Drama: Meitantei Conan ep07-13 Final

Official Site: YTV - Meitantei Conan

Okay this post will REALLY be one of my supposed short summary and comments posts.  I don't have much to say because time had passed since the last episode aired, although I do remember how things ended.

Shall we begin?

Story:
From where the story left off, Ran is saved by the anecdote but now a huge balloon is blowing up in the room.  The monitor is asking for the password for the date when Sonoko was kidnapped.  Sonoko, along with her "rich" childhood friends were caught up in a kidnap heist so to speak.  Sonoko and the older sister were kidnapped while the younger sister had to follow the kidnappers directions in order to get them back.  It turned out that this was all a hoax between the sisters and Sonoko just somehow was in the wrong place in the wrong time.  Also that the older sister killed the younger one for the money.

Next story, Ran and Shinichi get caught up with a pervert who gropes Ran and is also a panty thief.  They discover that this lady that constantly gets her panties stolen, used that idea to set up an electrical rig so that when a specific one gets yanked, it'll pull the electricity.  The last night that this guy stole a pair of black undies from this lady was the night that the electricity to medical machines hooked up to her mother had shut off, thus letting her pass away.

Next, Shinichi comes across the boy detective from Osaka and they end up solving a case together..

Ran and Shinichi get freed from their cuffs from each other and end up getting separated into different rooms.  Shinichi must input the password in order to get to Ran. The case he has to remember is him solving a case about a girl being raped.

Shinichi takes Ran out to a very fancy restaurant only to be disturbed by a crime that happened in the basement.  A guy takes revenge on his boss for what had happened to his father.  The person who solved that case years before was a famous detective... Shinichi's father.

A mysterious murder at a bank branch leads to an investigation done by Shinichi and Kogoro.  They find out that a false crime, turned into murder, and in the end it was due to cloudy thinking of a guy who killed the woman that loved him.

Shinichi is under investigation for the death of Ran.  A doctor that was seeking revenge had only slowed down her body system making it seem as if she were dead, but really she was under deep sleep.  Shinichi finds out that Ran was the reason why the two of them (and Kogoro) were locked in the white room, but Ran had no idea that whatever happened in there was going to happen.  Things in the end turn out for the best.  After Ran healed, they finally get the date that they never get to have at an amusement park.

Comment:
The case stories did get better towards the end of the series, but to be honest, I wasn't particularly impressed with how it ended.  Of course it will be some kind of dramatic ending, with the crazy doctor seeking revenge and stuff, but I kind of wished something else happened.  Not that I have any ideas, but I just wish it was something else.  It was also weird to see Kogoro outside when Shinichi awakens.  He got left behind early in the series (but of course this was due to him filming other dramas as well, ie: Piece Vote) and he just randomly shows up outside saying he didn't know how he got there, he just woke up there. It's weird to me.

Also randomly having Sonoko in the episode.  I guess it's just one last shot at getting her into the series before it ends.  We also never get to see Eri again in the series after that one episode, although she was mentioned in the last one.

What I did like about the end of the series was that it left leeway for a 2nd season of this drama, which I'm sure it's going to happen since they called this "Meitantei Conan season 1" rather than just Meitantei Conan.

I guess overall I'd give it a 6/10.  I liked it, but I didn't.  I mean it was one of the better late night 30min dramas I've seen and the ratings really show it too.

Drama: Meitantei Conan ep05 + 06

Official Site: YTV - Meitantei Conan

Episode 05:
When the timer hit zero, the lights went out, but a spotlight was focused on the monitor.  The answer had been inputted stopping the timer, but no one in the room had put it in.  As Shinichi looks at the date, he realizes that the last time he drank tea was the case of the death of a movie director.

Shinichi, Ran and Sonoko were at the house of the famous movie director Nagata Akihiro.  Shinichi was practicing a scene with a new actress, Ikusuki Saori, when he was asked to kiss her, but didn't want to.  The director kissed Saori with passion.  His wife, actress Nagata Chisato, walked through the door and interrupted.  The director admitted that Saori was his lover and that he was going to use her for her next movie.

