conanmythbusting

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So only 6 months...6 months..i see..I SEE

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Bro you good?

Hi, thanks for asking. :) I'm actually in the middle of planning my wedding right now! I do plan to come back to this project when I have a bit of time again, probably in October.

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Seems like we've got through another five volumes together, so it's time for another five volume round-up.

So far our count for essential cases (not including the ones whose essentialness is to-be-determined) is, as follows:

51 days, 27 deaths, for an average of about one corpse every other day.

If we include all of the TBD cases, we're looking at:

98 days, 37 deaths, for an average of about one death every three days.

If we include every single case, it would be:

109 days, 45 deaths, for an average of about one death every two and a half days.

It is now 1997 and the anime has been running for one whole year. The manga has been running for three years. TBH, there's a very clear change in the content over the past five volumes that indicate, to me, that Gosho at this point was starting to understand he may be a long-runner. And that, to me, is clear in how many cases now are just cases. Stuff that's just a murder with no "and also Ran suspects Shinichi, and also Shinichi calls in the solution and Ran checks his house for him, and also meet Conan's parents, and also this case is particularly emotional for Mouri because it's his Judo club" ect.

At this point, a lot of case trends have become pretty apparent-- Conan is really solidifying its long-term formula at this point in the series, as more standard murders-of-the-week are increasing in number. To that end, this wrap-up's fun finale is just going to be me listing the ways in which my spreadsheet has expanded since the beginning of this project.

In the start, I really didn't want to bite off more than I can chew and was just tracking the Chapter numbers, the days passed over the case, the deaths, and whether a case was essential, with a line for notes.

Now, I'm also tracking-- separate from if a case is essential-- I'm tracking whether a case is more generally worth reading for a "canonical" timeline that's not as bare-bones as the one I've set out to make. I'm also tracking the seasons passing. How many deaths occur in the backstories of the characters involved in each case. And also what type of case it is (single homicide, serial murder, isolation, kidnapping, locked room, ect). And what sort of motive each case has at its heart (Vengeance for someone's death, a breakup, other love-related motives, misunderstandings, money, to hide another crime, ect). AND I'm also tracking all the different ways Conan will put on Deduction Shows down to which Sleeping Detective he uses. At this moment, I'm still slowly doubling back since some of these rows got added to do the cases I already finished with otherwise, but expect some counts for those sorts of things in the next five-volume wrap up!

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Distinguished Family's Consecutive Accidental Death Case

Chapters 150-153

Deaths: 2

Days: 2 (I think? This one is tough and might need to be revisited in another format or with another translation. There's a reference to someone's alibi being "two days ago around x time", but the actual events of the case don't make it clear that the entire investigation isn't happening entirely in one night. Right now, I'm saying 2 though.)

Essential: Yes, in the "Shinichi's character arc" way. I don't think anyone would argue with me against that. Also because I think it's a huge point in Heiji's character arc.

Notes: this case also includes the beginning of the good old "Hey Kudo-- I mean Kudoi, persistence! As in wow this kid sure is persistent!" that becomes Heiji's whole thing. Also has a bit of hilarious indicators of Heiji having a crush on Kudo (literally got hearts when he talks to him, the damn disaster bi of a teenager) that tie in nicely to Kazuha thinking "Friend Kudo from Tokyo" is a girl later.

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The Detective Koushen always cracks me up because Hakuba is so upset at Heiji's investigation methods when Heiji is still also the son of a cop and started with at least some boundaries. Meanwhile Conan is like...

"I'm six, I don't need a warrant."

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Heiji: I just like you a lot <3

Conan: seems fake, eat sedative bitch

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I think about this panel constantly. It has lived, in my head, rent-free, for fifteen years.

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TBH, did not expect Heizo Hattori to be the next introduced cop. After... Megure... Yokomizu... Matsumoto... and Yamamura. He's not as surprising as Yamamura, of course, but we still haven't got a single Metropolitan Officer junior to Megure, but we do have Heizo Hattori.

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Chapters 147-149

Days: 1 (evening)

Deaths: 1

Essential: nope, just a murder of the week.

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The family that gambles together, stays together?

I dare anyone to look at this and try to claim the Mouri household isn't an adorable, if mismatched, family, though.

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Chapter 149 and we've already dropped all pretense of hiding Conan when he's doing the voice.

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The Kidnapping of a Popular Artist Case

Chapters 144-146

Deaths: 0

Days: 1

Essential: Not as far as I can tell.

Note: We're starting to get to the part of the series where my memory gets vaguer and vaguer, and my god this was filed in my head as "anime original", did not expect to find this here.

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Is this a common expression in Japanese? This guy uses it twice here and we all probably remember Conan saying the same thing to Takagi in the Touto Tower... ("I'll tell you... in the afterlife.")

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Ski Lodge Murder Case

Chapters: 139-143

Deaths: 2

Days: 1

Essential: I'm sort of hesitating on this one. I do think there's significant character development here that can't be skipped for both Shinichi and Ran... I kind of want to say it's a spiritual partner to both Kogoro's Class Reunion and also to the Night Baron Murder Case. (Reasoning for the first one is obvious-- that's the one Mouri has to accuse his college friend. But in the Night Baron case, Ran spends a lot of effort trying to prove her karate idol is not the killer. And he wasn't, it was her karate idol's partner. And in this one, Ran isn't the one who investigated like she was in the Night Baron case, but she is the one who has to deliver the deduction and her beloved old teacher was the killer... I think the Shinichi phone call is also significant.

But as this project has taken shape, I've gotten a bit more conservative over what constitutes essential, and I think I'm going to call this TBD at this exact second.

Notes: I do think it's really interesting that in the manga, this is the case right after Ran accuses Conan of being Shinichi, whereas in the anime, this comes about 10 episodes before The Cornered Meitantei! cases. See below:

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You know what would probably be funnier to count than the days that occur over the course of the series?

How many times Conan says he needs to go to the bathroom as an excuse. Like this has to be an enormous number.

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Apparently neither Shinichi nor Agasa considered the fact that one of the key items for Conan's self-defense is something he needs to take off every time he enters a home.

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That moment when your billionaire friend makes you buy their lunch.