Detective Conan movie 13
*dances*
I wasn't even actively searching for it...I didn't expect it anywhere, even raw for another couple of weeks (been counting down the days to October since that's when it was coming out after it premiered in theaters in April, but nobody had an exact date).
But...some awesome person in S.Korea uploaded the movie.
Raw Japanese, but...eh...those of us that have been waiting anxiously since we first heard of the movie months ago jumped at the chance to see it (like me).
It was...welp, different from what was summarized. There are three major plots in the story, but only one was what we heard about (that the Organization finds out about Shinichi being Conan)...
The first major plot is a series of strange serial killings. At the scene of each crime is a majongg piece of the 7 of pins with one of the pins shaded in red. The truth behind the shading is chilling.
Though it was in raw Japanese, I was able to figure out some of it, or at least the pattern for the final location/killing since, when Kogoro connected the dots on the map, it looked like a constellation (honestly, though...you gotta wonder...there were folks from the division one/homicide investigations for just about every town there, and none of them realized that the points looked like one of the dippers).
Hattori made an appearance in the movie, and helped gather some info on the hotel where a fire had broken out that killed a young woman (which was the motive behind the killings). It was kinda cute how Hattori picked up on the fact, at that point, that something else was going on by the way Shinichi/Conan was acting and talked about showing him a food place the next time they met out of concern.
So, that was one of the major plots in the movie.
The second major plot was that someone from the Organization had infiltrated the police department and was in disguise as one of the officers. Satou gets suspicious a good way through the movie that someone in the police department isn't who they say they are.
Conan realizes it right away when he hears that someone had emailed the Organization's boss from the toilet (the email address is the tune for "Seven Crows"...something like that...a children's song).
He knows that the first person that did so was really Vermouth, and encounters her later in a mall when she willingly was used as a hostage for someone resisting arrest. Conan corners her later in the garage for information, which she willingly gives.
Small opinion, here...I can't hate Vermouth's character. She knows who Conan really is, and she knows Haibara's real identity. She had numerous chances to kill them, but haven't. In fact, she's more interested in seeing how Conan/Shinichi is going to take down the Organization, and refers to him as their "silver bullet".
Vermouth reveals during the chat that the reason they've infiltrated the police is to get data on NOC members in the force (from what I recall during the FBI vs BO clash that spanned about 11 episodes or so, a NOC is a CIA member that's undercover as a civilian, yet still doing their job).
There was some talk about a data chip that would have that information, as well as the operative that is getting the info (Irish), but Vermouth ends the conversation at that.
The third plot, of course, is what we were told about the movie. That someone from the Organization discovers who Conan really is. It's Irish, of course...the new operative that infiltrated the police hears the stories about the kid that's always with Kogoro during cases and has helped out the police.
So, he does some investigating. Using clay to get Conan's fingerprints and the helmet from the school play Shinichi had touched during episodes 190-191, he matches the prints up.
Another small opinion here, which rightly confused me. Actually, it confused me the first time it happened.
After the FBI vs BO episodes, in order to find out if the body the police had found was really Akai (another member of the FBI), Jodie had borrowed Conan's mobile phone that had three sets of fingerprints on it for analyzing: Jodie's, Conan's, and Akai's...all of whom had touched the phone.
Jodie had brought the phone to Takagi to have him find the prints to match with Akai's later on.
Now...if there are three sets of prints on that phone, why didn't it come up that Kudou Shinichi had touched it? His prints are the same as Conan's, obviously, and that was even used in movie 10 for a blind client to identify him with (the guy thought Conan was Shinichi due to a scanner in the armrest of a chair that took fingerprint scans).
Unless they were just looking for Akai's, and the others weren't investigated...
ANYWAYS...
So, Irish figures out Shinichi's true identity, but when he goes to tell Gin, the man doesn't even remember who Shinichi is (since, and he's stated before, he "doesn't remember the faces of the people he's killed"). Thus, Irish doesn't tell him what he found out.
