"Episode One : The Shortened Detective" 2h special (December the 9th)

[DCUniverseAficionado]

Well, Kid is a permanent part of the MC universe whether we like that or not, so there is no reason to be upset just because he appeared (or rather will appear) in this special. Maybe with a bit of luck Gosho will consider it canon, and Kid will see Conan turning into a child, thus he canonically will also be aware that Shinichi and Conan are the same person.

And he's in here because the special will be going past File 1 and File 2, with File 49–File 51/Episode 43 (Yusaku and Yukiko intro), File 92–File 96/Episode 48–Episode 49 (Heiji intro), and, now, File 156–File 159/Episode 76 (Kaito/Kid II intro) being covered, as well. Kid's not flying by Tropical Land—we'll get to see his first (though technically not, with Black Star) encounter with Shinichi/Conan.

[gergoking]

Just finished watching it. I've enjoyed it so much, I don't even know what to write. Must have been partly because of the nostalgia. I like all the newly remade scenes with the additional tie-ins. I was glad that it was finished with Sherry. Her finding the empty box and writing Shinichi as "Dead" was a nice touch at the end.

I saw the series's start years ago, so I don't remember if they have ever mentioned a time, but it was written that two months have passed between Shinichi's disappearance and Shiho's house visit, which I find quite long.

And an other strange event was Shinichi's transformation. His acceptance of changing into a kid was really slow, which I found really out-of-character. Of course, something unimaginable happened, but when I thin for the second time that he got what happened, still not...

But all in all, it was a great nostalgia trip with everything connected, every character appearing. The opening with Shinichi was nice, and the story-closing moments with Kid, and mostly Hattori, was a great touch. One of my best Conan experience in the last few years (I stil didn't watch the last two movies)

[Misztina]

It was amazing. I love almost every bit of it. A haven't enjoy DC anime this much in a long time and this made me feel excited. This is Detective Conan, truly. It made me feel the drama and everything behind it. It had real soul unlike most of the movies.

[Kor]

This felt... incredibly underwhelming (watched without subs obviously, so maaaaaaaaaybe I will one day change my mind).

Spoiler:

Perhaps this stems from me this time having a bit too much faith in the promotional material that heavily featured Shiho (who really appears only at the beginning and at the end), and that line about seeing what characters who didn't exist at the time did in that day (but in actuality some of the characters just get a really kinda pointless cameo that doesn't really mean anything, and some characters just appear in the montage at the end).
I'm quite certain that both the erratic montage and some of the cameo appearances may not fit continuity all too well, but this is a bit trivial overall. I think the biggest problem is that most of it is sort of pointless. In fact I'm not entirely sure why this special needs to exist.
Japan has been going through an anniversary/nostalgia trend for a few years now. A bunch of old series get new shows and/or movies and/or manga, but those series ended years ago. Making new products of those shows wasn't just celebrating said franchises, but also giving you a chance to once again see these characters on screen, listening to them, maybe making you feel something and hit you in your precious precious nostalgia buttons. But Detective Conan...? It never went away. It's been running in print since 94, with new episodes on TV since 96, with a movie once a year every year since. Detective Conan doesn't have the luxury of giving you one more chance to enjoy these characters because you get them all year every year. And it's a problem, because at least part of this special felt like it wanted to hit your nostalgia with these old moments. Shinichi and Ran may go around establishing their relationship in this special, but this "romance" has been going for 23 years already, so rather than it being "delightful" in the special, my head flips it into "I can't believe this is a plot thread that still goes on so many years later". Instead of reminding me about the fun I may have had with these characters, it just becomes frustrating.
Most of the recreated scenes felt somewhat boring overall. Yes, I get it's called Episode One, but rather than simply pad out the content of the first episode, they could have done something that wouldn't have made it so... samey... like... showing what other characters that didn't exist at the time were doing. Crazy idea, I know.
The ONLY time I felt my nostalgia button was getting pushed was during the montage in Tropical Land with Zard played in the background. This was probably the only time that I thought to myself "this is kinda lovely". I don't know how much it was because of Zard (probably a lot), but if they wanted to press that nostalgia button, well, at that specific point they did it. That said...
I honestly have to wonder how much the new new content and the new old content (movie 4 rehash) truly work with the original first ep/chapter. If you bother to redo something, at least you could reconsider if what you originally wrote even works with the new stuff you add in. For example, after Shinichi and Ran having this M4 scene and the music montage, how much sense does it make that suddenly he becomes completely obnoxious and talks about Holmes and mysteries? Yes I know that's how it originally was, but does that truly work with zero regard to the rest of the content (or hey, maybe in all the dialogue in the previous scenes Shinichi was just as obnoxious and I just couldn't understand it...), or how about Ran crying after the case is closed? Sure it may have made sense at the time, but by now Gosho went back to these characters' pasts various times and inserted various cases since the time they were children.
Most of the cameos felt silly and unaccomplished. Some characters were just relegated to the montage at the end (so they didn't really appear in a new material), the FBI cameo was ruined by Jodie speaking English (way to take everything out of that scene), and I don't even understand the Yukiko and Yusaku cameo being in those costumes. It's like the very definition of the 'member berries from South Park "'member when Shinichi's parents wore those costumes to fool Conan?" "Yeah, I 'member". Again, going on the visuals alone, but it really seemed like the ultimate "remember this was a moment in the manga?" moment. And when such a moment exists only for this sake, it really seems silly.
I guess one conclusion that should be taken from all of this is that a story has a beginning and an end, and If you bother yourself to go back to your beginning many years later, maybe you should do so only after reaching the end first. Otherwise it may just fall flat.

