Meitantei Conan Movie 20: Junkoku no Nightmare

[CONTAINS SPOILERS]

If you thought the Dimensional Sniper was bad, just wait till you watch this.

The Darkest Nightmare is the 20th movie of the Detective Conan franchise, and is in my opinion, the worst of all the movies. Why? Let me explain.

The movie opens with an exciting car chase, with Bourbon (Amuro Tooru) and Akai Shuichi chasing down a black organisation member with ridiculous physical prowess. After a lengthy and tense chase down the highway, the BO member manages to escape. Injured and disoriented, she makes her way down an alley and comes in full view of a light show projected the amusement park across ... the river, and promptly collapses after screaming her lungs out.

It was at this point that I was beginning to feel slightly iffy, because what the fuck? The events leading up to that very scene were…kinda dumb. Mysteries are one thing, but what just played out on screen seriously needed tremendous leaps of logic. The car chase left me high on adrenaline no doubt, but it was decent at best. Stupid at worst.

But moving on. As I was saying, the magic of the movie had already started wearing off and I was like, what? Ten minutes into the movie? Not a particularly good sign. Still, I bit back the cynicism and tried to give the rest of the movie a fair chance. Needless to say, The Darkest Nightmare proceeded to disappoint me at every turn.

Story: 5/10

The plot is joke. The movies in this franchise have always been brilliant but after The Quarter of Silence (15th movie), I feel like the movies have really been dropping in quality. One thing I disliked greatly about The Darkest Nightmare (And the recent slew of DC movies; namely, 16th to 20th) was the fact that it substituted clever writing for gratuitous action. I’m not saying action is bad. Far from it. When used correctly, action can bring a movie to new heights. Here, all it does is make the movie even more brainless.

The story wasn’t all that intriguing to begin with, there’s no mystery or subtlety. Zero, zilch. I give the movie props for trying to spin a new perspective on the Black Organisation, but the way it goes about it does more harm to the characters than helping it. There are many many scenes in the movie where the BO characters seem like freaking idiots. If you watched the anime or read the manga, BO has always prioritised secrecy over everything else.

That’s why Shinichi was ‘killed’. That’s why he does everything he can possibly think off to keep them off his scent.

And suddenly, this movie just goes ‘fuck it’ and has the BO characters go on a rampage that is not remotely secret. Like, what the hell? There is no way, no way they would do what they did in this movie.

Characters: 3/10

Speaking of characters. Remember that BO character Bourbon and Akai had been chasing? Yeah, apparently she’s best buds with the Shonen Tantei. Like. What? I mean, I can understand how she’d ended up being all mushy with them – they’re kids after all – but the actions she does throughout the movie are highly questionable. Even for a person with Amnesia, how she acts is total 180 from the person she really is. And what she does in the ending is seriously, really, dumb. Even if she did care for the Shonen tantei, I doubt that she would go that far for them. The BO ain’t exactly a sympathetic group of criminals, folks. There’s no heart of gold under the blackened exterior.

The usual characters, Ran, Kogoro, Agasa and Sonoko make their appearance in the movie, but they mattered so little to the plot, other than giving the events a valid reason to occur, that they could’ve been replaced for potted plants for all I cared. I personally find it very upsetting that they were slotted in the way they were. Very two dimensional. They may sound like them and act like them – but they’re mere shells that exist to remind you that yes, this is a Detective Conan movie. In the grand scheme of things, I rather they not appeared in the movie at all.

Animation: 7/10

Pretty much standard for a DC movie, though the action scenes after the car chase scene left little to be desired.

Also, remember the usual exposition we get at the start of every DC movie? It sucked. Sucked really bad. The editing was enough to make my eyes hurt, the exposition being said didn’t line up with what was playing on the screen. I get that they want to shake up the formula a little, what with this being the 20th movie and all, but damn. The phrase ‘Don’t fix what’s broken’ has never rung truer.

Overall: 5/10

I wish I could scrub this movie from my mind. This is no Countdown to the Heaven, or The Raven chaser. This movie could’ve been great. But it wasn’t.

On a side note, I did a little digging and looked up the director of The Darkest Nightmare, and pretty much found the reason why the movies have been the way they’ve been. Movie 16th to 20th were directed by Kobun Shizuno. Out of the 4 movies he directed, I only enjoyed The private eye in the distant sea, and tolerated The Sunflowers of Inferno. I seriously hope his next movie isn’t as big of a disaster as this one.

