Ah, here we are. The very first episode of probably the longest-running anime in history. It was a remastered version of the episode I had just watched. Good to see that the HD-upgrade has not taken away the awkward drawing of the characters from back then. Conan has taken a more realistic human shape nowadays, but classic character designs like these still retain their charm.
The episode opens with high school detective Kudo Shinichi confidently talking his way through a deduction. For much of the series, whenever this guy walks into a room, everyone will listen to him talk. That's just how shounen anime works, apparently. Never underestimate their plot-armor. But to be fair, the deductions adapted from the manga are often logical and convincing enough that Kudo could pass off as the "Heisei-era Sherlock Holmes" (or "the modern day Holmes of Japan"), as the press had labeled him.
Funny thing about Kudo and Holmes is that our hero often sung praises about Conan Doyle and his books, but this anime character was the one who got me interested in Holmes in the first place. "He's always calm and composed no matter the situation," said Kudo of Holmes, "and he's practically overflowing with intelligence and refinement! And his keen powers of observation and deduction are unparalleled!" It's almost like he's describing himself, as you'll come to see in the series. Kudo always has a kind of finesse that grabs everyone's attention in the room, and his observational skills are almost god-like that some parodies portrayed him as an overpowered psychic. ;D Like, seriously, he could see the dirt on your shoe and could tell that you've ran eight miles off the coast of Costa Rica or some s***. This guy's deductive skills would make Cumberbatch look bad in his own take of Sherlock.
Some time when the DC manga was released, other teenage detectives like him had appeared on the scene as well, including Kindaichi from the "Kindaichi Case Files", and the CLAMP detectives from "CLAMP School Detectives", both first published in '92. The good thing about these younger detectives is that you could pass these gentlemen off as snarky, sarcastic geniuses who make adults look bad and the hearts of young girls flutter. Oddly enough, none of these detectives I've mentioned were ever like that, even Kudo himself. While he can come off as a bit obnoxious in off-hours, when deducting, he's often serious, professional, and even pacifistic. In fact, he's so well-rounded as a person that over the years I began to treat him like a Gary-Stu, wishing that he had at least some flaws in his early days as a detective that made him look reckless and brash. While it was indeed his own carelessness that caused him to be shrunken into the body of a seven year old by the main antagonists of the series (more on that later), later flashbacks indicated that he was nowhere near obnoxious in his pre-shrinking days.
As mentioned earlier, I gained my interest in Holmes from watching the anime. Often in the show, Kudo would recite something from the books, like in this episode, when he mentions the first time Sherlock met his assistant, Watson, how he could tell he went to Afghanistan as a medic by merely shaking his hand. Kudo proceeded to demonstrate the same technique immediately to deduce the identity of a female gymnast - with the additional observation of some pressure marks on her thighs. Yeah, anime boys and their perviness. Don't ask.
The titular murder soon occurs in the now famous Tropical Land theme park that would be referenced multiple times later in the series as the last place Kudo took Ran to a date before he got turned into a small child. Speaking of Mouri Ran, don't pay too much heed to her Japanese name. I know it's a strange name in English, but being the purist that I am, I've always preferred it to the name of "Rachael Moore" they gave her in the American-licensed dub, which just sounds like another kind of weird in my book.
The classic "Roller Coaster Murder Case" is actually pretty simple for the series' pilot episode. Guy cheats on girl and girl gets revenge on guy by hooking the necklace he gave her onto his neck - during the roller coaster ride. Not a good way to go. Simple as it is, the effective delivery of the emotional background score (playing as the murdereress explains her motive) was enough to got me bawling nearly everytime. :'( ;D It's funny that I had got emotional over this despite having seen the same kind of revenge-killing so many times. Kudo mentions in this episode that he has no such problems as he's pretty much desensitized to the whole thing after so many cases. As mentioned, the element that strike an emotional chord in this show is the music orchestrated by the famous Katsuo Ono Band who will be scoring for pretty much the entire series. You might say it's emotionally-manipulative and, dare I say it, schmaltzy, but surprising enough, I was okay with the schmaltz here, probably because I grew up with it and became used to the dramatic tune that plays everytime something tragic happens in the show.
And honestly, the soundtrack is well-made enough that one should give it a listen, regardless of having seen or having interest in the show or not:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLBFAB41DB241E8037
There are a few 'cliches' in the show that have already presented themselves in this episode. The first one is that the murderer/ess will almost always explain his motive after the deduction show. None of that interrogation at the station, nope. Straight off, after being exposed as the culprit, he just conveniently spills everything about why he did it to further the emotional impact. lol It might seem cheap, but it's effective in emphasizing the drama of the story, especially for bleeding-hearts like myself. The second cliche is that jerks will almost always die first, so don't be a jerk in this show.
As the episode comes to an end, our dear young Kudo eavesdrop on an illegal business deal going on with some men in black (no, not the Sonnenfeld kind) who are, as we later find out, part of a shadow organization conveniently named... you guessed it, "Black". Yep. That's anime naming for you. Of course, Kudo's carelessness made him miss the top dog of the organization, Gin himself, who sneaks up behind him and hits him on the head with a metal bat. Honestly, in real life, such a concussion would nearly kill you or cause brain damage. Gin then proceeds to force-feed him an experimental drug that finally turns him into the little seven year old boy we all now know and love.
Why create a drug that de-ages you? Why not? It's a fountain of youth.
4/5 (Not bad for a pilot) |