The third season of Case Closed (or Detective Conan as it's known in most of the world) starts strong with some good mysteries, some heart-breaking revelations, and the apparent reappearance of the gang that poisoned Kudo at the beginning of the series.  While some of the earlier volumes were feeling a little stale, this disc has some really fun mysteries.

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 season starts out with a two-part story, Billionaire Birthday Blues.  The Mouri's are invited to the party for a rich industrialist's daughter.  Everyone is having a good time until one of the guests is discovered face down in a fountain.  When more bodies start showing up and even Ran is attacked, Kogoro thinks that there's a serial killer on the loose.  Conan has other ideas however.

The two-part episodes are generally stronger than the stand alone installments, so it was nice to start the season off with this story.  There's a nice red herring at the beginning and several other twists along the way which make it a fun mystery.

Following that one is the weakest show on the disc, Left in Tatters.  The banner for a high school baseball championship is *gasp* slashed with a razor while in the principle's office.  Was it a member of the school or one of their rivals?  Only Conan can discover the truth.

In Karaoke Killing, an egotistical, arrogant and mean singer from a popular pop-band dies after singing their hit song in a Karaoke bar.  Was it one of his band mates who were angry over the fact that he was leaving the band, or the manager that he constantly ridicules?  A story with an unusually tragic ending.

That episode was followed by one of the strongest shows in the series, Conan is Kidnapped.  When Mrs. Edogawa shows up at the Mouri household to take her son Conan home, everyone is a bit surprised, most especially Conan who knows that there is on Mrs. Edogawa.  In order to protect Ran and her father, the young detective leaves with the lady.  She reveals that she's part of the gang that originally poisoned Kudo and they what to experiment on him to see if they've really discovered the fountain of youth.  The woman's accomplice has other plays however, which involve trying the poison on another unsuspecting candidate and then killing the dupe and Shin'ichi.  It's up to Conan/ Shin'ichi to escape and stop the masked accomplice before it's too late.

This show had a lot of suspense (for this series at least).  It was nice to see the original gang again, and it also added some continuity.  At the end they even explain why Conan gets to live with the Mouri's for so long without Kogoro ever kicking him out.  A strong show that was really a lot of fun.

The volume is wrapped up with another good show, Unhappy Birthday.  A rich man is blown up on his birthday, and any of his children could have done it, they all can't wait to get their hands on his money.  His estranged daughter is the most likely suspect, but Conan suspects someone else of putting a bomb in the old man's present.

This was a nice disc with some good episodes included on it.  While one wasn't that great, the others were above average mysteries that are sure to please fans of the show.

This disc contains an ample six 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 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.

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:

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, and the lines were a bit on the soft side.  Digital defects were minimal with a little aliasing present in most episodes.  An average looking show.

Extras:

Like the first season, but unlike the releases of seasons four and five, there are no extras included in this set.

Final Thoughts:
 
This was one of the better volumes in the series.  These mysteries were, with one exception, better than average.  The opening two-part story was strong, but the episode where Conan is kidnapped by the gang who originally poisoned him is excellent.  Well worth picking up.  Recommended.