Sara Talks Anime

…we went one episode without a spoiler warning for a Sara Watches Detective Conan post before needing to pull one out again. What the hell. Ironically enough, both episodes end with the exact same line. Which, I’ll spoil it now, out of all of the changes made to this episode that isn’t the direct fact that they changed the ending of the case, that one line is the change I am most pissed about.

Little me didn’t even know how bad it was since she didn’t even read the manga at the time and I think didn’t even register the fact that they reused the line. Or if she did catch on, she probably justified it because it’s an accurate way to describe the character being talked about.

…I should probably actually start talking about the episode so that I can get to the point where I can stop being vague about that damn line.

EPISODE 13: The Bizarre Manhunt Murder Case

Anime Original or Manga Sourced?: Manga sourced, Chapters 13 through 16

Is this my first time experiencing this story?: No

I have good news and bad news. The good news is that this is a case that’s being adapted from Volume 2! The bad news is that I am not as happy about this fact as you may expect me to be. And when you look at the content warning I have up there…yeah, I think you can guess why I’m not as happy about that fact. Expect me to actually be happy when we get to the next Volume 2 story. Whenever that may be.

Alright, let’s get into it.

The episode begins with Conan receiving two new gadgets from Agasa: the Criminal-Tracking Glasses and the transmitter that goes with them. These gadgets are the sole reason why I cannot say “you can skip this case when watching yourself”, as I cannot feel good asking you to skip episodes that introduce gadgets, mainly so that when the gadget appears later on in the series, you aren’t as caught off guard with these gadgets when they do pop up. Anyway, while Agasa is working on tuning up Conan’s new glasses, Conan’s reading a newspaper, and that newspaper includes news of a heist.

Anyway, Conan returns to the Mori Detective Agency, where we see that Kogoro is taking on a new client: Masami Hirota, who needs help finding her father, who is her only remaining relative. Her father also has four cats, with them being named Kai, Tei, Gou, and Ou.

Conan decides to test the transmitter and tries to attach that to Ran…only to trip and attach it to Masami’s watch instead. Kogoro goes to look for her father, only to come up with no leads. With an announcement made during a horse race broadcast, however, Conan realizes that the names of the cats spell the name of a horse, which he initially thinks means nothing…only for Kogoro to come to the conclusion that Masami’s father likes horse racing and is at the track.

As it turns out, Masami’s father is actually at the track. One of the few times that a Kogoro deduction is correct. Masami does get reunited with her father, and just like that, the case that was picked up was solved. On the way back, they do notice that a guy is following them.

Huh, that’s weird. We’re not even halfway through the episode yet. And the murder that was promised in the title isn’t here yet. I wonder why that is…

Well, that’s because we get the murder now, as Masami’s father is found to be dead. Due to hand marks on the neck, it is deduced to be murder. As Ran feels bad about Masami potentially being dead, Conan remembers that he accidentally stuck the transmitter to Masami’s watch, and uses his glasses to track where that transmitter ended up, to end up at a pachinko parlor. He sneaks inside and bumps into a guy, who threw him out.

Back at the Mouri Detective Agency, Conan arrives to see Ran looking outside. As it turns out, the guy that was following them is a detective, hired by the guy that Conan ran into to find his only relative, who’s his brother…and since he began following Kogoro and the others after Masami’s father was reported to be dead, Conan seems to make a realization…but to follow up on it, Conan needs to recharge his glasses, which he has to do at Agasa’s.

Once the glasses are recharged, however, Conan uses them to lead everyone to where the transmitter had stopped this time, being inside of a hotel. After finding out which room the other detective’s client was staying in, Conan rushes to use the elevator. They run into a woman who’s wheeling suitcases out, and Conan’s in so much of a hurry that he causes the suitcases to fall down.

When they arrive at the hotel room, they find the man they’re looking for to be dead. Oh no! 😦 As Conan looks at the crime scene, however, he makes a realization, and rushes out with Ran to look for Masami, even faking an emergency to cut in line.

Masami herself is meeting with G–

Right, TMS was doing everything in their power back then to not bring up Gin and Vodka after Episode 1 but prior to a future episode. This dude is Okita (not to be confused with Soshi Okita, who debuted in YAIBA and later made appearances in Detective Conan), and he was made to take the role that Gin and Vodka held in the manga version of this case.

Anyway, this dude is the mastermind behind the robbery, and used Masami and her accomplices as pawns, intending to take all of them out. Yes, I know her real name is stated in this standoff, but since this version of the case later gets retconned, I’m going to continue referring to this version of Masami with her cover name to draw a line in the sand between which one gets overwritten and which one is the one we follow in the story.

You may have noticed that I said “intending”. Well, that’s because before he can land a fatal blow on Masami…

Conan comes to the rescue with his power-kick shoes, having the bullet just scratch Masami! YAY! 😀 He does have a brief conversation with Masami, but Okita recovers enough to threaten them with the gun again, but you know what Conan does?

He gets hit by the exact same object! How much of a wet towel do you have to be for you to get hit by the same object twice?! Anyway, the police recover the stolen yen, and–

I could forgive them gutting Gin and Vodka from this episode. I could forgive them having Masami walk out of this alive, as hindsight allowed me to see they made another episode to fix this plot hole and allow a specific character to be introduced. But using this specific line after Episode 11 has already aired?! No. Unforgivable. This would’ve been perfectly fine if it was within the first ten episodes, but after Episode 11, this line has so much more meaning than “saying thanks to Conan Edogawa by describing him as a small detective”. Using it for a character that doesn’t even die in this episode completely cheapens the line.

Did whoever wrote this scene decide “this made viewers cry when it was first used, let’s do it again to make them emotional here since we’re not killing Masami”? If so, that’s scummy.

This, funnily enough, also serves as some foreshadowing for a future episode. Even if the two versions of this character are treated as two separate characters in the narrative, this line just serves as a reminder that she’s going to have to die eventually…it’s just going to take a while.

While the case itself is still solid due to being made by Gosho Aoyama himself for the manga, the anime-original ending ruined it for me on a rewatch. Probably doesn’t help that since then not only have I seen the episode that fixes the plot hole this episode opens up, I’ve also read how this case was supposed to play out in the manga. I could forgive my younger self’s enjoyment of the episode since she never read the manga.

And like I pointed out before, I can’t even recommend that you guys skip this episode, as it introduces two of Conan’s gadgets, and I feel like gadget introduction episodes are important episodes. So when going into it, regardless of whether it’s a new watch or a rewatch, just keep in mind that the only part of this case that I’d consider canon to the anime is the scene where Conan gets the glasses and transmitter, as I’d argue that the actual heist was retconned by the episode that fixed the plot hole in the anime timeline. Or just read the manga version of this case so that you can have your cake and eat it too.

Previous Post: Episode 12

Next Release Order Post: Episode 14 (October 14th at 12 PM)

Next Manga Sourced Episode: Episode 15 (October 21st at 12 PM)

The Version Of This Case That Fixed The Ending: Episode 128 (Date and time TBD)

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