Tag: Detective Conan

Ongoing Investigations: Case #085

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hisuicon In the Reverse Thieves time-honored tradition we watched Detective Conan Movie 1: The Time-Bombed Skyscraper out of order. Actually we were going to watch the 5th movie but then about 10 minuets into it realized that it was making reference to the first movie. In a somewhat Encyclopedia Brown-style moment the movie begins with Conan solving a case unrelated to the main story. After this intro we soon discover that a good deal of explosives were stolen recently and several acts of arson have been committed. The person behind both crimes tries to contact Shinichi to challenge him to find the bombs he has placed around the city. This felt like a standard episode that was forced to be a movie’s length. The whole affair with the criminal giving Conan clues to where the bombs are mostly seemed there just to stretch the length of the premise. It was an entertaining movie but so far the weakest of the movies we have seen.

The first Detective Conan movie feels like the first. You can tell they don’t quite know what to spend the hour and a half on, the pacing is a bit off, there aren’t enough suspects, and the climatic action happens after the culprit is caught. I find this only a little odd because they had produced very good one hour specials prior to this feature. Though I did find the ending scenes in the skyscraper with Ran and Shinichi (Conan behind a wall using his bowtie voice changer) properly tense and sweet. Since we accidentally knew the identity of the bomber thanks to starting the 5th movie, it is hard to assess whether this mystery was properly difficult to solve. But I think it is one of the few that you can really grasp who it is as well as their motive long before Conan cracks it. There are still a few twists like how the bomber knows Shinichi and what he learns about him and uses in his scheme. This movie isn’t bad by any means but it isn’t especially memorable.

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Ongoing Investigations: Case #078

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Okay, so by now I don’t really need to say why we were watching Detective Conan movies, right? It is just a part of life! Why are we watching them out or order? Because we can! So began the watching of Detective Conan Movie 2: The The Fourteenth Target. It seemed to be perfect timing as Hisui started to ask me questions about Ran’s parents past and before I could add my two cents the movie starts to reveal a bit of their back story. This is the first of the earlier movies that we’ve watched with any such actual plot for the series rather than being a fun jaunt. This also has the amazing ability to make Kogoro seem cool in his day. As the pattern for the deaths is revealed things just keep escalating until a beautiful and watery finale. I have to say, the reason behind the killings is neigh impossible to figure out, but that is not to say it is an unbelievable reason, just hard to deduce.

I was recommended to watch Detective Conan Movie 2: The The Fourteenth Target as these movies can be watched in any order we decided to go back and take a look at this one. This being the fourth Conan movie I have watched, I know how to “properly” watch Detective Conan. You would almost never be able to guess the motive of the killer; they never give you enough information to figure that out in any movie I have seen so far. In this movie I was able to deduce who the killer was and I think that is what you should be aiming for if you attempt to solve the mystery like I do. The movie itself starts with various people that Kogoro Mouri having attempts made on their lives. At the scene of the crime there is a clue left that ties into a playing card motif. But of course like any good card trick there is more to all of it than meets the eye. Overall it was a solid Conan movie. The last action sequence at the end was fairly epic as a Detective Conan movie ending should be.

I had the chance to play through a good amount of Mega Man 10 as Proto Man on Easy Mode. The game is unsurprisingly a lot of fun, especially thanks to the less-frustrating-but-still-not-always-easy Easy Mode. However, the real enjoyment comes from the quirky stages and bosses of which my favorites include Strike Man with a baseball motif and Sheep Man with static electricity power! Though unfortunately Sheep Man’s power that you gain kind of sucks because of its terrible accuracy and execution. But for the most part all the others work well and have that element of innovation present. There is a lot of fun attached to this game and it lends itself to people (me!) who may not be good at Mega Man games.

I made a guest appearance on the Otaku in Review Podcast entitled Sleeping with Hisui. The podcast starts with me talking about how the blog gets its name just in case you have never heard the story. We then move into talking about what they are watching. I talked about Future Police Urashiman; Jon Ingoglia mentions Tears to Tiara; and Scott Spaziani rounds it out with Sora no Woto and his mixed feelings about the show. As some point I go into a little rant about Gundam Unicorn not having a DVD release. I thought I brought up some good points but Scott had some poignant counter arguments. Jon talks about various anime related iPhone apps after. We then wrapped up the podcast with my worst panel experiences and general panel philosophy. We covered an eclectic but interesting number of subjects and I don’t think I rambled on as much as I usually do.

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Ongoing Investigations: Case #077

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It was a natural combination that was an inevitability like the teaming up of Jackie Chan and Jet Li we have the combination of Detective Conan and Sherlock Holmes. Thankfully Detective Conan Movie 6: The Phantom of Baker Street turn out better than The Forbidden Kingdom. When Conan and his detective gang are invited to the world premier of a high tech virtual reality game the festivities quickly turn to a race to solve murders in real life and the virtual world. The draw of the movie is going to be Conan substituting for the world greatest detective as he tries to solve the Jack the Ripper murders in a virtual London. The fact that if they lose the game everyone playing dies also ramps up the tension. The action in the virtual world and the real world work well in tandem but eventually tie together in an unexpected manner. There was always some bit of action or excitement going on which helped keep the movie lively. It was great to see Professor Moriarty and Sebastian Moran in the game as well although there is less Holmes than I expected. The Junior Detective League also seems like they were deliberately part of the script as opposed to crammed in like the other movies. Overall it was a good time and a fine addition to the franchise.

I can’t tell you how trilled I was when I got my hands on this movie, I insisted that it be next on this list. My goodness, what a combination: Conan (love!), Sherlock Holmes (love!), 19th century London (love!), and a Jack the Ripper mystery (love!). I really enjoyed that the creators finally cooked up away to bring all those elements together even if it takes place in a virtual world. And the virtual reality aspect of this film tells you exactly when it was made, the mid-90’s when everyone was convinced that was going to be the next big thing! But it’s not like Detective Conan isn’t already set around some pretty crazy technology so this doesn’t seem out of place. Everyone contributes a lot to this movie and we even get an appearance from Conan’s parents. There are of course many twists and turns, and this one does have some very suspenseful moments. I found the final confrontation scene especially thrilling and once again tip my hat to Ran, in fact the franchise is very good at the final scenes overall. Detective Conan Movie 6: The Phantom of Baker Street is a great romp in the collection!

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