From what I can tell, the problems of DC started to magnify post-Vermouth arc, and really start to glare to readers by the Bourbon arc, starting with a long buildup to what was essentially nothing (Silent Clash/Department Store Bombing), then having a year plus break from the plot almost entirely (Holmes' Revelation didn't help matters), then finally revealing the titular character in a mystery that was pretty much solved on arrival, by some, with Kaito's intervention in the, at the time, hyped case on the Mystery Train not going over so well, and being seen as lazy, and finally culminating in the titular character being revealed to be another spy (and the only hint to this not in the cases immediately preceding this reveal was a hint that he'd been in the police academy—that is not going to make readers think, immediately, "He's a PSB agent!" There was too much left open in that hint for it to be a decisive clue to the direction Gosho eventually revealed he was taking.). Throughout, character development for the well-established characters was put on hold for that of the newcomers, even though it would have been easy to implement, leading to a stagnation that still persists. The final, big mystery of the arc was completely in the wake of the end of Clash of Red and Black and the Kir arc—with Subaru Okiya being yet another red herring character whose true identity was guessed, by some, from the moment of his first appearance. Looking back on it, this arc screamed interlude, just like the Sherry/Haibara arc was an interlude between the Intro/Conan arc and the Vermouth arc, and like the Cell Phone arc was an interlude between the Vermouth arc and the Kir arc—the Bourbon arc should've been the interlude between the Kir arc and the Rum arc. While one could easily cut and rearrange cases in every arc in DC to shorten the length, the Bourbon arc could've had half of it cut—at the very least—and the most essential elements could've easily been preserved. The Bourbon arc's length is its most harmful aspect—while people would've still critiqued the arc as derivative and unoriginal in many aspects, the backlash would not have been nearly as bad, I think, had it only lasted to 2009 or 2010, instead of June 2014.kkslider5552000 wrote:That being said, I feel increasingly uninterested (and slightly uncomfortable) criticizing Gosho's writing because I have no idea how any writer wouldn't fail at something writing as much as he is, doing the genre he's been doing for as long as he has done it with the schedule mangaka tend to have. In retrospect, it isn't surprising Gosho's writing eventually had such issues, it's surprising it took as long as it to decline as slowly as it did.
I don't know why Gosho decided to spend so long on what should've been an interlude, and stunt the character development of so many. Ran's and Shiho's/Ai's extremely limited involvement and lack of development in the Cell Phone arc and the Kir arc do not hold a candle to how they were sidelined in the Bourbon arc, especially in the strange case of Ran in London with the big event that took place, there, which led to nothing (it's now been as long as the entire Vermouth arc and the Pre-Mystery Train part of the Bourbon arc since that case).
Once Gosho resolves all the leftover threads of the Bourbon arc (Akai family and Scotch), we'll see what he's got in store.