[jimmy_kud0_tv2]

this is really all you need

[eros1607]

I pretty much agree with Kor about this episode. This episode is so disappointing. I don't feel much about the old scenes, they are just re-animated scenes without new spin, even the animation is not that amazing anyway. The other scenes feel redundant and uninteresting, except the BO scenes. I want to feel nostalgic but the Kogoro's old voice actor does not appear this episode, how can I feel nostalgic? Shiho's screen time is closed to zero, she is just a bait to attract viewers (why does she appear in the poster anyway with that amount of screen time?). And what the heck are Yusaku and Yukiko doing with those outfits? I can only consider this episode as a long filler as best, and it is not a good filler either. Now it's time to wait for the department store case.

[Swagnarok]

It's really a small thing, but I like how, throughout the years, every depiction of that fateful day accurately portrays what Shinichi and Ran were wearing. For whatever reason, though, Shinichi's outfit seems a bit dated to me.

[DCUniverseAficionado]

For whatever reason, though, Shinichi's outfit seems a bit dated to me.

Uh... because it's from the mid 90s?

[Swagnarok]

For whatever reason, though, Shinichi's outfit seems a bit dated to me.

Uh... because it's from the mid 90s?

Yes, but Ran's outfit wouldn't be so strange in 2016.

[DCUniverseAficionado]

For whatever reason, though, Shinichi's outfit seems a bit dated to me.

Uh... because it's from the mid 90s?

Yes, but Ran's outfit wouldn't be so strange in 2016.

If you say so, but I don't recall her wearing it or—correct me if not—anything like it, since File 1/Episode 1.

[xLostChains]

I enjoyed the special...it turned out pretty decent, and the murder scene, you can totally see the animation staff giving effort to it
Finally...I've enjoyed a 2 hour special from DC

and that OP...nostalgia <3

[xLostChains]

this is really all you need

hahaha..this scene is both cute and hilarious

[MeiTanteixX]

My thoughts on Episode ONE special...

Spoiler:

This was like a glimpse on how great the anime could get if they put this kind of effort to faithfully adapt the manga. Was quite emotional watching how they connected and re-adapted some of the scenes.

I actually appreciated the effort they put in connecting some of the Movie flashback scenes from M4. Most of the special was Manga influenced(rather than anime), so although it mixed in with the canon, it only created a nice relationship between the movie and anime.

I still had some gripes with some choices that they made. Most of them are small, but for fans like me, it means a lot:

- The fact that they made a 2 month time-skip until Sherry visited the Kudo house. After Agasa's foreshadowing of their arrival, it shouldn't have taken that long. What bothers me more is also that Sherry recalled her conversation to Akemi about Conan(which was during her mission), meaning that Akemi is already dead at this point. But the way Sherry's behavior was portrayed didn't fit with a grieving person(that eventually completely went against orders).

