Sara Talks Anime

Now, after the first two episodes, you may be asking: how would Conan navigate investigating a murder in his child body, if investigating a kidnapping case already proved to be more difficult than expected? Well, we get to see the first steps taken towards the full picture of this in this episode!

EPISODE 3: A Murder Behind the Locked Doors of a Celebrity’s Apartment

Anime Original or Manga Sourced?: Manga sourced, Chapters 6 through 9

Is this my first time experiencing this story?: No

The episode begins with Conan waking up in his room at the Mori Detective Agency, revealing that it’s been three days since the men in black had drugged him and caused the alias of Conan Edogawa to be born. After lamenting being unable to find information on the folks that shrunk him…and how his arrangement would likely prevent him from getting more information on the men in black, mainly due to how incompetent Kogoro is as a detective.

We then cut to seeing Conan in class as the other students are learning multiplication, with Conan just straight up looking like he doesn’t want to be there. During a period outside, Ayumi asks Conan if he wants to go home with them. Conan declines, causing Genta to be like “you’re saying no to Ayumi?!”. These scenes are original to the anime, and I don’t like the second one out of these. The first one I can put up with because, realistically, Conan would act like this. I mean, if you were a high schooler who was physically de-aged to be in your elementary school body, wouldn’t you be tired of it as well?

We then get to see Conan at Agasa’s place, with them having a discussion. Here, it’s revealed that Ran had visited to ask where Shinichi was (which Agasa managed to convince her that Shinichi was just off on a difficult case), and that Agasa has made a gadget for Conan (the first of many to come)…the Voice-Altering Bow Tie! By adjusting dials on the back of the bowtie, Conan can make a lot of different voices!

This bow tie, alongside another one of Agasa’s inventions that gets introduced later, becomes a key part of Conan’s toolset to solve cases when he joins Kogoro on a case (either because they stumble into it or Conan is able to join him on the case of a paying customer).

One night, as the Detective Boys are watching the Mori Detective Agency (which they managed to figure out is where Conan lives), they see a car pull up, which has a woman step out of it, as well as a man who is accompanying her.

Okay, I’m gonna address this thing that I consider an elephant in the room before I continue. Yes, for one reason or another, TMS decided to have the Detective Boys find out about this case and have them tag along on it (Yes, I know that’s revealed later in the episode, but I’m spoiling you for that early so that it doesn’t come as a big surprise to y’all). Honestly, they add literally nothing to the case except for silly little cameos, and I don’t like it. Like, having them appear in Episode 1, which is before their canon appearance? Okay, that’s a silly little cameo that I’ll accept, as TMS likely wanted to introduce all of the more major characters that you meet early on in the story in Episode 1…or at least, as many of them as they could. But there was no reason to have the Detective Boys tag along on this case.

Anyway, the woman goes up to the Mori Detective Agency and knocks on the door. Kogoro answers the door, and is about to turn the woman away…but when he realizes that she’s the Yoko Okino, he quickly gets changed, and asks her to come in, while also getting introduced to her manager, who is the man that was accompanying Yoko. Kogoro even receives a business card for the manager!

The reason Yoko came to the Mori Detective Agency was because she feels like she’s being watched, and she wants someone to investigate it. Kogoro decides to take the case, having Yoko fill out some paperwork…and also managing to get her to sign an autograph. Seriously, old man? Couldn’t that have waited until after the case?

After all of that, Ran is like “Oh? Can I come along? I’ve always wanted to see the inside of a celebrity’s place!” (may not be her exact words, please forgive me), and asks Conan if he wants to come along, to where he’s like “yeah!”, because of course, he’s gotta stick by Kogoro to make sure he gets led onto the right path. And so, Kogoro, Ran, Conan, Yoko, Yoko’s manager, and the Detective Boys who have snuck into the trunk of the car head out.

When they arrive, Kogoro almost blurts out to the entire world which building Yoko lives in. Thankfully, the manager manages to shush him before he manages to do so. The group (minus the Detective Boys, as the others don’t know they’ve tagged along yet) go into the apartment…only to find a dead body, with the Detective Boys also screaming about it! Cue someone calling 110 off screen to get the police over here!

We see Inspector Megure again…and as it turns out, there’s some history between him and Kogoro! Ooh~! One of the things that I like about Detective Conan is how the characters interact with each other, and the interactions between Kogoro and Megure are some of the best ones that there are in the early part of the series. Honestly, it felt so refreshing to be in the early part of the series again.

Anyway, the investigation begins, and of course, Conan tries to do what he does when he’s big…only to be told he’s getting in the way and not to interfere. Of course, we’re still in the early game, AKA Conan has yet to consistently use the perfect formula to have the adults make the same connections he did.

The methods we see him use are him hiding behind a bigger object and replicating an adult voice with his bow tie to get Megure to check out something that otherwise would’ve gone under everyone’s noses, as well as ask questions that would be seen as typical for the age people perceive him to be that are disguised as such to provide information to the adults. Yay, go Conan! 😀

This case also shows us Kogoro’s biggest fault as a detective: if he comes to a conclusion, he yells it out as the answer, without investigating further, as evidenced when he accused Yoko’s manager of killing the victim. He could really learn from Conan, keeping quiet about his theory until there’s enough evidence to prove it. Seriously, old man, learn from the kid.

Anyway, back to the investigation. Remember when Conan used his bow tie to sound like an adult and point out that there’s something under the couch? This ends up getting another suspect for the case: another idol, and there are some facts about this idol’s familiarity with the apartment that leads Kogoro to believe that this idol is the culprit, because his dear oshi Yoko-chan would never commit murder!

But, through Conan’s investigation methods, he finds a crucial piece of evidence that reveals the truth of the crime, and so, introduces Sleeping Kogoro to the world by knocking out Kogoro with a blunt object. Look, he doesn’t have his typical item yet, cut him some slack. :<

Once Kogoro and Conan are both in their proper positions (with Kogoro knocked out on the couch and Conan hiding behind it), the truth of the case is revealed. I can’t go into it because it’d be too deep into spoiler territory for my territory. However, I believe that the solution to this case brings everything together quite nicely.

After the credits, we get a scene of Ran in the Mori Detective Agency, revealing that the Yoko Okino case (or just this scene in general) takes place a week after Shinichi became Conan, and she’s starting to get worried again. She’s about to report Shinichi to the police as missing…before she gets a call where she hears Shinichi’s voice, which is just Conan in a payphone booth using his voice changing bow tie to make his voice sound like Shinichi, telling Ran not to worry. Awww! :] I know it’s just Conan keeping up the illusion that both identities are separate, but this moment is honestly so sweet!

Notice how, despite me saying that the Detective Boys tagged along, I barely (if at all) brought them up during the actual case? Yeah, that’s how little they added to this episode during the case. Now, them being added to this case does give motive for them to want to be friends with Conan, but…kids are naturally curious anyway. They’d likely want to become friends with Conan just because he’s the new kid. This is why the manga version of the case is superior. No unnecessary minors being added to the case.

This case isn’t bad. However, I’d say that my enjoyment of the anime version of it is dampened by the inclusion of the Detective Boys. If it weren’t for their inclusion in the actual case, I’d be singing its praises. However, the Detective Boys being included soured the case for me. After all, despite being there, they added virtually nothing to the case.

However, I do know that there are good cases in Detective Conan that include the Detective Boys. It’s just that they weren’t necessary for this one. Speaking of good cases that include the Detective Boys, I think the next episode is a good example of one…even if the episode that follows it makes the same mistake that this episode makes.

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