They went to drink some tea in the other room.  The director had a huge tea cup collection and allowed each of his guests pick their own tea cup.  Chisato placed some sugar into her husbands tea cup.  Saori assumed it was something bad, so Chisato look a sip from the cup.  When the director went to take a sip, he collapsed and died from poisoning.

Chisato passed out from finding out her husband had died and was taken to her room.  Downstairs, Saori went to grab her bag, but it turned out to be Chisatos, so she tossed it away and out came a bottle of Cyanide.  Saori and Chisato both have the same bag because the Director had bought it for them.  Chisato comes downstairs after she wakes up.  It seems she has amnesia which was caused by the huge shock of her husband being murdered.  Shinichi does some research, observing and analyzing in which makes him realize who the real murderer was.

The real murderer was the house assistant (maid, house caretaker, whatever you wanna call it).  Her boyfriend was caught in a scandalous relationship with Chisato which was documented in a gossip magazine.  Shinichi realized this when the paparazzi picture of the boyfriend had almost the same bracelet as the assistant.  It was an anagram for their name.  The boyfriend had committed suicide as Chisato was using him and he had lost his chance for acting gigs and even lost Chisato.  The assistant wanted revenge and tried to make it seem like Chisato was the murderer.  It also turned out that Chisato did not have amnesia but was faking it when she found out they were going to pin the murder on her.  Shinichi realized it when she went into a room and found the lightswitch immediately.

After Shinichi inputs the password "JOYUU" (ACTRESS), the next door opened up.  As they checked the monitor, Ran was shot in the leg with a poison and unless they could answer the question in 5min to get the antidote, she'd die.

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Episode 06:
As the time is counting down, Shinichi is trying to answer the question on the monitor.  He realizes it was the case at a cabaret (hostess) club.

The beginning of the story shows some of the hostess girls getting into a fight with the #1 girl, especially the #2 girl. The #1 girl threatens that the Professor is her "trophy" and no one elses.
In the club, Shinichi and Ran are in disguise spying on Kogoro who's flirting with hostesses again.  The hostess girls were going to play a kiss/drink game [[rules: there are 20girls in a row. you alternate turns. can pick 1-3 girls per turn. whoever gets to the last girl, gets a kiss from #1.  Every girl you pick, pours a decanter of wine into the huge wine glass you're carrying.]] .  Kogoro goes first and picks 3 girls.  The Prof picks 1, Kogoro picks 3, etc.. when it came down to the last pick. no matter which number Kogoro picked, the Prof would end up winning the game.  Kogoro took his wine glass and drank it all while #1 drank all of the wine that the Doctor collected.  #1 collapsed after drinking all the wine, dying from poison.

Shinichi and Ran exposed themselves in the cabaret club (theyre underage), calling for detectives to come in and stopping anyone from leaving.  They find it suspicious that none of the hostesses are sad that the #1 girl had died.  When testing the decanters, it was tested positive for a poisoning in the #16 bottle, which belonged to the #2 girl.  She is suspected of poisoning, but she isn't at fault.  She just happened to be in the #16 position in the line up.  It didn't matter who ended up in that position, but that the #16 spot would have the poison despite who was holding it.

With a small hint from an unranked hostess, Shinichi was able to figure out who the murderer was and how they got the poison into the decanter.  It really didn't matter who was the one in position #16, as long as they were the one passing out the poisoned wine.  The unranked hostess unknowingly gave away her cover when she quoted the philosopher Descartes.  She used her high blood pressure as a way to hide the poison by carrying capsules (with the poison in it), instead of her regular pills.  She poured it into the decanter and passed it on.  The reason she did so was to protect the Prof, not necessarily because she hated the girl.  She loved the Professor while the #1 was just using him for money.  So she did what she did.

