the holiday villa together with his younger brother Fuugo and his wife Himi, and both Heijima and Youko were offered to stay for the night. During the night, Youko woke up hearing odd noises and she found a trail of blood in the hallway, which stopped suddenly. The others woke up too, which was when they noticed that Nukiyasu was nowhere to be found. They all started looking for him, but there was no trace of Nukiyasu, until he sent a picture to Fuugo's smartphone, of a curious formation of playing cards. Heijima and Youko stayed longer to search for Nukiyasu, but on the fourth day, Fuugo recalled he and his brothers used to play cards in the attic when they were children. When they try to pull down the attic door however, they find it locked so the police was finally informed. The police broke through the attic window at the front of the villa, where they found a dead Nukiyasu, with a crossbow arrow in his back. But how could Nukiyasu have been killed with a crossbow inside an attic which was locked from the inside when they found the body?

A story that often feels a bit weird, though that is calculated. The howdunnit of the locked room is relatively simple, but it does lead to an interesting whydunnit: a lot of the actions of a certain character could make the locked room possible, but at first sight it doesn't seem to make any sense for that character to have act in that manner. The story ultimately does a reasonably good job at providing an explanation as to why the character would take those actions despite them not making any sense initially, which makes for a nice switch in dynamics in the solving of a locked room mystery. There is a part that doesn't make any sense at all though in terms of time: two middle-aged characters refer to a certain nickname they used as children based on a certain acronym, but two people who are middle-aged now, could never have used that word when they were children. I know Conan has a sliding time period, where "the present" in the earliest Conan stories use mid-1990s technology etc. while current Conan stories uses 2021 technology, even though in-universe, not even a year has passed in these 99 volumes. But still, I'm mostly used to "modern" technnology and concepts showing up in "present" Conan stories, not "modern" technology and concepts being introduced in segments that are clearly set several decades ago.

The final chapter in this volume is the first in Kudou Yuusaku's Detection Show, which deals with a series of locked room murders across the country, a television special starring Kudou Yuusaku where he's going to reveal the truth behind these murders and.... a very ill Kudou Yuusaku who can't possibly appear on television, and it seems like it's going to be a fun story, but we'll have to wait for the next volume for confirmation on that!

Detective Conan 99 did not have any 'big' stories, though Aoyama did make sure to insert segments in the smaller stories that do tie in to the current storylines in the manga and especially the first story has some of the major story puzzle pieces finally falling into the right place. The announcement pages at the end of volume 99 have volume 100 scheduled for a fall 2021 release, which I really hope they'll make this time. And I guess that the special occassion is a great excuse to do a special Conan-themed post around that time... anyone any ideas? 

Original Japanese title(s): 青山剛昌　『名探偵コナン』第99巻

Musical Clue

 「さぁさ目を閉じて御覧なさい」

『うめいねこのなく頃に　Banquet of the Golden Witch』 

 

"Come, close your eyes and try to remember."

"Umineko: When They Cry - Banquet of the Golden Witch"

I finished Banquet of the Golden Witch earlier this week, so added my new thoughts on what might be happening on Rokkenjima to the Umineko no Naku koro ni playthrough memo. I'll probably finish Alliance of the Golden Witch this month too and do a short post on the Question arc then, before I move on to the latter half of Umineko no Naku Koro ni. And speaking of mystery stories set on an island...

With the year long delay of the theatrical release Detective Conan film The Scarlet Bullet from April 2020 to next month, they also launched a brand new marketing campaign for the film late last year, with "RELOAD" as the campaign's main theme. "RELOAD" is of course a reference to The Scarlet Bullet's renewed release date, but there was another big project for 2021 that fitted perfectly with this theme. For the episode count of the animated television series was also about to hit 1000. The animated series based on Aoyama Goushou's manga featuring the shrunken detective started airing on January 8, 1996 and has since been one of the major animated television shows in Japan, basically running the whole year through (though it also slots in re-airs and occasionally skips a week). Whole generations have grown up watching this television series, and the accompanying annual theatrical films aren even now still breaking records in Japan. To commemorate the broadcast of special episode 1000, it was decided to do a complete remake ("reload") of a twenty-five year old classic and also one of the most beloved episodes of the series: Piano Sonata "Gekkou" Satsujin Jiken ("The Piano Sonata "Moonlight" Murder Case"). While in the manga, this story doesn't appear until volume 7, it was featured much earlier in continuity of the animated series. It originally aired as episode 11, the show's first one-hour special (April 8, 1996). The remake of Piano Sonata "Gekkou" Satsujin Jiken is a two-parter (episodes 1000 and 1001), which were broadcast on March 6 and 13, 2021. And I figured this was the perfect time to revisit the story myself.

