Detective Conan Movie 18: "Dimensional Sniper" (2014)

[kkslider5552000]

Wow! I really enjoyed this one. I tend to not be excited by the movies so I don't know if it's good until I actually watch it. But I did really like this one. It finally went all out on being ridiculous instead of being a murder mystery with explosions and action added to add importance where this is none. And it was fun. Still had some issues and it kinda became a clusterhype but I liked it.

But more importantly, it was...*ahem*...

OKIYA SUBARU'S POINTLESS CAMEOS: THE MOVIE (The Dimensional iPad)

It certainly was. And he cameo'd through our hearts! : DDDDDDDDDDDDDD

Spoiler:

Haibara made Agasa cry by her superiority at puns. What does he have to live for now? ;___;

Thinking about it, how many more people are gonna find out about the FBI at this point? Why in any reality do Chiba and Shiratori need this information or are the best people for this situation?!

Conan is officially trying to be Tony Hawk. And I mean like...video game Tony Hawk. Not sure how a 720 spin is gonna stop that sniper, Conan. Also a person in that car could've been severely injured. Also, I think that guy murdered some police officers, and no one cared.

The worst part of this movie was that Haibara and Sonoko weren't relevant in it. Kogoro kinda was at one point, maybe? (he was actually right, if for the wrong reason) But they did try to make characters important by the end and the focus was on Sera and the FBI, fair enough.

The anime team usually has decent pacing for 2 ep AOs but usually I feel the more case focused later movies don't do enough to consistently keep my attention. This movie makes that confusing. I mean, I understand why it was more entertaining was because it was more ridiculous and fun over being that similar to the typical murder mystery storytelling of the series. But honestly a big reason this works is that the original characters are actually interesting. Particularly the backstory, like a guy sacrificing himself to a sniper just to make him the best sniper to assassinate everyone that ruined his life...that's something I'll actually probably remember, to some degree at least. Also, the English. It is sooooo amazing, it makes me really happy. It's like this perfect mix of good (for Japanese anime) and so bad it's good and I loved it. I'm under the assumption it was somewhat slower English for the sake of the audience?

The climax was a pretty cool clusterfiretruck. I was worried I would get annoyed by it but it was ridiculous in mostly the right ways and I immediately love when as many characters as possible get to contribute to saving the day. Also, I think Ran could've killed that dude if the FBI weren't there. But hey, that's two movies in a row where Ran got to help instead of being useless. I'll take what I can get.

Also, in case we needed more confirmation about Okiya Subaru...that line confirms it even more, if that's possible. I think Gosho is just having a bet with someone to see how long he can technically not fully reveal his identity, but realized fans just wanted confirmation at this point so threw this in. Also, I don't think it was confirmed that James Black was actually still in contact with him. I mean I figured at this point that he must know he's alive but that actually surprised me. Still hoping when this arc finally ends that it end with Haibara and Jodie yelling at Conan and Shu while the price is right fail horn plays over and over.

Sera is still the coolest! Not only does she use her motorcycle to movie-levels but she saved Conan twice. TWICE! I think she was taken out towards the end just because they couldn't think of a way for her to be involved in the climax and not stop the bad guy in like three seconds. I kinda wanna see a redone version where that happens and everyone else is just saddened by how they didn't get to do anything.

I like how a character decided his grand scheme needed to involve making a star shape. Like that's the greatest revenge, creating shapes on a map! I wonder if he sat down and realized that it sounded kinda silly. But to be fair, you could say that about a lot of the bigger cases in this series probably.

[Elixir]

This movie is superb! It captured the things I am looking for in a Conan movie. Suspense, mystery, action, and logic, less drama Probably the best Conan Movie I saw, next or equal to Raven Chaser. They established a good background story and setting this time, unlike Private Eye in Distant Sea. More like this please.

There are things though that disturbs me a little.

Spoiler: Minor spoiler

1. Jodie's lines. I don't mind her accent anymore, but when she was supposed to deal with the sniper, she says "You're mine!", "Bring it on!" I cringed. I mean, really? She was cool though but she's better in action without lines.

2. Conan's involvment. I realised this when Ran told Sera not to bring Conan anymore to the investigation. Finally! The only adult who saw Conan as a child. Other police offivers like Megure don't seem to acknowledge that Conan IS a child. Before, Conan would find a way to overhear the conversations.

