Mystery of the Glowing Eye

"His gaze pierces cloud, shadow, earth, and flesh. You know of what I speak, Gandalf: a great Eye, lidless, wreathed in flame."

"The Fellowship of the Ring"

Some years ago, I reviewed the animated film Doraemon: Nobita's Secret Gadget Museum, and I started the post by saying how weird it was I was going to explain what Doraemon was. Doraemon has been so immensely popular for decades not only in Japan, but the whole of South-East Asia, so having to explain what it was, was basically the same as having to explain who Mickey Mouse. In a way, having to explain GeGeGe no Kitarou today feels the same. GeGeGe no Kitarou is a series created by manga legend Mizuki Shigeru and has been very popular since it was created in the late 50s. Or is it the 30s? Originally, the story of Kitarou, a young boy with otherworldly roots who fights supernatural evil, was created in the thirties by Itou Masami and Tatsumi Keiyou as kamishibai, a form of street art where storytellers would use illustrated boards to tell serialized stories while selling candy. After World War II, Mizuki Shigeru, a talented kamishibai illustrator, was asked by the original publisher to continue the series known as Hakaba Kitarou. He would later also create comics-for-rent starring Kitarou of the Graveyard and eventually, Mizuki was given the offer to do a serialized manga series in Shounen Magazine in the late 60s, which came with the new title GeGeGe no Kitarou it is best known as now. 

While there are differences across the various iterations of the series, the core remains the same: Kitarou, born at a graveyard, is the last of the Ghost Tribe and together with his father (who after some hardships in life is now a walking & talking eyeball), the two of them help humans in need whenever they face supernatural danger. With his remendous supernatural powers and the help of other friendly ghouls & ghosts from mainly Japanese mythology, Kitarou faces youkai who prey on helpless humans and want to disturb the balance between the human and supernatural world. The series led to a genuine youkai boom in Japan at the time, reacquainting children with "old" Japanese youkai and mythology. GeGeGe no Kitarou is one of the earliest anime series to be made, but has never been gone from the Japanese pop culture consciousness since: new anime series are created every few years and multiple generations have been brought up with the knowledge Kitarou and his posse have always been there protecting them.

As GeGeGe no Kitarou is of course all about the supernatural adventures Kitarou and his friends have, I honestly never expected I'd be writing about this series here, as the franchise honestly doesn't even aspire to anything even remotely close to a detective.... until late last year. For in November 2023, the animated film Kitarou Tanjou GeGeGe no Nazo ("The Birth of Kitarou ~ The Mystery of GeGeGe") was released to commemorate what would have been Mizuki Shigeru's 100th birthday and it turns out this film is actually.... a detective film. Up to a degree!

Set in 1956, the viewer is first introduced to Mizuki, an employee at the Imperial Blood Bank who desperately wants to climb the corporate ladder. When he learns that Ryuuga Tokisada has passed away, he knows this is his once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: Mizuki is in charge of the account of Ryuuga Medicine and close to Ryuuga Katsunori, the president of Ryuuga Medicine and Tokisada's son-in-law. Mizuki expects Katsunori will become the new patriarch of the Ryuuga clan, controlling the vast fortune of the family, so he decides to travel to the very remote lake village of Nagura to convey his condoleances to the family, but more importantly, to secure himself a comfortable place in Katsunori's pocket. Arriving at the village, Mizuki meets Katsunori's daughter Sayo and her weakly cousin Tokiya, who have never left the village and dream of seeing the great capital Tokyo. Mizuki is allowed to attend the reading of the will, but to everyone's great surprise, it's not Katsunori who inherits everything, but Tokisada's son Tokimaro, a recluse with a few screws loose in his head. The will also stipulates that in the case of Tokimaro's death, Tokiya will inherit everything. The following day, Tokimaro is found brutally murdered, but the mayor and his men soon arrest a wandering stranger, who refuses to say his name, though Mizuki comes to call him Gegerou. The mayor wants to execute Gegerou on the spot, being convinced this stranger is the killer, but Mizuki insists the police should investigate Tokimaro's death properly. Gegerou eventually confides to Mizuki that his wife disappeared many years ago and that he has been looking for her since: sources have revealed to him she was seen in this village before her disappearance. Meanwhile, more people within the Ryuuga clan are killed in horrid manners, but while Mizuki is at first convinced the police must handle these incidents, he soon learns via Gegerou that supernatural powers are at play here, and while Gegerou turns out to be in possession of tremendous spiritual powers himself, solving these murders and the mystery of his missing wife is no easy task...

