The Show:
With an amazing seven episodes on one disc, the next volume of Case
Closed (or Detective Conan as it's known in most of the world),
season 3 volume 2 for those who are keeping score, offers a lot for fans
of the show. Not only are there a lot of episodes, but this volume
also contains some entertaining mysteries and a story where Conan at long
last changes back into Shin'ichi Kudo (if only temporarily.)
The Show:
Shin'ichi
Kudo (Jimmy Kudo in the English version) 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 Ran Mouri (Rachael Moore.) 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.
Ran discovers the little Shin'ichi wandering around and takes him home
with her. So that his true identity will remain a secret he tells
her his name is Conan Edogawa, taken from his idol, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
(the creator of Sherlock Holmes.) Ran's father, Kogoro Mouri (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; Ayumi,
Mitsuhiko. and Genta (aka 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:
The
disc starts out with an interesting mystery that has a couple of not-so-clever
twists. When a rich woman body is discovered, there is no shortage
of suspects. Her security camera is a great help however, showing
the exact time that people came and left. The only problem is the
camera also gives everyone an alibi. No one was with her when she
died! The clues in this one are a bit too obvious, and the actions
of some of the innocent parties are just down right stupid. Yes,
it makes for a more convoluted case, but what innocent person would really
tamper with a dead body to make themselves appear less guilty??
One of the best episodes on this disc is the two part No Immunity
for the Diplomat. A strange young man shows up at Kogoro's detective
agency, Hattori Henji (Harley Hartwell in the dubbed version). He's
a high school detective too, and a very good one. People have started
calling him the Kudo of the West, and he's 
out
to prove that he's better than Shin'ichi. Of course Conan instantly
takes a dislike to his competitor, and when body turns up in a room that
was locked from the inside both detectives want to be the first to finger
the murderer. Conan is at a distinct disadvantage though, since he
can't let anyone know who he really is. Henji and Conan are neck
and neck at finding and deciphering clues, but when Conan starts getting
really sick, Henji comes up with a scenario that not only sounds plausible,
but causes the guilty party to confess. Conan's illness isn't the
common cold however, he is changing back to his adult self after drinking
an unusual cold remedy. Will Kudo have to admit that his rival is
the better detective?
The other shows on the disc are just so-so. While the case at
the ski lodge was fun, the investigation of the death of a diving champ
was a little silly. (Any two bit lawyer would easily get the guilty
party off based on the flimsy evidence.) There was a murder in the
local library that Conan and the Junior Detective League investigate (their
only appearance on this disc) which was also pretty absurd when the entire
mystery was unraveled. But even so, the strength of this show has
never been the mysteries themselves. The fun is in watching Conan
out-think the police and piece together strange and seemingly meaningless
clues.
The DVD:
This disc contains an ample seven episodes on a singled sided DVD.
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 fine job. There weren't any
phony 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.
Unfortunately, there were no subtitles for signs only. There are
some clues that are in Japanese and when characters are introduced their
name and age is given in a Japanese subtitle, but these are only translated
if the English subtitles are on.
Video:
Quality wise this disc takes a nose dive when compared to the others
in the series. Squeezing so many episodes onto a disc does sacrifice
some image quality. The full frame video had quite a bit of aliasing
and macroblocking. The colors were just a bit dull, and the lines
were a bit on the soft side too. The show never looked great, it
was made on a budget and the animation isn't that great, but these prevalent
video defects make the program look worse.
Extras:
Like the first season, but unlike the releases of seasons four and five,
there are no extras included in this set.
Final Thoughts:
While the two-part story on this disc was great, the other episodes
were only so-so. More often than not after watching a show I'd think
"eh, that was dumb." Still, it was fun watching the cases unfold.
The video quality of this disc was significantly less than the previous
entries. Aliasing and macroblocking were a problem and they distracted
from the show. Fans of the pint sized detective will want to
check this disc out, but I'd recommend making it a rental.
Buy: