Detective_Conan

Plot Summary
Shinichi is in high school and is already a renowned genuis detective. One day he takes his childhood friend (Ran) to the amusement park to celebrate her winning her Karate competition and a murder occurs on one of the rides. Shinichi solves the case in front of everyone but is suspicious of two men dressed in black with murderous eyes that also happened to be on the ride. Later he follows them and watches one of them involved in the middle of a dirty deal. However, the other man sneaks up from behind and knocks him out. Since they recognize him as the detective from before they attempt to dispose of him by giving him a new experimental poison that doesn’t leave any traces of the body. However, instead of dying Shinichi’s body is shrunk to the point where he looks like a kid. Shinichi plans to get close to those men and their organization so that he can get a sample of that poison to make an antidote. In order to do so he goes to live with Ran and her father disguised as a relative of one of their friends. Ran’s father is also a detective, and if Shinichi sticks close to him and improves his reputation there is a chance he may get a case that relates to those men and their organization. He has to keep his identity a secret because the organization will surely try to hunt him down and silence him.

Lately when I’m not working or doing homework I’m watching Detective Conan. I realized the huge commitment I was taking on when I started episode 1, but I hadn’t anticipated me craving only this show every night after a hard day’s work! As a result I’m pretty much in hibernation when it comes to taking on new anime series and am determined to plow through this series until the end. When I finish this series I can’t wait to go back and look at episode 1 and just be prepared to be blown away about how the graphics of this series improved, the quality difference between episode 1 and 100 is already extremely noticeable. But as for the graphics in the first 100 episodes, they’re (of course) outdated by today’s standards. But seeing this type of animation/music/openings has me nostalgic for anime series of the past so the graphics don’t bother me one bit.

Conan and shinichi

Shinichi/Conan

The plot summary pretty much says it all. But Shinichi also has a crush on Ran and finds out (in the form of Conan) just how much she cares about him too. Shinichi has an inventor neighbor that he reveals his identity to that makes him gadgets that he uses to solve cases throughout the series. The most important ones being shoes that when turned on allow him to give a super powerful kick, and a bow tie voice changer that allows him to imitate anyone’s voice.

Mouri

Kogoro Mouri

Ran’s father and a failure of a detective, prior to Shinichi’s accident he didn’t get much work. But now with Conan at his side he is steadily becoming a nationally recognized detective. Mouri is a womanizing, smoking, alcohol loving character that is extremely simple to manipulate. His incredible ego is what keeps the entire situation with Conan putting him to sleep and solving the cases for him while imitating his voice ongoing. His laugh is pretty ridiculous, I smile every time he laughs.

Ran and shin

Ran Mouri

A girl that can kick major ass and is a beautiful tomboy…of course I’m on board! Ran is a wonderful character that doesn’t annoy me in the slightest (too many heroines end up being annoying for me in anime). Her interactions with Conan (Shinichi) are adorable. Ran often leaps into the situations and becomes Conan’s physical strength.

conan and friends

Many of the characters in this series are hopelessly dense, if they were otherwise though then Shinichi’s situation would be discovered and they would run out of main plot too quickly. In order to enjoy this series you need to overlook the obvious fact that Shinichi should have been caught as something more then an ordinary kid a long time ago. This might bother some but I don’t mind because I kind of recognize it as a necessary aspect of the series to keep this unusual situation prolonged just so we can see more mysteries. The cases are the entire point of the series, more-so than Shinichi’s unusual situation. Although I do admit I get a little frustrated when Ran is within an inch of realizing that Conan is Shinichi and then just pulls back completely and thinks she is wrong.

conan13

I get a HUGE kick out of guessing who did it and how, I just love a good puzzle/mystery. My boyfriend I kind of make it into a game, we each take a guess at who and how almost every episode. Although I have to admit lately we’ve both gotten a lot better at correctly guessing the ending, I’m not sure if it’s just because we’ve seen so many or the mysteries are getting a little easier. I have no idea how Detective Conan compares to the other mystery anime series out there because it’s my first series like this. I plan on experiencing many more though.

Conan sherlock

Attempt this series if you dare, but I imagine most would prefer to watch 22 different series at 25 episodes each then a single 550+ episode series. Cartoon Network attempted a dub that was cancelled after 50 episode due to low ratings. BUT this is a well loved and cherished series in Japan, government agencies even have used these characters to promote policies. As you may have read Doraemon is the mascot of the nation’s first “anime ambassador” if that’s the case I’d consider Conan his rival for representing Japan.

After I finish this series, sometime in the near future I plan on going through Lupin the Third as well.