The episode started with enough of a recap to remind the audience of the important events that transpired in the previous episode.

As the investigation continues into the death of the actor at the on location shoot, the possibility of hiding a device in a small container (such as a medicine container) is brought up. But it’s quickly pointed out just how many of the actors and staff have small containers, so this possibility seems like a dead end. However, Sera decides to use this as an opportunity to start asking questions about Shinichi and when Ran has seen him recently (he’ll seem weak and pale at first, but suddenly starts looking and acting better). Sera starts asking if Ran has seen Shinichi take anything, and this eventually leads to Sera to insinuating that Shinichi and Conan have never been seen together. I appreciate how this was used as an opportunity to use footage from previous episodes as flashbacks. For me personally, it was nice to see footage from one of the episodes in Case Closed that I have never seen, since it’s in the block of episodes that have never been made legally available in the United States in any way, shape, or form. I had no idea about the special Conan disguise that was made for Ai, so it could look like Shinichi and Conan are seen together.

After Sera’s line of questioning gets shot down, she returns her focus to the mystery at hand. At one point, Inspector Megure is so frustrated that he gets this look of agony on his face. Even under the circumstances, it was kind of amusing to see the normally level-headed Megure wearing this kind of expression.

But a new wrinkle appears after one of the ADs brings back drinks for everyone. One of the other crew members, who seems to have figured out who the culprit is, suddenly keels over after having some of his drink. It appears he was poisoned, although by the end of the episode, it isn’t clear exactly how the poison was put into his drink. But when his pockets are emptied out, an important clue is revealed through a toy he had in his pocket. Who says that “dead men tell no tales”?

Right at the end of the episode, Sera sneakily gets Conan to admit to her that he’s really Shinichi. Oops! The preview for the next episode seems to focus on Conan worrying that Sera will try to ask Ran and Sonoko more weird questions about Shinichi and Conan.

This is one of those rare storylines in the more recent years of Case Closed that is longer than two episodes. I had a feeling this was a story from the manga, since Sera is in it (since I have yet to see Sera appear in an episode that comes across as anime-only “filler”). But seeing her snooping around and asking questions about Shinichi in this episode helped me to confirm my suspicions that this story arc is likely a “canon” story from the manga.

So now there are two cases to solve, and it appears the first murder can’t be solved with figuring out who murdered the second victim. I can’t wait to see how this story unfolds next week.

Additional posts about Case Closed:

• Case Closed: Episode 993 – “Kyogoku Makoto the Understudy (Part One)”

The episode opens with Conan, Ran, Sera, Sonoko, and Makoto watching a film in the movie theater. When I saw what they were watching, I was getting an Avengers vibe from it, with the exception that Kamen Yaiba was in it. And then, I saw the title of the film… The Azengers. In the next scene, we get some dialogue about some blunt dialogue in the movie that Kamen Yaiba was given a cameo in order to help increase their Japanese audience. I had to agree with Ran that the line was laughable.

As the group is walking down they street, they see someone being held hostage and the kidnapper making demands. Makoto, who is a karate champion, jumps into action and takes down the kidnapper. However, it turns out that this was a scene being shot for a television drama, and his rescue attempt has knocked the actor out cold. Well, it turns out the role has the character wearing a helmet, so it really doesn’t matter what they look like, and Makoto is recruited to take on the actor’s role in order to get the shoot finished.

At this point, the groundwork is laid for the mystery that’s about to unfold. We see the main actor and main actress getting into it, with the main actress upset with the actor for the practical jokes he’s been pulling. We later see that the main actor is an egotistical and stuck-up jerk, and we hear through dialogue that he’s a womanizer. There’s also some focus put on one of the ADs, especially with the main actor berating him for a loose nail lying on the ground. When the actor hears Sonoko gushing over Makoto being scouted for a permanent role in the drama, he refers to her as a gold digger. If only the actor knew who she was… LOL! Makoto wants to punch the guy’s lights out, but Sonoko stops him. At this point, I knew something was going to have to happen to the actor.

It’s time to shoot the final scene, which is a stunt shot that takes place from the fourth floor of a building. As Makoto is getting ready to perform the stunt in the fourth story room, we hear that the main actor is frantically looking for a phone. Just as the camera is set up and ready to go, the main actor suddenly falls from the building… and dies on impact. Amazingly, we didn’t get the usual dialogue of Ran being told to call the police, although I suspect she was probably the one who called anyway, since she more than likely has them on speed dial at this point.

Inspector Megure and Detective Takagi arrive to begin their investigation. Of course, both Conan and Sera start getting themselves involved, much to the police’s chagrin. The only thing established at this point is that someone placed the phone the actor was looking for on the fourth story ledge, which he found by using another phone to call it. It seems it was also determined that it could only have been placed there during a lunch break.

Right now, it seems like there are signs pointing to a particular character being the guilty party, but it just feels like that this answer is too easy, especially for a multiple part mystery. I hope that the guilty party isn’t this character, and that there’s some kind of twist involved here.

I just want to add that it was nice to see Sera again, because it’s been a while since she’s appeared in Case Closed. I wish we were seeing more of her in the series.