After receiving a mysterious letter signed by Asou Keiji, Mouri Kogorou, Ran and Conan travel to the small island of Tsukikage, but to their surprise they learn that Asou Keiji, a well-known pianist, has been dead for twelve years, and his death was rather unusual: after a performance at the island's public hall, he had taken his wife and his daughter back home and set fire to his own house. People who tried to save them however saw that he had stabbed his family with a knife, and even as the horrible fire raged around him, they saw Asou frantically playing his beloved Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata. While obviously Asou couldn't have sent the letter to Mouri, it appears someone had reason to call Mouri down to the island, and they decide to ask around about Asou. One of the people they should interview is the mayor of Tsukikage Island, whom they learn is going to attend to the funeral service in the public hall of the previous mayor, accompanied by the candidates in the upcoming mayor elections. They wait outside the public hall while the funeral service continues, but suddenly the solemn mood is interrupted by... the Moonlight Sonata! Figuring something is wrong, Conan rushes to the hall where Asou Keiji's piano is kept and finds one of the candidates murdered there! A mysterious music score is also left on the scene, which makes it seem like Asou Keiji might be the one responsible for this murder, but why?

My first remark is that as a remake, these two episodes are quite straightforward. Nothing fancy has been done with the story or the presentation, they basically simply animated the story from the manga the way they always do, with the current, regular animation techniques and storytelling, and while I haven't compared these new episodes with the old special, I wouldn't be surprised if even the storyboards are more or less the same. It's kinda funny, and even odd to see this old story animated in the current style of the animated series though, as so much has changed in these twenty-five years. There's of course the jump from traditional cel animation to digital cel animation, but Mouri Kogorou too has had a completely different voice actor for over ten years now, so it's weird to hear the current voice in this older story. Character designs nowadays are also different from the older stories, so a lot of the character archetypes are not used (often) in the animated series at this point. Also: yep, Conan knows better than to just put unknown substances in his mouth now!

But wow, I have to admit I had forgotten a lot of the details of this story! It's actually a lot simpler, and more straightforward story than I had remembered, though it's still a nice mystery story, that is perhaps a bit more focused on mood than truly mindblowing trickery, but at the same time, it's also plotted better than I had thought. As a Conan story, it's pretty unique as an early story, being set in a small village on a remote island, though subsequent anime original episodes would often visit these smaller communities (not to be confused with the islands of Kindaichi Shounen, that usually don't have whole villages and just one or two manors). But the cramped and slightly outdated island vibe, the backstory of Asou Keiji madly playing the piano in the fires that consumed him and the Moonlight Sonata being played at all the murder scenes (yes, there are multiple murders in this story) make this story a memorable one in terms of atmosphere.

For example, I had completely forgotten that all the major events basically occur within the island's public hall, making it a rather frightful place as people keep on dying in different rooms there. With most of murders are committed in a rather "open" way, meaning anyone on the island might've committed the crime, the focus lies more on the why as the crimes themselves are rather straightforward, and that is what initally disappointed me a bit, as my memories of the tale were more positive. But near the end, I did really like how the story gave a very clear-cut, and good reason for why the murderer acted the way they did, with especially the reason why the first murder was committed there and in that manner being very clever. It's a shame that one major clue seems to point too directly to the murderer then, because the other clue (probably the one most people remember) was much more subtle and surprising. The set-up for the climax is a bit silly (I mean... was everybody staring at the speakers?!!), but by the time the story is over, you'll probably know why this episode is such a long-time favorite of Conan fans. In fact, this is the one story that Conan is reminded of every few years in  the main Detective Conan continuity, even though it's not directly tied to the overall storyline. The events of this episode and the impact it ultimately left on Conan himself are quite significant, so once in a while, you'll find a reference to this case in the manga. So in that regards, it's worth a watch if you started watching Conan in the middle and don't know this story yet.

