Bryce's Blog

I hope everyone has been doing well, regardless of if you are
suffering through extreme heat or extreme cold.

Aside from a rather
frustrating moment that occurred recently, things have been going
pretty well here, especially because I launched a new website
for a program I wrote for myself, and I can still do what I like.

A while back, I
managed to secure a copy of the latest installment of a series I
follow, and that title had recently arrived, which means that it is
time to get off my butt and take care of it.

Today. I will be
reviewing that title, which is called Case
Closed Volume 99 by Gosho Aoyama.

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

While attending a
birthday party for a classmate’s sister, Jimmy, Rachel, Serena, and
Sera have found themselves wrapped up in yet another murder case with
many weird coincidences.

However, in the
midst of all the other cases Jimmy must deal with, including the
discovery of a corpse at a farm and one that has Richard feeling
embarrassed, multiple parties start showing interest in an item
relevant to a case from nearly two decades ago, and if Jimmy is not
careful, he might blow his cover.

While the previous
volume was quite enjoyable, I cannot let things get to my head
and write things off, so I have to keep focused on what is in front
of me.

And I have to say
that I liked it a lot, though not as much as I would have wanted.

From the moment I
opened up this volume and started reading it, I found myself
engrossed in it enough that I didn’t want to stop for any reason.

As I have said
multiple times, probably to the point where you all, as well as
myself, probably feel like puking, one of the most important aspects
of a work of fiction is how things begin, as the beginning is
supposed to transport the audience to a new world and giving them the
temporary escape that they desire.

While there are
quite a few ways to do this, depending on the genre and the medium
used to present the work, Detective Conan, like most other
manga, was originally published as part of a serial publication,
which means that things need to pick up in a way that makes sense
based upon where the last installment left off.

In the last volume,
Jimmy, Rachel, Sera, and Serena go to a birthday party that a
classmate invited them to, with sera acting suspicious, and things
are mostly peaceful until somebody dies during a presentation, with
the final panel showing the deceased and the words “divine
punishment” on their forehead.

Even though I’m
not exactly thrilled with these kinds of endings, as it is becoming
the new normal after the biggest issue I have been having with these
volumes seemed to have finally gone away, this does still create
quite a few ways in which things can be picked up, as well as allows
this volume to kind of start towards the beginning of a case.

This volume picks up
from there, with Jimmy and Sera inspecting the corpse and telling the
crowd to contact the police, thus beginning the investigation phase
of the case.

While I am kind of
annoyed with this kind of opening, mostly due to them being the new
normal, which makes it a little hard to recommend this volume to
newcomers, I can at least put up with it, as I don’t need to rely
on the flawed human memory to remember exactly what has happened, so
that I can finally find out who the culprit is and get that anxiety
that fans of detective, mystery, and crime fiction expect to have
during the revelation or answer phase of what has been presented.

After all, my
interest is being held by the fact that the body has only recently
been discovered.

If this volume had
started off with the final chapter of the case, I think I would have
been very angry because I would have to start complaining again about
the dead horse that Gosho Aoyama and Shogakukan, or whoever they had
compile this volume for them, seemed to have finally moved on from.

Thankfully, this
volume started off towards the beginning of a new case, so I can at
least give them a passing grade.

Hopefully, future
volumes will be able to maitain this trend, as that will help make
things easier to attract newcomers, though what I really want
is have volume actually start with new cases, like how things
were earlier in the series.

I also liked how we
learned about a connection between Haibara and Sera.

Back in volume
89, Jimmy was wondering about the girl he saw in a photo seeming
to be somebody familiar, and he connects some dots after he sees
Haibara, who was trying on makeup with Amy.

This kind of created
a question of how Haibara was connected to this girl that I thought
was going to be a question for quite a long time.

However, in this
volume, after Mary asks Sera if she had secured the antidote to APTX
4869 that they suspect Jimmy to have, we are taken to a flashback of
the day Mary shrank like Jimmy and Haibara.

Not only do we
discover that the only character capable of competing with Kaito
Kuroba in their ability to disguise themselves was involved in Mary’s
incident, but we also hear her ask Mary how the poison her sister
developed tasted.

Now, we obviously
know that Mary was not able to respond, as did Vermouth, but this,
combined with what we already know of the history of APTX 4869, means
that Mary is Haibara’s aunt.

This both shocks me
and makes wonder how things will progress from here, especially when
it comes time for the final confrontation with Black Org, now that
Jimmy knows the identity Rum had assumed in the Japanese release, as
well as the name of the boss of Black Org.

If this, along with
other revelations, had not cropped up, I think I would have been
fine, as there was still quite a bit to like.

However, because of
this revelation alone, I wish that these English releases had caught
up with the Japanese releases already, as I want to see where this
goes.

