Bryce's Blog

I hope everyone is doing well, even if you find your self having to
deal with blistering heat.

Aside from things
getting kind of busy for me lately, things have been going pretty
well here.

Back in April, while
typing up the review for the previous
volume, I noticed that, once again the next installment was
available for preorder and made sure to place an order, but, due to
unforeseen circumstances, it got pushed back to this month, when I
finally got my copy.

Today, I will be
reviewing the latest Detective Conan release to hit where I
live, which is Case
Closed Volume 83 by Gosho Aoyama.

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

Things sill keep
chugging along for Jimmy and the gang as usual, as Jimmy finds
himself in the middle of a murder investigation that initially
started off as an investigation into strange things that keep
happening, and Jimmy is determine to find the answer.

However, during one
of the investigations, Jimmy encounters a mysterious girl spying on
him and knows who he is and he cannot seem to get a grasp on who she
is because she has a resemblance to somebody else he already knows.

While the previous
installment was a great volume, with the exception of two annoyances
that seem to be in more of Viz Media’s jurisdiction, I still have
to keep myself on my toes.

And after reading, I
have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed it.

From the moment I
opened up this book and started reading it, I did not want to put it
down for any reason.

As I have said many
times before, one of the most important things in a work of fiction
is how things begin because the beginning is supposed to draw in the
audience, so that they can get that temporary escape that they
desire.

While there many
ways to draw in the reader, depending on the genre and the medium
used to present a work, Detective Conan, much like other
manga, is published in a serial publication, which means that it has
to start off in a way that make sense based upon how the last
installment ended.

When we take a look
at the previous volume, we see that it ends with the beginning of the
red lady, which was the first case of the anime that streamed on
Crunchyroll, and makes me look forward to see how this case would
play out, even though I do remember the trick.

If things had not
started off here, I would have been very disappointed because the
tease created by an ending where a body is discovered gets the blood
flowing in fans of detective, mystery, and crime fiction,
anticipating what information can be gleamed, in order to find the
culprit and/or discover the, and starting off the first chapter of
this volume in any other way would tarnish what is perhaps the best
manga of its kind, seeing as the criticism towards does tend to
reflect on how great the early portion of the series is.

Fortunately, Gosho
Aoyama remembered that the investigation phase is very important in
series like this, which helped to capture my attention with this
volume, though it probably helps that I do not remember this case too
well prior to the release of this volume.

I also liked how Viz
did a great job in the quality department in this volume at multiple
levels.

Even though there
are things that are still a bit bothersome to be found, such as
Sera’s unknown brother being called Sera and the usage of kanji,
rather than romaji for clues, though they do kind of translate the
clues, there was one thing that set off my alarms bell in the
previous volume, which was how a single panel was practically
unreadable for me.

Here, in this
volume, I was able to read everything without any stumbling block,
aside from not even being able to read kanji and having guess to how
it was supposed to be read or represent based on what Viz provided,
since I do know some Japanese, and that shows that Viz Media
put in a good amount of attention regarding its quality and makes me
a little more understanding of why this release may have been pushed
back from a July release.

If Viz had not done
anything here, I would have been alright with it, especially because
they have not done anything as bad as either Yen Press or Seven Seas
Entertainment’s releases, though the latter mainly has issues
regarding digital releases, seeing as the things that give me issues
with them are things that likely are not problems in the print
editions, but it would still likely cause suspicions in a lack of
quality control.

Thankfully, Viz
showed they could do a pretty decent job here and makes me hopeful
that they will improve more with time.

Another thing that I
liked was the comedic moments.

While there is
nothing that really stands out to me, since the comedy mainly
involves stuff that is par for the course, I really liked how there
were moments that made me chuckle, in order to keep things from
becoming too serious and reminding me that these character are
people, at least in their universe.

If Gosho Aoyama had
cut out any of the little moments that could make fans of the series
chuckle, I would have been a little disappointed, as that would
probably mean that Gosho broke his characters or forgot who they were
and why people enjoy seeing them, as well as keeping this series
consistent.

Fortunately, Gosho
Aoyama remembered that the funny moments of this series contributes
to its charm, which makes me feel like giving him a good round of
applause.

Hopefully, the
series maintains this charm right up until the end, which I suspect
is approaching quickly, with how often the figure that I want to say
is the boss of Black Org is appearing is the Japanese releases, but I
would not be surprised if things get more serious when we finally get
answers regarding Black Org and everything is revealed.

The thing that I
liked the most though was the extra content included in this volume.

Like back in volume
49, there was a special thing that only subscribers of Weekly
Shonen Sunday, the magazine where Detective Conan is
serialized, got to commerate the manga’s 20^th
anniversary, and, unlike the last booklet, which was mostly a summary
of things, like timelines and that, this felt like a real treat
because I learned of things I had not known before, despite following
this series closely, like Haibara was supposed to be to introduced
much earlier in the manga than she was, Kaito Kuroba was pulled into
the series to be Jimmy’s main rival instead of creating a new
character, and Harley was created to be a rival to Jimmy because
Haibara was introduced later than planned and Jimmy needed a rival in
the anime.

Of course, there
were also things that made me scratch my head, due to recent
developments in the series, such as Gin, Voda, Chianti, Korn, and
Vermouth being equals, but considering this originally came out in
2013, I can see this being an exciting reveal to the fans in Japan
and serves as a nice things to see concerning early plans for the
series.

If this was not
included with this volume, I would have been alright with it, as the
flashback case that starts up at the end of this volume did have me
on the edge of my seat, which means the ending did what it was
supposed to do.

However, because it
was included in this volume, Detective Conan fans reading
through the cases presented in this volume for the first time and
those that are, like me, rereading these cases at the time of release
both get something that can be quite fascinating, just to see where
things changed as the series went on and some other insights
regarding the series, making it deserving of the spotlight.

Hopefully, the Viz
releases get more goodies like this as the series goes on, as these
extras make getting the Viz releases worth acquiring, since not all
Detective Conan fans are going to understand Japanese to the
point where importing the volumes straight from Japan is viable.

Outside of those
things, I cannot think of anything else that I particularly liked, at
least that could stand out as much as what I just talked about.

Because the first
chapter started off like it should, Viz seem to show they were on top
of quality control, in spite of some things that they could do
better, and Viz also included another extra that was likely not
included in the Japanese release of this volume, this was a very
decent read.

Although I really
enjoyed this book, there are some issues.

However, aside from
things that are too minor to talk about, such as typos, and things I
already commented on, the only thing that kind of bothered me ended
up being something that I could write off, when I think about it.

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

Considering that
there was quite a bit to like, especially the inclusion of a booklet
meant to commemorate the 20^th anniversary of the manga,
this was definitely worth reading.

I recommend this to
fans of Detective Conan, though there will still be some
things for fans of detective, mystery, and crime fiction to enjoy.

As for everyone
else, this might be worthing giving a try, especially because this
volume does start out with the beginning of a case, but I think it
would be better to at least read the previous volume first, to be
able to really enjoy things.

If you liked this
review and would like to see more, please consider supporting me on
either Patreon
or SubscribeStar,
or if you would like to check out the reviewed title for yourself,
buy
a copy of Case Closed Volume 83 from Book Depository, who has helped me
complete the gap in my Detective Conan collection and offers free
shipping to many countries around world, so that I can continue
following a series many enjoy and possibly find other worth while
reads for you guys to check out.