Episode V: Detective Conan/Case Closed Review

Kudou Shinichi is an extremely popular 11th-grader who dreams of being the world’s next Sherlock Holmes. The son of a famous mystery novelist and lovely actress, Shinichi has made a name for himself as a brilliant detective, always helping the police solve baffling mysteries much like his idol Holmes.

This obsession with crime-solving tends to grate on his pseudo-girlfriend Mouri Ran’s nerves, though. She can’t help but feel a bit threatened by Shinichi’s dangerous lifestyle…and by the popularity it brings. So she jumps at the chance to get Shinichi alone on a “date” to an amusement park where, much to her dismay, a murder occurs that Shinichi *naturally* solves.

However, when Ran and Shinichi split up for just a short time, Shinichi witnesses a suspicious negotiation between two mysterious men in black. He is caught eavesdropping, and is poisoned by the two men and left to die. However, rather than killing Shinichi, the poison reverts him back into an elementary-school boy!

Bent on finding the mysterious men in black again, and discover a cure to the poison, Shinichi takes on the name Edogawa Conan and lives a double life as “Shinichi’s cousin,” in order to keep his survival a secret from those that poisoned him. He is taken under the care of Ran and her father, Kougoro, a burnt-out, divorced detective who is past his prime. On the road to finding those mysterious men in black, Conan and his friends solve case after case, all while keeping his true identity a secret.

Detective Conan is one of those animes that will make you start guessing, thinking, and probably develop your logic at some point. The only problem is that Conan is seriously really, really long, and at some points, we might get unmotivated to watch it episode by episode. Some of it is episodic, others are not, which makes watchers afraid to skip several episodes in fear that they might miss a story to the bigger plot.

However, the good thing about it being so long is that they’re so many hard cases with interesting conclusions that for those of you who enjoy Detective movies/animes, like me, it never gets old. In fact, I’d say that Conan is the best detective anime I’ve ever come across. The bigger plot is also well thought out and interesting, clues and hints sometimes coming out of smaller plots to form an “invincible” organization vs. Conan (or Shinichi).

The sound is the best, well known voices could be heard for Shinichi and Conan’s characters, the emotions are portrayed thoroughly thought them too.

Minor or cameo characters like Kaido Kid never fail to amaze you, they’re tricks are broad and though you might think you can spot a pattern in the cases, there’s always this one or two episodes that breaks the pattern completely.

Kids 13 and up is an appropriate audience. This one is for both girls and boys. Not too heavy on the action, smart enough to appeal to the intellectuals, but not too smart to overwhelm those that simply want to be entertained. Conan is also a great mirror of what Japanese life is really like. It’s not too exaggerated, and doesn’t patronize viewers at all, like some anime titles do. You can be in ANY mood to watch this title