I just saw the movie today at TOHO Cinemas Shinjuku, Tokyo.

I enjoyed every minute of this masterpiece. The way he organized the characters and how he managed to fit everything perfectly is just amazing.

The best parts of the movie are the beginning and the ending. As a fan of Detective Conan I feel like this movie is placed perfectly as the 20th movie.

I don't want to spoil anything so I just commented on the general stuff for now.

Likes:
- Story: with the black organization you can't go wrong.
... - Characters: Excellent choices with an introduction of new ones.
- Animation: Astonishing, especially in this action-filled movie.

Dislikes:
- None

Can't for next year's movie ツ

** Free spoilers

At the first I think this movie is the best Detective Conan Film until now. I've seen all the Detective Conan movies and this one was the movie I enjoyed most.

Story: 8
you must need to read conan manga to fully understand what happen in this movie

Art: 10
the art is excellent, giving all the scenes wonderful color and action.The backgrounds are lovely..

... Sound: 9
I like all of the voice acting for all of the characters are always amazing. all the soundtrack and music are great too

Character: 10
All big characters were involved.. the cast was great.

Enjoyment: 10
The movie's messages are very deeply and I enjoyed every word they said.. the lines are awesome there is some emotional lines

Overall: The story is amazing, the characters are wonderful, the artwork is beautiful and the acting and music are both awesome, my final rating is going to be a 10/10.

Having enjoyed this movie, there are still some rather glaring issues, at least for me, and I had to go into a different mindset, as with all Detective Conan movies, because if I didn't, I probably would have been much more "upset" after watching it.

So this movie essentially amounts to being a "fanservice movie", and that's not necessarily a bad thing, as I do believe that while the story and character progression can feel rather cliche (because it is), I think that at the very least it's executed well and the movie has enough to offer in terms of solid enjoyment.

Story: 6/10

First of all, I ... think the route that the movie takes is a bit different for Detective Conan, and I've actually wanted to see a movie like The Darkest Nightmare for quite some time. That is, a Black Organization movie without some underlying mystery completely unrelated to the plot. That's what this is, and despite it being predictable because the movie isn't canon (since we can all see how it's going to essentially end), it's still nice to see the movie not get bogged down by a sub-par mystery plot.
Because it's not a typical Detective Conan movie, and this will be a huge turn off to many fans... that being said, most the movie mystery plots have been extremely lackluster for the last several movies, so I think this is a nice fresh of breath.

This also gives us an opportunity to see certain scenes we would have never ordinarily seen in the manga, since drawing a lot of action would take far too many panels/pages, and Gosho Aoyama tends to keep things mostly on the more "logical" side. It's nice to see some outlandish action once in awhile, permitting it doesn't transfer over into the manga (Kaitou Kid vs Makoto case *cough*)

Spoilers abound...

The plot of the movie is rather cliche. The focal point is not so much around the "main cast" but other characters, predominantly our female movie character lead, as well as Bourbon and Akai.
Curacao, has obtained a NOC list, outing Riesling, Aquavit, Stout, and Bourbon/Kir as spies, but before she is able to relay information regarding the full list, she is branded an amnesiac.
Conan, Ai, and the rest of the Detective Boys find her in an amusement park after washing up, and for a small portion of the movie they are walking around with her, and she slowly gains her memories back through the course of this movie.

Naturally the status quo must be maintained so nothing regarding Bourbon/Kir happens, and Curacao dies at the end of the movie, despite regaining her memories since the DBs apparently had a large impact on her and she wanted to save them. This was a given since nothing "important" can really happen in something that is not manga-canon. (I can't even consider it a spoiler, anyone who has followed the series to this point should have seen it coming a mile away).

Of course, they, at least for awhile, try to shroud Curacao's identity from us, and I do have to say it was quite a genius idea to build off of the Rum hype and try to treat her as a suspect, but it's really only something that's going to fool gullible fans.
I also think that it's a bit cruel to tease the "first appearance" of such an important individual and only have them appear by a masked voice, which was also to be expected...

And to go on a little bit of a rant here... I think it's a terrible idea to introduce 3 spies and to quickly kill them off. Even though it's non-canon, the amount of BO spies in the series at least compared to known "antagonists" isn't much of a difference, and to have a code-name to me has come across as being an "important" member. This makes the BO out to be rather incompetent, much more so than they've already shown to be, even if that is all for the convenience of the plot.

Anyways... nothing special about the plot. It's very generic, to the point where I don't even really have much to say about it. The movie itself has a lot of redeeming qualities, so let's get on to that.