おきやさんは　めちゃ　かっこいい！

The characters here are their coolest selves.

Spoiler:

I mean Genta actually helped Conan in the case, he's not annoying this time!

Conan is accident prone　though. またく！

[Jecka]

This movie was actually a big step up from the last one. It was pretty good story and visual wise.
But omg

Spoiler:

The people with fluent English in this movie are American right? So why is their English so awkward? They speak Japanese fine and then they switch to English and it's like they forget how to act.

Not that much of a problem, but that's the biggest problem I had >_>

[Kudo Shinchi]

Wow, now that was a great movie! Very impressive, I loved it. It's easily the best movie of all the more recent Conan movies, and definitely in my top 5.

Spoiler:

I think the reason this movie worked so well was that it's central case/story was compelling enough to carry the whole thing. Most of the movies have decent/good murder mysteries spiced up by giant explosions and crazy action scenes, just to make the stakes seem higher and everything bigger. This movie was surprisingly low-key most of the time and it went a long way in making it work. It's notable that there were really only two actions scenes: one in the beginning, one at the end. That it was so interesting and entertaining despite that is a testament to the strength of the writing.

I was actually pretty engrossed in the stories of the main characters. They weren't the most fleshed out characters, but they were given enough characterization to have distinct personalities and actually be sympathetic on some level. There was this complicated web of relations between them, and I like how most of them were humanized. Waltz, for example, is the one who took away Hunter's badge and set off the chain reaction of events, but he wasn't portrayed as unrepentantly evil, since he still cared and feared for his wife and daughter, which is why he took action later in the story. Small touches like that really enhanced the movie.

The antagonist was fantastic as well, mostly because he was totally nuts. I think the fact that he was doing it for the man who saved his life (a really nice touch, btw, that the murderer wasn't killing people who had harmed him personally, thus confusing the investigation because of a seeming lack of motive) may have contributed to that. Seriously, the opening chase sequence was enough to establish that. He shoots a guy dead in a crowded area, opens fire at a kid following him on a skateboard, shot up multiple police cars, literally blew up who knows how many police cars on a bridge, jumped over it with a motorcycle, shot to kill at Sera as soon as she confronted him, opened fire on Camel as soon as he appeared, etc. The way he was so totally indiscriminate in who he killed (he tried to kill a random kid he didn't know twice for interfering with his plan without a hint of remorse) made him a bit scary. That Conan spent the entire movie failing to stop him even when he actively tried contributed to that. He felt like a worthy antagonist, probably the best in a Conan movie, and it made his defeat at the end by everyone that much more satisfying. The stakes felt real (Sera getting shot was a smart move as well, really contributed to the 'this is dangerous' feel the movie was going for) and the story had actual weight.

Special shout-out to the short scene demonstrating how Tokyo descended into a panic. It was a realistic portrayal of that sort of situation, I think, and I'm glad it was included. I really, really liked it. It also was pretty funny, how people began saying the most outlandish things and everyone believed them to be true.

That Subaru=Akai reveal at the end couldn't have been done better. So good. Great way to finish off the movie. On that note, Sera was great here too! I really, really liked her here. The bits where we saw her investigating independently were nice too, as those don't really appear in the manga or anime. In fact, the best thing about this story is that it could only have been done properly as a movie. The scope, format, and style wouldn't have meshed well with a manga format, but done here it was spectacular.

Small nitpicks: the end was fun but still completely over the top, the Ran-Shinichi bits were a bit cringe-worthy and really felt perfunctory, as if they have to be there because that's the formula for the movies (and I say this as a Shinran shipper). Movie 17 did that aspect a lot better. The art felt a bit off in places as well. Also, the English alternated between decent and hilariously bad. At least the pronunciations were mostly good.

I'm putting the following in a separate box because it has manga spoilers (mostly):

Spoiler:

Did anyone notice how many references there were to the current ongoing mysteries/events/clues in the manga?
1. When Sera smiled at one point, her fang showed.
2. There was a blink-and-you'll-miss-it reference to the mystery girl staying in Sera's room. It was quick shot of the two beds, when Sera was answering her phone after just waking up. You could see a big bulge in the bed next to her, which is a pretty obvious reference to mystery girl.
3. Conan was wearing a shirt with a Britain symbol on it when Sera got shot. There's been much talk about the increasing references to Britain in the manga, with Conan wearing clothing that show British icons on several cover pages and the mystery girl's as well as Amuro's British wear, etc.
4. Ran seemed strangely clingy to Conan, always inquiring about where he was, what was he doing. It kind of felt like a nod to the current suspicions Ran's beginning to harbor in the manga recently.
5. And of course, the Akai/James stuff.

