Meitantei Conan Movie 19: Gouka no Himawari

WELL, first of all i want to make it clear, i write this review, only, after i have seen this movie 4 times.
The story is very good, the best part is that the case resolves around the Artist Vincent van Gogh, this movie really brings me back to, when i watched Detective Conan Movie 12 Full Score of Fear, in which the case resolved around Bethoveen and his Music.
Also let us not forget this Movie featured the beloved magician thief, Kaito Kid.
The Case, if i can call it like this, this is greatly thought over here, right until the End, the viewer can not figure ... out who is the culprit, and when all is revealed, you are surprised. Even when re-watching it many times there are still aspects, that manage to surprise you.
One of the great things were, how of a Deep Insight we the viewers get into the Backstory of van Goghs Paintings the Sun Flowers.
To be honest at first i did not enjoy this movie so much, this is why i am writing this review only after i watched it a few times. But the thing is the more times i watch (as well the more deeper into the Universe of Conan i dive into, yes i am a very big Fan) the more i enjoy this Movie. I will re-watch it again in the near Future, then again after and again after.....
I recommend this Movie greatly to all who are Fans of Detective Conan just like Anime Fans who want to see a really interesting Anime Movie.

Detective Conan Movies Rewatch Before Watching Movie 26: Movie 19

Movie 19 is decent. The plot is decent. The case is decent. Kaito Kid was used decently. The action sequences were decent.

And that's why it's not among the top-tier DC movies. It doesn't do anything outright bad (like some of the silly moments in movie 18), but it doesn't do a whole lot to stand out either. It's just a decent movie that could have been a TV special instead.

Two pros: the set, as some of the shots near the end with Conan were gorgeous, as well as the music, which does a good enough ... job to complement the movie; and a con: the original characters were underdeveloped.

It's an okay movie. 6/10

*spoiler free*

As I enjoyed previous Conan movies featuring Kaito Kid, I was really looking forward to this one. Conan movies are not without flaws, but I can usually look past those flaws based on enjoyment alone - but for this movie, not so much.

Let's jam:

Story (3/10)
The story is quite straightforward: the Suzuki family wants to organize an exhibition featuring all of van Gogh's "Sunflower" paintings with the help of a group of hand-picked individuals called the "Seven Samurai", but for some reason Kaito Kid decides to get involved. This in turn causes the police to become involved, as everyone tries to protect the paintings from ... Kid while making sure the exhibition goes off without a hitch.
There were two things that I found annoying about the story: 1) it was not well-executed. It felt like the writers wanted to make the story more interesting by adding random plotlines and events unrelated to the main story, but this only served to make the movie unnecessarily complicated. Since the characterization was weak to begin with, the movie was unable to justify these creative decisions. 2) It was quite predictable. Anyone who is familiar with the Conan franchise can pretty much tell how this story will play out after the first 15 minutes. This can be a good or bad thing depending on how the writers further develop the story, but in this case it definitely did not enhance the viewing experience.

Art (7/10)
The movie was well-animated, employing bright colors and beautiful shots of New York City and Tokyo. The animators also did a great job setting the atmosphere and mood for various scenes. One sequence taking place on an airplane really stood out for its great visuals and intense action.

Sound (5/10)
For the most part, the soundtrack was quite enjoyable and complemented the movie. Not the most memorable soundtrack of all time, but effective nonetheless. I do have to say that the ending song was terrible, and did not belong there at all.

Characters (3/10)
Characters can make or break a movie, and in this case the characters did the latter. We all know that the new characters introduced in a Conan movie are one-shot characters, but the Seven Samurai were boring and generic even for one-shot characters. When the writers tried to utilize them to further the plot, it was rendered ineffective because none of them possess any personality whatsoever. It felt like they were introduced for the sake of the storyline, and then completely abandoned. There was also an old lady character who had some sort of personal connection to one of the Sunflower paintings, but the writers spent extremely little time sketching out her storyline, therefore stripping it of all its emotional value.
On the other hand, it was nice to revisit the rivalry between Conan and Kaito Kid. For some reason though, most of the main characters in the Conan universe play extremely small roles in the storyline and mostly let stuff happen to them, and even Conan doesn't do as much detective work as usual. Kaito Kid may be as charming as always, but the plot doesn't do him any favors as well.

Enjoyment (6/10)
I enjoyed most parts of the movie, especially the action scenes, while other scenes were utterly unenjoyable. I really wanted to like this movie, but I couldn't look past the flimsy plot and ineffective characterization.

Verdict
Out of all Conan movies, this is one of my least favorite, along with the Jolly Roger one. For long-time viewers of Conan, I would recommend re-watching a previous movie featuring Kaito Kid instead of seeing this one. For anyone new to the Conan franchise, I would recommend movie #7 or #10 instead, since both feature well-executed and exciting storylines that also further develop the relationships among the main characters.

I know the team behind Conan can do better than this, so I'll be looking forward to the 20th movie!