Little introduction is needed for fans who know Detective Conan, the teenager Shinichi Kudo turned ‘boy’ who outsmarts the adults at every turn, foiling criminal attempts anywhere he goes.
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Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet is the 24th film in Detective Conan’s adventures. The story begins with the impending arrival of World Sports Games (WSG) that happens every four years. This year the game is coming to Tokyo. The world’s first Vacuum Superconducting Maglev train, travelling at a maximum speed of 1,000km/h will be launched at the opening ceremony of the games. Tied to this event, several high level executives from sponsors of the WSG were kidnapped and released without harm, echoing back a similar situation that happened 15 years ago in Boston during the time of WSG then. At that time, someone had died and the murderer apprehended. Conan is deducing that the events happening now are related to the incidents then and begins unravelling the puzzle as the clock ticks by to the opening ceremony.
Like many of the previous films, the story is set around a major event happening around Conan’s life, and inexplicably some aspects of the storyline will appeal largely to fans of the the manga/anime, and also the genre. These include exaggerated solutions to problems that Conan faces, and a ‘real-time’ puzzles that both the audience and characters are invited to solve in the course of the story. Non-fans will find some subplots such as his relationship with the supporting characters like Shukai Akai (‘Akai' being red in Japanese and immediately connects the title to this character simultaneously), Ran Mouri (Shinichi Kudo’s girlfriend) and Ai Haibara (another ’transformed’ character like Conan) confusing since this requires some background knowledge of events and incidents that transpired in previous films and series.
Nonetheless, it’s a decent cinematic journey to go on with the character, with some sections of the animation trying to exploit the format of the big screen. Ultimately a true Conan fan will not miss this opportunity while this film will also see support from anime fans familiar with the character.
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