by Cain Noble-Davies
Worth: $14.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Show Hayami, Megumi Hayashibara, Hiroaki Hirata, Yukimasa Kishino, Ami Koshimizu, Rikiya Koyama
Intro:
… a solid murder mystery yarn with a lot of heart, some beautiful (albeit inconsistent) visuals, and an approach to characterisation that does the legacy of its genre proud.
In the annals of Japanese shōnen history, a high school detective having his body regressed to that of a child after being forced to take experimental poison by a mysterious crime syndicate, isn’t the most outlandish story foundation. But it’s one that has proven durable and adaptable, having reached its 30th anniversary in early 2024, and thus far containing just over 100 manga volumes, 1000+ anime episodes, and 26 previous theatrical films. And now, No. 27 is making it into cinemas.
The animation is a bit of a mixed bag here. When focusing on the building of tension in this snow-capped murder mystery, the set pieces are well-realised (that ending chase scene with Conan snowboarding on a chunk of ice is, rather literally, too cool for words) and the fusion of 2D and 3D textures works nicely. Well, mostly, as the character designs are quite jarring. Sure, there’s series iconography to consider, and there are textual reasons for the weirder aspects, like the bizarre chibi proportions for young Conan himself, but compared to the damn-near photorealistic rendering of the Nobeyama Radio Observatory and the surrounding mountainsides that serve as the primary setting, the simplified and noticeably… let’s be nice and say ‘rustic’ design work, sticks out in unfortunate ways.
Thankfully, that isn’t too much of an issue because the characters are well-drawn in terms of writing and performance. While the story (and indeed the franchise at large) takes many a cue from the icons in the mystery genre, from Poirot to Holmes to Clarice Starling, writer Takeharu Sakurai (who, along with many previous Conan features, also penned Takashi Miike’s live-action version of Ace Attorney) keeps the interpersonal drama at the forefront of every major revelation in the case itself. Indeed, the story itself is used as a means of bulking out the supporting cast of the main show, in particular police officer Kansuke Yamato.
While the character banter is consistently good, and the emotional impact of not just the new developments but the cast’s respective reactions to them, makes for intense pathos at times, most of the entertainment value, as per usual with this series, comes from Conan. From his MI6-tier collection of gadgets, like a rocket-powered skateboard that gets used for a chase scene early on, to his Light Yagami levels of overthinking and planning against those around him, this kid is still every bit as fun as he was back when he first got shrunk down.
The film deals in heady and complicated topics like criminal justice, plea bargaining, and the scars left behind by grief, but it’s still the bobbleheaded wunderkind and his precocious antics that prove most watchable.
Detective Conan: One-Eyed Flashback is a solid murder mystery yarn with a lot of heart, some beautiful (albeit inconsistent) visuals, and an approach to characterisation that does the legacy of its genre proud. Whether you’ve been keeping up with the case files from the beginning, or just looking for new animation to dig into, this is worth checking out as it does a good job at introducing and reintroducing the important players and story beats for this new entry.
For a series that has lasted this long, being in any way beginner-friendly deserves its props, and it says something when familiarity isn’t truly required to still feel the weight of these characters and performances.
