Anime: Meitantei Conan

I am always in doubt of the concept of serialized detective fiction. They tend to become formulaic products. That's why many detective fiction often employ other elements of action, drama and suspense to keep the audience engaged. Good examples include the first two seasons of Sherlock, and the anime Monster, or even Mushishi. Unfortunately most of them suffer from plot device characters, where character's humanity is sacrificed to move the plot forward.

Case Closed is an unholy abomination of detective fiction that no one seemed to talk about, so here we go:

Because Case Closed hasn't finished yet, so I can only write a preview. When in fact, this show has actually finished after the Clash of Red and Black arc(ep. 491-504) because the show has shown no signs of returning into really good detective fiction as it had in the two 150 min TV specials after the Red and Black arc. And the chances of it returning to its former glory is so close to impossible that viewers can assume Case Closed has finished after episode 504. In my opinion, I strongly believe that Case Closed is as lively as the corpse of a dead horse.

There is often a great pitfall in all long-running anime with 100+ episodes, the original talent used to create the beginning 100 episodes has been deprived. Usually when this happens the writer takes a break. However, in the case of long-running anime the writer is then pressured by the publisher to create more content to pursue profit. This is what happened to the last 12 episodes of Death Note. Here the author may take the dreaded measure of a formula to create content regularly without too much. According to fans, Aoyama Goshou no longer puts out quality content in the manga, and are now taking hiatuses(sources point to his addiction with Kantai Collection): Case Closed becomes a predictable pattern of guessing people with a set of evidence. Murders happen everywhere Conan goes, and the murderers all have laughable motives.

What's even worse is that the TV series has to compensate for all the hiatuses, so they go in the dreaded direction: Original Content. For a few episodes original content sometimes yield good results, but to do it over nearly a hundred episodes would definitely give birth to some bad episodes.

There is also something wrong with Case Closed's original premise. A good plot twist is a plot twist that the audience could have guessed, but not expected. The evidence of Case Closed is so obscure that no one in the world except Goshou himself, or Jeopardy's ten-time-consecutive winner could have guessed it. More often than not, the murderer's identity is deduced through worthless trivia ranging from Panda Cars, to weather-vanes instead of logical reasoning and method of elimination.

The show also flips the bird to one of the greatest rules of cinema: Show, don't tell. This is kind of the fault of the manga: It is littered with letters of Conan's thoughts, so the show eventually has people talking non-stop instead of cutting the lines down and showing more pictures/animations that are more effective at representing words.

Not only was the plot abysmal, the characterization of this show is atrocious. The majority of the side characters are one dimensional plot-devices. They have been deprived of humanity to make sacrifice to the plot. If you thought that wasn't bad enough, the main characters are now suffering the same fate too because the show's creators forgoes its original premise and creates shoddy, inhuman "character development": Shinichi originally was a man who would never kill another person, even if he had commited heinous crimes because he values life more than anything, he could be in trouble if he fucked up. But now he's a ruthless, calculator. Now he has rarely been placed in peril, and is always in control. Thus all suspense in the show is dissipated, leaving the audience no motivation to watch further. Ran, Shinichi's girlfriend, originally was a caring, sympathetic, albeit sometimes going over-the-top karate girl. The new episodes butchered here personality to make her envious, apathetic, and more violent. The diamond in the rough are people like Ai, Shuuichi, but they're only the minority. Now they're even going against Goshou's will to exploit Ai's personality by setting up a love triangle between Ai, Conan, and Ran.

The value of the show lies in the few episodes and TV specials of this show. If made into a live-action movie, they rival even the best detective films Hollywood. However, the value of Case Closed have been diluted by the horrible, pointless drivel of the new episodes.

I used to watch Case Closed when I was a kid. It was the best piece of detective fiction I had ever watched when I was young. I could still remember the chills I got when I learned Vermouth's secret in Double Mystery. When the black organization closes on a certain individual in Black Impact I can hear my heart pumping in my chest. You were my favorite show Case Closed. You were the best piece of detective fiction. You were to bring balance to detective anime, not leave it in darkness! So I am especially harsh with this show, and the wreckage it has become.

P.S. Not a big fan of Goshou's artstyle, and the animation is really bad in the new episodes. The music and sound effects are the best thing about this show.

Wouldn't you beleive this is my second time writing this review because I forgot to add some stuff lol.

Ok so this is going to be a short review because I don't have the time to write a long one atm

Can't blv im the first... woot

Bear with me :P

Ok so this is an anime for you mystery lovers.
It has murder, mystery, adventure and so many twists you'l probrably break you neck trying to keep up (be careful) :P...jk

This is an anime about a guy named conan, he's an amazing mystery solver. On one of his cases he get's into a bit of trouble that brings him down a bit (literally). I won't give any spoilers but I will say that you must see this anme for the sheer amazingness in it.

I mean it does have like 750 episodes lol.

If you want any serious information or an opinion on the anime don't be shy, just come on by and drop me a msg.

Positive feed back is welcome :D