Case Closed: The Truth About Revenge
Vandemar
Conan is a teenage detective trapped in a kid’s body by a drug meant to kill him. Now he leads a Junior Detective club and solves crimes with an array of gadgets and, sometimes, his own smarts and cunning. When law enforcement fails, 8 year olds with the brains of teenagers step up, and crime solving is the order of the day. Case Closed chronicles Conan’s investigations into various baffling crimes and The Truth About Revenge covers Episodes 68, 69, and 73.
Yea, there’s a jump in the episodes. I contacted Funimation and got this in response:
It was decided that the Case Closed DVD release would have the first DVD feature the first 4 episodes, and then skip near 50 episodes, to resume the DVD release at the episodes that did NOT broadcast on Cartoon Network. So the first DVD, The Secret Life of Jimmy Kudo, sets users up with all the information that they need to know, and the next DVD, 4.1″Deadly Illusions” begins at episode 53. Eventually this chunk of near 50 episodes at the beginning will be released to DVD.
Now it was also decided that no Case Closed DVD would end on a cliff-hanger or a to be continued story-line that you had to wait for the next DVD to resolve. As such episodes are apparently put on the DVD’s out of original Japanese broadcast order. The story of Case Closed, although it does have an over-arcing plot (of Conan trying to unveil the mysterious crime organization that shrunk him and find a cure that will restore him back to his former life), most of the episodes of Case Closed operate as stand-alone episodes . You can watch a great deal of the series out of order without missing out on anything. Or at least you can change out the order of many of the episodes without changing out anything except for those few key episodes that do affect the overall plot, such as the introduction of new major characters.
Specifically on the Case Closed 5.1 DVD release:”The Truth About Revenge” the DVD jacket reads that it contains episodes “68, 69 & 73” This is NOT a typo. Those three episodes are all individually self contained mysteries. The next DVD to release after this, streeted this past week, Case Closed 5.2 DVD release: “The Knight Baron.” This DVD contains episodes 70-72, because this is a 3-part storyline. You don’t need to have watched episodes 70-72 in order to watch and appreciate what is happening in episode 73.
It’s an interesting decision and one that had a lot of thought behind it, obviously, even if it does make you look at the DVD case a little funny.
Moonless Murder, Episode 68, continues Case Closed’s tradition of offing people in complicated ways. When Conan and family go to investigate strange noises outside a friend’s window, they stumble onto a man lying dead in the street.
Even a night at the theater isn’t a relief from the constant crimes. Episode 69, The Case of the Murdered Actress, goes awry only a few minutes in, when an actress’ death on stage turns out to be quite real.
Conan’s out for a walk in Episode 73, The Stalker, when he and his stepfather stumble onto a man dying in the middle of the street. The detective has to figure out who’s been poisoned and why in yet another baffling case.
The animation isn’t the best. It gets the job done, but it also looks several years old. Workmanlike would be my description. The music in the episodes is pretty good and the opening and closing themes merit a mention and the on-disc extras are bound to please any fan of the series. The Crack the Case Game is actually pretty tricky. Or maybe I’m being outsmarted by an eight year old.
It’s not the flashiest series, it’s definitely not throwing out flashy scenes every 20 seconds to keep you interested, and the conceit of the kid detective solving incredibly elaborate crimes can get a little trying. However, Case Closed is a cool little detective series with much more depth than the plain wrapper would suggest and it’s frank handling of mature themes like revenge and lost love definitely merit a look.
Technical/Extras: 7.5
The animation isn’t the latest and greatest, but there is a nice package of extras and some enjoyable music.
Entertainment: 8.0
Case Closed is enjoyable for what it is, a cool detective tale that’s more mature than it looks.
Overall: 8.0
Episodes: 68-Moonless Murder, 69-The Case of the Murdered Actress, 73-The Stalker
Extras: 5.1 Surround Sound, Original Japanese Audio, Textless Songs, Character Profiles, Conan’s Gadgets, Crack the Case Game
