Review: Case Closed: The Scarlet Bullet

Detective Conan, known in the states as Case Closed, may not be the most popular overseas, but in Japan, it’s one of the longest running anime ever. As of this writing, it has recently passed 1100 episodes, holding its pace against One Piece, which won’t hit that milestone for another few months. It’s also one of those shows that operates on Simpsons Time, meaning characters have kept their original ages for a quarter of a century, even as technology and pop culture references change around them. I myself haven’t been super familiar with the show since its brief stint on Adult Swim, but for those who are completely in the dark: Shinichi Kudo was once a prodigy high schooler who moonlighted as a detective for the police, but once he overheard a secret deal going on with an evil organization, he was poisoned and left for dead. But instead of killing him, the poison de-aged his body to that of a grade-schooler, allowing him to continue his detective work under a pseudonym: Conan Edogawa. And if you don’t remember any of that, the film makes sure to stop the story in its tracks only fifteen minutes in to remind you!

That said, don’t expect this to be all that accessible to newcomers, even with that refresher up front. This is the TWENTY FOURTH of these movies, and not even the most recent! There’s still two more that haven’t been dubbed yet, which is actually pretty crazy to me that we’re not completely up to date on dubbing anime movies from such a popular series. Though that may just illustrate how it being popular in Japan doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a priority in the States. In any case, continuity lockout aside, this film follows Conan and friends as they get tickets to a state of the art bullet train after using their detective skills to locate a missing sponsor. But little do they know that there is a sinister plot brewing which has dated back to fifteen years ago! With the FBI and President of the United States involved, can Conan get to the bottom of this mystery in time? Well, it’s a standalone movie in a show with a sliding timescale so…yes, obviously they can. These movies can have all the crazy stunts and explosions they like, but ultimately they have to keep to a status quo and can’t really step outside of that.

So, with all of that in mind, can I recommend the twenty-fourth Detective Conan/Case Closed movie? Well, that all depends on if you’re interested in the series in the first place. I’d have to recommend other entry points than, to reiterate, the twenty-fourth movie, but then again I started watching Doctor Who at the reference-stuffed “The End of Time” two-parter, so who am I to judge? And as basically a Case Closed newcomer, I feel like this movie does give me a sense of the usual deal in terms of stories that typically come from this franchise. Conan’s genius and use of his child body to hide and get clues to a case while putting the piece together seems like the big sell of this series, as well as its ability to get into relatively intense life or death situations. But I’m sure you’ll probably be able to find better stories than the one in this film, as my understanding is that the source material is usually the better version of these things. Feel free to find the original episodes on Funimation or Crunchyroll if you’re so inclined, but for the meantime, or until they dub the next movie, this case is once again closed.