Talking Meme: Detective Conan!

[mithen]

ran_dezvous asked me about Detective Conan, a popular anime here in Japan!

When my husband and I first moved to Japan 15 years ago, we decided to watch some Japanese shows to try and practice our Japanese. One of the shows we chose was Meitantei (Famous Detective) Conan.

This was a terrible choice.

Meitantei Conan is a long-running animated series about a high school boy and amateur detective who, when he runs across the nefarious Black Organization, is given an experimental drug that is supposed to kill him, but (unbeknownst to the villains) de-ages him instead. He decides to pretend to be his own young cousin, taking the name Edogawa Conan (Edogawa sounds like Edgar in Japanese, from Edgar Allen Poe; Conan from Conan Doyle). Through a rather convenient set of plot devices, he eventually moves in with his semi-girlfriend Mouri Ran (who doesn't know who he is) and her incompetent detective father Mouri Kogoro. While searching for the secret of the Black Organization, he ends up helping Kogoro solve crimes by using a special dart that puts Kogoro to sleep at convenient times and a microphone that lets him impersonate and throw Kogoro's voice. Kogoro starts to become famous as "The Sleeping Detective" who solves crimes while in a sleep-like trance (it's Conan solving them, but Kogoro is happy to take the credit and even kind of believes he's doing it somehow).

It's a great show, but it's a terrible show to to be practicing your Japanese with, because a lot of the cases revolve around language riddles, and...wow, Japanese is not an easy language for that. So after a while we had to kind of give up watching it unsubbed, but years later we came back to it, because we had liked the characters and the conceit! We’re not caught up anymore, but for a while we were watching it very regularly. I think we’ll get back to it at some point, once the English subs have made some progress--we’re too invested in the long-term overarching plot not to find out how it all gets wound up someday...

Comments

[prince0froses]

I admit I laughed out loud at "this was a terrible choice". Its so like you and Dan to accidentally pick a challenging show. I really enjoyed the glimpse of it in the crossover fic you wrote with Batman.

[mithen]

SUCH a bad choice. It's just fun enough that I could fall in love with the characters, but too difficult to understand! They're a really wonderful cast, though...

[mekare]

Awwwww Detective Conan! It was quite popular here, too but I don't think it's still running. I never got to watch it to the end so I'm still in the dark as to when and if he ever "grows up" again. I admit I really liked the show and the characters and can now add that to my growing "hindsight-list". Seems I have unconsciously been a Sherlock Holmes fan since I read a couple of stories as a child - I just wasn't aware of it. Looking back though... it all makes sense! :-D

[mithen]

I was really, really slow to realize it was basically Sherlock Holmes, lol! Like you, I also have a hindsight-list about things like that (it's a long one!)

I don't think he's grown up yet, and the murder rate in Tokyo is truly astonishing now! :)

[mithen]

Test.