The three plots are sort of wrapped up at the same time at the Tokyo Tower...Conan reveals the truth behind the killings to the murderer and one of the to-be victims, and then Irish shows up disguised as an officer (Conan realizes it, though, and attempts to use his tranquilizer watch, but hits the wrong person).
Ran shows up a little after Irish roughs Conan up (his plan was to bring Conan to the Organization along with the data chip), and an awesome fight scene ensues. Ran might have been able to win if half of Irish's mask was torn off, which scares Ran into not being able to block the next set of punches and kicks.
After that, it's all action and no talk (so, I was obviously able to understand it...even though I gotta admit that I did a better job of understanding the movie than I thought I would, considering it was all in raw Japanese with no subs) that leads to the climax.
But, of course, as we know from the previews, Irish dies, so Shinichi's secret dies with him, and Shinichi/Conan makes creative use of his stretch-suspenders and a giant light to knock the helicopter shooting at him out of the sky.
Vermouth is impressed, the BO members are still alive (minus Irish), Ran got to hear Shinichi's voice and is happy (even though it was Conan via the bowtie) and alive, the criminal is caught, the case is wrapped up, and nobody knows Shinichi's secret.
That's gonna be a tough movie to follow, but I've enjoyed all the Conan movies thus far. I don't think there's one movie that I didn't like. As for this one, same with a good amount of the others...5 out of 5. It lived up to the hype, and even the Shounen Tantei got some screentime, as they helped to find the officer that was being impersonated (it was comical when Takagi and Satou veered off to answer Agasa's call, since all members had been en-route to the area by the Tokyo Tower at the time).
Re-watchability...without subs, the last action parts would be the highest values. With subs, definitely one to re-watch. This will rank amongst my favorite Conan movies...I'd get this on DVD if I could (my usual import haunts are starting to turn into retail stores, and the one place that wasn't, where I got most of my Slayers box sets, was shut down).
PS (that has nothing to do with anime or Conan): The Plunnies are finished and up in the Writer's Alley section of my shop.
I've also started a business Facebook account for it...strangest set-up, Facebook. How the hell do you find anything to make changes, or even get the link to the page so you can link it for others? Maybe I'll check out Twitter, instead...
I wasn't even actively searching for it...I didn't expect it anywhere, even raw for another couple of weeks (been counting down the days to October since that's when it was coming out after it premiered in theaters in April, but nobody had an exact date).
But...some awesome person in S.Korea uploaded the movie.
Raw Japanese, but...eh...those of us that have been waiting anxiously since we first heard of the movie months ago jumped at the chance to see it (like me).
It was...welp, different from what was summarized. There are three major plots in the story, but only one was what we heard about (that the Organization finds out about Shinichi being Conan)...
The first major plot is a series of strange serial killings. At the scene of each crime is a majongg piece of the 7 of pins with one of the pins shaded in red. The truth behind the shading is chilling.
Though it was in raw Japanese, I was able to figure out some of it, or at least the pattern for the final location/killing since, when Kogoro connected the dots on the map, it looked like a constellation (honestly, though...you gotta wonder...there were folks from the division one/homicide investigations for just about every town there, and none of them realized that the points looked like one of the dippers).
Hattori made an appearance in the movie, and helped gather some info on the hotel where a fire had broken out that killed a young woman (which was the motive behind the killings). It was kinda cute how Hattori picked up on the fact, at that point, that something else was going on by the way Shinichi/Conan was acting and talked about showing him a food place the next time they met out of concern.
So, that was one of the major plots in the movie.
The second major plot was that someone from the Organization had infiltrated the police department and was in disguise as one of the officers. Satou gets suspicious a good way through the movie that someone in the police department isn't who they say they are.
Conan realizes it right away when he hears that someone had emailed the Organization's boss from the toilet (the email address is the tune for "Seven Crows"...something like that...a children's song).
He knows that the first person that did so was really Vermouth, and encounters her later in a mall when she willingly was used as a hostage for someone resisting arrest. Conan corners her later in the garage for information, which she willingly gives.
Small opinion, here...I can't hate Vermouth's character. She knows who Conan really is, and she knows Haibara's real identity. She had numerous chances to kill them, but haven't. In fact, she's more interested in seeing how Conan/Shinichi is going to take down the Organization, and refers to him as their "silver bullet".
