Detective Conan is actually pretty easy to get into.

Detective Conan or Case Closed as it's still called when officially Localized into English, is one of the Anime that is thought impenetrable to potential new fans because it has too many episodes.  But Detective Conan is actually like western Superhero Comics in that you can pretty much jump in at any point and when important things happen the gist of the context will be provided.  

In general I disagree with concerns about Continuity Lock Out, if I were interested in a show like Naruto or One Piece genre wise I could navigate them just fine.  Again I go back to how the first episode of Buffy I watched was This Year's Girl, jumping in the middle of something not fully understanding it just makes me want to learn more if what I was entertained me.

What makes Detective Conan more like Western Comics, (or at least how Western Comics used to be in the 90s and 00s) then other Manga/Anime is the more fluid nature of what it even means to say the show has a status quo.

With One Piece certain people think saying everything that happens equally matters is somehow the incentive to watch all of it, when the truth is what helped me breeze through Detective Conan was knowing I don't actually have to watch all of it.

Now with Detective Conan you can compare a one off episode from earlier this year to a one off episode form the single digits that aired in 96 and get the impression that the Status Quo hasn't changed at all.  But that's because that status quo is what the protagonist is seeking to preserve until he defeats the main enemy.  The Black Organization storyline has made significant progress, the thing is Conan is playing the long game in that storyline.

There is an interesting scene in season 1 of The Americans where one character talks about how Spies aren't concerned with catching the enemy but keeping everyone right where they are.  When Detective Conan pivots to the main storyline it's actually essentially an Espionage show and better at it then any James Bond movie has ever been, because Kudo is playing the long game.

Meanwhile Detective Conan is always introducing new characters with many of the most popular not even being there yet in the first 100.  And they actually made Ran and Shinichi officially a couple in the early 900s.

Even it's one off filler episodes have variety, Conan himself is the only character guaranteed to appear in every episode.

If you're interested in Detective/Mystery stories as a genre at all I really feel Detective Conan is the modern pinnacle of that genre.  You can start with what's on Tubi.TV or the classic episodes on Filmrise/Freevee or what's on Cruncyhroll.  A large percentage of the show isn't on any official streaming site but those are still not that hard to find.

Case Closed continues on Tubi

First I decided to check and indeed searching Detective Conan on Tubi.TV won't work, you have to search Case Closed specifically.  Of course for people who would watch Tubi using the same device they are reading this blog on I could just link you directly.

Case Closed Dubbed

https://tubitv.com/series/300008260/case-closed-dubbed?start=true

Case Closed Subbed

https://tubitv.com/series/300010357/case-closed-subbed?start=true

But I'd recommend using an App to watch it on your TV if you have one that plays Apps, Tubi is a Free one.

Dubbed now has in addition to the 20 episodes I talked about last time 985-1002 and 1004-1005.  The skipping of 1003 is random and feels like a mistake.  The Subbed page does have 1003 and more episodes as well going up 1014.

For some reason it's the first few episodes in each batch where I feel some of the one off character acting sounds odd, and I'm starting to wonder if it's really just my ears struggling to adjust to the new cast each time.  It turns out only a few characters are actually the same as the BangZoom Dub of the movies, Conan, Ran and maybe Kogoro, while the Detective Boys and Sonoko are definitely recast and possibly more.  Considering Sonoko is my favorite it's impressive that I got used to her new actress so quickly, I think I may even prefer her to the BangZoom voice, still difficult to beat Laura Bailey however.

988 and 992 are Sonoko Deduction Queen episodes and I guess I just feel bad for the BangZoom actress never getting to do one of these since it never happens in the movies.  At any rate both these episodes are pretty cool.

But perhaps the best episodes Dubbed on Tubi so far are 993-995 Makoto Kyogoku the Understudy.  It's the Dub debut in any cast for Sera Masumi and a pretty perfect episode to introduce her with.  Makoto's character is also perhaps better represented here then in the Blue Sapphire movie.  The episode has an isolated case that's interesting but happens do a decent amount of Lore refreshing that I think makes it a good set of episodes for newbies.  And also plenty of moments that are just plain fun.