- Jodie's early spotlight being snatched by Akai, once again(and I thought Sera was enough). What made Jodie so great(in Vermouth arc) was that she was leading the investigation on Vermouth, and Akai only came in later as support. Here, they straight up just gave Akai credit for figuring out Vermouth's next move, making Jodie look less competent. And as for their choice of having Vermouth being aware of the FBI this early on,...well....IMO, it only takes away from the vermouth arc and all the moments she could have figured out that they were on her tail, and even hurts Vermouth's image more because of the fact that she wasn't suspicious of the Araide accident when she knew the FBI was after her.(Maybe I'm just bitter about my fan-manga being contradicted )

- The time jump from Vermouth scene to Sherry scene could have also been handled better. I do however prefer that they ended it with Sherry crossing Shinichi off the list.

- How Shinichi managed to turn and get a clear look at gin(and time to react) before getting hit, was unnecessary too.

Some interesting scenes that I don't know what to think of(since they are both good and bad at the same time) are "Kawaii korn scene", "not seeing the result of Ran vs Hina", "That Bourbon was shown", "Detective Boys interacting with Shinichi" and "Jodie and Vermouth being shown at the same time"...

Other than than these things, I absolutely LOVED this special and I certainly enjoyed it more than Movie 20! It was a perfect mix of plot structure focus and Fanservice and I couldn't have hoped for anything better!

Scenes I appreciated a lot:

- Wada Hina being highlighted and presented so well into the story. She is more than just warmed up to enter the anime now. It made me like her more and even hope for future appearances of her(especially after what's happening in the upcoming chapters).

- Makoto's first gaze at Sonoko(don't need to add more than this). <3

- Shinichi's Childhood crush reference!

- Kir's small cameo and Bourbon's, Chianti's and Korn's small contribution to the episode 1 BO mission.

- That "GIn VS Megure" moment...

- The epic Rum foreshadowing in regards to his mission, and the parallell to the intro of this special(with Gin threatening a rat).

- The "Haneda Kouji" name being shown.

- Among my favorite moments, All the future case scenes re-adapted in nice quality and the throwback to both Conan's and Heiji's character development, as well as Kid's intro being animated perfectly and the awaited adaptation of the Akemi scene in it's true form!!!(Hoped they could have shown more)

- Every second of Sherry scene!(just, perfect)

Just the overall plot development and case re-adaptation was superb, and I have no problem with how modernized it was compared to the original.

it's a 10/10 from me. It was the best way to celebrate the 20th anniversary and a really good way to highlight the best moments of DC.

[Amuro321]

Just Finished watching the Special and i loved it!
I enjoyed every second and the Animation was very nice expecially in the last scenes.
This special shows again how brutal and heartless Gin is.
Actually i liked seeing Shinichi and Ran together without any mord Case. I find that Gosho should do this more often its so nice to see what the characters are doing when they are not in the Case.
This special was so enjoyable that the time flied while watching.
The Animation was perfect for a Special in my eyes.

[KaitoHedgehog]

This was absolutely amazing! So many good memories came rushing back ever since I watched the first few episodes on TV when I was a kid. I loved how they used the song from the very first opening, too much nostalgia!

The animation was superb, they tied it to the more recent cases, added a bunch of cameos, modernized it a bit, etc. You could tell the passion's just gushing out of this whole special.

Even then, I found a few things that bugged me. First of all, I don't like how they removed a certain detail about the President Yamazaki murder case; Shinichi only mentioned that the culprit used the ledge to get to the veranda, but he didn't mention the rope at all which was essential to the culprit's plan. Also, the scene were Shinichi was running away from the police after being shrunk overstayed its welcome a bit.

That's basically all the negatives I can think of, but I do have some very minor nitpicks. The animation was just a tad off at certain scenes, for some reason we didn't see Teitan Highschool, and the panty shots were taken away. The last one is the most depressing. XD

Overall, all of the negatives and nitpicks I mentioned doesn't stop from making this special one of the best the series has ever had and every Detective Conan fan should watch it. I give it a 9/10.