Sara Talks Anime

When I decided to start this little project, my plan was to just do a simple watchthrough. No posts to pair along with it. Then I decided “well, what if I decide to do writeups for it so that people can see how well I’m going along with it?”, and so…here we are.

Some things I will make clear right here right now:

• I will only do writeups for content connected to the Detective Conan anime that has been legally released in the United States of America in some form and that I have access to. For example, despite Detective Conan: The Raven Chaser no longer being available on the Anime! On TMS Official YouTube Channel, I will still cover it as I have an archived copy of it saved as a local file.
• If a post I make involves a piece of Detective Conan content that you currently cannot watch legally in the United States of America, there will be a warning on the post. (*cough* looks at Detective Conan: The Raven Chaser *cough*)
  • Yes, I’m going to count the out-of-print DVDs released by FUNimation Entertainment as legal watching means, as the only thing you’d have to figure out is how to get your hands on one of those DVDs.
  • Yes, when a Detective Conan movie that’s released as part of the Detective Conan Cinema Saturdays campaign has ended its public run on the channel, it’ll get the same warning as I give to movies like that one Detective Conan movie that I’ve already mentioned twice.
• My writeups will be based in what language I initially experienced the media I’m covering in.
  • Episodes of the Detective Conan anime series (and its two spin-offs) as well as the Episode “One” TV Special, the crossover content with Lupin the III, and some of the movies will talk about the original Japanese with English subtitles provided by their relative streamers.
  • Some movies, however, will talk about the English dub version, as that’s the version that TMS opted to release as part of the Detective Conan Cinema Saturdays campaign.
  • Regarding the movies, I will note down what language option my review will be based on in the beginning of the writeup, just in case I go into complaints about the voice cast.
• The order that I utilize for my interlinking will follow the order listed here, sans any content that is not legally available in the United States at this time.
• If an episode was previously available in the US (but is no longer available) and my mom covered it, then I’ll link you to her post!
  • For the episodes that were released on Netflix the first time that Detective Conan was added there that aren’t on Crunchyroll, I’ll link you to a master page that includes all of those episodes.
  • For another episode that’s currently unavailable in the United States of America, I’ll just do a soft redirect to a page that explains why the soft redirect exists and a link to the post my mom did about that episode.
  • I’ll also get links to my mom’s site to open in a new tab.
• Multi-part mysteries, as well as episodes of the series I think work better together, will be done as part of the same post.
• Do not expect these to come out regularly. I do this during my free time, and even then, it’s not my highest priority. If somehow these do come out regularly, then you just caught me at a good time. Or something. I don’t know.
• Many apologies if after a while my opinions sound like a broken record. It’s hard to come up with ways to share my thoughts about 556+ episodes that are legally available in the United States as well as 26-27 movies (25-26 main movies and the crossover with Lupin the III) and two TV specials (Episode “One” and the crossover with Lupin the III) without ultimately repeating a bit.
• Episodes that are simulcast on Crunchyroll while I’m doing this project will be covered here when I get to them in this project. For example, if we’re currently on episode 1173 in the simulcast of the series, but my writeup project is still only through episode 2, then expect it’ll be a while before you see me cover the latest episode here.
• These will be scheduled into the closest hole in my writeup schedule, as allowed.

Okay, that took longer than I thought. So, it’s time for the first post of this little series to begin! For this post, I decided to group episodes 1 and 2 together, as I genuinely believe they work better together. TMS seems to agree, as they previous had the Studio Nano dub version of the first two episodes available to stream in one video on their official English YouTube channel. But before I get more excited than necessary…

EPISODE 1: The Roller Coaster Murder Mystery

Anime Original or Manga Sourced?: Manga sourced, Chapter 1

Is this my first time experiencing this story?: No

There’s no better place to start than the first episode! Because this is where the plot begins!

And the very first scene of the very first episode is where we witness both the before, during, and some of the after of a murder at a party…all while the first opening theme for the series, Mune ga Dokidoki by ↑THE HIGH-LOWS↓ plays in the background. Honestly, this was the best way that I think this series could’ve opened. Starting with a scene of tense action, paired with a more upbeat song like Mune ga Dokidoki was honestly funny.