1000-1001 is actually a remake of an early case, episode 11 on Crunchyroll and Filmrise and 11-12 in the Funimation Dub.  It's a stand alone case plot-wise but story wise is important to why saving the lives of even the culprits is important to Conan.  But it has a potentially problematic element that makes my feelings towards it mixed.  At any rate I really don't consider this remake the optimal viewing experience anyway, the tone and mood of this story really is better served by Retro Conan's artstyle.

1002 is the lead in episode for The Scarlet Bullet.  How these lead in episodes actually relate to the film in question is usually pretty abstract, they are by no means necessary.  Part of why I think a mistake was made is that even before these finally went up I was expecting that 1002 might be skipped for the purpose of saving it for being a bonus feature when Scarlet Bullet finally gets an English BluRay release.  I would probably like this episode more if I wasn't as politically informed as I am, this is practically a PSA episode about littering that really plays into the Liberal individualizing of the issue.

As of writing this I haven't watched the Dub for episodes 1004-1005 yet.  You see they are the second and third parts of a three parter which makes the skipping of 1003 even more bizarre.  I happen to have seen this 3 parter Subbed already and it is a good case, and from the next episode preview it sounds like they cast Mr Eypatch Hitler-Stach well.  So I'm gonna give them time to fix the 1003 issue.

Update: 1003 was added after to long, so I've now rewatched the whole three parter Dubbed and it holds up, has some cool lines.

Update March 30th: On the 29th nine new episodes went up Dubbed on Tubi and I decided to just add to this post rather then make a new one.

Episode 1009 is a fun Detective Boys episode.  1010 is a unique episode that I found pretty fun, and it;s another appearance of Danny's.

1011-112 is pretty interesting.  It's the first Columbo type Case in these Tubi Dubbed episodes so far, and the Dub debuts of both the Kindergarden Teachers and Yamamura the Gunma inspector.  I was actually suprised how well Yamamura's voice turned out, he fits the character perfectly.

1013 is a really compelling episode.

Pretear is great but does have flaws

I decided to change my MAL rating for Pretear to a 9.  

I had given it a 10 partly because it was almost a rule in my head that anything that makes me Cry is a automatic 10 unless some major problem counteracts it.  But then I decided Fuuka doesn't get a 10 simply for some gratuitous Fanservice in the first two and a half episodes.

I think it's important people understand the difference between what personally moves them the most and what's actually the best at even following their own subjective standards of quality.  And my thing about an automatic 10 for making me cry was a failure to practice what I preach on that, (especially since not everything I give a 10 makes my cry).  Robotics;Notes I definitely feel still deserves it's 10/10, Umineko will stay as is till I can give it a rewatch.

Now lowering something to a 9 is not that big a change, even though I give high scores more generously then most I do take the words MAL puts next to those scores seriously, stuff I truly don't like simply tends to not get rated at all since I rarely complete them.  Make no mistake even my 8s are things I'll defend to the death agaisnt anyone saying they're bad, and even the 7s and 6s I'd say are worth watching if I was asked about them.  When I give something a 9 it means it should be essential viewing at least for it's genre.

Pretear is an adaptation of a Manga, and like the prior Shoujo Magical Girl Warrior Manga that Junichi Satou was heavily involved in adapting to Animation some significant changes were made, even though I haven't read it I know a bit about the changes from looking into it.  I'm sure the Manga works well enough as a Manga but in terms of why Pretear moves me so much it's very heavily tied to the Anime's changes, the story told with Mawata is the Heart of it.

But the thing is those changes make the Snow White references, which includes the show's full title, come off way more random, when the Step Mother is no longer even kind of an antagonist the analogy just doesn't hold up anymore not even as a subversion of anything.  Now it wouldn't be the only Anime that has been given a 10/10 by someone who can't justify why it's named what it is, however the show still throwing the wake up kiss in at the very end feels like it's there only to justify the title.  Honestly in the Anime version a Cinderella analogy makes more sense given that the relationship with the Step Sisters gets much more focus.  Fortunately the word Pretear itself isn't a Snow White reference as far as I can tell and that's generally what we shorten it to.

This is also a perfect example of a single cour show that could have been so much better as two cour, as is there wasn't time to give each Knight a spotlight episode and since only two really matter to the main plot the rest kind of come off as just there.  Maybe a full 26 episodes would be difficult to justify, perhaps it should have been one of those rare 22 episode shows.

