Before my usual Sara Watches Detective Conan post, I can give you guys an update on Crunchyroll’s metadata stuff! (Disclaimer: this is the state of the metadata as of November 10th, 2026 at 10:21 AM. It’s possible that the state of the metadata will have changed between then and when this post goes up.)
I’ve been limiting my showing of how the stuff here looks to just the first 28 episodes both for the previous times and now, mainly because evidence of these being worked on will likely trickle down into showing these fixes later. While there are still some obvious errors (for example, some episodes still showing their Funimation era titles and some thumbnails lining up with the international episode count instead of the Japanese episode count), as well as the oddity of Episodes 12 and 13 looking like they’re pulling their thumbnails from different masters of Episode 12, but I’m sure the thumbnails will get fixed later.
However, even despite this, there are (at minimum) 2 cases where the title in the metadata and the title in the subtitles do not line up, even if it’s only off by one word that ultimately doesn’t change the meaning of the title. As a result, the titles I’ll be using for my writeups will be the title in the subtitles instead of the title in the metadata. I had to do that back with Episodes 16 and 17, so it makes sense for me to just continue doing that. Anyway, where were we? Ah, yes…
EPISODE 18: The June Bride Murder Case
Anime Original or Manga Sourced?: Manga Sourced, Chapters 78 through 80
Is this my first time experiencing this story?: No
…damn, it would’ve been so much more fitting for me to post this in June. Oh well, what’s done is done, I’m covering this episode now.
The episode starts with Ran, Sonoko, and Conan going to the wedding of Sayuri Matsumoto, who was a teacher Shinichi and Ran had when they were in middle school. Trust me, there’s a good reason why I’m choosing to highlight her name here. This is also where we first find out that Shinichi, aka Conan, cannot sing on key. Now, he’s perfectly able to identify notes, he just can’t replicate them himself.
They manage to arrive in time to be able to talk to the bride herself, and this is where we find out that she loves drinking lemon tea, mainly because it reminds her of her first love. Ran and Sonoko are here to do video recording for the wedding. During the time, we see other people interact with Sayuri. This includes the ex-girlfriend of the groom, a former student of the bride (who I seriously do not like ew ew get him out of here), Sayuri’s father Kiyonaga Matsumoto (the superintendent of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police force), and the groom himself.
Of course, at some point during this time, the camera was running low on battery, so Ran and Sonoko put it down and went to the electronics store to get batteries. After Ran and Sonoko leave, we get one of my favorite moments of this episode.
However, when Ran and Sonoko return and replace the battery in the camera, the two high school girls and Conan head out of the room…only for Sayuri to collapse to the ground after drinking her favorite lemon tea. Sayuri is rushed to the hospital, leaving the police (and Conan) to investigate how this could’ve occurred. Thankfully, due to the camera being left behind, the footage on it can be used as evidence, and that footage also provides the smoking gun that Conan used to prove exactly how the murder occurs.
…which is where I need to point out a very Sonoko Suzuki shaped elephant in the room. In this episode, we get the first instance of Conan doing the “knock-out-and-steal-their-voice-with-bowtie” routine with Sonoko instead of Kogoro. Just…one teeny tiny issue. While in the anime this is the first time he’s done this routine with her, he actually did this routine earlier in the manga with a case that we haven’t gotten to yet. While I don’t think having this episode premiere in June instead of having it be before the actual first Sleeping Sonoko case would mess up Conan’s reaction in that case too badly, I think it makes Conan’s certainty on using Sonoko as a mouthpiece here feel unwarranted.
Seriously, how did 11 year old me watch the anime without having read the manga beforehand and was like “this is fine” all the way through? Because now, with me having read through the manga and caught up to it, I’m finding some of the decisions that TMS made during the early days of the anime baffling. This is exactly why I hold the belief that, at least for what the fans call “the Conan arc”, you should just read the manga instead. The anime made so many confusing decisions that, in the end, really only makes the early years of the anime enjoyable for those who have read the manga…with the outlier of 11 year old me, apparently. At least now I’ve read the manga so I know how the story is supposed to go, but all that’s done is just make it exceptionally clear how much TMS fucked up the earlier episodes instead of really deepening my appreciation for the anime.
This is why, now more than ever, I hope we eventually get a remake of the anime that is much more accurate to how the manga is supposed to go. No messing around with the order of cases (or if they must screw around with the order of cases, make sure there’s nothing in the cases that are being swapped that would cause things like Conan seeming like he’s confidently using Sonoko as a mouthpiece despite it being the first time he’s ever done so), no stripping out Gin and Vodka or keeping Akemi Miyano alive, and having better pacing for the cases in the current version of the anime that were pre-canon cases can occasionally be two-parters before two-parter canon cases became the norm. Are we ever going to get this? Probably not. But can an aniblogger still dream? Yes.
The ending of this episode is actually super sweet, though I can’t go too into details about it because it spoils what I believe to be a twist in the episode, so that is where I’ll have to leave my discussion of the ending.
As someone who has read the manga version of this case, I have to say that it was stronger than its anime equivalent, mainly due to how much was cut (likely to try and force the case to take place all in one episode). Mainly because Conan does some actions in the manga (but not in the anime) that could’ve led to Sayuri’s life being saved. Additionally, I think it lays a better foundation for why one of the suspects became a suspect in the first place. Now, that doesn’t mean that the anime version of the case is inherently bad. I believe it still has its own strengths, even if my current manga knowledge is causing me to now see the holes in the way the anime was done in the early days.
Up next after this, is…an anime original episode. Wow. In case it’s hard to tell, that wow was sarcastic. Sorry, but this is our fourth anime original episode within the first year of the series alone. And based on what I’m seeing, it appears that there’s still more of them to come. While I think we’re still in the time before we start getting cases like that case due to it being several years off (Mom, you’d know exactly what case I’m signaling to there, because I know you’ve seen it), I’m already kinda burnt out on anime original cases due to the weekly simulcast. While I’m still going to cover the anime original cases for Sara Watches Detective Conan, just keep in mind that my opinions may be skewed one way or the other due to the recent anime original episodes in the weekly simulcast.
Previous Release Order Post: Episode 17
Previous Manga Sourced Post: Episode 16
Next Release Order Post: Episode 19 (November 18th at 12 PM [PST])
Next Manga Sourced Post: Episode 20 (November 25th at 12 PM [PST])
Return to the Sara Watches Detective Conan – Manga Sourced Episodes page
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