Bryce's Blog

I hope everyone is doing well, even with the minor annoyances we all
have to put up with.

Things are going
fairly well here, with only some minor annoyances, and I can still do
what I like.

A while back, I was
checking on the titles I am currently following and was able to
finally place a preorder for one of them, which had recently arrived.

Today, I will be
reviewing that title, which is called Case
Closed Volume 80 by Gosho Aoyama.

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

When one case ends,
a few more up for show up for Jimmy to tackle, including one in which
he has to escape the eye of murderers.

However, there are
bigger questions in Jimmy’s mind, such why Sera seems so familiar
and why Bourbon is still lurking around, and he has to solve the
cases presented before he can receive answers.

While the previous
volume was okay, that does not mean things have gone completely
downhill, but it still allows me to try and be as fair as I can in my
judgments.

And after reading
this, I can say that I really enjoyed this volume.

From the moment I
opened up this book and started reading the first few pages, I found
myself engrossed enough that I did not to stop reading for any
reason.

As I have said a
countless number of times before, one of the most important things in
a work of fiction is how things begin, as the beginning is supposed
to draw the audience into a new world, thereby giving them the
temporary escape that they desire.

While this hook can
be created in a variety of different ways, depending on the genre and
medium used to present the work, Detective Conan, like many other manga, is
published in a serial publication, which means that things need to
start off in a way that makes sense, in comparison to where the last
installment left off.

In
the last volume, Jimmy and Harley got wrapped up in a case involving
some guy that was acting like a vampire and people started dying
right and left, with the final panels showing that both Jimmy and
Harley had figured out who the killer was and the tricks involved.

In
this volume, as to be expected by now, things pick up not long after
this, by showing what the family of the said vampire were doing,
before transitioning to the maid receiving a message from the master
and the butler distracts her, suggesting that something was about to
occur.

Even
though I am still a little annoyed the fact that this particular case
ended in just a single chapter, which has been the norm for some time
now, starting things off like this for the final chapter of the case
is one of the better ways to start things off because it does not
feel like my time had been wasted as much as the previous times when
all that happened was that Jimmy revealed his deduction and the
killer, and even helped me get hyped for the other cases to be
presented in this volume.

If Gosho Aoyama had written the first chapter in this volume in the same
disappointing way as many other case conclusions, where we have a
volume start with the revelation of who the criminal was and/or how
they committed a crime, I would have been majorly disappointed in
Shogakukan, or whoever they had compile this volume for them, because
it would have shown me that they certainly no longer know how to
start off a volume properly, as such beginnings make me think that
they need to reevaluate the decision to have no more than 11 chapters
in any volume.

Fortunately,
Gosho Aoyama started off the finale of the case that started this
volume in a way that is more satisfying that other times, so I
feeling like giving him a good round of applause for a job well done.

Hopefully,
future volumes will start out like this one did, as that would help
make these rather annoying beginnings more bearable, but considering
that the Viz releases are truly entering the point where the series
falls flat, I would not be surprised if volumes that start off with
the conclusion to cases go back to the kind that makes me wish they
just added it in to the previous volume.

I
also liked how the mystery surrounding Sera was starting to be
explored.

In
the cooking show murder case that happened in the this volume, Jimmy
suggests inviting Sera to be part of the audience for the filming
they were attending, so that he can ask her if they had met somewhere
before.

When
the case concludes and Rachel, Serena, Sera, and Jimmy talk about the
case, Jimmy finally asks Sera his question and she denies it with
“not sure”, while saying in her mind that she cannot confess the
truth to him just yet.

While
I do know how they met before, due to my knowledge of things yet to
come in the series, and it is already kind of obvious to most of the
audience by now that Sera and Jimmy did meet before, I am left
wondering how it all ties into the main conflict of bringing down the
Black Organization and if there is a connection to leader of Black
Org, which makes me want to see things through to the end.

However,
from my memories of reading the case the first time through, which
may or may not have been when the case was fresh in Japan, I remember
finding myself curious to know how Sera and Jimmy had met, since she,
like the audience, already knows that Conan is Jimmy, and reading
through these events again gives me those same kinds of feelings.

Sera
knowing that Conan was actually Jimmy from the beginning was the only
thing that really distinguished her debut from Harley’s, unless one
wants to count what FUNimation did when they dubbed the diplomat
murder case from volume 10 of the manga, and if things had
continued feeling like a rip off of Harley’s introduction in the
series, I would have been mahorly disappointed, as I would have found
a point even sooner when things start to turned out as bad as cases
that have already been posted on Crunchyroll, giving me reason to
give up on the series, even though Black Org’s number 2 has already
been revealed in the Japanese releases.

Thankfully, Gosho Aoyama remembered that Sera was introduced in this series as
somebody that already knew Jimmy’s secret, and that it makes me
look forward to seeing how this all connects back to Black Org gives
me even more reason to give Gosho Aoyama another good round of
applause.