Let me temper your expectations right away: the finale of this film is not a denouement where Gegerou and Mizuki use logic to solve all the murders: it's all about youkai and other supernatural powers and there are more than a few battles where the combatants all have inhuman powers. This film is not really created as a fair-play mystery film, so don't come in expecting exactly that. That said, I did really enjoy this film, which delves into the story of Kitarou's father before he became a walking eyeball and as a buddy film with Mizuki and Gegerou, Kitarou Tanjou GeGeGe no Nazo is honestly a great watch with a fantastic dark atmosphere. Don't let the poster with Kitarou fool you: while this film is technically tied to the sixth anime series in terms of character designs/voice actors, this film can be surprisingly gory and it's definitely meant for an older audience than the core audience of that series (in fact, it is PG12 in Japan I believe, whereas the series is probably for all ages).

But on the whole, it is clear the production team behind Kitarou Tanjou GeGeGe no Nazo had Yokomizo Seishi in mind and certainly the first half of the film, you could honestly be fooled into thinking you were watching a film based on Yokomizo's work. The remote village is a familiar trope from the Kindaichi Kousuke novels, and the reading of the surprising will in the manor with all the family members all coveting a large share of the pie is very similar to the famous scene from Inugamike no Ichizoku, as well as the unique conditions of the will which seems to spark a series of gruesome murders among the family. The incredibly dark atmosphere, the horrifying underlying motive behind the murders and the whole "something is off about this family and the community" vibe and the sense of how everything slowly seems to crumble as more and more murders are committed, is done splendidly in this film, and I would love to see this team work on an actual Kindaichi anime adaptation, because they absolutely nailed the atmosphere they should be going for. But again, Kitarou Tanjou GeGeGe no Nazo however is not meant to be a fair-play mystery using those elements: it's not like youkai X having this or that power is meant to be a clue about how a certain murder was committed, nor does it expect you to deduce a certain youkai's identity based on the supernatural happenings in the film, so in that sense, it's very different from the other supernatural mysteries I discuss here. But the film's plot structure and main story is taken straight from a mystery story and it's fantastic in its execution of those elements. Guessing who the murderer is, might not be very difficult, but I do love some of the folkloristic clues given in the film, and of course, with talk about youkai and other religious visual imagery going on, at times you're also reminded of the work of Kyougoku Natsuhiko (who has worked on the GeGeGe no Kitarou franchise) and Mitsuda Shinzou, and that's never bad company when it comes to mystery stories involved folklore!

While the murders are the main worry of the people in the Ryuuga clan, Gegerou is of course more interested in the disappearance of his wife, and while this part follows familar mystery tropes less faithfully, I do have to say I really appreciated how this plotline ties back to important themes in Mizuku Shigeru's works, themes that are also partially reflected in the fictional character of Mizuki (who is not meant to be Mizuki Shigeru per se). The film is its own original story by the way, but does take cues from the very first Hakaba no Kitarou story from the rental comics, which tells the story of how Kitarou was born at a graveyard. Because the film features a mostly original story, set before the main GeGeGe no Kitarou series (which doesn't really have a strong chronology anyway), the film can be watched without any prior knowledge of the franchise, I think. The book-ending parts are set in the present with Kitarou, but these parts are short, and other references to the main series in the story set in the past are minor.

