Minami TakayamaCase Closed: Zero the Enforcer

OMG! Another Case Closed masterpiece. This is the 22nd film in the series and the story involves Conan solving terror / cybercrimes suddenly plaguing Japan while proving detective Richard Moore’s (who has been implicated in one) innocence. I’ll use their Americanized names in my review. Once again, the dubbing is top notch. New voice cast is great. Of course, I have a soft spot for original Funimation cast because they brought so much personality and warmth into their roles. Each character was bursting with personality, and each voice was easy to decipher. The new dubb has some of the female and male characters sounding very similar. Even the kid voice for Conan sounds like an adult at times. While the Funimation dubb has particular characteristics such as Inspector McGuire with his NYC Brooklyn Italian accent, and Doctor Hagasa with his Russian accent. Funimation really had it down to a science.The movie is close to 2 hours so expect several twists and turns, with a couple unexpected reveals thrown in to justify its long length. It is Conan after all, so this is expected. One of the new characters (Amuro) is fascinating. He’s the antihero that one never knows to trust or not. This was my first time being exposed to the character since Funimation only dubbed 5 seasons before this character was introduced. My only complaint is the names. I wish they had their original Funimation names. Sometimes a character will be talking and mention someone’s name, but because it is in Japanese, the viewer may not know if they are referring to a building name, location, street name, or something else. This sorta distracted from the big reveal, as I didn’t know everything they were referring to. And we all know, it’s always about the big reveal at the END. Also, I’ll have to rewatch it because I was a bit lost in the plot and reveal, so definitely need another watch. Additionally, the music is GREAT! They have the classic tunes from the TV show, but they use different instruments and have some of them in up tempo mode to instrumental ballads. Just SUPBER!Lastly, the animation is gorgeous. However, there are moments where it is just down right sloppy in the sense of character anatomy. Certain characters have very elongated torsos, fingers, shoulders, limbs, etc. It just seemed off compared to some of the other films and even the TV series. Some of the artists working on this film struggled with drawing fingers, noses, and hair correctly. The show already has a unique character design, but this was something I noticed immediately. It’s not horribly animated by any means, but maybe it’s something only an artist would pick up on. Maybe they were in a mad rush to finish animating the film for theater release. Who knows!Thank you DISCOTEK for releasing this. I hope they release more and even dubb the TV show and start with season 6 right where Funimation left off. PRETTY PLEASSSSSSSSEEEE! Get this and support them. Oh, also stay after the end credits for a small teaser. OMG!!! I need more CASE CLOSED in my LIFE!

For the first several movies I watched, I had Detective Conan on probation because I wasn’t sure if I was prepared to invest the time and money into this very lengthy series. At this point, I’ve decided to go all in. The problem I had with the series is that I felt like the plots are overly complicated. There is also a ridiculously large cast of reoccurring characters as well as characters who make single appearances. It all adds up to plots that can be very hard to follow but by this point I’m at least starting to get a handle on the reoccurring characters. Even in the short time I’ve been watching Detective Conan, it feels like the roster of characters has grown even further.What finally sold me on the series was the gorgeous animation, the great music and even the voice acting on the American dubbing. It all makes for a very pleasant viewing even if you have to pay very close attention and probably watch the movie several times to get the plot. In Zero the Enforcer, there is an explosion at the newly built Edge of Ocean tower and the evidence points to private investigator Kogoro Mori as the perpetrator. Anyone familiar with the series will know that Kogoro Mori is a comical character and definitely not the bomber.As with all the previous Case Closed films I’ve watched, the plot is very complex, and the number of characters is legion. One of the things I like to do in whodunit’s is to play along and discover who the culprit is before the reveal. There hasn’t been one Case Closed movie where I have had even an inkling as to who the guilty part was and this one is no exception. I’ve always watched each movie twice to see if I could spot the clues but to no avail. Either I’m just not good at spotting clues or there really are no clues to lead a viewer to the culprit. I don’t think the story even established any suspects. Just people doing their jobs. It’s a little disappointing but the rest of the movie is so well done that I did enjoy it immensely on both viewings.At the moment, Discotek Media appears to be the top company when it comes to Anime. At least for now, it’s about the only company I’m buying Anime from currently. They hold the license for Case Closed, Lupin the 3rd and a ton of other stuff and they’re releasing them much faster than any previous license holders. I do wish the prices of the Lupin and Conan movie were more in the $20 range, but it is what it is. The Fist of Blue Sapphire is coming out in late July so it looks like Discotek is continuing forward with the series.

Growing up I was a huge case closed fan. I had accident watched it on adult swim in the middle of the morning when I was like 8 and later when it was released season by season I couldn’t stop watching it. The show is my childhood. So when I heard that Discotek would be releasing new detective conan movies and also including a complete new dub I was excited to say the least even if it did mean I would have to start giving 30 dollars for buy ray releases. Now there’s not a lot of info to the public about the dub so I’ll tell you the important bits.- it’s a completely new dub with all new voices-if you were hoping they would take inspiration from the original funimation voices let me be the first to say sorry they do not. These are all new portrayals so be ready-conans thoughts are no longer in Jimmys voice so now it’s all Conan all the time ( which I’m kind of upset about I always like the idea that inside conans head was actually jimmy teenage voice)-names are back to their original Japanese so for instances jimmy=Shinichi-and the most important change doctor Agasi no longer has that German voice RIPbut it is a great dub and I think you’ll enjoy it