Detective Conan Movie 1, a surprisingly thrilling movie perfect for fans of the series and newcomers alike.
Detective Conan Movie 1: The Time Bombed Skyscraper is an intense blend of Die Hard 3 and Speed as Conan races around the city following clues in a desperate attempt to save lives before they're blown away by powerful explosions.
If you've never seen any Conan or Case Closed anime, then I think its first movie can be a great entry point as it briefly recaps.
However, His backstory is never meant to be the focal point of the plot anyways. The main appeal of the franchise is its episodic mysteries. The actual timeline operates similarly to The Simpsons. Sure it's a little strange that Conan is drugged and transformed into a kid, but I don't see it as that big of a deal, considering it's not the main focal point.
Yes, he is trying to undo what was done to him, but 99% of the story is him solving these episodic mysteries, and the whole synopsis and introduction of the anime itself is just there to facilitate a situation where the author had a unique idea for all these interesting characters to come together solving these mysteries where each of them have their own strengths and weaknesses.
For example, Conan's love, Ran, is his weakness because he loves her and keeps her in the dark about his transformation by using a new identity. Although Ran may be emotionally sensitive, she's a martial arts expert making her physically the strongest person he knows.
His child friends allow him to be in more places at once as he commands them through walkie-talkies, but they're not very smart and sometimes get in dangerous situations. Finally, while Conan is still a genius even though he appears to be a kid, he's brilliant, but his size prevents him from being taken serous by others.
Not only is this movie indicative of the Conan experience, but I thought it was a little more intense. For example, there are times when Conan is cycling through town with a bomb close to exploding as he looks for a safe area to drop it off.
Other times he's stuck telling people what to do with the bombs through a walkie-talkie or door, plus several of the bombs are on moving trains preventing him from going aboard to look for them.
So while Conan isn't usually the type of anime that expects the viewer to decode these mysteries, there were a few clues I missed out on due to being on the edge of my seat watching these bombs seconds away from exploding.
I think it's possible to use the clues to deduct the answers, but the movie is moving at a pretty consistent pace, so there's not much downtime to think about these things unless you were to write things down and pause to think about it.
Or maybe I'm just a little slow, it could probably be both. It's just something about the way it's animated that gives everything this intense feeling, from Conan struggling to get through a busy street with his skateboard to watching a character guess which wires to cut as explosions occur in the background.
Overall, I give Detective Conan Movie 1: The Time Bombed Skyscraper an 8.5 out of 10. I recommend everyone curious about the anime or already fans of the series to check this one out because it's definitely a thrilling experience.
In my opinion, you're safe to continue watching the movies if you've never seen the series because they recap any significant plot changes, though, with Conan, there aren't very many from what I've seen.
So I hope this helps guide some of you on a long and enjoyable journey through the movies or series. I should also warn you that only 5 seasons of the anime were dubbed. I like the English dub, but it's something to keep in mind if you plan to go all the way.
Comments
Post a Comment