Die Detektiv Conan – Reihe hat etwas Magisches an sich. Die Krimigeschichten sind inbrünstig und leidenschaftlich erzählt und bieten uns darüber hinaus noch eine tolle romantische Geschichte, die zudem auch die Themen Freundschaft und Familie aufgreift. Doch würde ich die Reihe jemandem empfehlen, der nicht viel mit Anime zu tun hat? Wohl kaum, oder jedenfalls nur auszugsweise. Hier sind die Filme tatsächlich immer ein guter Einstieg, da sie stets eine Story umfassen, die in sich abgeschlossen ist und dabei sogar noch die gesamte Welt des Conan Edogawa kurz aufdröseln. Mit dem mittlerweile 25. Film schließen die Macher nahtlos an den Stil vorheriger Produktionen an und liefern uns Fanservice auf Raten, der zwar sehr unterhaltsam ist und einige charmante Momente besitzt (die teilweise sogar schon in den Fremdscham abgleiten können), aber dennoch ein wenig an Kreativität und Intelligenz missen lässt.

Statt einem gewieften Fall, bei dem wir hautnah die Aufklärung verfolgen, sehen wir eigentlich nur viel expositorische Erzählung, welche die Fans begeistern soll, dies teilweise auch schafft, aber letztlich doch sehr harmlos um die Ecke kommt. Zudem scheint langsam ein wenig Einfallslosigkeit einzusetzen, denn mehrere Szenen erinnern an bekannte US-amerikanische Szenarios. Die großen Gefühle werden uns somit auch hier wieder vorenthalten, wodurch wir zwar kein schlechtes Werk erhalten, aber letztlich doch nur ein wenig Zeit vertrödeln. Teil 26 ist schon angekündigt und die Hoffnungen bleiben, dass wir hier endlich wieder großes Krimikino erleben.

Detektiv Conan – Die Halloween-Braut ©2022 GOSHO AOYAMA/DETECTIVE CONAN COMMITTEE All Rights Reserved.

Detektiv Conan – Die Halloween-Braut ©2022 GOSHO AOYAMA/DETECTIVE CONAN COMMITTEE All Rights Reserved.

The brilliant mind behind the Detective Conan series is Gosho Aoyama, who has regularly published new manga volumes since 1994. His crime stories also form the templates for the series, which is over 1000 episodes long and is constantly being extended in Japan, as well as the countless feature films that have even made it to German cinema screens in recent years. He always works with different scriptwriters who put the appropriate finishing touches on his scripts. The directing position, however, is usually always occupied by the same people, and only a few changes in the past decades have brought new influences to the series. Now, however, the time has come again. The 25th film has been taken over by Susumu Mitsunaka, who was previously basically only involved in the development of the HAIKYU!! TV series and the associated films. In an early fan premiere, DETECTIVE CONAN – THE BRIDE OF HALLOWEEN was already presented to the first fans in some cities on 20 May 2022.

Here’s what it’s all about

When the wedding of the former police chief, who was recently just threatened, is coming up, Kogorō and Megure are asked to take care of the security of the event. In preparation, they resort to extraordinary measures. At the same time, several bombings occur in the city, making Miwako remember her former partner Jenpei Matsuda, who tragically died in the line of duty defusing a bomb. Conan gets to the bottom of it and is under enormous pressure as even undercover agent Rei Furuya, better known as Bourbon, is struggling to die with a bomb around his neck. The investigation becomes more delicate than ever as not only Ai and Kogorō face death, but the Detective Boys and Conan themselves become targets of the most gruesome attacks, all of which are just a preparation for the total destruction of Tokyo.

Review

With applause from fans, the young detective’s 25th film adventure opens the new story as the time has finally come for Miwako Sato and Wataru Takagi to walk down the aisle. Those familiar with the Conan universe know that Takagi is a shy policeman who has always been in love with his colleague, but has enormous difficulties showing it to her. Again and again he has to rely on outside help, and the fanservice that finally rewards the audience’s hopes seems all the more surprising. In fact, this opening scene presents us with a typical motif of the series: Fanservice in instalments. Both the series and the films always work towards a resolution and fulfilment of various developments, which are, however, ultimately delayed indefinitely in order to keep the audience interested. This works and takes place again here for certain parts of the story.