As a remake, Piano Sonata "Gekkou" Satsujin Jiken, is perhaps not surprising in any manner: it's simply the classic Conan story with a new coat of paint. But I certainly didn't mind revisiting this story again, and if you hadn't seen the original special yet (or read the corresponding manga chapters), you might as well try these two new episodes. It's one of the iconic early Conan stories and also quite enjoyable even if you haven't seen much or anything of the franchise yet. And don't forget, volume 99 of the manga is also going to be released next month (and no, I haven't forgotten about 37 year old Kindaichi either).

Original Japanese title(s): 『名探偵コナン』1000-1001話「ピアノソナタ『月光』殺人事件」

An Exercise in Fatality

 かっこいいかはわからないけど

おさえきれない夢をみたんだ

「胸がドキドキ」(The High Lows)

I don't know if it's cool

But I had an uncontrollable dream

"The Pounding of my Heart" (The High Lows)

Given that that only one single new volume of Detective Conan was released this year, and that this year's theatrical release Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet was pushed back to a 2021 release due to the pandemic, it's been a very disappointing year for Detective Conan fans, with nothing new to enjoy. And yes, I know the collected volumes of the spin-off Detective Conan: Wild Police Story are being released in these last two months of the year, but as far as I know, it's not a mystery series, so I'll probably not be discussing them here, even if I'm going to get those volumes.

So the last few months, I've been watching anime original episodes of Detective Conan on and off, i.e. episodes which are not based on the original comic, but which are especially written for the animated series by a varied team of writers: some are specialized screenplay writers for Detective Conan, some are freelance screenplay writers who write for a variety of shows (not just mystery shows) with no fixed attachment to Conan, and sometimes there are special guest writers like mystery author Ookura Takahiro who also wrote the 21st Detective Conan film The Crimson Love-Letter. I started looking for the more interesting anime original episodes about two years ago, and as you may remember, I've come across a few genuine gems.

Detective Conan anime original episodes

 

Scenario by Ochi Hirohito: 

88-89: Dracula-Sou Satsujin Jiken ("The Villa Dracula Murder Case")  

184: Noroi no Kamen wa Tsumetaku Warau ("The Cursed Masks Laugh Coldly") 

379-380: Hitou Yukiyami Furisode Jiken ("The Case of the Furisode of the Hot Spring Hidden In The Snow Darkness")  

603-605: Koureikai W Misshitsu Jiken ("The Case of the Séance's Double Locked Room") 

905-906: Nananengo no Mokugekishougen ("Eyewitness Testimony, Seven Years Later")

 

Scenario by Hashiba Chika

208: Meikyuu he no Iriguchi - Kyodai Shinzou no Ikari ("The Entrance to the Maze: The Anger of the Giant Statue of the Heavenly Maiden")

Scenario by Mochizuki Takeshi

210-211: Gosai Densetsu no Mizugoten ("The Water Palace of the Legend of the Five Colors")

214: Retro Room no Nazo Jiken ("The Mysterious Case in the Retro Room")

 

Scenario by Saitou Kenji

159-160: Kaiki Gojuutou Densetsu (The Legend of the Mysterious Five-Storied Pagoda)

 

Scenario by Mikami Koushirou

730: Kanpekisugita Figure ("The Figure That Was Too Perfect")

753: Share House no Shikaku ("The Blind Spot in the Share House")

859: Kurayami no Sangaku Route ("The Mountain Route in the Darkness") 

Obviously, not all anime original episodes are anything near memorable. Most of them are passable, but usually not special enough to make me want to write a review about them. The stand-out episodes I have reviewed until now on the blog do have one major point in common: length. The episodes I've discussed are either two-parters (or even a three-parter) or one hour specials, meaning these episodes have quite some time to set-up a proper mystery and work towards a satisfying conclusion with proper clewing. And it's a lot harder to do that within the confines of one single twenty-minute episode. Most single-part anime originals usually have problems to present a mystery that's deep enough to make an impression in that short period of time, so few of them really make an impression. But as I have the feeling I've already gone through all of the must-see anime original Detective Conan episodes, and there's a Detective Conan shortage this year anyway, I thought I'd discuss a few of these single-part anime original episodes. Most of them have interesting ideas or settings even if sometimes undeveloped or slightly rushed.

