So today I was re-watching a portion of the Shirigami case (episodes 521-523) when something hit me.
Some spoilers for the aforementioned case follows (though its unlikely that anyone here hasn't seen it yet...)
So, the set-up to the case was this: Shinichi is suddenly found after Conan disappears. However, he apparently suffers from memory loss. At the same time, a dangerous-looking person in a Shirigami costume appears in the forest. At the end of the case it is revealed that the Shinichi with amnesia is actually an imposter, who changed how his face looked, and that the suspicious Shirigami wandering around in the forest is actually the real Shinichi in disguise. The imposter Shinichi hates Shinichi with a passion and disguised as him for his own ulterior motive.
Does any of this ring a bell?
How about the setup and solution to one of the Bourbon arc's central mysteries? (again, spoilers if you haven't caught up with the anime): Akai suddenly appears after he disappeared a while ago. However, he apparently suffers from memory loss. Shortly before, a dangerous-looking man named Okiya appeared and began lurking around. Later on, it is revealed that the Akai with amnesia is actually an imposter (Bourbon) who disguised his actual appearance, and that the suspicious man Okiya is actually the real Akai is disguise. The imposter hates Akai with a passion, and disguised as him for his own ulterior motives.
Keep in mind that the Shirigami case took place shortly after Okiya's introduction into the story.
Jd- wrote:It's true, but let's also keep in mind that Gosho sometimes repackages some ideas on the frequent. Not to spoil a certain ongoing storyline, but...
Spoiler: Anime-manga stuff from the past few months here
If you think about siblings, it's been done once in a certain way and is repeating with a lot of similar elements lately.
Well, its true that Gosho sometimes reuses certain story and case elements, but in this case it's practically the exact same framework, down to the motivations and sequence of events with Shinichi in the main role instead of Akai, so its likely intentional IMO.
Spoiler:
On the case of siblings, Gosho has used it before in the Kir arc, but the mystery with Kir and Eisuke is pretty different from what's happening now IMO, in structure and layout.
I disagree with the suggestion that the previous arc and this one do not share and recycle elements that make them inherently and distinctly similar (and at times almost interchangeable). If you look at it carefully and separate the individual pieces, you'll see how the plot points for this arc and the previous one riff off one another. They are not identical duplicates, but they are, pardon the pun, very closely related.
I don't want to get into recapping the past ten years of the series, but basically:
Spoiler: ANIME AND MANGA SPOILERS, YOU ARE WARNED
A young high-school aged teenager of at least partial Japanese ancestry but deep connections to America comes from afar to search for their older sibling they haven't seen in some time, who has apparently met with uncertain circumstances rendering them unreachable. They share similar eyes to those of a familiar character, serving as a clue to their identity. To get information, they enroll in a local high school, conveniently that of Ran and Sonoko where Kudou Shinichi was also once a student. While befriending Ran and Sonoko, they exhibit an interest in Conan and his strange, uncharacteristically adult behavior and become interested in his identity. Their father is dead, and at least one member of the family is involved to some extent in American clandestine operations. They exhibit skill when it comes to investigative work, but obviously cannot match Conan, though they do exceed that of the other average characters. They are framed as suspicious throughout their story appearances and often interject into cases where they otherwise have no stake. Their missing sibling has connections to the Black Organization and has been shown in the series as potentially evil at the onset of their introduction, but is actually on the side of good in the end.
I mean, you could go on forever and not know which one you're talking about, Sera or Eisuke. The differences are pretty few and far between. The biggest differences are the gender of the characters being swapped (male seeker for female sibling to female seeker for male sibling) and their individual motivations for getting close to Ran and Conan. Their motive for coming into the story varies only slightly (Sera wanting to prove Akai isn't dead, Eisuke wanting to find out if his sister actually is dead or alive or, more specifically, what it is that's going on with her). While there are different moving pieces that move the two along, it is the very similar plots behind both Sera and Eisuke that guide a great deal of the plot progression for their respective arcs, and those informing plots are undoubtedly and unarguably very similar.
As an aside: We figured out who Sera was during her very first case partially due to the inherent and obvious similarities, thus predictability, lended by the Eisuke storyline. In short, something akin to: "Akai's 'dead', so to keep the topic of Akai fresh for a revelation down the road, it's pretty obvious this is his sister, just like when Eisuke was introduced as a seemingly unrelated character who turned out to be related later on."
Jd- wrote:I disagree with the suggestion that the previous arc and this one do not share and recycle elements that make them inherently and distinctly similar (and at times almost interchangeable). If you look at it carefully and separate the individual pieces, you'll see how the plot points for this arc and the previous one riff off one another. They are not identical duplicates, but they are, pardon the pun, very closely related.
I don't want to get into recapping the past ten years of the series, but basically:
Spoiler: ANIME AND MANGA SPOILERS, YOU ARE WARNED
A young high-school aged teenager of at least partial Japanese ancestry but deep connections to America comes from afar to search for their older sibling they haven't seen in some time, who has apparently met with uncertain circumstances rendering them unreachable. They share similar eyes to those of a familiar character, serving as a clue to their identity. To get information, they enroll in a local high school, conveniently that of Ran and Sonoko where Kudou Shinichi was also once a student. While befriending Ran and Sonoko, they exhibit an interest in Conan and his strange, uncharacteristically adult behavior and become interested in his identity. Their father is dead, and at least one member of the family is involved to some extent in American clandestine operations. They exhibit skill when it comes to investigative work, but obviously cannot match Conan, though they do exceed that of the other average characters. They are framed as suspicious throughout their story appearances and often interject into cases where they otherwise have no stake. Their missing sibling has connections to the Black Organization and has been shown in the series as potentially evil at the onset of their introduction, but is actually on the side of good in the end.
