Book Review: Case Closed Volume 62

Case Closed Volume 62 cover

I hope that everyone is doing well, and handling the usual
monotony of the week without feeling too bored.

Now that I got the seven books from Amazon out of the way, I
was thinking of taking a break before reading the last four books needed to
catch up on a series, but one of my favorite series got a new release this
month and I received my copy, so I cannot do that.

Today, I will be reviewing that title, which is called Case Closed Volume 62 by Gosho Aoyama.

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

Jimmy never gets any rest, as more cases come his way after
having solved the last one, and he must be with other cases, like how the
spouse of a martial artist that participated in national tournaments died.

However, things heat up when Jimmy is called back to a
village that he visited to solve a case before he was given APTX 4869 in order
to reinvestigate the case, but while investigating, Jimmy regains his original
body and loses his memories, and another crime occurs where he becomes the
prime suspect.

Now, Jimmy's friends must find out the truth behind the case,
before the genius detective is taken away for a crime he may or may out have
committed.

While Detective Conan is one of my favorite series, I
do not really like everything happens in it, or even how Gosho decides to carry
things out.

And after reading this, I cannot say that I was all that
impressed.

Fortunately, this was not as awful a few books I read this
year, as there were things that I did like, so I do not have rip Gosho Aoyama a
new one just yet, which breaks my heart.

As per usual, the case that started up in the previous
volume
was finally completed, and it helped to capture my attention rather
quickly.

Over the course of 62 volumes, the people that take the
chapters that Gosho Aoyama writes and has the habit of putting in a few
complete cases, and even starting one up to hook the reader's attention, and
seeing how that pattern has not been broken quite yet, I makes me happy to see
that they are staying fairly consistent over in Japan.

The case itself may not be my cup of tea, but I and many
other readers, especially those that are fans of the detective, mystery, and
crime fiction genres, want to see some kind of consistency in series, much like
how the cases in Agatha Christie's story do not usually last for more than one
book, and that alone makes me want to give the Japanese publisher some credit.

I also liked how there were a few things to laugh about.

Even though Haibara was not necessarily in a bad mood and
nothing was as hilarious as what happen in the Mist
Goblin case
from volume 11, or episode 52 of the anime, there were still
things that I got a chuckle from.

The funniest was around the time that the case in the
village was solved.

When Jimmy revealed the truth behind everything, he started
getting the same feelings that he had back in the diplomat
murder case
from volume 10, which was the final case that aired on Cartoon
Network's Adult Swim where I live, and Harley was trying to get Jimmy away from
those that he and Jimmy did not want to their their secret to, and then Jimmy
appeared to be fine moments later.

While it is explained through a flashback, I did find it
kind of funny because Haibara and Doctor Agasa somehow made it in time before
the prototype antidote weared off.

Speaking of the events from the diplomat case, I did also
get a chuckle out of the reference to the drink that Harley gave to Jimmy back
then, which it also ended up helping Haibara out of her mess around the time
that Vermouth first showed up on the scene, and it is revealed later on, as I
mentioned in my review of the library
case
, that the prototype antidote has traces of that same beverage.

However, the worry over Jimmy's secret being revealed ended
up being only a little funnier than that reference.

Still, I am glad that Gosho Aoyama is able to give me
something to laugh about, even if this volume was not one of the most enjoyable
releases out there, which makes me want to give Gosho Aoyama some major
applause. Nice job, Gosho.

The thing that I liked the most though was the case where
Jimmy was the prime suspect.

Out of all of the cases to be found in this volume, this one
seemed to be the best put together because not too much was obvious and I was
more misled by it than any of the other cases to be found in this volume.

In fact, I was actually led to believe that Jimmy really did
lose his memories, and it made me want to find out how he would regain them.

Fans of the detective, mystery, and crime fiction genres
want to see all of these in the works that belong in this genre, and Gosho
Aoyama really pulled out all of the stops here.

If he was not able to do this much, I would have been much
more disappointed than I am, because things would have started to appear going
downhill again in this series, enough so that I would probably have to consider
dropping this series again, even though I know Japan and a few other countries are
going to find out who Black Org's second in command is in the near future.

Fortunately, he remembered how to make a good case, so I can
at least breathe a sigh of relief.

Outside of those things, I cannot think of anything else
that I particularly liked, especially since I cannot really say much about the
case that starts up at the end of this volume.

Because the case from the previous volume was concluded,
which helped captured my attention quickly, there were things to laugh about,
and at least one case delivered what I wanted, this was a fairly decent volume.

Although there were things that I liked, there are some
issues.

However, aside from things that are too minor to talk about,
there was only one thing that bothered me.