I can definitely see Gosho's involvement in this.

[char13happy]

https://www.facebook.com/SMCinema/photo ... =1&theater

OH. MY. FRIGGIN. GOSH.

The newest movie's actually showing here in the Philippines (THE PHILIPPINES!). In my country where anime shows rarely get played aside from the usual conventions and festivals. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this is a sign for good things to come!!!

[Nemomon]

Spoiler:

The movie was not bad. I liked how it was just a single plot from the start to the end. Some Conan movies have more plots at once which not always is good.

This movie was unique also in another ways - for the first time Conan was making mistakes in his notorious suicide skateboard stunts, and was in danger. One little step forward.

I liked how Sera mentioned that none bullet can pierce Conan's heart. Pretty obvious reference that Conan loves only Ran, and nobody else, and that Conan in fact is Shinichi.

What hit me was that some random soldier knew and heard about "Silver Bullet". Until now I thought that this name was used just by Anokata and Vermouth. But it seems Akai had this nickname far sooner, and the Boss and Vermouth just called him by his nickname without implying anything.

Okiya. His cameos actually were not that bad as many of You may think. It is better that he appeared from time to time in the movie than if he would appear from nowhere at the end and kill the sniper. You then would scream "WTF!?" .

And Haibara was more malicious to Conan in this movie like never before.

Seems like Okiya was well aware that Conan knows that he's there and sniping. Though Conan's reaction "What is he doing here?" was kinda odd considering that Okiya is still FBI agent, FBI this time basically was running this investigation. Unless Conan didn't know that James knows that Akai is still alive. What could be weird as well considering that James found out that in the hospital too.

What I missed at the end of this movie was a meeting between Conan and Okiya. And a honest discussion between them. Like a child and adult. Like Conan and Daisuke.

[MoonRaven]

I watched this too and I gotta say this one was a good one. I liked a lot.

[Wakarimashita]

Felt like a slightly better version than movie 13 overall.

+ :
-Mostly good backround for the characters and a story which somehow managed to be rather compelling.
-Several deaths which kept the tension high almost at all times.
-Good Conan-Sera interactions and not too many DB scenes.
-Managed to fit the 'canon aspects' quite naturally into the story, it didn't feel forced.
-No horrible 3D CGI animation every 5 minutes.

- :
-Pointless use of english in a completely random fashion. Some characters speak english, switch to japanese, and then back to english, and you don't really get why. They should stick to japanese, it's far better in terms of voice acting.
-Some action scenes were way over the top. After the first 10 minutes I thought 'ok, this is going to be Conansformers', thankfully the rest of the movie developed the plot with some action that was kept at a reasonable level (bar the final scene).
-Cringe-worthy 'romance' (the 'Shinchi I love you so much I'll run into a sniper' moment, among others), as usual.
-Elevator music (except maybe one or 2 tracks).

[kitameguire]

Spoiler:

I loved it. This was an awesome movie! But I'm wondering why James knows Shuichi is alive when he contacted him even though the FBI thinks he's dead.

[Spimer]

@kitameguire: if you're an anime-only fan then I'll only say that it will eventually be explained in the anime by next year.

[ryankun0903]

the best Conan movie I've seen in recent years.

I love the fine details of this movie,
example:

Spoiler:

you can see tim hunter walking out the alley when the motorcycle took off from the alley indicating he was there during the first kill

[Okiyakaivan]

When i watch the Movie theres some scene are diffrent from Online n Theater version.. weird

[Spimer]

@Okiyakaivan: maybe your country's theathers cut some content or censored some of it?

[Okiyakaivan]

@Okiyakaivan: maybe your country's theathers cut some content or censored some of it?

i think not, when i see back on the not clear voice on the video that take from movie theater it also same... theres a diffrent between the theater n online version if you can spot it

[Puto]

They always update the animation a bit for the home release vs. the DVD.