Shinichi inputted "DE-KA-RU-TO" (Descartes).  When the door opened, it revealed a syringe with the antidote.  Kogoro went for it, but the door was closing.  He tossed it to Shinichi before being locked in.  He used it on Ran and was able to save her in time.  Instead of the next monitor showing, a huge balloon was filling up their room.

Comments:
I liked the 6th story more than the 5th.  The 5th one was pretty boring, and made me cringe when the actress lady revealed she was faking the amnesia.  I seriously wanted to punch her in the face.  She seriously was the lowest of all people.  In the 6th story, I felt bad for the girl who murdered the #1 hostess.  She seemed sweet and she had good intentions, but as Shinichi says, murder is murder.

Drama: Meitantei Conan ep04

Official Site: YTV - Meitantei Conan

 Meitantei Conan is actually getting pretty decent ratings considering how late it airs.  It's doing the best compared to the rest of the late night drama series' (Ouran, Arakawa Under the Bridge, Piece Vote) and is also doing the best compared to past late night dramas.  This episode reached the highest rating out of late night dramas with 5.6% which is really high so this episode better be good.

And it was pretty good, and the best episode so far.

Story:
A wedding dress was in the next white room, and the monitor showed the date that triggered Shinichi's memory that it was the day that Kogoro made someone die.  Kogoro remembers that day from saving Shinichi from having his first kiss (of course Ran gets angry).
-----
Walking home from school Ran and her friend, Suzuki Sonoko, tell Shinichi that because he lost at a game they played, his batsu (punishment) is he can't refuse any favors.  As Ran was going to ask him for a favor, he gets a phone call from Kogoro asking for a favor.

Shinichi heads to a bar/lounge for a wedding party.  Kogoro had called him there because all the girls at the party wanted to see the famous detective.  Shinichi had no idea why he was called there and ended up running some errands for the party.  As he's bringing cases of drinks upstairs, he overhears a conversation between the groom and the bride's best friend.

As the party goes on, there have been telegrams received which Kogoro will be reading out loud.  One of which says "If you have an affair, I'll kill you."  Shinichi just takes it as a prank at first, but what happens after tells otherwise.  The bride suggests a special cocktail made for the bride.  When the groom brings it back, the bride's best friend requests a special cocktail as well, and so does another guest and Kogoro.  When the groom comes back with their drinks, the bride's best friend chugs hers down and chugs down the other guests drink because of some sort of jealousy.  She starts to choke and drops to the floor and is declared dead.

It appears the woman had been poisoned, but when tested, there were no signs of poison in any of the drinks that she had drank.  What was found though was soba, which the woman could not take because she was allergic to it.  There is no soba sold anywhere in the lounge because it isn't a Japanese style restaurant.  Shinichi discovers that ground up soba had been placed in the shaker that the groom uses as his special salt.  The bride had placed it into the curry that she had been eating, kissed the groom on the lips (on Kogoro's request) and the groom kissed the bride's best friend on the lips when he went to make the special cocktails for people.  The bride knew that he was cheating on her and had indirectly killed her.

Kogoro enters the password "KI-SU" (Kiss) and they're able to enter the next room.  The new room's monitor displays a question this time and a date must be inputted, with Shinichi answering it immediately.  It sets off an alarm, where he must answer the next question within 30 seconds.  The counter drops down to zero and the whole room goes dark.

Comments:
This episode was a pretty good detective story.  While it's easy to find suspects with a motive, how the crime was done was pretty simple, yet almost unintentional and its still in the back of my mind at how creative it ended up.  It was so simple, just a kiss on the lips, in which was passed on to the intended victim.  The death certainly wasn't realistic, in which it seemed she had been poisoned.  An allergic reaction would couldn't someone to choke that suddenly, gradually yes, but not that sudden and then pass out and die, but still it was nicely done.

I'm back to debating whether or not I wanna continue writing about this drama.  It's still a good drama that I'm keeping up with (I had already watched episode 5, waiting for 6 this thurs/fri), but writing about it, it's kind of getting boring.  We'll see what happens when I watch episode 6 since episode 5 was pretty boring.