I doubt I will ever be writing about GeGeGe no Kitarou on this blog again, but that is also why I decided to discuss Kitarou Tanjou GeGeGe no Nazo this time, because it's just such a unique work within the franchise. I saw the film quite a few months ago, and initially I wasn't planning on writing about it, but after some reflexion, I thought: why not, actually? The film is without a doubt in essence the kind of mystery film I do like to see. It got the atmosphere down perfectly and setting aside the matter of it really being a mystery film or not: As an animated film, it's a visual and auditory delight and the relaxed Gegerou and really stressed out Mizuki work great as reluctant buddies working together. Definitely a must-see for fans of the Kindaichi novels!

Original Japanese title(s): 水木しげる（原作）『鬼太郎誕生 ゲゲゲの謎』

The Secret of the Knight’s Sword

Meeting you with a view to a kill

Face to face in secret places, feel the chill

"A View to a Kill" (Duran Duran)

This is actually the first post I have written in over four months...

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, 82~104 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), The Scarlet Bullet (24), Bride of Halloween (25) and The Black Iron Submarine (26) in the library or via the Detective Conan tag)

 

High school student detective Hattori Heiji is attending a major kendo tournament in Hakodate, Hokkaido and he hopes to confess his love to his childhood friend Kazuha while they're in Hakodate, as Hokkaido features several spots with beautiful scenery, perfect for such an occassion. However, at the same time, the wealthy Onoe Takuzou, an Hakodate inhabitant, has received a notice from the notorious phantom thief KID, who declares he'll steal his two antique wakizashi swords, which were once gifted to Hishikata Toshizou of the Shingengumi. While wondering why KID is after the sword, as he usually only targets jewels, Hattori and Conan (high school student detective Kudou Shinichi who has been turned into a child and is hiding his identity) manage to fend off KID. However, Onoe's attorney's dead body is later found in the city, with a characteristic X-slash across his chest. Based on his belongings, the gang deduces the attorney had illegally brought another Japanese sword back from Dubai to Japan on orders of his employee, which now has been stolen. They eventually learn the swords were all made by swordmaker Higashikubo Eitatsu. Onoe Keizaburou (Takuzou's grandfather) had more sets of swords created during the war, as he was a high-ranking supplies official and rumors have it he hid a treasure somewhere in Hokkaido, with the swords serving as a clue to its whereabouts. Besides KID himself and the murderer, who is seen wearing a fox-mask, more parties appear on the scene who seem after the treasure, starting a race against the clock to see who can first obtain all the swords and find Onoe's treasure in the 2024 theatrical film Detective Conan: The Million-Dollar Pentagram.

 

Wait... a Detective Conan film review... in this time of the year? Yes! This is the first time since 2012's The Eleventh Striker where I didn't need to wait for the home video release, but got to see it in the theatres again! First time I saw a Conan film in 4DX too by the way, and while I do complain about the recent films being so more much action-focused at the expense of the mystery plot, I do have to admit watching the modern films in 4DX is a lot of fun!

Detective Conan: The Million-Dollar Pentagram is the 27th Detective Conan film and marks a return of mystery writer Ookura Takahiro as the screenwriter for the film. I wasn't too big a fan of the mystery plot of his Detective Conan: The Fist of Blue Sapphire (2019), but I consider Detective Conan: The Crimson Love Letter (2017) as one of the best Conan films overall, especially mystery plot-wise, and at the very least, one can definitely say Ookura has an excellent grasp on the characters, often inserting very fun character interaction scenes throughout his films. Like The Crimson Love Letter, Detective Conan: The Million-Dollar Pentagram focuses on the relationship between Hattori and Kazuha, with the film providing a conclusion to a storyline that has been running in the manga for some years now, with Hattori trying to confess his love to Kazuha at a memorable spot. For the character-focused fans of the franchise, The Million-Dollar Pentagram has a lot of great moments, from seeing Hattori finally confronting KID after their first clash in 2019, to the "big secret" of KID which the trailers have been talking about (Thought to be honest I.... don't like the reveal... I really don't) and some cool cameos. What I do appreciate about this film in general is that like The Crimson Love Letter, it's so much more accessible than some of the previous films, which built too strongly on the complicated character relations in the series. With so many character being (double) spies, having their own agendas and complicated pasts, some of the films would demand a lot of a viewer with nil knowledge of Conan, while this film keeps things relatively simple, with a murder mystery/treasure hunt plot, plus a simple rom-com plot of "boy wanting to confess love to girl", and not expecting you to remember that in volume XX, this and that character discussed this together. The previous two films (Black Iron Submarine and Bride of Halloween I both described as films that do "... 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." In that sense, I felt The Million-Dollar Pentagram was much more like a conventional Conan film, being universally easier to see for a wider audience.

