NinthFeather's Meta Archive

 

The imagery in this opening is pretty–my feelings about the Kaito Corbeau storyline aside, I really like the way they use the black-and-white mirror imagery, the scenery shots are lovely, and the little bit with Aoko and Kaito passing on the staircase is pretty lovely too.  That said, I really mostly love it for the song.  I am a Vocaloid geek and I knew HoneyWorks before I ever heard about the anime–I was pretty fond of some of their stuff, especially “Inokori Sensei,” though I liked “Friday’s Good Morning” pretty well too.  I was interested, if a little nervous, to see what they’d do with an anime opening, since it was pretty different than the type of songs they would usually make (happy-bouncy romantic story songs), but when I heard it I felt really silly for ever worrying. It fit both into HoneyWork’s body of work and the requirements of an anime opening and works well as an opening song and as an independent single. HoneyWorks even went through the trouble to make and post online a slightly altered arrangement that utaites/cover artists could use to make covers (the alterations were so the record label wouldn’t remove covers for copyright reasons).  Gotta love the Vocaloid producers.

 

So, I’ve mentioned the fact that this movie basically got me back into the show.  Okay, scratch that–the first scene of KID, alone, was enough to get me back into the show–everything else was bonus, and it was glorious bonus.  People can say what they want about the movies, but Last Wizard is what the main canon of both shows are when they’re at their best–well-researched, gorgeously animated, and intense.  At any given moment, there’s at least three agendas at play, and between Shinichi and Heiji’s teamup and KID and Shinichi’s various interactions, it’s a mine of Gosho Boy interaction.  Yes, it borrowed elements from the Jodie Hopper file in MK, and Shinichi shouldn’t have survived his confrontation with the killer if actual physics were in play, but the plot moves along quickly enough that these things don’t pull you out of the narrative for that long.  Plus, the very end scene with KID and the doves is probably one of my favorite bits of the officially-produced material, period.  

 

 

 

Fortunately, they’re at least pretty good at deductions and needling each other.

 

AKA that moment when you realize that, while trying to figure out what exactly Hondou Eisuke’s deal is and get to the fun bits with FBI agents, you have instead spent 20 minutes of your life on an animated/manga PSA about a type of fraud that was very common in Japan roughly 10 years ago.  Which, if you are a Japanese time-traveler, you might find engaging, but if you aren’t–it’s just Conan being uncannily smart for a tiny child for, like 15 minutes, while no one really questions it.  Sonoko draws incorrect but logical conclusions and gets shot down, there’s useless suspense, it’s just such a poorly executed case, and it doesn’t have the excuse of being an anime original or during down time–it’s lead up to the Clash of Red and Black.  You’d think Gosho’d be bringing his A-Game.  You would be very wrong.

 

There is a strong competition going among the parents in Gosho’s fictional universes regarding who is the worst parent, but to me, Kudou Yuusaku is also the least otherwise interesting.   The world-traveler thing could’ve been part of an interesting character, but it isn’t interesting alone.  The novelist-who-avoids-deadlines joke is just barely funny, and I’ve seen it done better.  The idea that he might know things about the Black Org from trying to do something after Toichi’s death is actually interesting–but if that’s true then he knows all sorts of things about the people that his son is trying to fight and just hasn’t told him, which is like 800% worse than what’s confirmed as canon.  So, he doesn’t interest me, he let his fourteen year old son live alone, and he thought a fake kidnapping was a valid response to his child surviving a murder attempt.  I do not like this guy.

 

Gosho has problems with writing women, but then, there’s Vermouth.  One of the reasons I love this series to begin with is that it partially functions as a spy narrative and Vermouth is the pinnacle of that.  She could be anyone, she could be anywhere, she is smart and dangerous.  And, most threateningly, she isn’t playing by anyone else’s rules.  She’s plotting against the Black Org, but she’s not really on Shinichi’s side, either–she’s got an agenda for him that she hasn’t fully explained and so she won’t let him die, but she’s got no reservations about hurting anyone outside of him and Ran.  She’s deliberately unpredictable, and so she’s a threat.  It’s great.  

 

(Vague Clash of Red and Black arc spoilers follow)

 

So, have I mentioned my unholy love of spies? Because that is a thing, it’s part of why I’m in this fandom in the first place, and it’s part of why I love this lady best.  Another big part is that she is one of the few female characters I can think of who Gosho doesn’t manage to throw under the bus characterization-wise for the sake of comedy/proving a male colleague’s competence. She’s incredibly good at what she does, she has a heck of a backstory and yet has remained completely effective despite all of that trauma, and when it comes down to it, she has her priorities in order.  I’ll admit I didn’t get to properly watch her arc until recently but I actually kinda adore her and I realized that when I had to pick a favorite it was between her and Vermouth.

 

The first time I ever watched Detective Conan, it was on Comcast’s onDemand in high school–I was bored and curious and it was there.  The episode was an anime original mostly starring the Detective Boys, followed by two more like it–between the episodic plots and the English dub actors for the kids, I gave up.

 

I came back to it in college when I saw DC fic on people’s Favorites lists on Fanfiction.net–a few in particular.  I finally caved and clicked on one, it was amazing, and I figured that if the author could get that out of the show I must’ve missed something back in high school.  So in the summer of 2012, daunted by the episode count, I decided to at least try watching one of the movies.  I started with The Last Wizard of the Century.  That was a very, very good decision, as it turns out, because after that I was hooked.