Detektiv Conan – Die Halloween-Braut ©2022 GOSHO AOYAMA/DETECTIVE CONAN COMMITTEE All Rights Reserved.

This film series is not just for the true fans who are familiar with all the works, but each individual film also picks up new viewers and explains what it is about and which character takes on which function. An early one-shot introduces each character and the detective’s gadgets in detail. This one-shot has been completely revamped and now has a completely new design. However, while the camera usually sticks to the protagonist Conan Edogawa and presents his experiences to us, the perspective now changes quite frequently and shows us various elements of the content through the eyes of other characters. Unfortunately, this creates the problem that it is often unclear where the school detective actually gets his information from in order to then cleverly combine it. Interestingly, the film even uses some self-irony in this respect and jokes with these ridiculous developments.

Stolen from US corporations?

DETECTIVE CONAN – THE BRIDE OF HALLOWEEN is clearly more humorous and sometimes harder to look at than its many predecessors, but still remains a juvenile crime thriller that follows the same pattern. The expository part once again takes up most of the time and confronts us with a lot of superfluous information that could easily have been cut down to half. This saving, in turn, would have allowed for a more effective build-up of tension, which only takes place very moderately here. Despite the many characters, however, it is easier for the audience to stay with the story than in the previous parts, because a much more straightforward structure has been established, which is only interrupted now and then by various flashbacks. It’s just a shame that the perpetrator or perpetrators are already recognisable to the layman’s eye early on, which makes it lack a bit of mysticism.

Detektiv Conan – Die Halloween-Braut ©2022 GOSHO AOYAMA/DETECTIVE CONAN COMMITTEE All Rights Reserved.

Usually, attempts are made to tell origin stories, which often only work because they are anime films. In this part, however, the film team seems to have borrowed heavily from the American industry, because both THE BATMAN and DIE HARD: WITH A VENEGEANCE shimmer clearly through the story again and again, raising the question of who copied from whom. In addition, Aoyama once again relies on the Suspension of Disbelief, which is probably not a big surprise for all fans, but increasingly robs the fun out of the crime story, since apparently anything is possible at any time. In particular, the characters’ abilities exceed anything humanly possible many times over. Up to a certain point, the exaggerations are quite tolerable and compatible with the anime style, but in the meantime this limit is unfortunately exceeded and exhausted beyond measure.

Detektiv Conan – Die Halloween-Braut ©2022 GOSHO AOYAMA/DETECTIVE CONAN COMMITTEE All Rights Reserved.

Much ado about nothing

Even though vigilante justice is made the hook of the story and is also rightly questioned, the whole story seems rather insignificant and puts the audience into a hypnosis of fan joy. DETECTIVE CONAN – THE BRIDE OF HALLOWEEN does not advance our knowledge of the characters or the plot one metre and is also quickly forgotten after the viewing. Instead, Aoyama increasingly relies on showmanship through large-scale images and imaginative scenarios, but completely loses sight of the fact that a tricky crime story would also work without all the bombast and sometimes even captivates the audience better than the many superficialities that have now found their way into the series. It lacks the expressiveness, the courage and the meaning, making the Conan world increasingly monotonous and also unable to benefit from the technical modernisation.

Conclusion

In the end, we see only a mediocre film in the 25th part of the film series, which can score points with charming threats in individual scenes, but which are resolved much less intelligently and do not bear witness to our hero’s detective instinct. Moreover, the work has little to do with Halloween and so instead of the expected creepiness we only get a repeatedly used story scheme in which only the characters and settings are changed. Garnished with a little fanservice, there are always a few moments that make you smile or even shock you, but similar to the MCU, the creators lack the courage to go unexpected ways and create facts. After more than 20 years, it might finally be time to take a step forward. However, a 26th part has already been announced and is heralded by a short but concise after-credit scene – so hope remains for the future.