That's it really, I don't let my nitpicks about the Dub effect the score since that's Localization not the original product, and I love a lot about the Dub, Luci Christian is always fantastic and Mireille proves why she's the best Ojousama.  But the performance that really blows me away is Mandy Clark as Mawata, I was shocked to learn she hasn't been in a lot of Anime Dubs, her performance here may be the most underrated and unappreciated in all of Anime Dubbing. 

Update April 6th 2025: Scree it, upon giving it another rewatch I'm putting right back up at 10/10. 

What does "Mainstream" even mean anymore?

Once again I got into arguments on Twitter with people who think Anime is mainstream now.  Everything I said in the post over a year ago still stands.

https://mithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2022/01/no-anime-still-isnt-mainstream.html

But obviously I have more to say so I'm making another post on it.

And again the argument that baffles me the most is people thinking the mere existence of Anime or Manga being sold at Walmart proves it's mainstream.  They don't get how something can be Niche but still sold in mainstream stores, Walmart's whole brand is based on the illusion that you can buy anything there, that you'll never need to go anywhere else.  I'm pretty sure my brother purchased Insane Clown Posse CDs there back in the day (I'm talking the first 6 Joker Cards era well before Miracles).

And it's not even every Walmart, my local Walmart has no Manga and an increasingly shrinking Anime section.  They just assume if their Walmart has it then it must be standard.  

The Internet has always facilitated Echo Chambers, but Social Media has allowed people to be in one while thinking they're not.  When you primarily talked with other Anime fans on old Message Boards or Yahoo Groups you also knew this was not the whole of society.  But now we talk with other Anime fans on the same website where we learn what new policy the United States President has announced.  Most people on Twitter actively avoid the people with Anime Avatars, so all the Anime Avatars mostly only interact with other Anime Avatars and trick themselves into thinking non Anime Avatars are going extinct.

I of course inevitably get the accusation that I'm arguing this because I don't want it to be mainstream, that I'm some kind of modern hipster.  I'm actually actively trying to get more people into the Anime that I like, I recommend shows to the people I know offline, I leave comments on non Anime YouTube videos recommending Anime that's relevant to whatever the topic was.  And that may be exactly why I'm acutely aware of how not Mainstream Anime still is.  If Anime were indeed now just as normal a medium of entertainment as regular Movies and TV shows I wouldn't have soo much trouble getting people who specialize in talking about Horror as a Genre to watch what is nearly universally considered the best work of Horror in it's medium.

The thing is the nature of the Internet has made it more difficult to tell the difference between what indeed everyone is into now or just all the people in your circle.  And I'm starting to realize some of these people who think Anime is mainstream now don't even think of "Mainstream" and "Niche" as mutually exclusive. 

And yes to an extent everything is Niche in that people hyper into it specifically will always be Niche, even with Star Wars it's still Niche to have actually read more then a handful of the old EU Novels, or maybe even to have read any.

And maybe that's my mistake, arguing that Anime isn't Mainstream while still assuming Superheroes and Star Wars do qualify as mainstream now, by acting like regular old Nerds are totally the élite ruling class now.  Everyone loves MCU movies, but being the Comic Book Guy on the Simpsons who has opinions on how things were changed from the Comics will still get you mocked.

The difference is in how big and influential a percentage those hardcore fans are of the total viewership.  It used be if a Superhero movie was hated by most Comic Readers it would ultimately be considered a mainstream failure too because they were still most of the long term investment, they were still the vanguard who's opinions those less Nerdy would consider in deciding if something is worth watching, but now pleasing them has become less necessary.

People who wanted Modok to be taken seriously are considered joyless manchildren by the vast majority of people who are interested in seeing Ant-Man 3.  Netflix' Cowboy Bebop for all it's "hype" was still mostly watched by the people who care enough about the Original to be offended that parts of it weren't taken as seriously as they wanted.  Some of the same people who hated Netflix Bebop may also like Modok because they're Anime Fans who only recently started casually liking MCU movies like Trixie The Golden Witch.

I'm neither of those groups, I can enjoy both the silly and the serious versions of the things I care about. But that's not the point of what I'm arguing here.

And even Bebop is more mainstream then most Anime because for a certain generation there are a lot of people who've only seen a few Anime that put Bebop in that few.

