The Detective Conan movies are a yearly tradition that can either be an amazingly fun ride or just a slightly longer episode of the show, depending on the strength of the story itself. Jolly Rodger in the Deep Azure? ...kind of in the middle, I'd say.
Story (6/10): As per usual for a Conan movie, it starts out with the whole gang (Conan, Ran, the Detective Boys, Hakase, Sonoko, and Kogorou) going somewhere, in this case an island that has the claim to fame of having the cutlass and pistol of famous female pirates Anne Bonnie and Mary Read, and supposedly a treasure left behind by them is somewhere on the island. This means our heroes end up entangled in a treasure hunt, treasure hunters, and the usual wacky antics before the mystery reveals itself: where is the hidden treasure and what is it?
Honestly the story here is pretty weak and you'll figure out the mystery itself pretty quickly (ironically an English speaking audience can figure it out most of the clues faster than the main cast). The 'twist' on the treasure is also pretty easy to see coming. (I'd even go so far as to say that watching One Piece or the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie will have clued you in as to what it is.) Most of the characters introduced are either OK to annoying, and the villains are weak, especially for a Conan movie, where the villains are meant to be interesting. I won't say that the story itself is bad (there are some cool moments), but it's a fairly middle of the road movie for the series.
Art (6/10): While the art is really no different from the show, the movies still do bump up the animation enough for the action scenes. The background of the island is pretty bland though. When I heard the title, I was thinking more ocean scenes and underwater stuff (though to the movies credit, there are some pretty neat diving scenes), not 'tourist island'. Otherwise it all looks OK.
Sound (6/10): I almost wish they added POTC style background music, cause otherwise this was pretty average. The normal Conan anime tracks play and while they still are awesome, I honestly kind of wanted more swashbuckling style music for a story centered around pirates and a treasure hunt. (Call me a cheesy chick but come on!)
Character (6/10): As I mentioned above, we have the normal Conan characters showing up and it's pretty standard that there isn't anything stand out to mention about them, so for the sake of the review I'll ignore the normal cast and talk about our movie cast, save for 2 at the end.
The movie cast is honestly really damn boring. There's the 2 treasure hunters who are assholes (guess who the villains are?), a plain tourist department head who barely shows up, the 2 diving instructor girls are basically drive by characters for how fast they become unimportant, and the one interesting character is the inn owner that the group stays with. If you've seen the show (or even the other movies), these characters are pretty bland and not that fun to watch. While nothing is really wrong with them, they just feel like they only need to be in the story for about 5 minutes, not the entire film.
But at least Ran and Sonoko get to be cool in this film! Yup, for once our 2 high school girls get a little development and get to show off their friendship for the viewers, so at least that was a treat.
Enjoyment (6/10): Yeah...this wasn't a bad watch, but I've had more fun watching other Conan movies. This one just seemed to drag and by the end I was looking at the time-stamp to see how much left I had. I did have fun with the last 20 minutes of the movie, but that's out of an hour and 41 minutes. :/
Overall Detective Conan: Jolly Rodger in the Deep Azure is a pretty average movie and nowhere near the best that the Conan movie series has to offer. The story itself is pretty bland, lacking the normal coolness or sense of intrigue that others have, with a just there set of movie characters, and a fairly weak story resolution. If you're a fan of the series, give this a watch when you have time, but I would say check out the other movies.
6/10 = a fairly average Conan movie with an OK plot, but nothing spectacular to warrant any rewatch value; while not fully recommended, it isn't a bad movie if you have time to kill, though Conan fans will probably be bored quickly
