Saturday, August 27, 2011

「真実はひとつ。ただ真実だけが正義なろうかなって」

「《素人探偵浅黄蝉丸、密室首切り殺人事件を即座に解決、ただし犯人現行犯》みたいなっ!」
『クビシメロマンチスト 人間失格・零崎人識』

"Just like 'Amateur Detective Asaki Semimaru solves the Locked Room Decapitation Murder Case instantly, but only because the murderer was arrested redhandedly!'"
"Strangulation Romanticist - Human Failure - Zerozaki Hitoshiki"

By now, I only watch Meitantei Conan - Kudou Shinichi e no Chousenjou (Detective Conan - A Challenge Letter for Kudou Shinichi and write the reviews every week out of habit, not because I particularly like to do it. Which is never a good sign, I guess. 'Cause I really shouldn't write if I don't like writing about a subject. Aaaah, if only the TV series was a bit better... Ah well, I'm not sure how long the series is supposed to be, but it should be somewhere between the 10~12 episodes, so it's almost over.

Meitantei Conan - Kudou Shinichi e no Chousenjou (Detective Conan - A Challenge Letter for Kudou Shinichi)
Episode 1 (July 7, 2011): Before he turned into Conan, the high school detective solved the mystery of the adultery murder!
Episode 2 (July 14, 2011): The locked room murder commited on air! Reveal the secret cursed by the psychic
Episode 3 (July 21, 2011): Murder Case in a Locked Courtroom! Reveal the Trick of the Hostess Murder
Episode 4 (July 28, 2011): Perfect Crime! Murder Notice at a Wedding, Reveal the Locked Room Poisoning Trick
Episode 5 (August 5, 2011): The Glamorous Murder Trick of the Actress who lost her Memory - Perfect Murder at the Summer House
Episode 6 (August 11, 2011): The Magnificent Murderous Kiss of Twenty Beauties! The Murderous Intent Hidden in the Murder Equation!
Episode 7 (August 18, 2011): Inheritance Murder Among Bloody Relatives! Reveal the Mystery of the Kidnapping Trick!
Episode 8 (August 25, 2011): A Woman's Determination, Revenge on the Molester! The Murder Trick hidden in the Security Camera
Episode 9 (September 01, 2011): Hattori Heiji and the Mystery of the Invisible Locked Room Murder Weapon! Deduction Battle between the Detectives of East and West
Episode 10 (September 08, 2011): The Mystery of the Body that Moved 200 KM Within An Instant! Reveal the Perfect Crime Scheme of the Evil Woman
Episode 11 (September 15, 2011): A Kiss Is the Reason for Murder, A Revenge Murder After 20 Years! The Mystery of the Perfect Alibi
Episode 12 (September 22, 2011): I Killed Her! 3 Single Murderers? Reveal the Mystery of the Fake Murder!
Episode 13 (September 29, 2011): Ran Dies! The Final Challenge of the True Criminal to the Genius Detective - Reveal the Mystery of the White Room


Episode 8 ("A Woman's Determination, Revenge on the Molester! The Murder Trick hidden in the Security Camera") starts out very, very mediocre, with Ran being groped on the bus and Ran and Shinichi chasing the groper in a very, very boring chase scene (with a slight touch of Sherlock). But it seems like it was just the introduction to the main case of the episode: in an apartment Ran and Shinichi had passed during their chase, an elderly lady's artificial respiration machine had stopped working. She was brought to the hospital, but the police suspects the lady's helper might have tried to kill the lady and made it look like an accident. And for no real reason, Kudou starts to mingle with that case, while Ran is still trying to get the groper convincted for his crimes.


The mystery of the victim's artificial respiration machine turns out to be connected with the molester Ran and Shinichi had apprehended, but that was pretty clear from the start on. In fact, this whole episode is absolutely boring as everything is so obvious. From the dull humour to the bad acting at the beginning of the episode to the obviousness of the mystery, nothing interesting happens in the whole episode. It's pretty much as horrible as episode 5. Actually, I think this episode replaced episode 5 as the worst episode of this series now.While the series on a whole is not on a very high level, you'd think that a series featuring a pretty neat problem like a person dying of a fingergun, wouldn't have such boring and uninspired episodes.

The only other molester-in-detective-fiction I recall, is the story The Beauties Detective Club from the manga Tantei Gakuen Q ("Detective Academy Q"). That story didn't even feature a murder, but it was a story focused on how the trio of Megumi, Yukihara and Touya had to prove that a man was a groper in the train. And it was actually quite good. And according to an article by Koyama in Misshitsu Misteri no Meikyuu (see The Attic, Japanese materials), it seems that the pink film  Chikan Densha - Seiko no Oshiri ("Molester Train - Seiko's Butt") is in fact an interesting locked room mystery movie. Not sure what to expect from that though.

The preview of next week's episode, which is about 15 seconds long, was actually more interesting than the whole episode. It seems like next episode will feature both Hattori and Kazuha, which is pretty surprising. Of course, Shinichi and Hattori don't actually meet until volume 10, after Shinichi turned into Conan, so this whole episode will be pretty much impossible canon-wise, but hey, two master detectives who will probably go against each other? I'm in! Guess I was wrong with thinking that the Hattori episode would be based on the snow-trip story from the manga (a story set before Shinichi turned into Conan, with Shinichi and Hattori working on the same case but they never really meet or even get to know each others' names). Of course, if the writers are going to ignore canon, they can go pretty much anywhere...

Original Japanese title(s): 『名探偵コナン 工藤新一への挑戦状』 サブタイトル「女の意地、痴漢犯への復讐!監視カメラに秘めた殺人トリック」
Date & Password: 2010.09.30; ジハツコキュウ

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