Being a fan of the comic book series from way back before the anime version came out, I was really excited to see it on DVD. For one thing, it features intelligent plots, decent characters, and no ridiculous sci-fi/fantasy themes -- aside from the premise and the cool gadgets, anyway. The mysteries are well-formed, and that is an important thing in mystery genre. <p>And, thank goodness, the women dress and behave like real people instead of like the teen-boy-fantasy bimbos in the crummy anime that usually shows up in the English-speaking world. <p>Excuse me. Back to the review. <p>The story is as follows: 16 year-old high school student Shinichi Kudou is a world-class detective. He models his deductive technique on that of his idol, Sherlock Holmes, frequently assisting the police with baffling murder cases. One day while on a date, he spots and follows two suspicious-looking men. They capture him, and, wary of shooting him in public, force-feed him an experimental poison before departing. Instead of killing him, the poison shrinks Shinichi to the size of a child. <p>Panicked, he runs to Agasa, an old and trusted friend of the family, who is also an inventor. With this friend's aid, he works his way into his girlfriend Ran's house under the alias of Conan Edogawa (Conan from Arthur Conan Doyle, Edogawa from a Japanese suspense writer). Ran's father is also a detective, and Shinichi hopes that by tagging along on his cases, he might eventually pick up clues to the bad guys' whereabouts. Agasa warns Conan not to tell anyone else who he really is. The bad guys are also looking for him (since there were no reports of Shinichi's body being found, and they're not the kind to let a thing like that go), and anyone who knows anything at all about his real identity will be in serious danger. <p>In the meantime, the detective father is a bumbling, girl-hungry idiot, and Conan soon gets into a routine of solving the father's cases for him without looking like he's doing it. To allay suspicion, he also enrolls in first grade at a local elementary school. He reluctantly makes friends with his classmates and he and they also have their own share of adventures.
<p>Because I've read the series, I was mostly curious to know how the voices would come out, how the producers would set up each plot, and if they would be able to transfer the suspense, drama, and comedy of book form to the TV screen. All in all, the production and the voice acting is excellent. The producers stick closely to major storylines, and character interaction and development is key to most of them. The TV version loses some of the intensity of the original series. It makes sense, however, as the books are geared more toward teens and adults, and the anime more toward children. <p>I have only two objections to the series. One regards the extra episodes which were obviously written to fill out each season. They don't occur in the books, and for good reason. One, in which Conan and his classmates have to outwit a bunch of robbers after getting stuck in a department store after closing hours, is pretty good. But most are terribly farfetched. The series does much better when sticking with the original story arc. <p>(On a more practical note, marketing for the Meitantei Conan anime in Japan is directed mostly at children. Perhaps the producers felt more episodes with Conan's grade-school friends would appeal to the target audience. They could still have come up with better ideas, though.)</p> <p>Another objection is the subtitles. They are TERRIBLE. Not only is dialogue badly translated, but it is also badly spelled. Whole lines are left out altogether -- and a lot of them are important to making the story make sense! It's frustrating to see an otherwise perfectly good, well-written series get such sloppy translation. <p>All in all, this is a good series. Extra snaps to the series for making Ran a karate champion (if you see the show, you'll see what I mean). If you have a fairly good understanding of Japanese, I recommend watching without the subtitles. It's much much better that way.
<p>Because I've read the series, I was mostly curious to know how the voices would come out, how the producers would set up each plot, and if they would be able to transfer the suspense, drama, and comedy of book form to the TV screen. All in all, the production and the voice acting is excellent. The producers stick closely to major storylines, and character interaction and development is key to most of them. The TV version loses some of the intensity of the original series. It makes sense, however, as the books are geared more toward teens and adults, and the anime more toward children. <p>I have only two objections to the series. One regards the extra episodes which were obviously written to fill out each season. They don't occur in the books, and for good reason. One, in which Conan and his classmates have to outwit a bunch of robbers after getting stuck in a department store after closing hours, is pretty good. But most are terribly farfetched. The series does much better when sticking with the original story arc. <p>(On a more practical note, marketing for the Meitantei Conan anime in Japan is directed mostly at children. Perhaps the producers felt more episodes with Conan's grade-school friends would appeal to the target audience. They could still have come up with better ideas, though.)</p> <p>Another objection is the subtitles. They are TERRIBLE. Not only is dialogue badly translated, but it is also badly spelled. Whole lines are left out altogether -- and a lot of them are important to making the story make sense! It's frustrating to see an otherwise perfectly good, well-written series get such sloppy translation. <p>All in all, this is a good series. Extra snaps to the series for making Ran a karate champion (if you see the show, you'll see what I mean). If you have a fairly good understanding of Japanese, I recommend watching without the subtitles. It's much much better that way.