Art and Animation: 9/10

Judging from previous movies, I have to say the Darkest Nightmare, mostly, looks quite stunning for a DC movie. It has solid art all the way through, and the animation is very pleasurable to look at, especially when there needs to be good animation. It doesn't come across as cheap, which is more that can be said about DC's current anime art, which can look absolutely horrendous.
Character designs for the throwaway BO members certainly made them feel like throwaways, but I feel that the character design for Curacao was very acceptable and she has one of the better designs we've seen, much better than Irish from M13...
There were not really any moments where I felt that the art was mediocre. The setting of the amusement park is rather colorful, and the palette in general was much more pleasing to look at. Even down to the character clothing choices, I felt that this movie really had some good art to look at, that is if you are a fan of this rather dated style. It all comes down to personal preference...

Gosho's keyframes also looked quite good, and it was nice seeing Jinpei Matsuda, even if it was an extremely random return. It's always nice trying to spot them, and thankfully they didn't stand out too much. This was another point that showed me truly how nice the art was.

One last bit... I really liked the intro. It was a good stylistic change and I'm glad they did something different. It was nice to look at, and I probably enjoyed this simple recap/introduction more than I should have.

Sound: 7/10

Having watched the Korean DUB, and not the Japanese, I will probably change my review up as I see the "official" release.
The OST was a little better than average in my opinion. DC soundtracks have been rather abysmal for the last several years, and there were certainly some good tracks here, but in the end it did feel repetitive at times, and not a lot of really unique music came out of it. That being said, of the good tunes, they certainly had some memorable ones, notably the pursuit scene, fight scene, and even a rather "James Bond" esque tune that played when Vermouth was in the cafe. The soundtrack was good, it just wasn't anything more than that...

Sound effects for this movie were quite nice as well, though I have to say that nothing really shined, it was just felt a little plain, but well placed.

One of the absolute best things about Detective Conan's anime is the voice cast. It has one, if not the best voice casts in anime, and many notable and praiseworthy CVs. I can't really "judge" the performance seeing as how I haven't seen the Japanese release, but I can guarantee it'll be nothing short of amazing.

Character: 6/10

Again, nothing special, since the focus of the movie is around Curacao, and she has a basic 180 turn in personality. No matter what you do, when you introduce a character that you know is going to die by the end of the movie, you can't try and produce a sob story or a death for dramatic effect. It doesn't work, at least for me...
Maybe because it was inevitable I really can't fault it, but the motivation seems a bit weak, but who knows how strong her ties to the BO really were. The quick scene with Vermouth, Rum, and Curacao strapped to the table may have just been there to help illustrate this.
Akai and Bourbon's characters were handled rather well, and it was nice to see the fight scene, something that likely won't ever happen in the manga. Was the grudge brought up at all? I don't think so, but Bourbon's hatred towards Akai was captured quite nicely here.

Ran, Sonoko and Kogoro could have just as well not been there at all this movie and it wouldn't have made a difference. That's a minus for me, as I do like seeing characters portrayed like the "old days", since recently the movies like to introduce their own characters and only focus on Conan.
With such a large cast, this is forgivable, since you can almost wonder at times, who isn't in this movie?

Enjoyment: 9/10

It's a solid fanservice movie. It's paced well, it's great to look at, the music is nice, and the character performances are all there. Was it predictable? Sure, but it was nice to see such a BO centric movie. While I will say that they are far more ostentatious than they should ever be (much like M13), it was fun. I had fun. That's what matters in the end. I don't think you have to "turn your brain off" or anything of that sort, but I do think that given the movie's concept and how otherworldly it is for this franchise, you have to go into it with a different mindset... and if people still bitch after being given what they've asked for for several years, I really don't know how they can be satisfied...

Overall: 8/10

The Darkest Nightmare delivers. It has a unique premise (but only for a Detective Conan movie), good art and animation, and is all around fun to watch. There will certainly be some replay value for this one.
The story and characters are nothing special, so if you're not a fan of Akai or Bourbon, or didn't get invested in the whole Curacao debacle, I can completely understand why someone might not like this movie.

Perhaps an 8/10 is a bit high seeing as how the movie has a rather shoddy and generic plot, which should be one of the most important things to look at, but I think proper execution for a concept that has been so overdone can make all the difference. Did it have proper execution? That's up for debate, but seeing as how I consider myself rather picky and was expecting much worse than what we got... yea, I think it was good.

