Case Closed passes the half way point in the fifth season with this third volume.  It contains another three episodes in the original order, and they are all stand alone mysteries.  Though I find some of Conan's gadgets and the way he uses them a little hard to swallow, and even though some of the murders are highly convoluted, this is an enjoyable show, even if it isn't anything special.

Series background:

Jimmy Kudo is a teenage detective who is one of the best investigators around.  The police often solicit his advice on their toughest cases, and he's taken all of the business away from the city's other private eyes even though he's still in high school.  All of that changes one night while Jimmy is out at an amusement park with his girlfriend Rachael.  He sees a crime going down and investigates only to be caught by a pair of thugs.  They give him a new experimental poison so that he won't talk, but the poison doesn't kill him.  Instead it causes him to become younger, much younger.  When he wakes up he's a little kid.  He still has his razor sharp intellect, but no one wants to hire a ten year old detective.

Rachael discovers the little Jimmy wandering around and takes him home with her.  So that his true identity will remain a secret he tells her his name is Conan, taken from his idol, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle the creator of Sherlock Holmes.  Rachael's father, Richard Moore, is an incredibly incompetent detective, and Conan soon starts tagging along on Richard's cases.  Using some nifty inventions his friend Dr. Agasa invented, and the aid of the Junior Detective League; Amy, Mitch, and George, Conan is able to solve the cases without anyone knowing that he's the real brains of the operation.  The downside is that with just about every case he solves, the bumbling Richard Moore becomes more famous.

This volume:

There are three stand alone mysteries in this volume.  While at an exclusive beach someone murders a wealthy industrialist.  The police know it's his son, but when they discover that he has triplets their case becomes less clear.  Which of the three did it, when they all have air-tight alibis?

Next, the Moores and Conan, along with Amy, Mitch, and George, head off to the beach (again) for some rafting.  While they are there they discover an SOS in a bottle that's washed up on shore.  Exploring a bit, they discover a woman whose husband drugged her and left her to die in a cave that floods when the tide comes in.  Too bad Conan and company arrived as the tide was coming in...it looks like they are trapped too!

In the final episode a movie star who is famous for the fictional villain he plays in the movies, Jinnai the King of Death, gets a death threat from the very character he portrays.  Everyone thinks it's just a publicity stunt until the star ends up dead.  But with his building being surrounded by the police, and no one going in or out, how could he have been killed?  It's up to Conan to solve the case.

This was a light but enjoyable disc.  There wasn't anything really engrossing or special about it, but it was fun to see how the cases turned out.  This isn't really a show where you can solve the mysteries...yes I often guessed who the criminal was, but the actual method is usually too convoluted, and honestly a bit too silly to be deduced from the information that they give you.  Some of the motives were rather stupid too.

Even so, the cases were fun, and part of the plot is always how Jimmy is going to solve the case without anyone knowing it was he that did it.  To this end he employs a pair of impossible gadgets:  a watch that shoots nearly invisible knock-out needles and a bow-tie that can change his voice to sound exactly like anyone he wants.  So he will often knock someone out and arrange them so they are sitting with their head bowed.  Then he uses the bow-tie to reveal all.  No one seems to notice that the person solving the impossible crimes has their eyes closed and that they aren't moving.  I guess this is just one of those situations where you have to suspend your disbelief.

Audio:

This disc offers the choice of the original stereo Japanese soundtrack, or an English dub in 5.1 or stereo.  I alternated tracks between episodes, and I enjoyed the original audio a bit better.  The English dub was good though, with the actors doing a good job.  There weren't any phoney accents, something that I really dislike.  The audio quality was fine, there wasn't a lot of range, but there weren't any defects either.

Video:

The full frame video was okay but not outstanding.  The program was made on a budget and the animation isn't that great.  The colors were just a bit dull, but the lines were fairly tight.  Digital defects were minimal.  An average looking show.

Extras:

There are a good number of extras included, though none of them really interested me.  First are a few character profiles, and a file of Conan's gadgets with explanations of how they work and links to video of them in action.  There is a textless opening, and some trailers too.  There is also a "Crack the Case Game" where you can try to crack the case before Conan.  If you activate this game, an icon appears just before Conan solves a mystery.  If you press 'enter' with your remote, you'll be taken to a series of questions that ask you things about the case, including the culprit and motive.  If you get all of the questions right, you are given a code that unlocks about a minute and a half of audio out-takes from the English dubbing sessions. If you don't want to go through all that trouble, the code for this disc's single game is 1531218.

Final Thoughts:

This was an enjoyable disc.  I'm not chomping at the bit for the next disc, but when it arrives I'll be happy to put it in.  This is one of those shows that are great when you want something fun that's not too taxing.  Recommended.