As a mystery film however, The Million-Dollar Pentagram is really not especially memorable. While technically it is a murder mystery, the plot is mainly focused on the treasure hunt aspect, with all the parties trying to figure out 1) what Onoe's treasure was and 2) where the treasure is. While fortunately, the treasure hunt isn't reliant on one of those wordplay riddles you often see in the series, the actual puzzle-solving aspect of this film isn't really interesting, and you'll probably just be passively watching everything unfold, rather than really trying to solve any of this yourself. The mystery of the murderer is fairly simple too, partially due to a very small pool of viable suspects, and while there's a very minor piece of misdirection I feel is executed quite well on screen, I won't be recommending this film on its mystery merits. Fortunately, I was watching this in 4DX, so I did physically enjoy all the outrageous clashes between the various parties while chasing after the treasure!

Still, I do wish we have we get a more mystery plot-focused film soon again... I really loved The Crimson Love Letter, as I think it struck a great balance between the plot and the modern focus on action. As always, we already got a sneak preview/teaser of next year's film at the end of The Million-Dollar Pentagram, and while it honestly could go anyway, the teaser did suggest a focus on a set of characters that usually come with pretty robust mystery plots...

I happened to have been watching the 2008 Gegege no Kitarou animated film before this film, where they did a lot of local tourism PR by having Neko Musume visit various places briefly in the film, and I did think The Million-Dollar Pentagram felt a bit like a PR film at times. When the Conan films are set in Tokyo, they are usually set in fictional Beika, or use fictional landmarks like Touto Tower and the Bell Tree Tower instead of the Tokyo Tower and the Skytree. This film however features a lot of real Hakodate (and Hokkaido) landmarks, and with modern visuals, these sights are presented photo-realistically, as compared to the more drawn style we see in the earliest Conan films. Not really a bad thing per se, but seeing a hyper realistic Hakodate in this film did feel a bit weird as usually, real-life locations are drawn in a more stylized fashion in the television anime series.

Oh, and while not really related to this film, but I might as well mention it here: I did visit the special Detective Conan 30th Anniversary exhibition that's travelling across Japan now. Pretty interesting to see the original drawings and all of that. While it is understandably very character-focused, so not especially interesting for those who are only interested in Conan for the mystery stories, there were some fun displays for the mystery fans too, like this showcase of the various murder weapons used. Would be fun to see more of these mystery-focused exhibitions. Imagine how fun it'd be to visit sets of murder scenes of famous mystery stories!

Anyway, Detective Conan: The Million-Dollar Pentagram is a film that is probably best enjoyed by long-time fans of the series, who want to see characters like Hattori and KID interact with each other (and the conclusion to Hattori's attempts at confessing his love to Kazuha), while also being somewhat involved in a murder mystery. The film is better enjoyed for its action scenes than the mystery, but at the very least, it's a lot more accessible than its immediate predecessors as it does work as a standalone rom-com too.  That said, I do hope next year's entry will be a bit more substantial mystery-wise.