Most of the cases were dull.

Now, having followed the series for quite a while, I do not
expect things to be as interesting as they have been in the other volumes
released here recently, but that does not mean that I, or anybody that is a fan
of the series, is willing to live with a volume that just cannot keep me
interested.

If I had to say why, there are two reasons, and not all of
them are under the control of Gosho Aoyama.

First, my interest waned in the case that got resolved
towards the beginning.

Yes, it is hard to capture everyone's attention, especially
when you are trying to appeal to fans of the detective, mystery, and crime
fiction genres, and we, as humans, do tend to lose interest in things we used
to like, but that is not why the case felt so boring.

The real reason is because of Viz Media's pathetic
scheduling of only releasing 3-4 volumes every year, when there have been more
than 90 volumes in Japan, and this particular case was one those that seems
like it would be interesting if one were to read this volume immediately after
the previous one, much like how A
Certain Scientific Railgun S episode 3
was not as interesting as it could
have been since I had to wait a week.

Viz Media may have a tom series to deal with, but they need
to realize that these quarterly releases just do not always work, and, until
something happens that makes them decide to release volumes quicker, this kind
of problem will keep rearing its ugly head from time to time.

Honestly, Viz, do you guys have anybody reading these
chapters before publication to tell you when you need to release more than one
volume? If not, you really should because this is going to put a black mark on
a series that I enjoy, and no fan of the series wants to see this happen.

Please get your together before it is too late.

The other thing that made many of the cases dull was that
they felt rather obvious, when they should not have been.

Having read works in the detective, mystery, and crime
fiction genres, after being introduced to them by this series, I have come to
expect cases where I cannot immediately look at an individual and say that they
are the culprit, especially because Agatha Christie utilized red herrings in A
Pocket Full of Rye
so well that it ended up illustrating why actions and
behaviors cannot be trusted.

However, in these chapters, while I did not know how things
actually occurred, the culprit was as easy to figure out as it is in the shows
featured on Investigation Discovery, in that the most suspicious suspect ended
up being the culprit.

None of the cases presented here were ones in which the culprit
was obvious but the way they did was not, yet I spent most of my time waiting
for Jimmy and the gang to prove their guilt.

Really, Gosho? Is this any way to write a mystery series?

While fans of detective, mystery, and crime fiction may
enjoy piece things together before the detective, they do not want cases like
these because it gives them less incentive to continue on with the series of
books featuring those detectives.

As I have brought up before, Gosho Aoyama has been writing
this series for almost a decade and a half or more, and he should understand
this much, but, with the exception of the last two cases, only one of which can
be properly judge, he failed to deliver on what he was expected to deliver, and
it makes me really disappointed.

If things keep up like this, I am not too sure that anybody
in their right mind would want to continue on with the series, and I would hurt
myself for making the mistake of picking this series back up around the time I
found out Viz released the volume featuring the confrontation with Vermouth.

Of course, I am not going to be in a mad rush to drop this
series because of all the interesting things that are yet to come, but that
does not mean that I can, in good conscience, recommend people read a title
when it does not deliver what is expected, just like I would not recommend John
Grisham's The
Whistler
to those that want a good thriller, and that is what disappoints
me the most here.

Fortunately, there was nothing else that ruin this book any
further, which makes me glad that I do not have to be any more irritated with a
series that I actually enjoy.

While there was only one thing wrong with the book, that
issue was a major one for the kind of work this is that it hurt the quality of
the release quite badly.

Despite the fact that there were things to like, the
negatives outweighed them enough to make this only good enough to kill time.

I recommend this mainly to fans of Detective Conan,
as they will enjoy this the most, though the case with Jimmy being the prime
suspect will probably be the only interesting case.

As for everyone else, including fans of detective, mystery,
and crime fiction, I only recommend checking out the case where Jimmy gets his
body back, and possibly the beginning the new case, and skipping the rest, as
that case is the only one that would serve as a good introduction to the series
and the detective, mystery, and crime fiction genres in general.

If you liked this review and would like to see more, please
considering supporting me on Patreon
by pledging whatever you can, so that I can continue following the series that
we all enjoy.

Also, I currently set out two goal markers for the Detective
Conan
community and my Patreon page, which are as follows:

  1. 5 or more patrons
    I will cover of volumes 1-26 (there are
    cases not covered in the first 123 episodes of the anime, and things are not
    entirely same as what people have seen).
  2. 10 or more patrons
    I will consider covering the
    latest episodes of the anime that appear on Crunchyroll, even though I prefer
    judging cases as a whole.

Copyright © 2017 Bryce Campbell. All Rights Reserved.