Bryce's Blog

I hope everyone has been doing well, even if you have been having to
put up with a heat wave.

Things have still
been a bit stressful here, but things are still going fairly well, as
I can still do as I like.

A while back, I was
able to place an order for three of the four installments expected to
come out this year of a series I follow, and the second of those
three finally arrived, which means it is time to get off my butt.

Today, I will be
reviewing that title, which is called Case
Closed Volume 91 by Gosho Aoyama.

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

After having
discovered the truth behind the incidents involving the legendary
Nue, Jimmy is thrust into even more cases, such as a code left with a
corpse that has been at his school for a decade and Kaito Kuroba
being asked to help deal with another puzzle under the guise of a
challenge to steal.

However, Jimmy must
contend with two new strange curosities during the cases he
encounters. The first being that he suspects he might have met Sera
before, with the second being a new teacher that suddenly transferred
into Jimmy’s school.

While the previous
volume was such a good read, there were issues to be found that
suggested quality checks might not have been done properly, so I now
have to be on guard for more than just issues with the chapters.

After reading this
volume, I have to say that I kind of liked it, but not quite as much
as other volumes.

From the moment I
opened up this book and started reading, I found myself engrossed
enough that I did not want to stop reading for any reason, though I
did have to to take care things around my place.

As I have said a
countless number times, probably to the point where it has lost
meaning by now, one of the most important aspects in a work of
fiction is how things begin, as the beginning is supposed to help
transport the audience to a different world, thereby giving them the
temporary escape that they desire.

While in this can be
accomplished in a variety of ways, depending on the genre and the
medium used to present the work, Detective Conan, like many
other manga, were originally published in serial publications, which
means that each installment needs to start in a way that makes sense
based upon how the previous installment ended.

In the previous
volume, after dealing with a few cases connected to Black Org in some
way, Harley shows up to drag Jimmy and Rachel out to hunt for
treasure in an area that also had reports of a Nue sighting and the
gang actually witnesses it happening before them, with the final
panels featuring the discovery of a corpse.

In this volume, the
group is seen reporting that one of the guests has been found dead,
which then starts the investigation phase of the case, which helped
to ease me back to the series, even if the end of the previous volume
is a little cliché at this point.

Even though I am
still quite tired of seeing cases get carried over into the next
volume, as I have expressed on numerous occasions, I feel like this
is one of the better instances where it happens because the case had
just barely started, which means that I have some time to enjoy the
case that is taking place and possibly having some fun.

If the previous
volume had ended when Jimmy and Harley had this figured out, as has
been the usual as of late, I would have not been all that happy
because it would suggest that Shogakukan or whoever they had compile
this volume together did not have any better way to end things,
thereby making it harder to dive into this volume.

Fortunately, Gosho
Aoyama and Shogakukan, or whoever they had put this volume together,
chose things in a decent enough way to help start this volume off on
a somewhat good note, though I really wish there would be another
volume that started off with new cases, so that I could recommend it
to newcomers.

I also liked how the
new teacher was introduced.

One of the strangest
things about this series is how almost nobody bats an eye about so
many transfer students or new teachers, as these new additions are
happening within the school year and end up being extremely random.

Yes, they are not
completely random to us, the reader, as they coincide with big
events, such as Eisuke showing up not long after Rena was
hospitalized looking for his sister, but it still ends up being
weird, especially when the kids point out that Jimmy transferred in
during the school year.

With this volume, we
are in the Rum arc and there has been a lot stuff raised concerning
his identity over the course of the arc, including the fact that
their gender is unknown but they have an issue with one of their
eyes, and Black Org has also been concerned over a case that is
nearly two decades old.

Not only has the
case from nearly two decades ago been brought up multiple times, but
also the fact that Bourbon, otherwise known as Amuro, and Vermouth
were brought in with cases that were similar and had details that
Black Org connected it to and Rum is said to be on the move suggests
something will happen.

Here, Rumi Wakasa
just so happens to show up in class and is introduced as a new
assistant homeroom teacher and both Jimmy and Haibara talk about the
weirdness.

Even though people
like me already know who Rum is, as would those watching the episodes
on Crunchyroll, the way she was introduced and the timing of her
appearances makes me want to forget what I know and start to suspect
her of being Rum, just like I’m sure many people reading these
chapters for the first time will start to wonder.

This is a great way
to introduce a candidate of people that could be the number two of
Black Org, and I am glad things took this route, so that fans of the
series can start arguing about whether or not she is Rum, thereby
creating more incentive to continue on with the series.

If Rumi were
introduced in different circumstances, I would have been
disappointed, as she would have came off as a one note character, as
is typical for the people involved in the more minor cases in
Detective Conan, thereby not tying things back to the main
plot.

