Detective Conan: The Million-Dollar Pentagram
Japan’s celebrated anime series reaches UK cinemas for the first time.
Image courtesy of Trinity Filmed Entertainment.
Today’s cinema world is full of franchises and the one featuring Detective Conan is among the most successful of all. Nevertheless, unless you are Japanese or a fan of manga or anime films based on them you may well be ignorant of the series. But regardless of that its triumph is self-evident once the facts are known. Detective Conan was created by Gôsho Aoyama in 1994 and within two years a TV series followed. The first actual film came in 1997 and from that point on a fresh movie has emerged every year save for 2020 when Covid prevented it. That makes Detective Conan: The Million-Dollar Pentagram the twenty-seventh of these films and its success in Japan has been such that on home ground it has become the highest grossing film of the whole series and in addition the highest grossing Japanese film of 2024.
If that history is intriguing in itself, it is also the case that it is noteworthy that this film was made by Chika Nagaoka for it is a rare thing indeed to find a woman in charge of a franchise movie. She first became involved in the series in 2013 when her capacity was just that of technical director. However, her standing has increased and for three movies, 2019’s The Fist of Blue Sapphire, 2021’s The Scarlet Bullet and now this one, she is credited three times over: ‘Director, Storyboard, Technical Director’. Although each film offers a plot line of its own, the series incorporates many characters in addition to Conan who frequently reappear and, while some of the series have also been released in North America on DVD or Blu-ray, lots of people will like myself be coming to the characters for the first time when they see this twenty-seventh instalment. Since this piece moves at an unusually fast pace many will have difficulty taking in the intricate plotting while also having to work out who all the characters are and what they represent (some subtitles flash by before one has time to read them in full).
You might at least assume that the titular figure, Conan Edogawa, would quickly emerge as the leading character but this particular instalment plays down his contribution somewhat by concentrating rather more on another detective, Heiji Hattori who is known as the Great Detective of the West, and on Kaito Kid, a gentleman thief and a master of disguise who is Conan's great enemy. Although this is a film concerned with theft and murder, the prominence of Heiji Hattori is partly down to the fact that he is also seen as the romantic interest of two women who are rivals, the loyal and devoted Kazuha and Momiji who has a crush on him and is jealous of Kazuha. But, as the film’s title suggests, the main focus is on 19th century swords of historical significance which when placed together are to be seen as having a five-sided star shape and their importance now lies in the fact that they belong to the Onoe family and are believed to contain a clue to the whereabouts of a hidden treasure of some kind. If Kaito Kid is drawn to the swords so is the arms dealer and businessman Brian D. Kadokura, but the narrative turns from a heist story into a murder mystery when the lawyer to the Onoe family is killed by a sword. A medical student named Hijiri Fukushiro is suspected of the killing and he and his father add to the number of people involved while there are many other subsidiary ones including various police officers.
If this is often as confusing as it sounds, that issue is increased on account of two other elements that are present. One is the way in which the story is related to Japanese history. The film begins with a prologue set in 1868 and the swords are linked to a legendary figure of the 19th century, Toshizo Hijikata, while the story of the Onoe family references events in the 1930s. The other aspect adding to the difficulties lies in various fantasy features incorporated including the fact that Conan is seen as a 7-year-old because as a high school detective aged seventeen he had been subjected to a drug that turned him into a child although it left his intelligence undiminished. Information about that is specifically included early in the film but it is presented so quickly that one struggles to take it all in.
In theory they complexities of the narrative for newcomers to the series should be a fatal drawback, but that is not how it plays. Whatever details remain indistinct, the general theme of the search for the swords to uncover the treasure is clear enough and, however much Conan himself is sidelined, he does eventually come to the fore to deduce the identity of the murderer. At the same time the film is made with such confidence and bravura that it can be enjoyed as a triumph of style over content. An extra bonus lies in the fact that despite being an anime work the film makes much of the chief location, the city of Hakodate in Hokkaido (apparently the film has added to its appeal as a tourist location). Rather surprisingly the touches of gore in the film which are by no means extreme have earned the film a ‘15’ certificate, but even if they could see it children might well be bored due to the subtitles and to the challenges of understanding fully what they are viewing. Adults ready to go with the flow and not be over-concerned about that may find it a bit of a limitation but will in all probability have a good time discovering Conan’s world.
Original title: Meitante Konan Hyakuman Doru no Michishirube.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Voices of Minami Takayama, Ryô Horikawa, Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, Kappei Yamaguchi, Yûko Miyamura, Banjô Ginga, Takayuki Sugô, Satsuki Yukino, Yô Ôizumi, Hikaru Hanada, Wakana Yamazaki, Kôji Ishii, Kôji Yusa, Hiroshi Naka, Rikiya Koyama.
Dir Chika Nagaoka, Pro Shōhō Kondō, Takeshi Shioguchi and Yühei Okada, Screenplay Takahiro Ôkura, based on a manga by Gôshô Aoyama, Ed Terumichi Okada, Music Yûgo Kanno.
TMS Entertainment-Trinity Filmed Entertainment.
110 mins. Japan. 2024. US Rel: 24 May 2024. UK Rel: 27 September 2024. Cert. 15.