Another thing that I liked was how there were things to chuckle about in this
volume.

Aside from the cases that crop up in this series, one of the things that I
find enjoyable about are the comedic moments, which can be downright
funny, though it has gotten stale at times too.

In this volume, there was one particular moment that stood out as
hilarous.

In the case of the supposed suicide in Shukichi’s, who makes his debut
in this volume, apartment, we see Sakurako, who was introduced in
volume
74, has become a housekeeper for the people living in the unit where the death occurred and
she laments that she ended up in another murder case, to which
Inspector Meguire tells her not to turn into a grim reaper like
Richard.

This has me chuckling because Jimmy has pretty much turned everyone he
meets into the stereotypical death magnet associated with detectives
in detective, mystery, and crime fiction, such as how Richard ends up
at the scene of crime almost everywhere he goes.

Then again, in my mind, I kind of the Meguire is jumping the gun a bit,
seeing as there is almost always somebody dying somewhere every
second, so it should not be too unusual for somebody to encounter
death wherever they go.

However, his remark was still hilarious enough to make me chuckle, due to how
conveniently a death seems to always occur in this series.

The thing that I liked the most though was how this volume ended.

Aside from how things begin, another important aspect in a work on fiction
is how things end, as the ending is supposed to either leave the
audience feeling satisfied, if the work is a standalone work or the
final installment in a series, or give the audience an incentive for
wanting to read more.

While Detective Conan has been leaving me a little unsatisfied in this department as of late,
due to how often volumes end when things are obviously over, it still
does a decent enough job in creating the incentive to read the next
installment, as the biggest moment of anticipation for
fans of detective, mystery, and crime fiction is to see if they were
right and managed to beat the detective to the punch.

However, unlike many of the preceding volumes of late, where there was only
one chapter remaining in the case, this volume ends with the
beginning of a new case.

In this case, when Jimmy asks the FBI to investigate Bourbon and why he
was still hanging around, as well as revealing that the Akai Jodie
saw during the bank heist in volume
65 was actually Bourbon,
they meet another person held hostage during that case and suddenly
have a run in with somebody screaming that there is a pickpocket in
the crowd.

Not long after, this person screaming that there was a pickpocket about
is found dead and Jimmy says that the person was a pickpocket and was
likely killed by a victim of their pickpocketing.

Even though this case does not really interest me too much, mainly due to
how the deceased was a pickpocket and I remember how Jimmy was able
to tell they were a pickpocket, which involves a rather obvious ploy,
I still found myself wanting to know who killed the pickpocket and
how, making me want to get the next volume as soon as I can, which
will be released in January 2022, according to the product
page on Amazon, though I was lucky enough to be able to place a
preorder for it as I type up this review.

If this volume ended with things being pretty much solved, as per usual,
I would have been rather disappointed, as this case was largely
forgettable, seeing as I only remember scar Akai’s true identity
being revealed and how Jimmy outed the pickpocket.

Fortunately, Shogakukan, or whoever they had compile this volume together, wisely
decided to have the volume end just as the case was just beginning,
making the volume end on a higher note than many other recent
releases from Viz Media, which makes me feel like giving them a good
round of applause for a job well done.

Hopefully, future volumes will be able to end just as well as this one did, as
that will help maintain the fanbase, but I would not be surprised if
things get worse from here.

Outside of those things, I cannot think of anything else that I particularly
liked, at least that I could not shoe horn into what I talked about.

Because the volume started off rather well, in spite of being the kind of
beginning that I have grown to despise seeing in Detective
Conan, the mystery surrounding
how Sera knew Conan is Jimmy started to see a bit of limelight, and
the volume ended with the beginning of a new case, rather than a case
that was all but over, this was a pretty decent read.

Although I liked the book, there are some issues.

However, aside from things that are too minor to talk about, such as typos,
and one thing that kind of irked me, until I remembered that Viz had
issues with keeping clue in Japanese, even though they mainly
distribute volumes to countries that predominately speak, read, and
write English, nothing seemed to bother me too much.

As a result, I will have to say that there is nothing worth mentioning.

Considering that there was quite a bit to like and nothing to really hate, unless
one feels like getting on Viz Media’s case for doing something they
should be doing to begin with, this was definitely worth reading.

I mainly recommend this to fans of Detective Conan,
as they will be able to enjoy this the most.

As for everyone else, this might be worth giving a try, but seeing as
this volume starts with the conclusion of a case in the previous
volume, it might be better to read the earlier volumes first.

If you liked this review and would like to see more, please consider
supporting me on either Patreon or SubscribeStar,
or if you’d like to check out the review title for yourself, buy
a copy of Case Closed Volume 80 from Book Depository, who has helped me complete my Detective
Conan collection and offers free shipping to many countries around the world, so I can continue
following this series and possibly find more worthwhile reads for you guys to check out.