Drama: Meitantei Conan ep02 + 03

Official Site: YTV - Meitantei Conan

 

No caps, since I deleted the episodes after I watched them and didnt really think I'd actually write a review, but after watching these 2 episodes, the stories are actually getting better (and more interesting) and the crimes are getting harder to solve (in particular, ep03).

Episode 2:
The story of the psychic (i almost wrote SIDEKICK at first haha).  We already knew it was going to be about a psychic, which was shown at the end of episode 1.  It was at this time where I thought the dramas would tell you what the crime was and all that and we're just seeing the flashback.  i was actually wrong.  This time, they mentioned it about the psychic, even placing the word "Majikku" (MAGIC) as the password in the beginning and the story went on.  So a psychic and Shinichi were invited to this one TV to show this guys ESP powers, but of course as a detective, he believed they were all tricks.  The psychic tries to show his powers by "strangling" the host of the show.. he ends up doing so, the guy falls to the ground and all of a sudden goes through cardiac arrest and dies.

The psychic claims it was him who did it, why someone would actually admit it was themselves, who knows, but Shinichi knows its fake because really, ESP isn't really.  Four people in suspicion of the murder were the 2 AD's, the assistant and the hair/makeup lady.  They all had their own motives to kill the guy, and Shinichi was the witness to all of them (He's beginning to come off as a creeper to be honest haha).  The AD's were treated like crap, so was the hair/makeup lady and the assistant was sexually harassed.  The cause of death wasn't by strangulation but by an injection of a poison (what they use for the death penalty).  Who had the chance to do it was Shinichi's job to prove.

Psychic guy still claims it was him, and by strangulation.  Shinichi asks him to use his ESP powers again, since he claimed to have them, on Ran.  When he went to do so,  Ran passed out and it appears he has done the same thing he did to the host.  Ran's father, Kogoro, freaks out and tries to give her CPR.  Ran opens her eyes calling her dad a pervert and then everyone's all *GASPS*.

Shinichi proves that the psychic had false powers and that all the ESP-like stuff that happened was all a trick... a trick on the psychic - DOKKIRI.  Shinichi explains what had happened and tells everyone that the real murderer is actually the hair/makeup lady.  It appears she had a lot of anger towards the host so she injected the guy when he was faking his strangulation and then hid the injection pen (which looks really cool btw) in the psychics pocket to try to frame him.
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Episode 3:
I got REALLY confused with this story line, but that made me pay attention even more.  This story involves Ran's mother (Eri) this time, who is a lawyer (I believe), although this time she wasn't the one doing the prosecuting, but acting as a witness in the defenses behalf.  The court case involves a hostess who stole 3 million (cant remember the amount) yen from the Mama's safe.  During the time of the crime, the hostess claims she was at a love hotel and came across Eri.  Eri says she saw the hostess there as well, but even though Eri is defending this girl, she keeps making wild remarks that she was at a love hotel with an old guy.  Eri was getting furious with the hostesses remarks and points her hand at her as if she were making a gun and says she'll kill her with her finger gun.  She "pulls the trigger" and a bullet hits the hostess in the head.

This is in no way possible as everyone is checked on their way in, so they believe that the weapon would have been small and concealed and in the disguise of something else.  They do a strip search on Eri since she is the prime suspect and can't find anything.  The DA says that she must be concealing the weapon in her hair, which was twisted up.  When she unravels her hair, a small gold tube falls out.  On further investigation, it turns out to be her lipstick.

Eri claims she is guilty and is waiting for them to prove it.  Shinichi goes and investigates and watches the video that was going as proof that Eri saw the hostess at a love hotel.  Eri was at the love hotel and with some guy, but it was hard to tell in the video who it was.  When they go back into the court room to talk to Eri, Shinichi says she is guilty, Ran cries and doesn't believe it, and then Eri claims she didnt do it.  Shinichi proves she didn't shoot the guy, but the DA did.  The DA had a tube that looked exactly like Eri's lipstick, except it detracts into a small canon type of gun.  After the shot had happened, Eri dropped to the ground and picked up what she thought was her lipstick, but it was the gun which was still hot.  She gave out a coded message to Shinichi and the pistol before she was taken away for her search.  The DA tossed the pistol trying to get rid of it and making it seem like Eri had shot the girl.  It turns out the DA was actually having a relationship with the hostess, but had his heart broken and the revenge was killing her.  It also turns out that the guy in the video with Eri was Kogoro who was very drunk haha.