Maybe not all the people who think Anime is Mainstream now are denying that those particularly into it still get socially stigmatized for it, but some definitely have. 

Detective Conan movies

This may be one of the more poorly structured posts on this blog, I just have some thoughts about them I've been wanting to write down.

A lot of them are relevant to the recuring theme of this blog that we need to start paying as much attention to Anime Writers as we do Directors.  Because for the most part the Detective Conan movies have been at their best when Kazunari Kouchi was the Screenwriter.  

But make no mistake I find value in every single Detective Conan movie, so even the ones I shall be the hardest on in this post have good scenes in them, scenes worth watching once you're already a fan of these characters.

I made some recommendations back when I hadn't seen all of them yet.

https://mithrandirolorin.blogspot.com/2022/02/a-guide-to-anime-films.html

I currently personally divide the Detective Conan movies into 4 eras chronologically.

Era 1 is movies 1-6: These were the ones animated using Traditional Animation before the switch to Digital, and they are the ones that were part of the old Funimation Case Closed Dub, but that Dub is out of print and not officially streaming anywhere, so the most legal way to watch them is to find and buy old DVDs which are usually not cheap or guarantied to work properly.  Of these 6 the last of them was the only one not written by Kouchi and it's my least favorite of all the movies so far.

Era 2 is movies 7-18:  During this era you'll see the artstyle/character designs evolve from the Retro look of the early movies to the shiny modern Anime look they have now.  Parallel to that you'll see how the approach to how they are written slowly changes to increasingly revolve more around action and explosions.  But as long as Kouchi was writing most of them still could not be accused of being dumb action movies.  He wrote all but 3 movies of this era.  However movie 18 The Dimensional Sniper was his last, he passed away a couple years later.

Movie 7 was the last movie with the Director of the original 6 and it was a decent send off for him.  I know some consider movie 9 one of the best and the end of the golden age, I also enjoyed it.

But it's also during this era that they slowly improved at making movies without Kouchi.  I know for purely Nostalgia reasons some Detective Conan fans prefer movie 6 to anything after 9 whether Kouchi wrote it or not.  Movie 6 was written by an acclaimed mystery writer who'd never actually written a Screenplay before, and in my opinion it shows, it has good character scenes early on before the plot really kicks into motion but once that happens it quickly loses me when I try to rewatch it.

Movie 10 definitely feels instantly inferior to the 3 that preceded it, but at least the good character scenes are spread out more.  Movie 11 is probably my favorite non Kouchi film so far, it was like Pokémon movie 9 very clearly a product of the Pirates of the Caribbean craze, and like that Pokémon movie it's really fun.

Movie 12 has fun with the show's recurring gag of Conan being tone deaf, and makes thematically great use of Amazing Grace.  Movie 14 is fun for having Kaitou Kid stuff and being basically Conan as a Die Hard movie. Movie 15 might by some metrics be considered the first modern Detective Conan film, for better and for worse.

If I had to designate a least favorite of the films written by Kouchi it'd be movie 16 the Eleventh Striker, in fact I'd even rank it below movie 17 another non Kouchi film.  Movie 17 would have been a lot better if they didn't feel the need to throw a random murder in and just kept the focus on Conan trying to catch an enemy spy.

Movie 18 was a great swan song for Kazunari Kouchi, it was also the first movie featuring certain recurring characters from the show and is probably in my opinion the best of this era.  I kind of want it to be the next movie Dubbed but more recent ones will probably be prioritized.

Era 3 is movies 19-23: These are currently exactly the movies dubbed by BangZoom for DiscoTech and thus the only movies easy to watch legally, you can even rent them on Amazon Prime which is how I first watched them.  These movie were mostly the start of my Detective Conan experience, they were what got me into the franchise and so they certainly are fun movies that do capture the gist of Conan's appeal in an accessible way.  But I fear that to people more in general difficult to impress then I am they might not be the best first impression.  This is the weakest era of Conan films so far.

