Let Detective stories do what they want

Last time I did a post about how Detective Fiction seems to have less permission to break its perceived Genre Rules than any other Genre was before I got into Detective Conan in early 2022.  Since then I’ve become more of a fan of this genre and become even more passionate about the opinions I expressed back then.

Now the Detective Conan aka Case Closed franchise has plenty of cases that will satisfactorily play by the rules these critics care about so much, in fact other people praising this franchise online will praise it on exactly those terms.    But thinking about this genre in its specific Anime forms has brought another argument to my attention.

I’ve recently seen a few YouTube videos explain how no Mecha Anime is actually about the Mecha (I would argue Robotics;Notes is but it's definitely unique) in response to all these noobs who think Eva or something else is oh so innovative for being “a Mecha show that isn’t about the Mecha”.  I don’t think how much a given Mecha is or is not about the Mecha should matter to its quality, but it is telling.  Normally we understand that certain Genres refer to plot devices or narrative framing devices not what the individual story is actually about.

Mysteries however are treated the opposite, one that doesn’t treat getting the mystery itself right as it’s number one priority is considered to have been badly written.  And the rules they care about so much are in tension with each other, they want there to have been a fair chance for the reader/watcher to have figured it out before the answer is formally revealed, but at the same time it’s bad if it’s too obvious.  Striking that balance is rewarding, but it shouldn’t be an absolute requirement.

Well the first and fourth Detective Conan movies are two of my favorite Detective Stories ever written and yet they fail this metric in opposite ways, almost as a perfect case study.

Naturally I am about to Spoil those two movies.  You have been Warned.

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In The Time Bombed Skyscraper it’s really obvious, Leo Joel looks like a villain the moment we meet him (and in the Japanese he's basically named Moriarty) and the only Red Herring provided is a Cop which you should never expect a Detective franchise this mainstream to be willing to commit to.  It doesn’t matter because the real drama of the film is about other things and then Leo Joel simply is a very good villain, he’s basically Howard Roak of The Fountainhead and I hate that I can lead with that when recommending the movie to people since it’s technically a spoiler.

Captured In Her Eyes has the other issue which is ultimately the one people hate more, there is no fair chance at you solving the mystery on your own, the killer winds up being someone never even presented as a suspect.  But it's fine because who the killer is is even less what the movie is actually about then the first one.  And in the English Dub the killer is voiced by John Michael Tatum so once he takes his mask off he’s a lot of fun.