Give it a go at the very least. It's one of the few Detective Conan movies that I endorse, but I also recommend being somewhat caught up with the plot to fully understand what is going on.

Alright big Conan fan here. I'll keep it short, this is probably the worst Conan movie I've seen.

1. Unlike all the other movies, it doesn't have any mystery in it. I mean, how do you even come up with the idea of not putting any mystery in a detective show? That's awful.

2. They basically ruined the image of BO, making them look like Team Rocket rather than some shadow government type of organization.

3. Some scenes were straight up ridiculous. Look, I get it that Conan movies need to have action scenes, but no, you cannot stop a disaster that is suppose to kill hundreds of ... people using an inflatable football.
Also, there's a scene at the beginning where a car flew like 100m into the air, crushed on the ground and all the passengers got out of the car like nothing happened, literally what?

4. No, the animation is not good just because of those 2 sequences that had high fps. The movements were terrible, I don't care who you are, you can't just randomly jump 20m high while doing 5 backflips, this is not one piece. Also those CGI background characters were hurting my eyes.

5. If you don't follow Conan, you'll probably get confused by all the story-related characters. If you do follow Conan, you will be disappointed by how they presented those characters.


I gave "Captured in her Eyes" a 8/10, this one is at best a 3/10.

[SPOILER AHEAD, MAYBE]

First off all, Curaçao is absolutely Waifu!


No, but seriously, she was literally the best character in the whole movie. Her character development and legit turn-around at the end was unexpected and I appreciated it very much since I did not expect her to act out that way.

But besides Curaçao, the movie was legit pretty good. The story orbiting around her and the Black Organization itself is interesting and enjoyable, especially that Gin got a good chunk of screentime and lines to say!
Unlike in some other movies, the main plot point here is not to solve a murder case but to help find Curaçao's ... lost memory - which makes it really refreshing but also disappointing if you were expecting a complicated riddle to be solved.
This said, Conan kind of moves into the background, since there are just a handful of codes he could crack.

Why did I still gave it an 8 then, if the name-giving Conan did not had to play the detective here?
Well, the strongest point of it were its (new) characters and the setting it was in. I just had some feel-good moments with Curaçao and the Detective Boys, even though I normally cannot really stand them. The ending was refreshing and unexpected (at least for me) but I can also understand why people were disappointed in it, seeing that there is no case to be solved by Shiniji.

But then, there is one thing that really bugs me...

...why did Curaçao had to end like a damn pancake?

What an absolutely terrible, terrible movie. Never in my life did I stop watching a movie half way because of how bad it was. The director Kobun Shizuno apparently ruined all seven movies starting after the 14th. Every single movie this guy directs is full of absurdity and plots that make no sense, all leaving you with that same bitter aftertaste. Throughout his movies you feel like he knows nothing about the characters and their relationship. The interactions between the characters are so artificial and contrived and irritating. It's like he watches a randomly chosen episode, and copy paste parts of it into the movie. ... This one in particular is so full of ridiculous events and plot that I simply could not stand to finish watching it.

After 6 ruined movies so far, I decided to not watch the 21st, which is the last movie directed by Kobun Shizuno. Such a shame how he ruined the Detective Conan movies. Movies 1 to 7 were all amazing. 8 to 14 were acceptable because they were directed Yasuichiro Yamamoto, who is a long term director of the episodes, who knows and understands the relationship between the characters very well. Kobun Shizuno however is a clueless rookie who has no idea what he's doing. I'm going to guess he has connections or something that got him the position to be a director of such a big series, even though I can't find a single episode from the original run of the series that he directed.

I'm looking forward to watching the 22nd (Zero the Enforcer), which is the first movie after the reign of terror of Kobun ended.

This review contains no spoilers as I myself hates spoilers.

Story: 9

I story is nice and unique as it is really original and interesting. Even if the story is just how the usual Detective Conan story line works, the content and events makes it more interesting as you watch it.

Art: 10

Of all the Detective Conan movies I have watched, this movie definitely has THE BEST art and animation. From the simple actions to the very exciting and complex action scenes, the details are just, WOW!

... Sound: 10

The sound track is really unique as it will make you distinguish this movie's sound track from the other movies.

Character: 10

The character, of course. The characters in this movie is well picked and the character development is fast which makes the movie more interesting.

Overall: 10

As a Detective Conan fan and a movie critique, I rate the 20th movie of Detective Conan 10 as it was a huge success.

