Conan-obsessed employees talk about their favorite cases, characters, and movies (Part 1)

This roundtable discussion project gathers SKY PerfecTV! employees who just can't help but talk about the content they love.
The subject this time is "Detective Conan", which is currently a hot topic due to the movie "Black Iron Submarine"!

Here are the "Conan-loving employees" who gathered for this!
Following the Black Organization's lead, we will introduce them by their code names.

▼Code Name: Gin Tonic
Fell into the Conan swamp because he liked the "Sherlock Holmes" novels and because volumes 1-18 of the "Detective Conan" manga were available at the hospital he visited after an injury as a child, which he read repeatedly. He has read those 18 volumes over and over for 8 years and remembers the early stories quite well.

▼Code Name: Marsala
Got hooked through "YAIBA" and "Magic Kaito" by Gosho Aoyama, the author of "Detective Conan," which she read while standing in BOOK-OFF as a child, and she now owns the entire "Detective Conan" series. By the way, "Magic Kaito" depicts the secret origin story of the "Detective Conan" character Kaito Kid.

▼Code Name: Vodka
A self-proclaimed and peer-recognized Conan otaku who was recommended as such not only by herself but also by the General Manager (the Boss). She spent her elementary school years right when the manga was released and the anime started airing, and "Detective Conan" was the very first manga she ever read in her life. She owns the entire series at home, including the latest volume, 103.

▼Code Name: Cassis
A self-proclaimed "casual fan" who only follows the movies. ...That said, for about 10 years since watching "The Eleventh Striker" during Golden Week in her first year of high school, she has never failed to watch the Conan movie before Golden Week ends. She went to see it on the opening day last year and this year, and she is addicted to sending "spoilers that don't touch on the main plot" to her colleagues who love Conan. By the way, Marsala is one of the victims. (Everyone: "The worst (lol)")

▼Interviewer: SKY PerfecTV! note Editorial Department
Has already "submerged" into "Black Iron Submarine" for this roundtable.

―This is sudden, but what do you all think is the appeal of Conan?
Gin Tonic: I'm a movie fan, but my favorite scene in the movies is the "casual everyday scene before the incident happens." There aren't many anime these days where "the group of five elementary school students never changes," right? I like the very first everyday scene in the movies the best, and as soon as the incident happens, my excitement level just keeps going down (lol).
―So the beginning is the peak (lol).
Gin Tonic: Yes (lol). That "unchanging feeling" is the appeal, or perhaps one of the reasons I keep watching. Many recent anime are quite difficult or complex.
―Certainly, only the initial everyday scenes have a vibe like Doraemon or Sazae-san (lol).
Gin Tonic: Yes. Also, the other day on "Audrey's All Night Nippon," Wakabayashi said, "Conan is friendly to new viewers because it always has the 'I'm a high school detective, Shinichi Kudo' part in the opening" (lol). It's rare to spend that much time explaining things in both movies and anime every time. I think it's nice to have that routine part where you can always come back.

―Indeed, I only watch the movies, so I'm helped by the explanations that pop up here and there (lol). Marsala: The opening explanation, combined with the background music, is exciting.
Cassis: The opening song arrangement is different for every movie, you know!!
Everyone: Yeah, yeah.
Cassis: Oh, you all already knew that... sorry (lol).
Gin Tonic: So that was your biggest weapon (lol).
Cassis: Yeah, I heard it from a friend who loves Conan about 5 years ago and thought "Oh, I see!", and for these 5 years, I thought I was the only one who knew (among those around me) (lol).
Everyone: (lol)
Cassis: Excuse me (lol).

