Detective Conan (1996– )
8/10
If you can overlook the silly & useless premise, this is one of the best!
9 December 2009
Every review here will tell you the back story of "Case Closed". They'll tell you how the teenage Shinichi Kudo (a genius detective) is given an experimental pill by some thugs and is transformed into a child again. He calls himself Conan Edogawa & wherever he goes, a crime happens & he solves the crime. He keeps his predicament to himself & an inventor friend of his. The inventor gives him Bond type gadgets that help him get by, since he's a child again. One of these gadgets, a bow-tie, changes his voice, so he can sound exactly like anyone. When he solves the crime, he knocks out an adult with a dart hidden in his watch, hides behind the sleeping adult, talks through his bow-tie to sound like the adult & tells everyone within earshot who the criminal is.

Now, I love anime & I love this show. But, this is maybe the silliest premise ever in an anime. And it's an utterly useless premise. Having Conan as a child serves no purpose in the show at all. He still acts like an adult & most of the time, he's just hanging out with his girlfriend (who doesn't know Conan is her boyfriend) & her father (who is a detective & a very bad one at that). This little "kid" is allowed to walk around the crime scene (usually a dead body) like it's perfectly normal. He sometimes gives the clues he finds out loud. Most of the time, the adults take his advice, other times, they yell at him to shut up, even though he has given clues that have solved the crimes before hand. It just doesn't make any sense. If he's going to act like an adult, just make his character an adult. The side-story of the thugs who changed him is hardly (if ever) brought up again. It's pointless.

Luckily, most of the detective stories themselves are great enough to overlook the premise. Well, almost overlook them. Whenever I see Conan crouching behind a chair, speaking into his tie, I cringe at how silly it is.) The characters are realistic & the stories are very dark sometimes. Definitely not for kids (another reason the premise is stupid). The animation itself is top notch & each character stands out, so you can tell them apart when trying to figure out "who did it". I do recommend this show to anime fans & people who like detective shows. I would have given it a 10, but the premise is just too ridiculous. Still, knocking it 2 points is not bad.
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