I mean, you could go on forever and not know which one you're talking about, Sera or Eisuke. The differences are pretty few and far between. The biggest differences are the gender of the characters being swapped (male seeker for female sibling to female seeker for male sibling) and their individual motivations for getting close to Ran and Conan. Their motive for coming into the story varies only slightly (Sera wanting to prove Akai isn't dead, Eisuke wanting to find out if his sister actually is dead or alive or, more specifically, what it is that's going on with her). While there are different moving pieces that move the two along, it is the very similar plots behind both Sera and Eisuke that guide a great deal of the plot progression for their respective arcs, and those informing plots are undoubtedly and unarguably very similar.
As an aside: We figured out who Sera was during her very first case partially due to the inherent and obvious similarities, thus predictability, lended by the Eisuke storyline. In short, something akin to: "Akai's 'dead', so to keep the topic of Akai fresh for a revelation down the road, it's pretty obvious this is his sister, just like when Eisuke was introduced as a seemingly unrelated character who turned out to be related later on."
Spoiler:
Oh, that's what you mean. I apologize, I misunderstood you when you said 'recently.' I thought you were referring to the twist regarding Sera's family that has been the focus of the manga for the past few months, which is in no way similar to the Kir arc in any way aside from its relation to siblings. In the case of Sera and Eisuke, yes, they are undeniably very similar, no one will argue that, and a lot of people refer to Sera as 'Eisuke 2.0.' I think Sera and Eisuke are more different than people give them credit for, though, and I don't mean just in terms of their personality. Eisuke and Sera's plotlines are only similar in their premise, which you have just outlined, and in a few background details and aspects of later cases following their introduction. Otherwise, their stories have long since diverged in completely separate directions. Suffice to say, I don't think that Sera's ultimate fate will be being shipped off to America
I kind of see it as similar to the way Gosho sets up many of his cases: Conan goes to a group to a mysterious mansion/house where the family has internal issues, there is an argument, someone is later discovered dead. Many of the set-ups are identical, its just that the rest of the cases usually unfold differently.
Jd- wrote:I disagree with the suggestion that the previous arc and this one do not share and recycle elements that make them inherently and distinctly similar (and at times almost interchangeable). If you look at it carefully and separate the individual pieces, you'll see how the plot points for this arc and the previous one riff off one another. They are not identical duplicates, but they are, pardon the pun, very closely related.
I don't want to get into recapping the past ten years of the series, but basically:
Spoiler: ANIME AND MANGA SPOILERS, YOU ARE WARNED
A young high-school aged teenager of at least partial Japanese ancestry but deep connections to America comes from afar to search for their older sibling they haven't seen in some time, who has apparently met with uncertain circumstances rendering them unreachable. They share similar eyes to those of a familiar character, serving as a clue to their identity. To get information, they enroll in a local high school, conveniently that of Ran and Sonoko where Kudou Shinichi was also once a student. While befriending Ran and Sonoko, they exhibit an interest in Conan and his strange, uncharacteristically adult behavior and become interested in his identity. Their father is dead, and at least one member of the family is involved to some extent in American clandestine operations. They exhibit skill when it comes to investigative work, but obviously cannot match Conan, though they do exceed that of the other average characters. They are framed as suspicious throughout their story appearances and often interject into cases where they otherwise have no stake. Their missing sibling has connections to the Black Organization and has been shown in the series as potentially evil at the onset of their introduction, but is actually on the side of good in the end.
I mean, you could go on forever and not know which one you're talking about, Sera or Eisuke. The differences are pretty few and far between. The biggest differences are the gender of the characters being swapped (male seeker for female sibling to female seeker for male sibling) and their individual motivations for getting close to Ran and Conan. Their motive for coming into the story varies only slightly (Sera wanting to prove Akai isn't dead, Eisuke wanting to find out if his sister actually is dead or alive or, more specifically, what it is that's going on with her). While there are different moving pieces that move the two along, it is the very similar plots behind both Sera and Eisuke that guide a great deal of the plot progression for their respective arcs, and those informing plots are undoubtedly and unarguably very similar.
As an aside: We figured out who Sera was during her very first case partially due to the inherent and obvious similarities, thus predictability, lended by the Eisuke storyline. In short, something akin to: "Akai's 'dead', so to keep the topic of Akai fresh for a revelation down the road, it's pretty obvious this is his sister, just like when Eisuke was introduced as a seemingly unrelated character who turned out to be related later on."
"The energies of our system will decay; the glory of the sun will be dimmed, and the earth, tideless and inert, will no longer tolerate the race which has for a moment disturbed its solitude. Man will go down into the pit, and all his thoughts will perish. The uneasy consciousness, which in this obscure corner has for a brief space broken the contented silence of the universe, will be at rest. Matter will know itself no longer. 'Imperishable monuments' and 'immortal deeds,' death itself, and love stronger than death, will be as though they had never been."
