This isn’t even fully necessary since this is an anime original episode, but there are spoilers for the episode ahead. If you’d prefer to go into this episode spoiler free, please do not engage with this post.
Okay, this should be the first and only time that an episode I cover as part of Sara Watches Detective Conan airs in the same year as the post I’m making. In my defense, there’s no Meitantei Precure episode this week, so to fill the hole, I’m covering the one anime episode that involves Meitantei Precure that I have yet to cover here. I actually watched this episode when it originally simulcast, so I’m literally rewatching it less than a year after it originally aired.
Am I mad about rewatching this episode? No. I enjoyed watching this episode when it first came out, and I had just as much fun with it as when it first came out. I may as well just get into it so you can understand why.
The Hanamaru Answer*
*localized on Crunchyroll as “The Gold-Star Answer”
Anime Original or Manga Sourced?: Anime Original
Is this my first time experiencing this story?: Nope! :]
This episode serves as the second part of the Meitantei Precure and Detective Conan collaboration, which was started with Episode 18 of Meitantei Precure. Well, technically, “second part” is a bit of a misnomer, since no story for their real world parts is shared between Meitantei Precure Episode 18 and The Hanamaru Answer. It’s more accurate to say that this is the Detective Conan half of the collaboration.
All of this is to explain why this episode starts with a scene reminiscent of one from Meitantei Precure Episode 18, except with an awake Anna and the absence of both Mikuru and the Detective Conan characters that appeared in Meitantei Precure Episode 18. As per usual for a Meitantei Precure episode, the culprit is actually one of the members of the Phantom Thieves’ Guild (Nijee, in this instance) in disguise, and he uses his powers to make a Hanninda.
Anna transforms, however, there’s one very interesting detail about her transformation in this episode: we never get any scenes that show us the Jewel Cure Watch. Is that most likely to save time so we can get more Detective Conan action? Yes. However, it gets rid of one of my biggest complaints with Anna and Mikuru’s full transformation in Meitantei Precure: their transformation feels like it’s so long because there are scenes where they literally stop and adjust the clock hands on the Jewel Cure Watches. If you cut out or heavily limit those scenes, you get a much more snappy transformation like the one shown in this episode.
As Cure Answer does her usual lines, we zoom out to find that this is an episode of an anime playing on TV in Agasa’s house, with Genta, Mitsuhiko, Ayumi, and Haibara being near the screen and watching the show. Out of all of the kids watching, however, Ayumi is the biggest fan of Meitantei Precure.
While the genuine kids (and Haibara) are talking about the show themselves (mainly connected to “what Anna/Answer says prior to saying case closed”), Conan has to speak up and be a killjoy.
At a later date, the kids are out walking together when Genta brings up a story in a newspaper his dad brought up…which Ayumi instantly takes and connects it to the Phantom Thieves’ Guild. As it turns out, this article is about the Santos Thieves’ Guild, a group of theatrical thieves who get in disguise and pull off their heist as if it’s a performance. They’ve impersonated law enforcement, beloved children’s TV stars, and even an already existing phantom thief!
However, those exact same thieves have announced that they’re planning on stealing the *inhale* Pum-pum-pum-pum-pumpkin, created by Misako Shindo. If the name of the creator sounds familiar, that’s because she was also in Meitantei Precure Episode 18 as the creator of the targeted work there! I’m honestly surprised that this didn’t click on my first watch of this episode, but then again, when I first watched this episode, it had been a week since I had seen Episode 18, and my brain was likely more focused on “new Conan episode, yay! :D” rather than making connections to Meitantei Precure other than the ones that get clearly highlighted in the episode.
While that does cause a question to rise up in my mind, I won’t get into the details of that question until the part where I actually started asking the question on my first watch.
Anyway, this piece of work is being showed off at the Kaneko Jewelry Store…which, according to the way dialogue is said here, isn’t the first time that they’ve showed off a jewel, and those other times…were a mess, if we assume that what happens usually, considering the typical M.O. of Detective Conan episodes.
It appears that the Detective Boys are already quite familiar with the owner of this store, even with them asking about what security measures the store owner is using to protect the target. Look, I’m sorry, but you will not catch me using the full name of it again. The owner does open up about the security measures, even including that he’s hired a bodyguard to help defend the target.
Afterwards, the Detective Boys decided that they need to keep an eye on the store to see if they can catch the thief, or even a member of Precure! On Day 1, Ayumi and Mitsuhiko are at the stakeout spot…only to see a customer. Then, on day 2, as Conan and Haibara are staking things out, we get some more information about the Santos Thieves’ Guild: their work, at least in the heist where they impersonated an already existing phantom thief, was incredibly sloppy. During their talk, however…
…a girl like the one we saw on TV earlier asks Haibara and Conan for directions to the Kaneko Jewelry store. Somehow, the puzzle pieces still didn’t fall into place for that one question that didn’t come to me until later than this. I’m guessing that during my first watch my brain had managed to figure out a reasonable explanation for why Anna could be here and on the TV as a character?
Anyway, she gets directions and goes to the store. However, Conan and Haibara don’t spot anyone that could be trying to pull off the heist on their shift. It isn’t until Day 3 when Genta and Ayumi spot someone that seems incredibly suspicious, so they decide to follow her.
During the time where they follow her, they wait for her to come out of another store and make a phone call stating that the act would be pulled off tomorrow, and they even manage to track down the base of the team! Alas, Conan doesn’t let them go further, instead calling the police and lets them handle it.