As always, a short but on the spot, Bullseye review.
It was one of the best movies. since Detective Conan is an Anime full of TV Fillers, it is no wonder the mist enjoyable parts are cases with Black Organization, this was one of them.
We got introduce to an amazing character Curacao, a Member of BO.
The Movie is more or less about her Development, she is the center of all.
Now as a Connoisseur of Anime, Manga, and so son. This happens to me rarely, but Curacao awoke my ineters, i felt drawn to that character, wanted to fight alongside her.
Now not to spoil anything, i will ... say it (write it) this way, and completely honest.
I was not satisfied with the Ending, i wanted something other, alternative, i found it in this FanFiction Story.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13138752/1/Darkest-Nightmare-AU

Now don't be discouraged, this movie is an outstanding movie from the Detective Conan Franchise, it is a must watch for everybody.

Mild spoilers ahead.

As described in the summary, this Detective Conan movie features Akai and Amuro alongside Conan. And while I never thought any combo would be as cool as Conan-Kaito KID tag-teaming to successfully bring a case to a close, the idea of three of the most brilliant and competent characters in the series (Conan, Akai and Amuro) joining forces had me all excited with anticipation by the time the opening sequencing had ended.

By the end, while the movie certainly delivered in that regard, getting there was a bit bumpy. I kind of get Amuro's dislike of the FBI, but I found movie Amuro's prioritizing ... tripping up the FBI over foiling the BO extremely off-putting.

And while the BO was rather ostentatious in the final act, they did have action in place to hide their presence (somewhat), so I'll give them a pass on that.

And where would we be without the Shounen Tantei deliberately acting recklessly just so they'd be in enough peril to increase the level of jeopardy and drive the action forward? In a better, Shounen Tantei-less Detective Conan movie, hopefully.

But overall, if you can put aside the painful obviousness of maneuvering the kids to massage the plot to get everything into the same place (bad guys, good guys, and some innocent members of the cast in mortal peril), I really liked the overall concept of this movie. BO members on the hunt--instead of some random crime mystery--drawing Conan, the FBI and Akai, and the Japanese police and Amuro together to thwart disaster before it happens.

I'd give the concept a 8, but the actual execution a 7.

Ever since its release, the 20th Detective Conan movie has garnered both praise and criticism from its fans. Some say that it's one of (if not THE best) movie of them all. Others say that it's the worst movie and an abomination to the entire franchise. While I do have my fair share of criticisms, there are still some things that I find to be enjoyable about this movie.

First off, one must keep in mind that this movie aims to celebrate its 20 year history. That means everything is going to be a lot bigger and safer to appeal to long-time fans of the ... series. As such, it would be wise for newcomers to hold off on this movie until they are caught up with the series. Believe me, I'm fully aware of how frustrating that sounds. But this movie is meant for the fans who've managed to work their way up to this point. As such, accept it as it is and keep going.

Another thing is that despite what its adrenaline-filled opening might lead you to believe, this film is better appreciated as a slow-burner. Every event leading up to the final climax gradually builds itself up over time. As such, it may test viewers patience if they choose not to approach it from this point of view. You don't approach a comedy the same way you do with a tragedy. It just doesn't work that way.

That said, I can't defend everything this movie does. For a movie that celebrates the series' rich history, not all characters are treated equally. Mizunashi Rena, a character who had an entire arc revolve around her, only showed up more than half-way through the movie and disappears soon afterwards. It's another case where a movie tries to cram too much into its run time and not successfully making it a natural part of its story.

Not to mention its fairly easy to predict how everything will play out in the end. Pretty much everything in this movie lacks that satisfying punch whenever something major happens in the story. It wouldn't be far-fetched for someone to say that this movie is formulaic. People who are looking for unexpected plot twists may not find what they're looking for here.

But despite all of that, The Darkest Nightmare still has a plenty of redeeming qualities for me to still enjoy. The actions scenes are well-shot and animated(albeit, a few hiccups in the animation), the mystery woman is both a pleasant and sympathetic character, all the major characters contribute to the story, the Black Organization is still just as crafty and diabolical as ever, and the ending is both shocking and bittersweet. While not a very wholesome film, it still serves as a relatively harmless snack for series veterans to munch on as they wait for the next(canon) encounter with the organization.

I admit that this movie demands quite a bit to be enjoyed. As such, I can't exactly grantee that you'll love it. But no matter what anyone else may say, I still find Detective Conan: The Darkest Nightmare to be a fairly decent watch. Not a great film, but a good film none the less.