Original Japanese title(s): 『名探偵コナン 100万ドルの五稜星』

Terminal Connection

"That inscrutable thing is chiefly what I hate; and be the white whale agent, or be the white whale principal, I will wreak that hate upon him. Talk not to me of blasphemy, man; I'd strike the sun if it insulted me."

"Moby-Dick"

 

This year's Detective Conan film once again managed to beat the previous film's earnings record, which was already huge. It's crazy how the film series becomes stronger and stronger, even though this is the 26th entry!

 

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, 82~104 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), The Scarlet Bullet (24) and Bride of Halloween (25) in the library or via the Detective Conan tag)

 

Kudou Shinichi, the high school student detective who was turned into a boy by the Black Organization via an experimental drug and has now taken on the name of Edogawa Conan to lie low, is always on the lookout for any trail that'll lead him to his nemesis, and one day, Conan is informed by an ally about a recent infiltration operation by members of the Black Organization into an Interpol base in Frankfurt, which led to the death of an Interpol agent. Conan and his friends happen to be visiting the island of Hachijou to watch whales, but when Conan spots Inspector Shiratori and Metropolitan Police Department managing officer Kuroda also on the island, boarding a cruiser, he quickly connects their visit to the Frankfurt break-in and a new Interpol facility built near Hachijou. The Pacific Buoy is located in the middle of the ocean, built partially beneath water level and houses the new surveillance system of Interpol: it's connected to all police surveillance cameras in Japan and can be used to real-time track people and objects due its recognition software. The new facility also uses new software developed by Naomi Argento, an Italian-Japanese American. Her software analyses photographs and can predict how people will look as they age, allowing Interpol to also search for wanted persons who have been lying low for many years, or for example kidnapped children who might be older now. Today is the day this new facility will also be hooked up to the European side of Interpol, allowing them to also analyze European surveillance footage. Conan manages to join Shiratori and Kuroda during their visit to the Pacific Buoy, but during their stay, Naomi is abducted from the underwater facility. This is only possible if someone on the inside is helping the kidnappers (whom Conan is convinced is the Black Organization), but who is the Interpol traitor? However, events shift into high-gear when members of the Black Organization accidentally learn that Miyano Shiho, the ex-member of the organization whom they thought they had killed previously, is still alive: Naomi's software has recognized Shiho in Haibara Ai, the identity Shiho took when she took the experimental drug to turn herself into a child, just like what happened with Conan. Haibara becomes the Organization's new target, but can Conan save his friend in the 2023 theatrical film Detective Conan: Black Iron Submarine?

 

As always, a new Detective Conan animated theatrical feature was released in April of this year. Black Iron Submarine is film 26 already, and next year's film has already been revealed and given a release date of April 12, 2024, so that means the film sub-franchise of Detective Conan will be at least 27 films long, and they manage to keep on breaking earning record after record (Black Iron Submarine is at the moment the second best performing film in Japan of this year, and currently ranked at no. 25 of the highest-earning films in Japan of all time, beating Jurassic Park). Of course, the films' tone have also changed in these almost three decades, adjusting to the preferences and tastes of the audience. The earlier films were tonally quite similar to the stories from the manga, being mystery-focused stories with a bit more spectacle (explosions), but more recently, the films are far more character-focused, showcasing fan-favorite characters in very marketable manners, and of course even more and bigger EXPLOSIONS. of the more recent films, I still think 2017's The Crimson Love Letter managed to strike the best balance between a well-developed mystery plot and character-focused spectacle and definitely the film I'd now recommend to new viewers. This year's Detective Conan: Black Iron Submarine is in a way very similar to last year's Bride of Halloween, which I described as a film that ".,.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."