Yes, yes, we’re gonna get to the roller coaster eventually. We’ve gotta develop the characters first!

However, once Mune ga Dokidoki fades out, we get to see that the police has been called, and an investigation is currently in progress. This is where we meet Inspector Megure, who we’re going to see quite frequently whenever we’re in Tokyo and the police gets called, who is ✨trying his best✨ to keep the witnesses together in one place while the police are in the middle of their investigation, even while the party host is like “this is ridiculous! 😤”, and insists that the police lets him and the partygoers go.

And then teen detective Shinichi Kudo gets on the scene, using his teen detective skills to deduce who the murderer is, even getting the culprit to do something to provide irrefutable evidence that the culprit did it. And the day is saved, thanks to Shinichi!

For the members of the audience who have a low attention span and are still here, jingle jingle, roller coaster’s coming.

The culprit of this case gets arrested, and Megure thanks Shinichi for his assistance on the case, with Shinichi saying that if they run into a difficult case, he’s ready to take the call. Wow, the first case of the episode is already solved! Yippee! Although it’s not the main case, so we’ve still got plenty of episode to go.

The next day, Shinichi gets woken up by his neighbor, Professor Agasa making a loud noise, which ended up being from one of his experiments. Shinichi is nice enough to let Agasa into his house to tend to Agasa’s injuries and learn more about what Agasa was even doing.

Meanwhile at a random detective agency that we totally won’t return to later (😉), we see Kogoro Mori and Ran Mori as news of one of Shinichi’s exploits makes it to the paper, with Ran chastising her father before Ran heads out to school. These two don’t have their names stated at this point, but it’d just be easier if I out their identities now.

But the scene after that is where we find out that Shinichi is pretty well known, and has a bunch of fan girls…seemingly much to the annoyance of Ran, who is his childhood friend! Aww, that’s so sweet! :]

We also get development on Shinichi and why he became a detective, as well as how he got his kick to be so good. The most context I’ll give you for that as I didn’t want to spoil the first case too much despite it not being the main case is because I think it’s more fun for you guys to see it for yourself. We also learn that Shinichi’s father is a mystery writer! That’s cool!

Of course, there was also something that Shinichi promised to Ran that almost completely flew past him…he promised to take her to an amusement park on the next day! Hey! Low attention span people reading this! Jingle, jingle! Roller coaster is coming! I repeat! Roller coaster is coming!

There’s a quick scene of a tear hitting a pearl necklace, though I’ll leave it up to you as to whether or not that’ll end up playing a part in the upcoming case with the roller coaster. Jingle jingle. Hehe.

When we get to Tropical Land, before we can see Shinichi and Ran, we need to take a sidestep to see what three kids are doing just sneaking around the amusement park because of how high prices are nowadays…or back then? While they get introduced later in the manga, this is where we get the introduction to Ayumi Yoshida, Genta Kojima, and Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya, who sneak into the area of the Mystery Coaster.

Okay, remember Shinichi and Ran? Well, they’re at the amusement park too, and they’re also going on the Mystery Coaster, with Shinichi noticing the Literal Children™ sneaking in. C’mon, Shinichi, you were a kid once, don’t judge them too harshly. You probably would’ve done that too. Maybe. I don’t know. Anyway, Shinichi and Ran are in line, and Shinichi showcases to Ran utilizing his own detective expertise how Sherlock Holmes knew what job John Watson had just based on a handshake…though Shinichi’s perv nature (which I didn’t mention until now since the earlier “Shinichi perv” moment we had before this one was one crafted specifically for the anime) shows and he explains how he figured out the job of the person in front of him by looking at an area near that person’s legs.

Anyway, Shinichi and Ran manage to get on the Mystery Coaster, though two men wearing black shove themselves into the coaster, and the coaster go on its path. During the ride, however, Shinichi feels something wet on his forehead, the Literal Children™ see a head roll on the floor, and we get one of the best images from the entire anime.