Additional posts about Case Closed:

• Case Closed: Episode 992 – “Murder at the Townhouse Café”
• Case Closed: Episode 994 – “Kyogoku Makoto the Understudy (Part Two)”

This episode begins with Sonoko talking up a cafe to Ran and Conan that specializes in donuts, especially donuts that are supposed be to low-fat. This isn’t surprising when it comes to Sonoko, since she’s all about new and trendy things. When they get there, they admire the cafe’s yard. They meet the manager, who gives credit to his part-time employee for taking care of the yard.

After Sonoko, Ran, and Conan place their order, they notice that for a trendy place, there’s very few customers. There are two other customers in the cafe besides them, and they’re both acting suspiciously. When the part-time employee comes out, Conan notices something unusual about his uniform. When this scene showed up, I knew that somehow, this observation would fit in with the mystery that was about to unfold.

One of the suspicious men in the cafe goes to the bathroom and discovers the manager lying on the floor in the bathroom, and he was obviously attacked by a mop lying nearby. Ran is asked to call the police and the hospital. With how often she gets asked to do this, I’m sure that she must have those numbers on speed dial.

When Inspector Megure and his team arrive, they interview everyone in the cafe and start piecing together who they think the guilty party was. It was obviously wrong, though, because it was the “too easy” answer. And when you factor in the thing that Conan noticed about the part-time employee earlier in the episode, I knew that the culprit had to be that person. However, I just needed the explanation as to how this individual pulled off the crime.

It’s right after the halfway point of the episode when the police are about to take the wrong person into custody. Conan uses his dart gun watch to knock out Sonoko, and then use the voice-changing bowtie to start revealing the information the police need in order to apprehend the correct suspect. Since this happened right after the halfway point, it takes a little more time for Conan (through Sonoko) to get across the information, which includes having Inspector Takagi recreating how the events had to unfold in order for the culprit to pull off the attack.

Ultimately, this one-part “murder mystery” (when you see the ending, you’ll understand why I’m using quotation marks here) wasn’t terribly interesting to watch. The audience is given a clue before the crime even happens that it sticks out like a sore thumb. When the crime happened, I knew who had to be guilty. The only mystery was trying to figure out how the culprit pulled it off. Generally speaking from my experience watching Case Closed over the years, the one-part murder mysteries tend to not be as interesting as the mysteries that span more than one episode. There’s not enough time to build anything up, and usually Conan is able to piece things together quickly in order to finish the story. There’s usually not as much suspense to keep things interesting for the viewer.

Oh well. Hopefully the next episode will be more interesting.

Additional posts about Case Closed:

• Case Closed: Episode 991 – “The Automatic Tragedy (Part Two)”
• Case Closed: Episode 993 – “Kyogoku Makoto the Understudy (Part One)”

The episode begins with a brief recap of last week’s episode. It was long enough to convey the important information, but short enough that it didn’t feel like overkill. Instead of going to the opening credits, though, we first get a scene of Fusaya getting ready for a job interview. As he does, he has alternating memories of his father… both the positive ones from when he was a kid to more recent times, with his father asking him sternly where he was going. The final shot of these memories, his father is smiling and looks as if he’s about to laugh. When we return to Fusaya, we see him dressed up in a suit and taking out his earring. He says something to to the effect of, “Don’t laugh at me, Dad. I’m serious about this.” I thought this was a touching scene, but when I saw it, I didn’t truly realize the implications this would have later.

After the opening, Kogoro decides that he and Conan need to return to the Oide family residence to see if they can gather more information. As they arrive in the area, they encounter Fusaya, who is headed to his job interview. This was one of those moments where Kogoro actually shows a sense of empathy for his client. It was nice seeing Kogoro encouraging Fusaya to focus on his interview and to let him focus on finding his father’s killer.

At the house, when Kogoro and Conan go over what they’ve learned, they both jump to a couple of conclusions that could have potentially worked. From talking with Fusaya’s sister and mother at the hospital, they learn that the mysterious woman they saw in the previous episode is an old classmate of Fusaya’s sister. When they see her business card and discover that the woman’s occupation fits in with a potential scenario they came up with, Kogoro decides to go question the woman. As we see, it turns out this woman was a red herring. It turns out that she was just a suspicious woman… and a bitchy one at that.

Conan picks up some information from Fusaya’s sister after Kogoro leaves to question the mysterious woman, and then later overhears something at the hospital that makes him decide to go to the police station and talk to the detective overseeing case. Of course, since Conan is a kid, he has to lie and say that Kogoro asked him to come and look at the autopsy. I liked the realistic reaction of the detective here. While he agrees to let Conan look at it, he doubts that this kid will understand what it says. Conan picks up some very important information, which gives him the final pieces of the puzzle that he needs.

Disguising his voice, he calls Fusaya, who has just told his mother and sister that he got the job that he interviewed for. Fusaya is told to come to the house, because the real culprit has been found. Of course, we get the usual “Sleeping Kogoro” trick for Conan to final reveal the truth. While I won’t outright say the answer, what I will say is that the truth is tragic. Even though the title for this arc basically tells the viewer that there’s tragedy involved, it doesn’t convey just how tragic it ultimately is.

