The premise for Episode “ONE” seems simple enough; it retells the story of how high-school detective Kudou Shinichi became the elementary school kid, Conan Edogawa. But it also goes beyond that and shows us what the other major characters were up to during that time. This is pretty fun for fans of the show, as it lets us them see what everyone was up before Shinichi gets shrunk. But what this ends up doing is introducing a lot of unnecessary details, characters and plot threads that don’t have any relevance or even reach a satisfying conclusion. The special even starts off during the aftermath of one of the cases in the show. Although the biggest culprit has to be the karate tournament Ran won to get Shinichi to take her to Tropical Land. That said, once it reaches where the original episode begins, it gets so much better. Not only are the story threads more focused and consistent, but it also really goes to show how much better it looks compared to the original. Overall, a little messy, but still has some merit.
If you purchased the Blu Ray version released by Discotek Media, this special features an all new English voice cast for the series. Upon hearing this, I was cautiously optimistic. I wanted it to be good, but even I’m all too familiar with how bad it can turn out. Thankfully, that’s not completely the case here. Almost every single actor does a great job embodying the personality of the characters. That said, I was a little underwhelmed by Shinchi’s voice, as it kind of came off as generic. The only times he really shined were his deduction scenes, where he’s both cocky and confident, as the character should be. Conan was handled a little bit differently. He sort of comes off as a shrunken version of Shinichi’s voice actor, which is both weird yet hilariously fitting. The only distracting thing about her is that when she tries to act serious, she comes off more as a women rather than a child. While it’s a shame that the voices for the main characters don’t quite hit the mark, the overall quality is still pretty good. The only other issue is that some of the dialogue and deliveries can come off awkward, which is fairly common among most English dubs. But aside from that, I wouldn’t mind seeing these actors return in future productions, as they will only get better with time.
But now we have come to the decisive part of this review, that being wether or not a new fan should start with this special. This, unfortunately, is where one of this special’s most unique aspect gets in the way. Because we are introduced to specific characters way earlier than planned, the casual newcomer will end up getting spoiled with certain characters (it’s also worth pointing out that these characters are built up after several episodes of speculation and mystery). A much better alternative would be to portray them as background characters going about their daily lives, as was done with the news reporter Hidemi Hondou. This way, the new fans won’t be spoiled while the old fans will still have fun seeing them again. But in the end, this special serves more as a fan-service special rather than a replacement for the original. But who knows? Maybe it might be different for you. But I'd honestly recommend you watch the original episode one and come back to this once you're caught up.
