If you were a school student back in the 90s or the early 2000s, you might have noticed your classmates engrossed in a certain series of Japanese comics.
And if you had asked about the premise of this particular series, you would have probably been told about how a teenage detective was forcibly aged backwards to become a child once more.
As ludicrous as this all sounds, the Detective Conan series has been a long-running and beloved franchise, not only in Japan but also in Malaysia.
Essentially a crime mystery series, each title often contained a new criminal case for the titular detective and his posse of friends to solve.
Little wonder why that is, given that the main character takes the middle name of Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of another savant detective, Sherlock Holmes.
Even though the crime series can be said to be marketed to kids, the series can surprisingly pull no punches with its depiction of violent crimes.
Little wonder why it has its fair share of adult fans as well as teenaged ones.
In any case, Detective Conan has long spawned forms of media apart from comics, with a television series, video games and movies released since the 1990s.
And in this month of April, the series’ 24th and latest cinematic release finally arrives on Malaysian shores, with the title of Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet.
For people who have never touched the series in their life, watching this film might be something of a confusing experience, with little context as to the connections between each character.
It is a standalone story, however, with the film essentially being an episodic arc stretched out to fill a runtime of over an hour.
Generally, if you are a newcomer to the franchise, you should be able to find your grip on the story fast enough, but it helps to be familiar with the series and its characters.
Not to mention, the movie does spare some of its runtime explaining how Conan came to be and how the cast of characters is related to him.
To summarise things, the film is set in Japan, which is about to celebrate an upcoming sporting event known as the World Sports Games (WSG); the Olympics in everything but name.
But in the run-up to the games, a strange series of kidnappings rocks the country, with the victims being sponsors of the WSG.
Ever the intelligent investigator, Conan notices a link between this spate of kidnappings and another, similar incident in Boston 15 years ago.
If anything can be said about the film, it’s probably that it’s a well-animated flick, with some love and effort put into perfecting background shots.
A higher budget was probably responsible for allowing animators to do their thing, which results in stunning backdrops and well-executed action scenes as well.
For a crime mystery to work, little hints have to be dropped throughout the film to keep the audience glued to their seats, intrigued to see what comes next.
For its part, Detective Conan succeeds at doing that, though it might be hard for viewers to connect the dots with just how many conversations there are.
It is very much possible for eagle-eyed audience members to figure out who the mastermind is before the big reveal though.
Some praise has to be spared for the voice actors too, all of whom are veterans in the industry; and it’s always a strange surprise to find that the male lead character is voiced by a lady.
The film has its share of flaws though, with plot predictability being a noticeable issue, as well as overly prolonged scenes that lack substance to hold the audience’s interest.
While the characters are occasionally put in perilous situations, there’s a strange lack of urgency and one can never feel that there’s anything at stake.
A little disappointingly, the reveal at the climax of the film is not all that shocking, with more emphasis being placed on telling the motivations and methods of the criminals rather than showing them.
And again, the film might not be suitable for newcomers to the franchise, though it does try its best to remain entertaining throughout.
In short, there’s no harm in watching this flick in theatres if you are a crime mystery buff, though it might do you good to check out the rest of the series later.
“Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet” premieres at GSC Cinemas on April 22.
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