I can fully understand the need to have that huge pillar of light censoring the stump of a neck that’s now there, likely to keep it at the age rating they want, but it’s still fucking hilarious to me to see a decapitated man with a huge pillar of light coming out of where his head should be. Thank god I began reading the manga version of Detective Conan so I could see the dead body as it was intended to be seen.

The police get involved, at which we get to see Inspector Megure again, and Shinichi helps out and solves the case yet again, as this man is literally just the teenage Holmes of this universe. The resolution of the case was nice, and it sets up something that becomes a constant reminder in the universe of Detective Conan: even the nicest of people can be tipped over the edge and murder someone.

Anyway, after the conclusion of that case, we do get an aftermath. Shinichi and Ran spend some time walking together after the case, but Shinichi spots something sus and runs off, at which he notices one of the men in black from earlier engaging in a deal with some random business man. Shinichi watches on, but oops! The other man in black hits Shinichi over the head and force feeds him a drug that they have no clue what it does, with Shinichi feeling like he’s fucking dying.

And then the credits roll, with the first ending theme, STEP BY STEP by ZIGGY playing. Mune ga Dokidoki and STEP BY STEP was one of the best theme song pairings I had ever experienced back in my middle school years, when I had initially watched Detective Conan. It’s just as good now.

But wait! There’s a post-credits scene where (on the off chance you’ve never read the synopsis of the series before now) we see that Shinichi has shrunken down into a child body! That post credits scene also leads us into…

EPISODE 2: The Kidnapping of the Company President’s Daughter

Anime Original or Manga Sourced?: Manga sourced, Chapters 2 through 5

Is this my first time experiencing this story?: No

Just on the off chance you missed that post-credits scene last time, we get enough recap of that post credits scene to get everyone on the same page with where in the story we are. Shinichi tries to explain to the cops what he had witnessed, but they don’t believe him. Since Shinichi doesn’t have the context to put two and two together to realize that he’s a child now, he thinks the cops that found him are acting weird and he dashes off.

As I’ve read the manga version of this case now, there are some differences between them that were likely done so that the pacing of the anime wasn’t too bogged down by things that were deemed to be unnecessary. First, in the manga, Shinichi awakens in the medical area of Tropical Land, while in the anime, Shinichi wakes up where he was knocked out without being taken to the medical area of the park.

Shinichi also puts two and two together quicker in the manga compared to the anime. In the manga, Shinichi sees a mirror in the medical area, sees he’s a child now, and then dashes off. In the anime, Shinichi dashes off and then, after feeling tired, stops in front of a building that just so happens to have glass facing in his direction that’s big enough to let him clearly see that he’s a child now. Honestly, I prefer the manga version of these events, as they feel more likely to actually happen than the anime version, even though I did see the anime version first.

Maybe it’s because the manga version wasn’t afraid to dance with danger and have Shinichi almost get run over by Truck-kun, as well as have a dog try and attack little Shinichi, which I felt did a lot better to define how Shinichi wasn’t really connected with his surroundings as he was trying to get back home and wasn’t focused enough to pay attention to his surroundings instead of him running and then running out of energy in front of that random building.

Regardless of which source you’re following this case in, though, Shinichi tries to enter his own house…only to find out that his now small body can’t open the gate. Before he can panic too much, however, an explosion goes off at Agasa’s place, causing Shinichi to investigate. Like the officers earlier, Agasa mistakes Shinichi for a child, and doesn’t believe Shinichi when he insists that he’s shrunken down into his child body because of a mysterious drug. It isn’t until Shinichi does a deduction using evidence that a six to seven year old wouldn’t easily be able to put together unless they were actually an ace high school detective shrunken down into that form.

Agasa helps Shinichi gets into his own house, with Shinichi changing into his clothes from his elementary school days, so that he doesn’t have to swim in his high school clothes anymore. As the two discuss what to do now, Ran ends up visiting, causing Shinichi to hide while Agasa tries to talk Ran away from the place. Shinichi finds and wears his father’s glasses…only for the prescription to be so strong, he hits his head on the desk, leading him to pop the glass out so that doesn’t happen again.