Hopefully, future
volumes will offer more surprises as we get eve closer to the end,
but considering that we still do not know much about what Black Org
is up to and Gosho is more focused on delivering cases, I am not sure
when we will get more like this.

The thing that I
liked the most though was how good the cases were.

Other than the fact
that many volumes, until recently, ended when nearly all of the cases
presented had concluded, one of the things I have been finding
disheartening as of late has been the quality of the cases.

In the beginning of
the series, the cases were fun and engaging, like what many fans of
the detective, mystery, and crime fiction genres demand to have,
after the confrontation with Vermouth in the volume that had brought
me back into the fold, there seemed to be less and less of that,
especially now, where much of the intrigue comes from wondering when
the next confrontation with the Black Org would be.

Here, however, while
I cannot say that the series has returned to form, in that we are
cases left and right where everything is done right, I did find
myself invested in each case presented enough that I felt like I
wanted to figure out the puzzles before Jimmy and the gang.

This is the very
minimum I expect, and after such a long wait, Gosho Aoyama has
finally delivered on what has seemingly been forgotten.

If the cases had be
boring here, I think that I would have felt like dropping this series
again after the last volume I expect to be released here this year.

Thankfully, that did
not happen, and Gosho Aoyama and everyone working with him managed to
earn a passing grade.

Hopefully, future
cases will improve from here, so that the early cases are not the
only ones remembered fondly when the series ends, but because Gosho
Aoyama and everyone else working on this series is only human, I
would not be surprised if this is just following the dead cat
bouncing pattern.

Outside of those
things, I cannot think of anything else that I particularly liked, at
least that could stand out as much as what has been mentioned did.

Because things
started off quite well, though I am already starting to grow weary of
the new normal, there were some interesting revelations, and the
cases were all enjoyable, this was a pretty good read.

Although I liked the
volume, there are some issues.

However, aside from
things that are too minor to talk about, such as typos, and stuff
that can be inferred from what I have already said, only one thing
really annoyed me.

That thing was how
this volume ended.

Now, you guys might
be saying that I have already made my disgust of the recent pattern
of ending cases just as they begun clear and it makes no sense for me
to talk about it now, especially because I did say that it is not as
bad as ending things when only one chapter remains in the case, but
this is one of those times where I cannot just simply wave things off
with a passing grade.

While I was reading
through this volume and enjoying my time with it, I was given the
impression that I was going to be given what I have been asking for
all this time and finally see a volume where all the cases presented
are concluded, with questions swirling around why the sushi guy asked
Jimmy what did, forgetting that this volume contains 11 chapters,
which is made clear in the table of contents.

Instead, the volume
ends of with a case that has practically been solved by both Jimmy
and his father, with the only problem being getting everything in
order, especially because he must once again have Kaito Kuroba help
him.

This kind of ending
really grinds my gears because not only do I, or even the rest of the
auduence, get any fun out of this, as we know that the case concluded
before it has begun, but we also need to wait for the next volume to
get any details, so that we can even have a remote chance of
competing with Jimmy and the gang, should I or anyone else desire.

Yes, I know ending
volume like this can be difficult, but this is not the way.

In fact, this is the
reason why the people putting these volumes together shouldn’t be
determining things by page count or chapter count, the latter of
which is how I suspect Detective Conan releases are done, but
by what feels like a good and natural end, at least in the
appropriate moments.

By continuing to say
that a volume must be x pages long or have no more or less than y
chapters, there is no flexibility in choosing a good place to stop
and end things, thereby ruining whatever interest in the next
installment the audience should have.

If things had ended
with the end of the previous chapter, resulting in the next volume
starting with what ended up being the final chapter of this volume, I
would have been way more satisfied with things.

Sadly, I instead
feel like demanding Shogakukan to give us better than this, because
what I get here makes this volume a complete and utter disgrace in an
area of a work of fiction that determines whether people come back
for more or are left feeling satisfied.

Hopefully,
Shogakukan can learn from experience, especially because these
English releases are close enough that I was surprised to see the
image below, but I would not be surprised if more blunders crop up.

Thankfully, that was
all that I had problems with, so Shogakukan and Gosho Aoyama, as well
as Viz Media, can at least walk away knowing that they did not
disappoint me even further.

While there was only
one thing to complain about, it was big enough that it made an
otherwise great volume into something the makers should be ashamed of
producing.

Despite the fact
that there were quite a few things to like, especially the presence
of some enjoyable cases, the one and only negative did enough damage
to only make this good enough to kill time.

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

As for everyone
else, you all can check this out if you are bored, but I suspect that
there might be some fans of detective, mystery, and crime fiction
that will be turned off as much as me by the fact that the final case
of the volume feels like a waste.

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 this series and possibly find more
worthwhile reads for you guys to check out, or if you would like the
chance to just chill with me, subscribe to my YouTube
channel or follow me on Twitch,
where I mostly stream RPGs and visual novels that catch my interest.