Story: [Short synopsis – second paragraph more “reviewey”] Kudo Shinichi, a genius highschool Detective is on a date with childhood friend Mouri Ran and discovers an illicit deal underway, he gets caught unawares and is forced to take a pill that, unbeknownst to the assailants shrinks his body to a childhood state. He rushes to his house to regroup and bumps into Ran who is looking for him, when asked what his name is he looks at the books in his family library and comes up with the alias (Arthur) Conan Edogawa (Rampo), it then occurs to him that he should live with Ran whose father is a failing private detective and, from the background, solve enough cases to the point where he may investigate the “black organisation” that shrunk his body. The story of Detective Conan encompasses a slowly overarching plotline as Conan zeroes in on this black organisation, gathers allies along the way and struggles to keep up relationships with the friends of Kudo Shinichi, it is a plot that will keep you on your toes and so incredibly engaged through this long journey.
From the above synopsis you can probably already tell that the story is quite an involved one, lots of organisations and characters get involved, the old fashioned Detective chase is at the heart of the story and Detective Conan does take an undercover operation to the next level. While the anime is very episodic like most Detective TV shows and other anime I do think that this overarching plot is one of the best out there and some of the twists that Conan has thought out months beforehand do have quite the shock value and keep you very engaged during those arcs.
The art in detective Conan is quite controversial because it is quite a unique and quirky style, while the art does change through the series as Gosho changes his style and gets better at drawing (and the animation follows through) it is quite an old art style which might not be everyone’s cup of tea. One thing that I do find is done quite well though are the action scenes, Conan will take down a culprit using the many gadgets at his disposal and I do find that they animate movement quite well which is highlighted in the many movies. Scenery is also done very nicely, as a tie in with the humour in the anime the many facial expressions can also be quite hilarious.
Music: I do think that the Detective Conan anime does music and soundtracks very well, the original main theme has a very “jazzy” feel to it with the Sax which was quite prominent in the 1920s which also happens to be when EDOGAWA Ranpo started publishing his first books. Conan has a very old style of using soundtracks in it is very uniformal use of a song for each character/event which again isn’t seen as often in the later episodes and I do think that for the Detective Conan series it does it justice, from the very upbeat soundtrack that we see when Conan is chasing a culprit or about to reveal one to the slower and sadder songs we see when Shinichi reluctantly keeps Ran at bay… the soundtrack does very well to set the mood.
Character: The vast cast in Detective Conan do very well to make it such an engaging show and we see considerable character progression despite the short timespan (not episode span) of the show. It is mainly the exposure to the crimes that young children and teenagers wouldn’t usually be exposed to that would explain most of the progression that we see but Gosho does like his romantic stories so we see quite obvious pairings develop over time. Another thing that the characters do quite well in is the relationships and pairings that we see in the anime, most of the time they are there for some very funny moments but I think that the mutual… agreements, the lack of need to really communicate between several characters is something that just gives you a good feeling about the anime.
Enjoyment: Personally I have thoroughly enjoyed the ride that Detective Conan has and continues to take me on, the starvation that you go through of the main overarching plot makes the “Black Organisation” episodes all the better and I think that just spending time getting to know the characters, guessing who the culprit may be and just having a laugh at how Conan manages to get around a crime scene and solve the case without anyone being the wiser. Detective Conan has a brilliant enjoyment value privy to all of its fans over the years, it really does have something for everyone for all ages and I do believe for all the criticism that the story gets because of its episodic nature and characters that aren’t quite as popular to some fans, it has enough of a variety to satisfy I believe anyone that gives it a real shot.
Conclusion: To conclude I’d just like to reiterate that the anime has more of a focus on the cases and crime rather than the overarching plot and character relationships that the story is known for and I’d suggest that anyone planning on taking on the series has a keen love for mystery. Not without its faults, Gosho Aoyama does incorporate the close network of friends and enemies with their problems and deficits in a crime saturated Japan quite well and the anime’s long run is a bit of a testimony to the fact. I have personally really loved the story and do not think that Detective Conan gets the credit it deserves with its predominately Japanese fanbase despite an initially bad reception in the US when it started airing with English names and dubs. I’d just like to urge everyone to at least give this series a go, who knows? You could be a closet mystery lover yourself!