Marsala: There are many characters, but I think the range of characters is also great. There are elementary school students, and there are clear rivals like Kaito Kid and the Black Organization, so the variety is wide, which makes it enjoyable for many generations.
―That's true. How about you, Cassis?
Cassis: I'm a casual fan, so I'll stay quiet (lol).
Everyone: No, no, no, no!
Vodka: I actually want to hear the opinion of a casual fan. What kind of things do you like that make you a casual fan?
Cassis: There are many genres (of the story), right? There are serious episodes where the Public Security or the Black Organization appear, and there are romantic elements. In the movies, there are especially many patterns of stories, so I find that interesting.
Vodka: True, that's exactly why it's easy for many people to watch and get into it. As for me, since the director is different for each movie, I like to watch while guessing, "If it's this person, it might be like this." Even in the anime, there are episodes sometimes called "gag episodes" where you go, "What is that development!?", and when I look at the scriptwriter, it's the person who wrote "(Bobobo-bo) Bo-bobo."
Everyone: Wow!
Vodka: So that's why it becomes so gag-like! I'm convinced (lol). If there's an episode where the story development is gag-like, it might be interesting to see who the scriptwriter is.
Everyone: That's very core! (lol)
Gin Tonic: It's the same as "Aibou" (Partners).
―"Aibou" is like that too!
Gin Tonic: I heard that "Aibou" also has several people rotating the scriptwriting duties, so the development is different every time and the variety is wide.
―For both Conan and Aibou, the main characters and their personalities are set, so you can play with the story parts other than that, right?
Vodka: That's right. Also, regarding the staff, Gosho Aoyama-sensei loves voice actors, so he takes character names from the names of voice actors, like Amuro-san and Detective Takagi.
Among fans, there's even a rumor that "He actually wanted to cast Megumi Hayashibara as the heroine, but her voice quality didn't seem like Ran-chan's, so he wanted to create a character that would fit her voice." Originally, Aoyama-sensei was married to Minami Takayama, too (lol).
Marsala: There was a conversation between Aoyama-sensei and Minami Takayama, wasn't there?
Vodka: Yes, there was! It shows how much he values everyone, including the behind-the-scenes staff. Amuro-san (voiced by Toru Furuya) and Akai-san (voiced by Shuichi Ikeda) are quite veteran, so I'm worried about when they might quit. Furuya-san has been around since the first Gundam.
―It's confusing when voice actors change at this point, isn't it?
Vodka: If you listen closely, their voices are gradually getting older...
Cassis: Your perspective is professional (lol).
Vodka: But Kogoro-ojisan did change. At first, I thought it sounded unfamiliar, but now I'm used to it, right?
Everyone: Indeed.

―Are there any titles that were impressive or titles you like among the movies you've seen so far?
Cassis: For me, it's "Dimensional Sniper". It's great to hear Shuichi Akai's voice in the movie theater.
Gin Tonic: For me, it's "The Phantom of Baker Street".
Everyone: That's a good one~~!
Gin Tonic: There are many Baker Street fans, right? I liked Holmes, so I like that atmosphere set in London.
Marsala: I also really like Baker Street (lol). It's a story that feels a bit near-future, with the setting being inside a game, right? The excitement I felt when I watched it as a child, thinking "I wonder if a game like this will come out in the future," and the fun of how the mystery is solved are the reasons I like it.
Gin Tonic: It's unusually unrealistic... though others are unrealistic too (lol). I think it's rare for the setting itself to be unrealistic.
Vodka: Since Baker Street, the setting became completely different from the Conan stories up to that point, so it was quite a hot topic. It's interesting that the overall story is the point rather than the incident.
Gin Tonic: That's right. The depiction of emotions and such is also serious.
Vodka: I like Heiji-kun (Hattori), so I like "Crossroad in the Ancient Capital" because Heiji-kun is most active in it. Also "The Time-Bombed Skyscraper". I think the way the plot of the incident is constructed is amazing. It doesn't have flashy impact, but looking at it now, it's rare that it's made so interestingly. Recently, there's a trend where you have to explode something big, like "Boom!" or "Bang!" (lol).
Marsala: It's too much of an action movie (lol).
―Vodka-san, what part of Heiji-kun do you like?
Vodka: Maybe the gritty part. He was the first character to appear as Shinichi's rival, and among the rivals that increased after that, I think Heiji-kun is the grittiest and most childish.
―Do the rest of you have any favorite characters?
Cassis: For me, it's always Akai (Shuichi)-san. But I also like Kogoro-ojisan, who never grows at all (lol).
Everyone: (lol)
Gin Tonic: For me, it's Amuro (Toru)-san. I like the "feeling of standing up against evil" that you can learn about by watching past stories.
Vodka: Thanks to Amuro-san appearing, the number of female fans has increased significantly.
―Amuro-san is popular, isn't he? I thought he was cool when I saw "Zero the Enforcer."
Vodka: From around that time, the box office revenue and DVD sales suddenly went up.
Gin Tonic: Also, his car is a Mazda RX-7. I think that appealed to car lovers and spurred his popularity.
―There's a scene that's almost like a car action movie, right (lol)?
Marsala: I love Ai (Haibara)-chan.
Vodka: Then this movie must have been the best for you.
Marsala: Yes. That's exactly why the spoiler (from Cassis) was the worst (lol). Ai-chan is cute from her visuals, and I liked her immediately from the moment she first appeared in volume 18. She's in a key position. When I read volume 18, I was about elementary school age, and there was an element of longing, like "there's a child like this," and as the story progressed, not only her mysterious personality but also cute gaps like liking cats started to show, and I got deeply hooked. Ai-chan wearing a lab coat is also too cute, and I came from a science background and was researching immunity, but...
Everyone: (Eh...? No way...)
Marsala: Ai-chan was making a drug in the Black Organization called APTX 4869 that uses apoptosis (natural cell death), and from there I thought, "I'm researching apoptosis... that's nice..." and started (researching immunity) (lol).
Everyone: So that was it! (lol)
Gin Tonic: It has had a huge impact on your life (lol).
Marsala: But in the end, I came here (the entertainment industry) (lol).
―Indeed. But it's somehow deeply moving that you're talking about Conan here after all that.
Marsala: That's right (lol).