The way the story went was really confusing because Eri claimed she did kill her, but then denied it later on.  And the coded message that she sent to Shinichi in order to show she has the murder weapon was confusing, but a really cool idea to put into the story.  I also like the fact that the murderer turned out to be the DA, because you wouldnt have ever suspected him.  I originally thought the murderer was the Mama since she didn't like the hostess and because she stole money from her.  She was in the courtroom as well, but they didn't focus on her after her 2 lines in the beginning of the trial.

Drama: Meitantei Conan ep01

Plot:
High school detective Kudo Shinichi and his childhood friend, Mori Ran, hear a male voice shout right after coming out of a nail salon on the first floor of an apartment building. When they rush over to the scene at the entrance of an apartment, cameraman Tsuboichi Yuhei is bleeding from his forehead and his assistant Kishi has collapsed. Shinichi and Ran burst into the apartment to discover that Aida Momoko, the model who lives there, has died. An investigation is conducted. Kishi gives evidence that he had been hit with what seemed like an iron bar by a man who darted out of the room. Tsubouchi says he would like to have the murderer arrested. He is the dead Momoko’s brother-in-law. Shinichi feels something is wrong with Tsubouchi and Kishi’s statements. If the attacker was the same person, he should have struck Momoko with the bar too, but Momoko was strangled by a pair of hands. This makes Shinichi turn his suspicion toward Tsubouchi. Will he be able to expose the murderer’s secret trick and arrive at the truth?
Credit: DramaWiki

Cast: Mizobata Junpei, Kutsuna Shiori, Otsuka Nene, Akimoto Sayaka, Ibu Masato, Jinnai Takanori

Official Site: YTV - Meitantei Conan

Comments:
I had no idea this was a half hour drama.  I should have figured since its a midnight drama.  But the ratings were significantly high for a drama that airs around midnight with a 5.7%.

The episode starts off with Kudo Shinichi (Mizobata) waking up in a dark room, he realizes he's handcuffed to his childhood friend Mori Ran (Kutsuna) and wakes her up.  A spotlight flashes behind them in the corner of the room revealing Mori Kogoro (Jinnai), Mori's father.  The three of them get up and the lights turn on completely revealing a sealed white room with no windows or doors.  Shinichi finds a letter taped to the one of the tiles on the wall.  A "fan" praises the work he's done and claims the white room is a present for him.  Trying to think of a way out, a podium with a screen on it appears out of no where showing a date.  Shinichi remembered the date and crime that happened that day immediately and on goes the story..

The case that happened that day was a photographer that had killed his wife's sister, who happened to be his lover.  Now I know It sounds weird for me to spoil the story immediately, but the fact is, I didn't spoil it, they mentioned it even before the story begun.  We're basically just watching a flashback and im pretty sure this is going to be the trend for the rest of the season.

 We see the photographer murder his lover because she broke up with him.  He ransacks the place to try to cover up the murder.  That day, he was supposed to hold a photography session with her, so he leaves and comes back to her place later on, meeting up with a colleague of his.  When the colleague opens the door, he gets attacked.

It just so happens that Shinichi and Ran are over in that area.  They hear something as theyre about to leave the nail place and find Tsuboichi and Kishi on the floor.  Tsuboichi tells Shinichi that Momoko is inside still and finds her dead.  While Kishi is unable to identify a suspect, Tsuboichi has a description of this guy and it resembles the face of a serial robber.  Shinichi just so happened to have a picture of the wanted poster on his cellphone.  This kid is seriously in the right place at the right times for some reason.