Unfortunately, though, Shinichi hitting his head caused Ran to find him. While the scene is set up to make us think she’s already put two and two together…nah, she just thinks that the child in front of her is cute! Of course, when Shinichi needs to come up with a name as Ran asked him for his, he almost lets the secret slip…before he looks at two of his dad’s books, and smashes together the names of two mystery authors.

Thus, the alias Conan Edogawa was born! For consistency’s sake in my writeups, starting from this point, I’ll use Conan to refer to Shinichi when he’s in his shrunken state, and Shinichi to refer to any instances where we see his regular form, be it a flashback or physically, or in rare cases, that’s how a character refers to him. I opted to wait until now to call him Conan, so that the referral of him evolved at the same time as the show’s referral to him did.

Anyway, Agasa comes up with the brilliant idea to suggest to Ran that she and her father should take Conan (who is excused as a relative of Agasa’s) in, as Agasa’s lifestyle isn’t one that’s suited for taking care of children. Of course, the actual reason that he suggested this was to help Conan get more information on the men that caused Conan to get in this state in the first place. Ran ultimately agrees to talk to her father, so the two head out to the Mori Detective Agency.

During their walk, Ran asks Conan if there’s any girl in his class that he has a crush on. After Conan provides his response, Ran ends up revealing that there’s a boy that she has a crush on…and it’s Shinichi himself, causing Conan to get all red in the face.

When he’s told not to tell Shinichi about that, Conan’s about to tell his secret right before they enter the detective agency…only for Kogoro to barrel out because he got a case. Booo, Kogoro ruined an emotional moment! >:/

Anyway, Kogoro calls a taxi, which Conan and Ran end up climbing in because the former heard that Kogoro was investigating a kidnapping done by a man dressed in black. One moment of Conan pretending to be an actual child by being excited to go on a car ride, and the scene shifts to where the call for a case came from. Due to this being the first case done as Conan, we get to see the unique challenges that come from him solving cases in a child’s body…like being too small to see the evidence, or his questioning not being welcome by Kogoro. Boo! >:/

Yeah, I think you can guess which Detective Conan character is my biggest opp at the moment.

When some details don’t seem to line up as more pieces come into play, Conan manages to point them out, and he’s even the one to solve the case. I don’t want to go into too many details about the case itself to prevent me from spoiling the solution for you guys, but I was quite satisfied with how the case played out.

However, during the aftermath of the case, Ran brings up what Agasa told her to Kogoro, and Kogoro decides to let Conan stay, as Kogoro is under the belief that because Conan came, Kogoro was able to get and solve a case, and sees Conan as a good luck charm.

Now, the ending of this case is different based on whether you read the manga or watch the anime. The manga has a more reflective moment done by Conan, and is a great way to round out the case. In the anime, however, we get to see Conan introduce himself to his new classmates in the first grade class he had to enroll in to disguise himself. I’d be fine with the ending the anime used if a case that involved people from his class (or even just the school in general) directly followed this episode. Since the next episode isn’t one of those cases, however, the timing of the ending feels kind of weird to me. Maybe it’s because my recent exposure to anime has been anime that isn’t so “you can basically hop in whenever, just avoid hopping in during the middle of an arc” and my recent experience is instead shows that are more “you have to watch all of the episodes that precede this episode for the episode you want to watch to make sense”.

Now, I wouldn’t be as mad compared to if they had this ending and then left it open for 20+ years. Thankfully, we will get the answer quickly…just not directly afterward. And that’s just assuming I remember the next episode correctly. I’ve yet to rewatch it, so who knows, my complaint may be null and void. However, as I’m currently heavily brainrotted on Detective Conan, I’m excited to rewatch Episode 3! From my memory of both the episode and the chapters it’s adapted from, it’s a fun case!

But with all of that said, I’m going to keep doing this little project. After all, if no one else in America seems to be doing it as of right now, then there’s no guarantee that nobody will do it if I don’t.

Keep searching for the one truth, you guys, and get that case closed!

Get it? …okay, I’ll take my leave now.

Previous Post: N/A

Next Post: Episode 3