Vermouth reveals during the chat that the reason they've infiltrated the police is to get data on NOC members in the force (from what I recall during the FBI vs BO clash that spanned about 11 episodes or so, a NOC is a CIA member that's undercover as a civilian, yet still doing their job).
There was some talk about a data chip that would have that information, as well as the operative that is getting the info (Irish), but Vermouth ends the conversation at that.
The third plot, of course, is what we were told about the movie. That someone from the Organization discovers who Conan really is. It's Irish, of course...the new operative that infiltrated the police hears the stories about the kid that's always with Kogoro during cases and has helped out the police.
So, he does some investigating. Using clay to get Conan's fingerprints and the helmet from the school play Shinichi had touched during episodes 190-191, he matches the prints up.
Another small opinion here, which rightly confused me. Actually, it confused me the first time it happened.
After the FBI vs BO episodes, in order to find out if the body the police had found was really Akai (another member of the FBI), Jodie had borrowed Conan's mobile phone that had three sets of fingerprints on it for analyzing: Jodie's, Conan's, and Akai's...all of whom had touched the phone.
Jodie had brought the phone to Takagi to have him find the prints to match with Akai's later on.
Now...if there are three sets of prints on that phone, why didn't it come up that Kudou Shinichi had touched it? His prints are the same as Conan's, obviously, and that was even used in movie 10 for a blind client to identify him with (the guy thought Conan was Shinichi due to a scanner in the armrest of a chair that took fingerprint scans).
Unless they were just looking for Akai's, and the others weren't investigated...
ANYWAYS...
So, Irish figures out Shinichi's true identity, but when he goes to tell Gin, the man doesn't even remember who Shinichi is (since, and he's stated before, he "doesn't remember the faces of the people he's killed"). Thus, Irish doesn't tell him what he found out.
The three plots are sort of wrapped up at the same time at the Tokyo Tower...Conan reveals the truth behind the killings to the murderer and one of the to-be victims, and then Irish shows up disguised as an officer (Conan realizes it, though, and attempts to use his tranquilizer watch, but hits the wrong person).
Ran shows up a little after Irish roughs Conan up (his plan was to bring Conan to the Organization along with the data chip), and an awesome fight scene ensues. Ran might have been able to win if half of Irish's mask was torn off, which scares Ran into not being able to block the next set of punches and kicks.
After that, it's all action and no talk (so, I was obviously able to understand it...even though I gotta admit that I did a better job of understanding the movie than I thought I would, considering it was all in raw Japanese with no subs) that leads to the climax.
But, of course, as we know from the previews, Irish dies, so Shinichi's secret dies with him, and Shinichi/Conan makes creative use of his stretch-suspenders and a giant light to knock the helicopter shooting at him out of the sky.
Vermouth is impressed, the BO members are still alive (minus Irish), Ran got to hear Shinichi's voice and is happy (even though it was Conan via the bowtie) and alive, the criminal is caught, the case is wrapped up, and nobody knows Shinichi's secret.
That's gonna be a tough movie to follow, but I've enjoyed all the Conan movies thus far. I don't think there's one movie that I didn't like. As for this one, same with a good amount of the others...5 out of 5. It lived up to the hype, and even the Shounen Tantei got some screentime, as they helped to find the officer that was being impersonated (it was comical when Takagi and Satou veered off to answer Agasa's call, since all members had been en-route to the area by the Tokyo Tower at the time).
Re-watchability...without subs, the last action parts would be the highest values. With subs, definitely one to re-watch. This will rank amongst my favorite Conan movies...I'd get this on DVD if I could (my usual import haunts are starting to turn into retail stores, and the one place that wasn't, where I got most of my Slayers box sets, was shut down).
PS (that has nothing to do with anime or Conan): The Plunnies are finished and up in the Writer's Alley section of my shop.
I've also started a business Facebook account for it...strangest set-up, Facebook. How the hell do you find anything to make changes, or even get the link to the page so you can link it for others? Maybe I'll check out Twitter, instead...