Anime Review: Case Closed Episodes 99-102

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This is an interesting development. After 20 episodes since the last extended length episode, a 2-hour long episode crops up as one of the four (7, according to FUNimation’s count) episodes that remain of the 19 (22, according to FUNimation’s count) that premiered in FUNimation fourth season of Detective Conan (Case Closed). Today, I will be reviewing Case Closed episodes 99-102 (Detective Conan episode 96).

As I have given a series synopsis in an earlier post, I will not go over it again.

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Jimmy has gotten busy as he gets involved in more than one case ranging from the death of a famous magician to finding a dead body in a well.

However, Jimmy’s biggest problem is not the murder cases, as Rachel again suspects that Jimmy and Conan are the same person.

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I enjoyed these cases. Both of the were setup pretty well and neither had a whole lot that was obvious. The magican case was kind of interesting. In fact, it was much better than the magician murder case that happened in manga volume 47. Unlike that case, we were not told that the place our usual trio of Jimmy, Richard, and Rachel visited was designed by a magician, nor were we told that any kind of extravagant trick done for the public inside the house. Because of this fact, I could not really determine how the murder was committed so quickly and made the case itself interesting. This is what fans of detective, mystery, and crime fiction want to see. After all, cases that are too obvious and/or too easy to figure out do not really create that kind of draw that attract people to the cases solved by famous fictional characters like Sherlock and Poirot, or even the heists of famous fictional thievies like Arsène Lupin. There were also some funny scenes in this case, but only two things stood out. First, Rachel tells her father not to bother Jimmy during the investigation. What makes this funny is that it is a bit reminiscent of episodes 2 and 3. In those episodes, Rachel tells Jimmy, whom she does not know is the kid she calls Conan, not to interfere with the investigation. Here, however, because she is suspicious again, seeing her say such things to her father makes it seem like he is the newcomer to investigating scenes. The other scene I found funny was Rachel’s confrontation with Jimmy. Once the magician’s murder case is wrapped up, Rachel says something to Richard and guides Jimmy off to his house, where she tries to get him to confess, claiming the proof is the fact that he looks like he did as a kid without his glasses. What made me laugh the most though was that she tried to get Jimmy’s mother to verify his identity, which was obvious that she would not, because she knew Jimmy’s secret since her debut in episode 43 (Japanese count). If she did tell Rachel the truth though, she would be worse than Harley, who occasionally slips up. The other case was kind of enjoyable as well. There seemed to be an atmosphere throughout that signified an upcoming murder case, which is somewhat different from a murder case just popping up out of nowhere. I also liked how Jimmy did not suddenly know everything. Yes, that is an issue with many of the deductions revealed by Jimmy throughout the series, but that is something that I can expect from a series like this. When he reveals his deduction via the voice of the new detective, Yamamura, who deals with his first murder investigation in this case, he pins the events that transpired on two individuals, but Jimmy’s father, who was in disguise, comes in to reveal that somebody is not who everyone thought he was, after everything they tried to do to find his true identity. I am not to sure about you guys, but it seems like Jimmy’s father is supposed to be the Mycroft Holmes of this series, since Jimmy is called the contemporary Sherlock and Sherlock did consult with Mycroft in at least one case, because Sherlock said that Mycroft was better than him, if my memory is correct. Like the previous in this episode, there were some funny scenes, but nothing really stands out, except for Yamamura’s admiration of Vivian Kudo, because the rest plays off of the confrontation between Jimmy and Rachel. Another nice thing that was nice was that both cases were fairly faithful to their manga counterparts, except for the fact that they actually met the magician from episode 76 (Japanese count) in the magician case here, because the manga counterpart of episode 76 (Japanese count) does occur until volume 16 in the manga. Pretty much everything I saw happened like it did in the manga, which is a good sign of how things are now being handled. Outside of that, I cannot think of anything else that I particularly liked. The fact the confrontation between Rachel and Jimmy is funny and the cases were interesting, especially since another magician murder case got handled badly, as well as the fact that Jimmy did not suddenly know everything, did make the episode enjoyable.

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Although I did like the episode, there are certainly some issues. First, Rachel was a bit dumb during her confrontation with Jimmy. Now, she did not back down easily, since she only stopped when she had him pegged, before the truth was revealed, but as a daughter of a private investigator and childhood friend of another private eye, she should know that throwing off glasses is not proof that Jimmy and Conan were the same person. After all, it is not uncommon for people to look like each, even when they are not related. If that were not the case, there would not be any arrests and convictions based on mistaken identity in our society. Honestly, she had better proof in the cell phone case of volumes 46 and 47 of the manga. The only smart thing she did do was asking Jimmy’s mother for verification. Of course, I would have preferred her to bring up something that only her and Jimmy would know, which should easy because that was how he was almost caught in episode 7, where Rachel’s first suspicions were aroused. Seeing that that scene played out like it did in the manga, the only one I can blame for this issue is Gosho Aoyama. The other thing that annoyed me was that this episode was literally split into four episodes, when it was supposed to be two hours long. This is proved by the fact that each of the four times the opening comes up I see scenes from all four parts, and those scenes were all the same scenes. This is thing that disappointed me the most when I first watched FUNimation’s fourth season. In the past, FUNimation has always played extended length episodes, such as The Moonlight Sonata Murder Case, The Mist Goblin Murder, and Phantom Thief 1412 all the way through, even though they listed them as individual episodes. In fact, according to the iTunes listings for seasons 1 and 3, those three episodes were shown as intended even in the season sets. What makes this even worse is that the fourth season set was advertised to be unedited and uncut. For it to pass such a label, I expect a 2-hour long episode to be two hours long. Unfortunately, when FUNimation rereleased this season set, they did not fix this problem because the iTunes listing for the fourth season also lists this episode as four individual episodes. Congratulations FUNimation, you just gave me a reason to not repurchase one of the only episodes I was willing to buy again. Now, I am probably being harsh on them, since I do not know how the masters for the episode were received, but because this is a major consistency issue, I cannot let it slide, like I can for the manga version of A Certain Scientific Railgun. I also noticed that there is not next episode preview in the last of the four episodes, like episode 52 (Japanese count) did not in the original single releases FUNimation did before the season sets. Now, I can deal with no next episode preview, but since all other episodes have previews for the next episode in the set, it bothers me. Just when I think there is one consistency issue, another turns up. Not only is it like that for me, but FUNimation’s stream for the final episode also omits the next episode preview. If FUNimation is not going to fix these consistency issues, I see no reason to purchase any of the episodes in season sets again. Then again, since this is not as major as the other consistency issue, I can overlook this issue. Other than that, I only noticed the same issues that plagued other episodes in the fourth season set, at least the hint portion. While Rachel is a bit dumb for not having strong evidence to have Jimmy confess that he is the boy she calls Conan, the thing that ruined my enjoyment was the fact that FUNimation broke tradition and literally split an extended length episode into multiple episodes.

Despite my issues with how FUNimation handled the episode, the cases were good enough to definitely make this worth watching. I recommend this to fans of detective, mystery, and crime fiction, as well as fans of Detective Conan (Case Closed). As for everyone else, this would probably serve as a good introduction to the series, as well as the detective, mystery, and crime fiction genres in general.

What are your thoughts on Case Closed episodes 99-102? Do you agree or disagree with my views? Do you have anything to add? Feel free to comment.

Copyright © 2013 Bryce Campbell. All Rights Reserved.