Comparing movie 13 The Raven Chaser to movie 20 The Darkest Nightmare is interesting.  This won't be true anymore soon once movie 26 is out, but for now these are the only movies featuring the character of Vermouth, and comparing them can be an interesting study in quantity vs quality.  If you did the math I'm pretty you'd find Vermouth has more screen time in Darkest Nightmare, but she doesn't do any of the things she's known for, any of what a Vermouth fan would want to see, she doesn't disguise herself as anyone or interact with Conan.  In Raven Chaser she is mostly just prominent in one sequence but she does all of that and it made a perfect Big Screen debut for the character.

 

Era 4 is movies 24-present:  Only two are out already, and the third we Americans who need Subs probably won't be able to see till Fall.  Both movies feel like an instant improvement over era 3, like they're finally making an effort to recapture what made the older movies good.  I wish Discotech and BangZoom would hurry and Dub these or Dimensional Sniper so I could have something better for a first impression easily accessible to recommend.

Kazunari Kouchi also wrote a number of episodes of the series though I hadn't bothered to check what they were when I first wrote everything above. Two of those 5 are one offs from the first 123 I recommended in the prior post of this Blog were his, The Mystery Weapon Murder Case and The Kamen Yaiba Murder Case, plenty of the others he wrote during that era seem to be memorable ones as well, his first was episode 14 (15 in the Funimation Dub), beyond that early era though his episodes are mostly ones even I haven't seen yet (okay the DetectiveConanWorld Wiki list his first as 14 but ANN says he also wrote 4 and 8-9, if he indeed wrote both 9 and 19 then that's both of the show's first two Columbo episodes).  He also wrote all of the first 12 numbered OVAs, I don't recall if there even are more OVAs beyond them.

It's interesting because most of these ongoing kids shows with annual mostly non Canon movies are written by the same writer as the lead writer of the show, Takeshi Shudo wrote the first 3 Pokémon movies, Tomita and Enokido did the Sailor Moon movies.  But Kouchi seems to have been more of an every once and a while writer.

It's interesting that movies 10 and 11 are so apart in quality when they have the same writer, Hiroshi Kashiwabara.  Movies 10 is I think one who's biggest mistake was biteing off more then it can chew, the best Conan movies feel like they could have been extra long episodes of the show.  But something else fun about movie 11 is it feels like it could have been a Lupin III movie, and this writer's main claim to fame outside of Conan is writing 12 of the annual Lupin TV movies, including the first few of them directed by Dezaki. Maybe the Lupin/Conan crossovers would have turned out better if he wrote them.

On the show Hirosh is the credited Anime writer for the first two episodes interestingly, but was by no means regularly writing the key plot episodes.  He doesn't get to write any Anime originals till right after the Funimation Dub and what's on Filmrise stops.  And he only has one case on Crunchyroll 804-805 which I think I haven't seen yet.

Update November 2024: I have seen those two episodes now and they're good but not favorites.

I think there is a degree of recencey bias in my seeing movies 24 and up as better then 19-23, a lot of my gripes with those movies haven't gone away meanwhile the most recent movies are actively seeking to be less stand alone.

I do still really like a lot about movies 24 and 26, but I still haven't gotten to see 27 yet.

Case Closed/Detective Conan finally has some new Dubbed Content

20 Episodes have been dropped on Tubi.TV where they can be watched for Free with Ads even without making an account.  They are episodes 965-984.

This wasn't announced in advance, it just happened, the main cast are the same Voice Actors from the BangZoom Dubs for a number of 2010s movies and some specials.

I'm excited to finally have some accessible Detective Conan content to recommend.  I can't quite recommend all 20 of these episodes equally, a few in addition to being more forgettable plots also have some disappointing acting from the one off characters.

Initially it was only the first 10, of those 971-974 is an interesting 4 parter and the best of those 10 which are all muliti parters.

The best one off episodes from this batch are 978-980, any of those three could make a neat first impression of the show.  

984-985 is a Kaitou Kid case featuring some of the regional recurring characters that is pretty good.

Also make sure to watch the post-credit bonus scenes, Anime was actually doing this way before Marvel made it popular.

These aren't the only episodes of the Series being legally Streamed, but they are the only ones Dubbed.  Tubi only has these Dubs, if you want to watch the same episodes Subbed you'll have to go to Crunchyroll, I don't recall if they allow ad supported free streaming for anything anymore.  But there they don't have the whole show either, 124-753 are not on any official streaming site in any form.