The police do come and break into the hideout, arresting the four individuals inside. However, it seems these people have no clue what’s going on, and Conan even notices something on the table. Those four individuals do get arrested, giving us another scene of the Detective Boys walking together. Ayumi’s like “we didn’t get to meet Precure :(“, to which Haibara becomes a killjoy.
Ayumi then realizes something, and asks to call Chiba. As it turns out, the person that Genta and Ayumi were following wasn’t among the group, meaning that the people that were captured were decoys, made especially obvious by the fact that the masks had the name of the guild on them, which no theatrical thief group would ever do…leading Conan to the conclusion that the heist will actually occur today. So, the group runs off to the Kaneko Jewelry store!
As it turns out, the bodyguard is actually a member of the guild, and is playing the role of a Hanninda, taking the jewel. However, Prec–
…yeah, that’s not Precure. Ayumi, being the Precure fan of the group, proceeds to have a completely reasonable reaction.
Conan is about to command the Detective Boys to help take down the thieves, but with a hold it right there, a familiar face from the TV vaults over the Detective Boys and lands in front of them, facing off against the fake Precure. I absolutely need to highlight the visuals for this scene. I know that I’ve already done several images in this post, and have had multiple ones here where it’s just a paragraph followed by an image, but the visuals for this specific scene are gorgeous.
Ayumi is convinced that the Cure Answer that showed up here is the real Cure Answer, leading to a face-off between the fake Cure Answer and this other Cure Answer. Part of this face-off includes the fake Cure Answer pulling out a real ass god damn gun on this Cure Answer.
Before the other Cure Answer can shoot, however, Conan tranquilizes the fake Cure Answer.
As it turns out, our Cure Answer that remains up isn’t the actual Cure Answer either…but is instead Kaito Kid in disguise! Yeah, I decided to be vague about which phantom thief these guys impersonated despite the fact that the episode makes it clear exactly who it is, but Kid got pissed at the fact that someone pretending to be him did it so poorly, so when he figured out their next plan, he decided that he’d step in as whoever they’re pretending to be to teach them a lesson about copyright infringement.
…well, there’s one other reason he’s doing this: preserving the smiles and dreams of kids. And to do that, Kid needs assistance from Conan to be able to pull off a duo finisher, because you can’t do a duo finisher solo! Conan…is not as into the whole thing as Kid is.
However, they take down the “Hanninda”, and find out the identity of the fake Cure Answer. Kid himself disappeared before the police arrived. However, the kids seeing Kid act as Cure Answer made them bigger fans of Precure than they were before. However, this leads Haibara to ask a question: is Kid a Precure fan? Conan gives a comment, which afterwards cut to Kid sneezing as he flies off…and during that flying off, there’s a visual where on my first watch made my brain finally go “wait a moment!”
This was when I began asking “if Meitantei Precure is a show in this world, but people that look and/or sound and/or share the same name as Meitantei Precure characters exist in the reality of Detective Conan, then what does that actually make Meitantei Precure in the universe of Detective Conan?!”
Meitantei Precure Episode 18 I could at least excuse as Detective Conan‘s story taking place in another timeline, with the Conan, Ran, and Kogoro in that episode being the Meitantei Precure universe versions of them. However, while Meitantei Precure exists in Detective Conan as a show, the fact that the protagonist and one of the characters also exist in this world (even if it could end up being that it’s just a look/sound similarity or a name similarity) is just raising my eyebrows, and I don’t even know if I can come up with a good explanation.
Absolutely not a dig against the episode, by the way. I love this episode just the way it is.
Anyhow, this episode also marks the debut of 7 DAYS by Rainy. as an ending theme for Detective Conan! I personally really enjoy this song. In fact, compared to every other episode that uses this theme, there’s one difference in the visuals of the ending.
Ayumi’s wearing a Cure Answer cosplay! In all other episodes, she’s wearing a pink outfit, but this decision was likely made to tie in with the fact that this is a collaboration with Meitantei Precure!
Now, there is a post-credits scene, though it mainly serves to confirm something that I feel like a sneeze told you enough about.
And that’s the episode! While it’s set up as one of those episodes where you could just “insert le stock magical girl series here” instead of using an actual magical girl series, unlike the times in Meitantei Precure where I felt like you could replace what they did with “le generic” (looking at Episodes 33 and 39 specifically) and have it still play out the same, Detective Conan doing this is out of a source of necessity to follow its internal rules.
You see, the magic that allows magical girls to be magical does not exist in the world of Detective Conan. After all, there are cases where Conan takes “supernatural phenomena” and explains how a human can fake it to make it seem that what happened was actually humans being humans. It wouldn’t make sense for that to exist only to then have magical girls exist with no explanation. Yes, that means that that the only options we have left for crossovers now are the ones where it could just as easily be done with “le generic”, but I’d prefer a crossover that follows the internal rules of the series it’s released as part of over a crossover that throws out the internal rules of the series it’s released as part of.
And like…if you have the chance to use Precure, why not use Precure?
Even if you watch no other episode from Detective Conan that was released in the 2020s, for whatever reason you may be choosing not to, please watch this episode. It’s peak, I promise.
Also, before my links, I will clarify that I’m counting this as an anime episode (because it aired during the anime’s regular time) and as a TV special (due to the special numbering of the episode).
Previous Episode Post: Episode 1202 (Day and time TBD)
Previous TV Special Post: TBD
Next Episode Post: Episode 1203 (Day and time TBD)
Next TV Special Post: TBD
The Other Half of the Crossover: Meitantei Precure Episode 18
Return to the Sara Watches Detective Conan – Anime Original Episodes page
Return to the Sara Watches Detective Conan – Collaboration/Crossover Content page
Return to the Sara Watches Detective Conan – TV Special page
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