The episode opens with a shot of a Christmas tree, which makes the audience believe that this is going to be a Christmas themed episode. But after that shot of the tree, there is nothing else in the episode to reinforce the idea that the episode is taking place during the Christmas season. About the only reason I can think of for the opening shot of the Christmas tree is that the anime studio knew this episode was scheduled to air on Christmas Eve, so they decided to include it to acknowledge that.

After this, we see Kogoro and Conan at a shopping center that bills itself as being a cheery place, but it’s anything but that. The proprietor of the vegetable shop they go to is too lazy to unpack the boxes of his merchandise, and makes Conan set out his store’s flag. From the dialogue, it sounds like the vast majority of the stores in the shopping center are run by lazy older men, and it really made me wonder how this shopping center manages to stay in business.

As Conan is putting the flag out, a gaudily dressed woman named Madam Gaga appears with a microphone and announces that she’s going to revitalize the shopping center with a pro wrestling tournament between the shop owners and her company’s wrestler. At first, the shop owners are scoffing at the idea, but after she reveals that her company’s wrestler is a girl, they’re suddenly all for it. Kogoro is chosen to serve as a referee. Kogoro tries to hide the details of the event from Ran, but she deduces on her own what’s happening, and she’s not happy.

The older shopkeepers suddenly decide they need to work out before the event that’s taking place in three days. Ran, who understands how these type of events are due to participating in martial arts, tries to convince these men that they’re overdoing it. They don’t listen, of course, and most of them end up being too sore and worn out to actually participate in the event.

Conan walks by as Madam Gaga is setting up the ring, and she’s very specific about how she wants things set up for it. Conan also notices that a generator has been brought along for the event. He starts asking questions, since it seems like they should simply be able to use the power at the shopping center to power their lights. The female wrestler (who is Madam Gaga’s daughter) starts complaining because she only has three old men as challengers and that there’s no way she can make the tournament last for an hour and a half. Ran comes up to Conan after finishing her martial arts practice, and the female wrestler notices that Ran has her martial arts stuff with her. In the end, Ran is provoked into becoming a challenger for the upcoming tournament.

After the halfway point, Conan contacts Ai because he’s bothered by what he saw during the setup for the tournament. Ai finds the information he’s looking for, and the two of them work together on the day of the tournament to expose the truth.

To be honest, there really wasn’t a mystery in this episode. Yes, Conan had his doubts about the situation after what he witnessed during the setup, but all he did was call Ai and have her do some research. He didn’t deduce anything on his own. Not only was there not really a mystery here, the actual story for the episode was weak. While this isn’t the worst episode of Case Closed that I’ve ever seen, it just wasn’t a very good episode. It felt like a waste.

The preview for the next episode shows that it’s going to be focusing on the Detective Boys. I’m usually not a fan of the episodes featuring them, because more often the not, the stories featuring them tend to be on the weaker side. The only exceptions to this are the Detective Boys stories that come from the original manga source material. But in more recent years, the vast majority of the Detective Boys stories have been anime originals, so I go into them with lowered expectations.

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