Oh, and before I forget this point: I do have to say that Detective Conan is a fantastic fictional world for anime original episodes. There's not only an insanely rich cast of secundary characters but it's also rich in established locations and habits, and any screenwriter can easily fit any idea they have into the world of Detective Conan. Want to write something about a videogame company? Have Dr. Agasa and the Detective Boys visit it. A mystery plot set at a television studio? Have Mouri Kogorou appear in a television show. In a university? Ran visiting someone who graduated from Teitan High. Country house murder? Kogorou, Ran and Conan are out driving and get lost. Seriously, practically any setting will work in Conan and feel completely natural.

Episode 214 Retro Room no Nazo Jiken ("The Mysterious Case in the Retro Room") was originally broadcast on November 20th, 2000 and written by Mochizuki Takeshi, who also wrote the enjoyable two-parter Gosai Densetsu no Mizugoten ("The Water Palace of the Legend of the Five Colors"). Mouri, Ran and Conan are on their way to Dolphin Land, when they become acquainted with a group of three women at the station. The women are old college classmates who are going to have a nice day together. A fourth member of the group is staying at the renewed Dolphin Hotel and the plan is for the three to pick this Naomi up and go enjoy Dolphin Land. Naomi has a room on the Retro Floor, where everything is decorated in a retro Japanese inn style. When they arrive at Naomi's room, they find a Do No Disturb sign hanging from the door, but Naomi does not answer her friends' calls and when they try the door, it's not locked. Inside they find the corpse of Naomi, who has been stabbed. Her hotel room is decorated in a retro style complete with traditional furniture, old-fashioned snacks, and a coin-operated television and it's the latter which is important: the television switched off right as they discovered the body, and the television runs for exactly one hour on one 100 yen coin, and you can only insert one coin at a time. The police suspects therefore Naomi was killed soon after she started watching television, but Conan soon realizes that the murderer could've faked this alibi. While it's fairly easy to guess who the killer is, I have to say I really like the retro room setting, as well as the trick used by the killer to fabricate an alibi for the time of the murder, as it makes optimal use of the prepared props, leading to an original color variation on a trick that's otherwise very familiar. Funny thing is how the incriminating piece of evidence is actually also becoming a bit retro nowadays. Things changed a lot in the twenty years since this episode first aired!

Episode 730 Kanpekisugita Figure ("The Figure That Was Too Perfect") first aired on February 22, 2014 and was written by Mikami Koushirou, a screenplay writer who also works on television dramas. Dr. Agasa and the Detective Boys are visiting a figurine/diarama exposition. Mitsuhiko is in particular impressed by the work of Kitajima Masahiro, a professional modeller. It's Kitajima's body which is found in one of the backstage rooms, and with some help of the Detective Boys, the police soon find three suspects in Kitajima's girlfriend, a rival modeller and a sleazy magazine writer, who were all three present at the event. The police however can't find the murder weapon with which the victim was stabbed, and none of the suspect should've been able to get rid of a weapon that size without anyone noticing. The solution to the hidden weapon is really original and works fantastic in this setting. It's a bit of a shame the episode didn't have a few more minutes to present this more as a Queenian problem, with a grand search of the whole complex to emphasize the impossibility of the murder weapon disappearing. I really like the trick, but the episode kinda undersells the problem, which makes it not as memorable as it could've been.

Mikami Koushirou was also responsible for episode 753 Share House no Shikaku ("The Blind Spot in the Share House"), originally broadcast on October 4th, 2014. Ran's visiting Yayoi, a former student of Teitan High who's graduated and now living in a share house while going to college. Ran likes the idea of living in a share house, but also learns it's not all sunshine. During her stay, she's witness to a fight between two of the other residents: Katsuko has telling lies to their landlord, accusing Suzuki of peeping in order to get him (the only man in the house) out, figuring it would be more convenient if there were only women here. Katsuko and Suzuki both go upstairs to their own rooms, while Yayoi and the other resident Yasuko take turns in taking a shower and keeping Ran company in the kitchen/dining room until her father picks her up. A cry by Suzuki has everyone running upstairs, where they discover that Katsuko's been murdered in her room. Because Katsuko and Suzuki were the only one upstairs, and Ran had clear sight on the hallway in front of the staircase from the kitchen, Suzuki becomes the only suspect, but as the title of the episode spoils, there's a blind spot. This is an episode with a lot of potential, but which sadly doesn't work quite as well as it could've. The trick used to create the blind spot is good, but the presentation is done in a way so it's not exactly clear what's going on until it's revealed in the conclusion, and it's not completely fair to the viewer. In hindsight, you could probably guess how everything fitted together, but considering this is a twenty-minute show, the presentation could've been a bit more generous towards the viewer, while in return one other clue could have been less obvious. A weird episode, as it's a story that really works well in the short runtime, it's just that the presention is intentionally not showing something that they could've shown without attracting to much attention in the first place.