 

 

For again, we have a film that is fairly light-weight when it comes to the mystery-element, while at the same time, it dares to show aspects of characters in a way not even the main series has ever done, and it does this also by building strongly on events and the history of the main series. Whereas many of the films are written (to varying degrees of success) to be understandable to people who don't watch the main series (in fact, many people only watch the annual films), last year's The Bride of Halloween was very strongly connected to the main series, making numerous references to very specific stories, events and characters, even at times feeling like a sequel to certain storylines, and while the references this time are not as specific, a lot of what makes Black Iron Submarine work is because long-time fans know the context of the character interactions and what exactly drives them, and the film makes effective call-backs to earlier adventures with Haibara and her encounters with the Black Organization to tell its own original adventure, showing a Haibara we so seldom see in the main series. Up until now, the main series has shown us several stories where the Black Organization comes close on the trail of Haibara (Miyano Shiho) in their attempts to eliminate the traitor, and Black Iron Submarine is definitely a great addition to that tradition. In fact, the Black Organization has seldom felt so threatening and efficient. In recent years, only The FBI Serial Murder Case story from volume 100 comes close, but that was a small group of organization members versus one lone FBI agent on the run (backed up by Conan), while in Black Iron Submarine, we have the Black Organization being frighteningly effective in dealing with Interpol and their new undersea facility, while they also hunt for Haibara. I have to be honest, I hadn't expected the film to begin like that either! As a dramatic, character-focused suspense film, Black Iron Submarine is definitely highly entertaining material, with chases, fights and basically a war at sea going on between the Black Organization and Interpol, with Haibara caught in the middle, and with parties trying to outwit each other.

 

 

Because of this though, I think the film might be hard to follow who don't really know Detective Conan, as it juggles a very large cast of recurring characters this time, some only making very short appearances without much of an introduction. The film assumes you know the motivations of the characters, which can be especially difficult as a few characters in this film are in fact double agents, so sometimes they act for one party, and the next moment for another, and while this is shortly mentioned at the start of the film, there's no real "conclusion" to this, as their role as double agents of course continues in the main series, and there's no real "pay-off". On the other hand, the film is more straightforward than The Darkest Nightmare, which featured a lot of the same cast members, but in a more confusing "multiple parties with different agendas going against each other" plot... Also, the film does assume you're more-or-less up-to-date with the collected volumes at the time of release, so the film does for example show you the Black Organization member Rum, whose identity had been a plot-driving mystery for some time in the manga, but who was revealed a few volumes earlier.

 

As a mystery film however, I again have to stress Black Iron Submarine isn't anything special. The mystery-plot mostly revolves around who the traitor within the Pacific Buoy is who helped the Organization kidnap Naomi and later even commit a murder in the Buoy, but the tricks used by the murderer, and the clues pointing to them are rather basic, and I wouldn't really mind in a normal 24-minute episode of Detective Conan, but they feel rather underwhelming in a theatrical release. The best I can say is that yes, the clues are properly and fairly planted for the attentive viewer, but don't expect a sense of blissful comprehension when all the pieces fall into place, as the puzzle is just too simple. It also doesn't help the suspects have far too little screentime to make any impression on the viewer: they get an introduction at the start, but afterwards they all have like only one or two appearences saying one or two lines, as the film focuses more on the recurring characters from the main series. The murder half-way the film is also a bit too "on the nose" with its use of technology to facilitate the killing, and the kind of idea everybody will have played with in their mind at one time, and here it's used in the most non-surprising, direct manner imaginable. 

But in short: if you're just a mystery fan, you can skip Detective Conan: Black Iron Submarine, as the mystery plot is fairly flimsy for a 110 minute film, and it's also not really the focus of the feature. For fans of Detective Conan, and especially the character of Haibara though, this is a must-see. Black Iron Submarine is a highly entertaining suspenseful thriller revolving around her and the Black Organization that feels at least as tenseful and captivating as previous such encounters in the main series, but this film even goes beyond those stories at time due to it stronger focus on character drama. So if you're more-or-less up-to-date with the main series, I'd definitely recommend watching this film too. Can't wait to see the next Detective Conan film, which will focus on Hattori, Kazuha and KID!

Original Japanese title(s):『名探偵コナン 黒鉄の魚影』

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』

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 were 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』

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!