Detective Conan 29

Gosho Aoyama – Viz – 2009 – 64+ volumes

Again, this and Oh My Goddess are two series which closest approximate watching television for me.  Both of them are long-running series that I pick up out of habit.  I love both of them, but unlike Oh My Goddess, I am thoroughly entertained by every new volume of Case Closed.  I’m sure it turns some people off since it is long, can be repetitive, and has a plot that isn’t going anywhere, but the mysteries are surprisingly original in every volume, and I am always surprised by how intricate and well-planned they are.

This volume’s got two really awesome cases in it and two that I felt were weaker, but were still a lot of fun to figure out.  The cover hints at a case about dogs, which was my favorite one in the volume.  There wasn’t anything particularly notable about it, but the limited number of characters involved, the low-key event, and the fact that it had a happy ending made it stand out.  It was also well-written, of course, but it did use some of the more outlandish hints for deduction that I have mentioned in previous reviews.

The other excellent case was a bus jacking that made me think of Speed.  This was a bit easier to figure out, since the case hinged on trying to figure out who the accomplice was among the passengers on the bus, and it was fun trying to match the hints to the situation.  This case also had the added bonus of being semi-related to the plot and discussing the Black Organization at length.  Nothing terribly Earth-shattering happens, but it’s nice to receive a reminder every once in awhile that, yeah, there are bad guys after Conan.

The two I felt were weaker were more plot-related than the other two.  The first, a carry-over case from the last volume about fashionable girls getting attacked, I wish I had liked more since it gave a whole bunch of amusing background on Inspector Meguire.  I think it had slightly too much stuff going on at once, and a kind of lame attempt at Serena towards the end that doesn’t work because… well, I know nothing is going to happen to Serena.  Threatening a random bystander is more effective in this series since random bystanders get killed all the time.

The last case was only okay, and was a straight-up revenge murder that wasn’t all that complicated and also involved a limited number of suspects.  It was notable for showing a rare moment of weakness in Conan, and had kind of a sad ending.  I think I didn’t get as into it as the others because most of the time was spent developing Conan/Jimmy rather than the mystery.  I’ll take the character development any day, though, since things like that for Conan are so rare.

But regardless of how much I did or did not like the individual cases, they are all wonderful, and it’s rare to find a complete dud in a volume of Case Closed.  Again, I am genuinely amazed that a weekly series like this, even 30 volumes in, can be so consistently entertaining and well-planned.  It’s hard for me to muster excitement for every volume since not much happens to the characters or plot, but even hints at movement work up the fangirl in me that few other series stir.  Good stuff.

This was a review copy provided by Viz.