By now you'll have noticed I was specifically watching episodes written by Mikami. Episode 859 Kurayami no Sangaku Route ("The Mountain Route in the Darkness") aired on May 13th, 2017. Dr. Agasa has taken the Detective Boys out on camping on a mountain. At the mountain lodge, they become acquainted with another group staying there. The group of four used to be one of five, but one of them died three years ago, falling off a mountain and since that accident, the remaining four have been climbing mountains together on this day to commemorate their deceased friend. Takemi is the odd on out in the group: the egoistic woman had gone out climbing alone at night three years ago, and their friend only died because he went after her. Takemi's attitude has not changed since however, and after another fight with the other three, she decides to go down the mountain and camp near the river on her own, while the other three sleep in the lodge together with Dr. Agasa and the Detective Boys. The next morning, Genta decides to check up on Takemi all the way down with his binoculars, only to find that she's been stabbed to death. They run down the mountain path to make their way to Takemi, who's beyond rescue. Her backpack is found a bit further down in the forest, suggesting someone killed her and then took her backpack as they fled. During the police investigation, the three friends are also investigated just to be sure, but it becomes clear none of the three friends could've killed Takemi: Conan saw them late at night when they held a small service for their deceased friend, and after that time, it would've take ntoo much time to go down the mountain path, kill Takemi, take the backpack to the forest and climb the mountain again before the others would start on breakfast at the lodge. Even the weather balloons one of the friends brought with him wouldn't be any help, as they can't lift a person and there are too many left anyway. Conan however soon figures out what the secret route is the murderer must've taken to kill Takemi and make it back in time. The trick is pretty simple to guess, especially once the props of the story are introduced, but I think the scriptwriter did a good job at introducing several false solutions to distract the viewer within the twenty minute limit and the trick used by the murderer itself is also pretty original. It's a story that works really well within the time limit, as I couldn't even imagine how you'd want to expand on this in a meaningful manner. One thing this episode shares with the other Mikami episodes I discussed however is that Mikami does like to leave certain clues (especially objects) very clearly for Conan and the viewer to find, and often you wonder why the murderer didn't think of cleaning up better, because sometimes it's like they're literally lying everywhere. I guess that's a problem of the runtime, but some clues are just left on the crime scene as is for no apparent reason save for the twenty minute limit.

One final episode I want to highlight was written by Yamatoya Akatsuki, best known for his work on Gintama. Episode 961 Glamping Kaijiken ("The Curious Glamping Incident") was broadcast a year ago on November 30, 2019 and is about Ran, her friend Sonoko and Conan going out glamping. They have a fun time at the camp, but at night, they hear a cry from the group of four next door, and when the three come and check, they find a dead cross-dressed man with awful make-up on his face, a piece of crab in his mouth and a piece of paper in his hand. What happened here? I should probably warn you that I'm not writing about this episode because it's a good mystery story. It's not. It's just the craziest anime original episode I have ever seen. It doesn't even try to make any sense. The writer probably just came up with the wackiest murder scene he could think of and then tried to make something out of it, but it doesn't even remotely hold together and when the episode is over, you'll realize the writer has forgotten to address a lot of story details that really beg for explanation. But this episode is absolutely HILARIOUS because it's unapologetically nuts and the characters are all acting like complete psychos.

Anyway, I hope this post will be helpful to the people who want to try out some Detective Conan anime original episodes and don't know where to start. I'd definitely recommend trying the specials/multi-parters by Ochi first, but after that it can be a bit trickier and it really depends on what kind of stories you like. For I will say this, the anime original episodes can be very varied, in terms of setting but also of atmosphere. I'll probably do these anime original episode write-ups once in a while, but I do hope I'll be able to write about some new Detective Conan releases soon...

Original Japanese title(s): 『名探偵コナン』214話「レトロルームの謎事件」 / 730話「完璧すぎたフィギュア」/ 753話「シェアハウスの死角」/ 859話「暗闇の山岳ルート」/ 961話「グランピング怪事件」