On the night of my birthday in 2014, my family and I had just piled
into the car after having a very filling birthday dinner, and a
friend from the Detective Conan fan group I was a part of asked if I
had heard the news. “What news,” I asked, and he sent me a link
from Crunchyroll. It was only just announced a couple weeks prior
that they would be releasing episodes of the Conan anime weekly as
they aired. To say we were excited was an understatement; Funimation
hadn’t touched the series since 2010 with the extremely late
release of Movie 5: “Countdown to Heaven” (originally released in
2001) and Movie 6: “The Phantom of Baker Street” (2002). The
anime itself hadn’t had any new dubs since 2005 so the fans were
living off of scans, fansubs, and what ever country still had them:
official manga releases. So here I was, only a fan for three short
years and already I was blessed with the ability to see Detective
Conan subbed and released the fastest fans could ever imagine: ONLY A
FOUR DAY WAIT. Of course, eventually Crunchyroll got the episodes to
be released the same day, but it was faster than the fansubs were
releasing them at that time.
Crunchyroll’s
timing here was impressive as 2014 was actually the 20th
anniversary of the manga. That being said, not much happened that
year although there were announcements and start of a “Magic Kaito”
anime along with three new chapters of the series, but 2016 was the
anime’s year to shine. Starting a mere two years after the manga,
the anime has been airing non-stop (not including breaks or reruns).
Twenty years of Conan, or more accurately the form most people around
the world are familiar with: the anime, so you’d expect sort of a
“let’s go big or go home” mood. Most of the surprises that year
were a flop, including (in my very objectionable opinion), movie 20:
“The Darkest Nightmare”. While not the best movie, I enjoyed it a
tad more than movie 13: “The Raven Chaser” (the other movie
focusing on the Black Organization). Speaking of the movies, have you
ever watched one? You know how after the cold opening, the title is
shown and you hear “I’m high school detective: Shinichi Kudo.”
or “That’s me, Jimmy Kudo, high school detective.” and the
whole story of how Conan came to be gets recapped for you in about 3
or 4 minutes? What if….they actually remade the beginning?
I won’t go too
much into it since if you’ve seen the first two episodes or the
first two chapters of the series you know essentially how the bulk of
the special goes. Episode “ONE” is more for long time fans of the
series, but even for a western audience it works well as an
entry point. The special adds to the original
story beginning with a more recent case that tells the story of
Shinichi and Ran at the Beika Aquarium (see
“Kudo
Shinichi Aquarium Case: Part 1” and “Part 2” on Netflix).
The story acts as if you already know the characters, but like I said
it still works for new fans of the show. For example, there are nods
throughout that you might not catch on first watch, but don’t worry
too much about looking for those as they don’t affect the story.
Anime Original scenes added actually aren’t too bad and for the
most part they flow well between the manga scenes.
I
absolutely loved the special. I loved the fact that it takes the
viewer back to a simpler time. Don’t get me wrong, I love Detective
Conan, you know this, but the special hit almost every reason I got
into this series. The variety of characters, the art, the music, the
fact
that Shinichi doesn’t
actually die,
but a weird side effect has shrunk (or de-aged) him and
he might be in way over his head.
It was a fun way to relive the series’ start. If I had to choose my
favorite scene it’d probably be the montage of Shinichi and Ran’s
day in Tropical Land. It begins with my favorite scene from movie 4
(“Captured in Her Eyes” which is actually from the manga!) with
Shinichi handing Ran a can of Coke and wanting to show her something.
From there we follow them around with their ups and a couple downs
while “Unmei no Roulette Mawashite” (the 4th opening by Japan’s count; sung by the well-known group: ZARD) plays in the
background, hitting the long time viewers with extreme nostalgia. I’d
only started watching Conan less than a decade ago and this song gets
me every time. The special follows the manga a little more closely
with
Shinichi taking pictures of the shady transaction. On the other hand,
changes from the manga include characters that were not originally in
this chapter or appear much, much later.
The
special ends with two things. First we’re given an epilogue that
quickly touches on important moments of Conan’s journey up until a
certain point. I loved seeing all those great cases reanimated albeit
still-framed for some of them. My favorite of these scenes is Conan
vs Kaitou Kid. The scene itself always gives me goosebumps, but
seeing this scene in the current style and in brilliant 1080 HD was
one of my dreams, so I’ll gladly take it.
The
second ending is another epilogue that is actually mentioned by
Haibara in her first appearance. During her first appearance, she
tells Conan after Shinichi disappeared, his house was searched and
she noticed his clothes from when he was a child are
missing. She also realized that Conan was the intelligent boy her
sister mentioned. She puts two and two together and changes his
status to dead. I love that we are shown the search in action with
the addition of a few details.
Now
to address the elephant in the room. There’s a new dub. Is it good?
Is it worth watching? Yes. Very much
so. Over a year ago, there were rumors about an English dub for Movie 22:
“Zero the Enforcer” and well...let’s just say I’m not the
biggest fan of that movie, so I put that thought aside. A couple
months later, Anime
Expo 2019 announced it was going to show that movie with the official
premier of the dub. No, I didn’t get in, but I wished I could have.
The dub for Episode “One” was produced by the same people who dubbed that. The dub uses the original
Japanese names so if you were not a fan of the changes Funimation or
Viz
use,
fear not, Bang Zoom keeps the original names and the actors do a
great job. Let me just say: Christina Vee as Ran is definitely my
favorite match up; her voiced seemed to just click. Most of the
other voices took a while to get used to including Griffin Burns as
Shinichi.
When I first heard his voice it seemed too young, probably because
I’m used to a 50+ year old man playing a 17 year old boy, but as
the special went on, Griffin seemed to get more comfortable in the
role; everyone did actually. Well, I mean everyone who was on-screen
for longer than thirty seconds. Wendee Lee might have been the only
one I couldn’t get used to, but the main focus of this is Shinichi
before turning into Conan, so she’s only around for the last third
of
the special.
The side characters also were voiced by some great voice actors.
Jeannie Tirado played Hiromi,
a minor character,
but she was amazing despite the short amount of time she was on
screen. I haven’t seen many of her other roles, but I hope to see
her in more in the future. So to reiterate: the dub is good, it’s
definitely worth checking out.
In an age where
everything seems to be getting a remake, TMS actually succeeded in
making something that people from around the world who grew up with
the anime can enjoy and share with new viewers. I only discovered
Conan in 2011 and although I consumed the dub in less than a month, I
still didn’t have to wait as long as many fans, but that doesn’t
make me any less excited for these new releases. I actually did
really enjoy Funimation’s dub and I wished for more as I forced
myself to continue with the fansubs. Detective Conan sadly isn't
quite the hit here in the west as it is in Japan, but the fanbase on
this side of the world is determined despite being small. The dub is
good and I believe that it can only get better. In September we’re
getting a bluray release of “Zero the Enforcer” and I hope
“Crimson Love Letter” follows soon after. In this time of
quarantine and the lack of new Conan content, I think the fandom is
getting a little restless, but these new releases can help.
So to conclude,
Episode “ONE” is worth buying and watching whether you have seen
the first episodes of Conan or not. It's understandable that Discotek
is testing the waters with what could be equated to the “beginning”
of Conan, and honestly? It's great to see the series get a second
chance that other anime have not. I can only hope the
gap of inaccessibility that surrounded Conan before will start to
shrink with this and more releases from Discotek, and I thank them
for giving the franchise “ONE” more chance.
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