Fortunately the first 123 episodes are streaming Subbed on an equally Free app, Filmrise, but you have to search specially for "Case Closed", searching "Detective Conan" won't bring up results (I didn't even try searching "Detective Conan" on Tubi). 

These are the same episodes that were Dubbed by Funimation but the episode numbers are different because of the longer event episodes being broken up for international release making the total 130.  That Dub is discontinued and out of print but you can still buy DVDs from time to time however they're usually expensive, there are 5 "seasons" to what that Dub covered and how it was released which seem to be the same seasons as on Filmrise (all of this era is one season on Cruncyhroll) plus the first 6 movies, it was also officially only named Case Closed.

For going through the early days of Detective Conan I recommend this Important Episode list to help you know which episodes arguably aren't filler and why.

https://www.xerblade.com/p/detective-conan-important-episode-list.html?m=0

[However one flaw of this list is it gets when the movies came out wrong.]

The DeteciveConanWorld Website is also useful.

But I do also like Detective Conan filler/one offs as well, I above recommended 3 from this new Tubi batch.  There are about 5 from that early era that I consider personal favorites but most are fun.

The Mystery Weapon Murder Case episode 53 on Crunchyroll, episode 25 of season 2 on Filmrise, and episode 55 of the Funimation Dub where the name was changed to Weapon of Choice.   I like this one as an interesting example of one that breaks from the usual formula and has Conan simply help Kogoro solve it on his own.

The Robber Hospitalization Case episode 91 on Crunchyroll, episode 09 of season 4 on Filmrise and episode 94 of the Funimation Dub where it was renamed Hospital Homicide.  This one sticks in my memory because of how it reminds me of Brun Notice.

The Kamen Yaiba Murder Case episode 119 on Crunchyroll, episode 13 of season 5 on Filmrise and episode 126 of the Funimation Dub where it was renamed The Masked Yaiba Murder Mystery.  As I already mentioned on this blog this is a good episode to recommend to western Superhero Comic Book Nerds and Tokusatsu/Power Rangers fans.

The Sealed Bathroom Murder Case episodes 121-122 on Crunchyroll, episodes 15-16 of season 5 on Filmrise and episodes 128-129 of the Funimation Dub where it was renamed The Forgotten Bond.  This is the best example of the show doing the Columbo format.

Update March 5th: Tubi has now added the Subbed versions for the 20 dubbed episodes and another 19 up to 1003, but they're uploaded as a separate show basically bug still under the title Case Closed.  It's also confirmed more will get Dubbed.

Noir is my Favorite Anime again

I'd bumped it down from that position principally because I was concerned it was too atypical of my general tastes.  But it's not that Atypical, it is Bishoujo art style and almsot explicitly Yuri, and while Darker then average it's not the only Dark Anime I like, it's not even the darkest I give a 10/10.

The thing is there's no point in trying to make one single show the summary of everything I like about Anime, the shows I like are very diverse no matter how much I pretend there is some subtle ill-defined Otaku ideology behind all of them.  And that vague Otaku ideology I still see in Noir, it's simply teaching it in a different way.

The show is just too good, too perfectly executed while appealing to enough of my tastes that I can't demote it simply for not conforming to all of them.

It's a show that's constantly reminding me of other things I like, while being reminded of it when I watch those.  Girls with Guns as a genre seems to be making a come back lately with Lycoris Recoil and Akiba Maid Wars, Noir was arguably the original so it's perhaps more relevant then ever now.  But that's not the only new thing I had to appreciate about it in my most recent re-watch.

There are so many things I want to say about this show yet I don't feel qualified to say any of it.  It's subtle and it's blunt, it's realistic and yet also absurd, it has no typical Anime fanservice and yet one of the cleverest NTR scenes ever animated.

Even it's English Dub still holds up, maybe some of you are expecting any old ADV Dub with subject matter like this to be overly indulgent in the edgier inclinations of some of the people who worked there, but it's not, it only ever uses one swear word and only once.  Three of the four leads are using voices very different from what you are likely to expect from them today, and the one who is very recognizable is still very good, it's a perfect voice that suits every character who has it.

It's now up on Crunchyroll and I was surprised to see that it's in 16:9, so yeah it felt like watching the show fresh in a way I never had before.  I recommend everyone give it a shot, it really is great.