I was impressed with this overall arc. Even though Fusaya and his family were just introduced in the previous episode, the way this episode was written made the audience care about this case and the tragic answer to the mystery. Well done!

From the preview, it looks like the next episode will be a single episode murder mystery. After this two-parter, though, I have a feeling that this next episode is going to feel pale in comparison to this one.

Additional posts about Case Closed:

• Case Closed: Episode 990 – “The Automatic Tragedy (Part One)”
• Case Closed: Episode 992 – “Murder at the Townhouse Café”

The episode begins with Conan finding a young man standing outside the Mori Detective Agency. He asks the young man if he has business with the agency, and brings him inside. We learn the young man is named Fusaya Oide. When he shows a story about a robbery and murder case to Kogoro on his phone, Conan is able to rattle off a lot of the details about the case. Why am I not surprised that Conan keeps up with the news of various crimes going on in the area? Basically, the murdered man is Fusaya’s father, and he’s come to Kogoro for help to find his father’s murderer.

As they head toward the Oide residence, they see Fusaya’s mother and sister out handing flyers, trying to gather any information they can about the murder. Fusaya’s mother collapses as they’re pulling up, and she’s taken to the hospital for exhaustion. At the same time, there’s a strange woman watching that Conan notices. When she made this appearance, I found myself wondering if she’s going to play an important part or if she’s going to turn out to be a red herring.

Later, when Kogoro and Conan meet up with Fusaya at the house, Conan notices that a door inside the house looked newer and asks questions about it. Even though the lock on the front door looked like it had been picked, Conan thinks there’s a connection with the new door and the chance that someone could have made a spare key. After some investigation, it turns out Conan’s hunch was right.

When they find a potential culprit, it was around halfway through the episode. Knowing that this is a multiple-part episode, I knew that they hadn’t solved the case yet. It turns out the culprit they found committed the robbery, but they didn’t murder Fusaya’s father.

Near the end of the episode, we see Kogoro and Conan talking with Fusaya’s mother and sister and the hospital. As Conan points out afterward, they learned more than they realized initially, thanks to answers from Fusaya’s sister and mother.

The preview shows that the mystery woman will be talking with Kogoro and Conan, so it’ll be interesting to hear what she has to say and how she fits in with this mystery. I’m curious to find out just how Conan (because, let’s be honest, it’s going to be Conan solving this and not Kogoro) pieces everything together and determines who the real killer is.

Additional posts about Case Closed:

• Case Closed: Episode 989 – “The Case of Ayumi’s Illustrated Diary”
• Case Closed: Episode 991 – “The Automatic Tragedy (Part Two)”

The episode opens with Ayumi giving narration that explains the setup for this week’s episode. We see images from her illustrated diary that’s referenced in the title, and the drawings were done in a way to look like how a young child would draw. During the episode, Ayumi provides narration to help transition between scenes, and every time her narration is accompanied by more images from her illustrated diary. I was highly amused by the first entry, though, because Ayumi gives us a date on it… Saturday, December 5. I looked at my computer screen and realized… that was today’s date, which corresponds with the date that the episode aired in Japan. Very clever and amusing!

Early on in the episode, Ayumi and the other kids are talking about doing illustrated diaries, with Ayumi wondering how to best do one. Conan gives her some helpful advice, which she uses. However, it’s never quite made clear if the illustrated diaries are an assignment from school, or if this is just something they’re doing on their own. That’s one piece of information I wish I had, because of what happens in the episode and how the illustrated diary plays into it, it would have been cool for this to have been a homework assignment.

But as for the actual story of the episode, a local jeweler getting a extremely rare watch and displaying it in his storefront. The kids overhear the courier talking with a couple of the other local business owners who are gawking at the watch. When Ai does some research on the watch, the kids feel that this watch could be a target for theft. Conan and the other Detective Boys start watching for anything out of the ordinary as they walk by the store every day before and after school.

At one point, Takagi is out and about, handing out flyers to the business owners in the area because of an increase of burglary incidents. Conan and the others run into him, and they all see the owner of the jewelry store. Takagi, the kids, and the audience find out about the jewelry store’s security. A short while after this, the coffee store next door to the jeweler is undergoing renovations. Conan and the kids, of course, suspect that this could be a cover for a robbery attempt.

I can’t really go into too much more detail without providing spoilers, but I will say that near the end of the episode, Ayumi shares her illustrated diary with Conan and he notices a couple of things in her diary that finally click everything into place for him. He figures out who the potential thief is, and they kids manage to catch them in the act. While Conan learns an important piece of information through a phone call, I’m still left wondering how they knew exactly what day and time they needed to be in the area in order to catch the thief. To me, that’s the biggest plot hole of this story.

I though that “The Case of Ayumi’s Illustrated Diary” had an interesting story, and that the execution with the illustrated diary was a nice touch, but that plot hole right at the end is an issue. I just have a hard time using my willing suspension of disbelief with this particular plot hole.

Additional posts about Case Closed:

• Case Closed: Episode 988 – “The Feuding Girls”
• Case Closed: Episode 990 – “The Automatic Tragedy (Part One)”