Shinichi isn't easy to fool.  he immediately knows that this crime wasn't done by a serial robber.  If it were a robber, this person would have been an amateur as the room was completely cluttered and wrecked and even have locked the front door.

 Ran unknowingly helped Shinichi figure out who the culprit is by checking herself out in a full-length mirror that was set up near the front door.  With the warm "strobe" light that Shinichi found in the closet, he figures that the culprit blinded Kishi as he opened the unlocked door with a camera flash using the mirror to reflect it towards the door.  The culprit must have hit Kishi in the head with a tripod (not a lead pipe that he thought hit him).  All these to be handled by a professional photographer.  Shinichi accuses Tsuboichi as the culprit, and while he acts offended, he gets a bit hesitant as Shinichi asks him if he can borrow his camera knowing that the camera he had stolen from the room was actually key to proving he was guilty.

While the pictures don't prove to him being guilty, it wasn't the pictures that Shinichi was after, but testing the camera itself.  It appears that flowers that had been bought that day by Momoko had been spreading pollen throughout the house, which also appears on the camera in possession of Tsuboichi.  Pollen should not have been on the camera if in fact he had been carrying it before he showed up to Momoko's.

The pictures in the camera show Momoko mouthing the word "Aishiteru" (Love) when you flip through the pictures.  What I don't get is, how can a standard film camera produce that many pictures, and how did they dry them so fast?  I worked in a photo lab before and there was no way that can legit happen, though I know that even as a drama, it can't always be accurate with time.  In the end, it is presumed that Momoko loved Tsuboichi despite breaking up with him and that's for her sister's sake.  Tsuboichi breaks down and they flash back towards the present day, typing in the "password" on the screen "A-I-SHI-TE-RU", unlocking a door which lead back to another white room.

I wasn't expecting this drama to turn out the way it did.  I thought it was going to be just like any other detective show where you see the murder or crime, but you're trying to figure out who did it, with what and how.  But with this, it's already revealed what the crime was about, and they're showing it as a flashback.  That's a little disappointing to me because you already know what's going to happen.  The acting was just, OK, to me.  I like Mizobata Junpei, but I wasn't really feeling his acting in this drama.  It seems a little fake when he's in the white room, but when they do the actual crime stuff, it goes along smoother.  I can't really say if I like this drama or not since it wasn't what I was expecting, but it wasn't bad or anything.  After this episode, I wont be reviewing it anymore as I'll be pushing this drama back within my priority.  I will continue watching it, but I won't be doing it on a weekly basis.

Drama Update

I was planning on doing Meitantei Conan tomorrow, but I'm not sure since I have an exam to study for on Monday.  I'll probably have time to watch it tomorrow afternoon, but wont be able to comment about it until later on Monday afternoon.  I skimmed through the first episode and it seemed kind of boring, but we'll see if it'll be interesting enough to keep.

I also have Don Quixote waiting to be watched as well, but I'm going to have to wait on that since I wasn't planning on watching it, but skimming through it, it seemed interesting enough.  Piece Vote is also on queue but even though it's only a 22min drama (30min including cms), Im most likely going to drop it, unless it wows me within the first 2 episodes.

Since Hana Kimi 2011 is out, I've only heard negative comments about it and it's basically the same complaints that everyone's had since even before the drama came out.  No one's actually mentioned anything else, so I might take that into consideration when I get a chance to watch it, meaning that, I'll criticize things that people haven't mentioned yet that doesn't have anything to do with Hana Kimi 2007 or at least attempt to.  The only positive thing I've heard so far is people picking their favorite ACTORS, not characters.  Also need to mention that after the first episode people were trending "Futsumen Paradise" meaning "Average guys paradise" haha. I honestly have to agree with that, not being biased, but it's most likely because of how old I am and how old the guys are.
Ok so, I WILL be doing a different kind of review/summary for Hana Kimi which is a comparison to the original.  And I KNOW I shouldn't be doing that despite what I've just said, or what I've said previously, but I threw that all out after more info came out about the drama.