—Are there any episodes that left a deep impression on you, such as ones you still remember clearly?
Vodka: I like Heiji-kun, so... actually, not his first appearance. I like the episode where his childhood friend (Kazuha) Toyama first appears, 'The Naniwa Serial Murder Case.' I especially recommend it because Kazuha-chan's cuteness is off the charts. I think it was around volume 19, if I recall. (*Included in volume 19)
—Vodka-san, you remember the volume numbers and everything, that's amazing. How many times have you read the series? (laughs)
Vodka: I've read up to volume 42 at least five times (laughs). After that, once I became an adult, two times was my limit.
—That's amazing. But it's true that if it's on the bookshelf, you just end up picking it up and reading it.
Gin Tonic: You can start reading Conan from anywhere, right?
Marsala: It's also great that you can enjoy it in one-episode stories! For me, it's probably the 'Moonlight Sonata Murder Case' from volume 7.
Everyone: Ah~!
Vodka: The only one he let die...!
Marsala: Yes. Conan has a motto that you shouldn't corner a culprit to the point where they die, and that was the case that led to that. It's a bit of a sad episode, but it's popular even among Conan fans, so I recommend it.
Gin Tonic: It's not a manga, but I like the movie 'Lupin the 3rd vs. Detective Conan'.
Everyone: Ah~~!
Gin Tonic: It was incredibly interesting. Lupin does criminal things (laughs), but he doesn't feel like a bad guy, and he has his own code. Conan, of course, does the right thing and doesn't hurt people. The two works are completely different and they are structured as rivals, but it's interesting to see them cooperate.
Vodka: The Conan characters were drawn in the Conan style, and the Lupin characters were drawn in the Lupin style; it was a movie with a style I'd never seen before.
Cassis: Didn't they also have a live-action version around the same time? What did you think of that?
Vodka: That was interesting in its own way (laughs). But honestly, I thought there wasn't an actress who could fit Ran-chan.
Marsala: There's a limit to the hairstyle, isn't there (laughs).
Gin Tonic: (Ran's hairstyle) is often teased, isn't it (laughs).
—By the way, who played her in the live-action version?
Vodka: For Junpei Mizobata's version it was Shiori Kutsuna, and for Shun Oguri's it was Tomoka Kurokawa, I think. Shiori Kutsuna-chan might have had more of a fighting feel.
—Indeed, including Shinichi-kun, it seems hard to find the perfect fit (laughs).

Gin Tonic: But recently, it feels like the main Conan story is slowly heading toward the end...
Vodka: More and more of the Black Organization is appearing, after all.
Gin Tonic: I wonder how much longer it will be. ONE PIECE said they have 5 years left (until the end). Conan can keep going as long as they want to.
Marsala: It took a long time to find out Rum's identity, too. About 15 volumes worth.
Vodka: It was really a long time after the name came up.
Marsala: I want to know the face of the (Black Organization) boss, but it's sad that it will end.

With 'Detective Conan' expanding across various media like manga, anime, movies, and live-action dramas, there are many ways to enjoy it.
Next time, we will continue talking about Conan-loving episodes and the crazy movie settings in thePart 2!

Screech... slam! (Sound of a door closing)

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