Case Closed: Captured in Her Eyes

Surprisingly, the deeper I delve into the Case Closed Universe, the more impressed with the property I become. I was a self-admitted late adopter to the series (beginning with the 5^th season oddly enough) then backtracked to some of the earlier examples of the mythos on account of how much I enjoyed the later ones. Now I've picked up a few of the full length feature films and am pleased to report that they dazzle as well as the popular television serial, perhaps even surpassing it at times.

The show, for those who have yet to experience it, follows a pretty formulaic structure whereby the title character happens upon criminal activity that requires a good deal of intelligence to successfully point the finger of blame. Sounds like standard mystery-genre fare so far but what's unique about Case Closed is that the lead is played by a 17-year-old (Jimmy Kudo) investigator who has been transformed, via an experimental drug, into a child. The kid goes by the made-up name Conan Edogawa after two popular mystery writers and goes to live with his friend Rachel Moore and her private detective father, Richard. If you're looking for back story, I strongly recommend considering Funimation's Case Closed DVD Starter Set as except for a narrated opening sequence, the films waste very little time retelling past events.

Coming in at a total runtime of 100 minutes, Captured in Her Eyes spans a single DVD housed within a standard-sized clamshell case. The show wears an appropriate if not slightly conservative TV PG rating (due to a steady dose of cartoony violence rather than inappropriate language or nudity).

Language options are standard sub & dub, which means the viewer has the choice of the original Japanese dialog track (stereo) or an English dub (Dolby Digital 5.1) and the option of running English subtitles with either.

The story of Captured in Her Eyes goes something like this: Police officers are being targeted at killed in cold blood. Suspecting the culprit to have some sort of relationship with the police force itself, the cops have kept the situation quiet.

When a female detective is shot by the culprit, Rachel happens to have been the only eyewitness. Suffering from traumatic shock of the incident, she enters amnesiac condition. The killer, realizing that Rachel has seen their face, moves Rachel up on the target hit list. Our favorite detective, Conan Edogawa finds himself in a situation where he has to reveal the serial killer's ID while protecting Rachel and his own secret.

Aside from the longer runtime there are some notable differences between the film and the series. Among them is a reliance upon revealing pieces of pre-Conan life for Jimmy Kudo as threads with which to solve the mystery as well as mysteries that are themselves more complex (involving half a dozen key clues to solve rather than the one or two common of the series). Also Richard Moore is portrayed as being far-less dopey and actually contributes to the case's conclusion on multiple occasions; so dramatic is this change that the gimmick of Conan knocking Richard out via a tranquilizer dart then using his voice-changing bow-tie to reveal the solved case in the end is omitted entirely!

There also tends to be a greater focus on Conan's pal and fellow-age-reduced Anita Hailey, Dr. Hershel Agasa and the gadgets he invented to aid Conan on his mission.

As is always the case (no pun intended) with this show, the artwork and visual style aren't extremely rich or polished. Instead the animation is fairly simplistic but gets the job done. Focusing on the show's beauty (or lack thereof) is truly missing the whole point of what makes Case Closed so special. This is suspense-driven story telling that goes the extra mile to make sure each motion picture provides sufficient resolve. I consider myself a competent wannabe detective, but failed to solve this one prior to Conan's unraveling of clues at the end!

The English dub is pure first-class Funimation all the way, which means it just nails the little language details that make the original mystery fun. I can only imagine the work, planning, and translating this must require to get right. The effort pays dividends though when you view the finished product and literally forget that this wasn't originally written in English.

In all, quite an entertaining addition to a solid franchise. I enjoyed it thoroughly and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to existing fans and neophytes of the franchise alike.