Book Review: Case Closed Volume 87
I hope everyone is doing well, even if you are dealing with
temperature extremes at the moment.
Except for one or
two relatively recent moment that worsened some frustrations I have,
things are still good here, as I can still do what I like.
Earlier in the year,
I went through Amazon’s catalog looking for the titles I typically
follow and I noticed that I could preorder two installments out of
the four that one could expect for the series in a year.
While I have already
covered one of them in a review
from April, the other has recently arrived, which means it is time to
get my butt in gear.
Today, I will be
reviewing that title, which is called Case
Closed Volume 87 by Gosho Aoyama.
As I have given a
series synopsis in an earlier
post, I will not go over it again.
After capturing a
killer going after cops, Jimmy is still seeing a lot of cases come
his way, especially one where Haibara encounters a person who is
familiar with Jimmy and his current tactics involved in solving
cases.
However, he does get
some rest when he and Rachel take a trip down memory lane to the day
they first met and inspired Jimmy to walk the path he does now.
While the previous
volume was good, I cannot really let myself be blind to any possible
issues, which should be a little easier this time.
After reading this
volume, I have to say that I liked it, but not as much as I would
have liked.
From the moment I
opened up this book and started reading the first few pages, I was
engrossed enough that I did not want to stop reading for any reason.
As I have said a
countless number of times, one of the most important things in a work
of fiction is how things begin, as the beginning is supposed to take
the audience to another world, thereby giving them the temporary
escape that they desire.
Even though this can
be accomplished in a variety of ways, depending on the genre and the
medium used to present it, Detective Conan, like many other
manga, is published in a serial publication, which means that things
must start off in a way that makes sense based upon where the
previous installment ended.
In the previous
volume, Jimmy got wrapped up in a case involving a serial cop killer,
where Yamamoto was made to look very suspicious, and the final panels
featured the supposed death of yet another cop, which made things
feel like they were exciting and that the case was only just
beginning.
In this volume, the
first chapter picks up right from there, showing a decapitated
corpse, which helps me remember what had occurred in the previous
volume, getting me excited to see the conclusion of a case that had a
very good start.
If the first chapter
of the volume had not started like this, I would have been alright
with it, as it was not the only way things could have started, but I
doubt that my excitement would have been grabbed quite as quickly.
Thankfully,
Shogakukan, or whoever they had put this volume together decided to
start this volume off well, as it shows a good level of compotence in
putting a product together, though Gosho Aoyama also deserves some
credit for starting off the irst chapter in the best way possible.
Hopefully, future
volumes will start off just as well as this one did, as that will
help fans of the series want to come back for more and possibly
attract new fans too.
I also liked how we
got to see to how Jimmy and Rachel met.
While I do not
really think it is necessary, since many of us knew that Jimmy and
Rachel were childhood friends from the beginning, back when the cases
were all top notch, regardless of whether the cases revolved around
the mystery of who committed a crime and how or if only the how was a
mystery, it felt nice to take this trip down memory lane, as it gave
Jimmy a break and it even showed him being less directly involved in
solving a case.
If we had not been
given this temporary respite, I don’t think I would have really
been able to enjoy myself too much, as this volume would have felt
like it was nothing to write home about, thereby making it feel like
this series went into decline even earlier than I thought.
Fortunately, Gosho
Aoyama decided write this and gave this volume one of its more
memorable cases, which makes me feel like giving him a passing grade.
Hopefully, things
like this will keep being present in this series, especially when
Rum’s real identity is revealed, seeing as it has only been
revealed who he is by showing him turning into a character that has
been introduced in the Japanese releases, but I would not be
surprised if the brief moments of rest do not crop up again, due to
how close to the end the series seems to be.
The thing that I
liked the most though was how this volume ended.
Aside from how
things begin, another very important aspect in a work of fiction is
how things end, as the ending is supposed to either make the audience
want to either be given an incentive to continue, if it is an
installment in a series, or a satisfying end, if it is a stadalone
work or the final installment in a series.
Even though I do not
really like the ending of the volume itself exactly, due to it being
an overdone type of ending, I liked how it makes me happy that I had
already preordered the next volume, which is supposed to come out in
October, according to the product
listing on Amazon, because I want to see what the trick was that
Jimmy figured out.
If things had not
ended here, there is a chance that I would have enjoyed the ending
more, but there is also chance that it could have been bad enough
that I could not mark it down as a good trait of the volume in spite
of being very tired of endings like it.
Thankfully,
Shogakukan, or whoever they had put this volume together, decided to
give this volume an ending that is passable at best.
Hopefully, future
volumes will end better than this one did, seeing as barely passable
leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but I would no be surprised if I
encounter worse before the series concludes.
Outside of those
things I cannot think of anything else that I particularly liked, at
least that stood out as what I have already mentioned.
Because the
beginning was great, Jimmy got a small reprieve by taking a trip down
memory lane, and the ending did its job, even if I don’t
particularly like it, this was an okay read.
Although there were
things that I liked, there are some issues.
However, aside from
things that are too minor to talk about, only one thing really
annoyed me, which were how around half or so of the cases felt
largely forgettable.
While I was
expecting Detective Conan to go through a downward trend, in
terms of quality, I was not expecting to encounter a volume with so
much content in it that I knew I read before but can hardly remember,
regardless of whether they are good or bad.
As the series has
progressed, it has become more and more about the cases and the
mysteries in them, though the comedic moments and the usual anime and
manga stuff is still present, which is why I recommend this series to
fans of detective, mystery, and crime fiction.
One of things that
fans of those genres crave is a good mystery to sink their teeth
into, and if they find a great one, they will want to go back and
reread it as much as they can because they enjoyed it so much and
possibly pick up on the things that they missed while reading it the
first time around.
For them, a case
that feels forgettable is likely going to be just as bad as a
terrible case that was too easy to figure out because they do not
feel like they had any fun or gotten what they expected.
Seriously, Gosho?!
What is going on here? This is not how a series that has gained
worldwide acclaim is supposed to be, especially one in which the
cases are supposed to be the main draw.
Yes, Gosho is
getting old, especially because he notes that it took him 30 years
before he wrote the case where Jimmy and Rachel met from when he
originally got the idea, but with how long this series has been
going, I would not expect to only remember one or two cases.
This not what I want
to see before the Viz translations hit volume 100, but here it is a
volume whose cases I cannot really remember that well, even after
having read through them.
Hopefully, the
future cases are more memorable than the ones found in this volume,
because I and other fans want to remember more than just the early
cases and those involving Black Org and Kid, but considering how many
chapters are currently out in Japan, I would not be surprised if
there are more volumes to come that suffer from this issue.
Thankfully, that was
the only thing that really bothered me, so Shogakukan, Gosho Aoyama,
and Viz can walk away knowing that they did not completely and
utterly fail.
While there was only
issue to be found, the fact that would likely bother some people
because of some content that is forgettable hurts the book quite a
bit.
Despite the fact
that there were things to like, the number of forgettable cases to be
found made it only good enough to kill time.
I mainly recommend
this to fans of Detective Conan, as they will like this the
most.
As for everyone
else, I recommend to you check out a different installment if you
really want to give this series a try, as I don’t think this will
give an impression that is all that great beyond the case that starts
this volume off.
If you liked this
review and would like to see more, please consider supporting me on
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or SubscribeStar,
so that I can continue following this series and maybe find other
worthwhile reads for you guys to checkout.