Thankfully, Gosho
Aoyama kept her mysterious, with some hints that Rumi’s clumsiness
may actually be part of her cover, which makes me feel like giving
him some applause.

Hopefully, more
stuff like this happens when it gets closer to revealing who the boss
of Black Org is beyond the name the Japanese readers know, as that
will help keep interesting, but considering that so much has been
revealed about the boss in the Japanese release, I would not be
surprised if he just got outed at the same time as Rum, thereby
making the Rum arc the final arc.

The thing that I
liked the most though was how Viz seemed to do a better job with the
extra content to be found.

In the previous
volume, there was an obvious double page thing outlining stuff
already revealed in the arc so far, such as Scotch being an
undercorver agent who Akai was trying to save, and questions that the
reader should be having at that moment in time.

However, in the
version Viz released, it seemed to be broken up in a way that did not
make sense, which suggested some poor formatting was done.

In this volume,
there is something on Harley, Kazuha, and a newly introduced
character and the pages are presented together, which makes me
believe that Viz had done a better job of keeping things together
without interruption, though I cannot say it was laid out well enough
without having the printed the print edition, seeing as it can be
hard to determine how things come out without actually printing the
stuff, which I learned firsthand from the time I still wrote books of
own and formatted myself.

If Viz had made a
blunder as big as the one seen in the previous volume, I would have
considered cancelling my preorder of the final volume I expect them
to release this year, as it would show that they did not care about
putting out a quality product.

Fortunately, that
did not happen, so I can instead praise them for a job well done.

Hopefully, Viz
continues to keep this up in future volumes, as it will help readers
like me know that the series is in good hands, but I would not be
surprised if they slip up again.

Outside of those
things, I cannot think of anything else that I particularly liked, at
least any that stood out as much as what I did mention.

Because this volume
started off in a decent enough way, Rumi Wakasa’s introduction does
a good job of making her suspicious, and Viz seems to have improved
in their outpt, this was a decent read.

Although I liked the
book, there were some problems.

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

The way this volume
ended was absolutely horrible.

Now, many of you
guys might be saying that I have put up with the way this volume
ended for quite a long time, with the final case practically being
over, but the final case itself has a huge problem that makes things
even worse.

One of the biggest
problems with the cases in Detective Conan is that it usually
is not hard to figure out the murderer because we see some
interaction between the would be victim and the people that will end
up on the suspect list and, in many cases, the person that ends up
being victim is killed by the person that the viewer or reader can
clearly see who got the most agitated, which is why I note that
things are not too obvious unless one pays attention.

While this case does
present some mystery for most of the time it goes on, when I check on
the details I have access to regarding the Japanese releases, this
case is one of those where the killer is so obvious from the
interactions that take place before the murder.

Because of this
fact, I’m not only irritated by the way this volume ended because
it is so obvious that it has only one chapter left, but that the
killer was obvious in a case in which the audience is supposed to be
figuring out both who killed the victim and how and I’m being made
to wait just have that confirmed.

This is why ending
volumes when a case is practically over, instead of ending a volume
with the conclusion, can come back to bite you because fans of
detective, mystery, and crime fiction get their enjoyment out of
wanting to know if they or right or wrong, not having to wait for
confirmation that they are right.

If one must end a
volume just before a case concludes, it is best done when there is a
trap to set in motion, as there is something to look forward to other
than the reveal.

As there is no trap
to be laid and this case will end with the revelation of the culprit,
I would have made this volume contain 12 chapters instead of 11,
which would then given this volume a way better segue into the events
to come.

Unfortunately,
Shogakukam, or whoever they had compile this volume, and Gosho Aoyama
decided to end things off by making the reader want to know the
answer, with the assumption that the reader has not yet picked up on
the biggest issue with the cases in this series, which makes me want
to say that they should feel ashamed for ending a volume like this.

Hopefully, future
volumes will be able to end better than how they ended here, but
considering how hard it can be to determine where each volume should
end and begin, I will not be surprised if things get worse.

Thankfully, that was
the only really big thing that bothered me with this volume, so
Shogakukan and Gosho Aoyama can walk away knowing that they did not
completely and utterly fail.

While there was only
one thing to complain about, the issue, it was big enough to hurt my
enjoyment quite a bit.

Despite the fact
that the good things to be found in this volume were enjoyable, the
ending was dissatisfying enough that this was only good enough to
kill time.

I mainly recommend
this to fans Detective Conan, as they will like this the most.

As for everyone
else, I recommend looking at the previous volumes instead, especially
because the final case of this volume is already bad enough with what
can be found within.

If you liked this
review and would like to see more, please consider supporting me on
either Patreon
or SubscribeStar,
so that I can continue following Detective Conan and possibly find
more worthwhile reads for you guys to check out.