Meitantei Conan Movie 19: Gouka no Himawari

*spoiler free* As I enjoyed previous Conan movies featuring Kaito Kid, I was really looking forward to this one. Conan movies are not without flaws, but I can usually look past those flaws based on enjoyment alone - but for this movie, not so much. Let's jam: Story (3/10) The story is quite straightforward: the Suzuki family wants to organize an exhibition featuring all of van Gogh's "Sunflower" paintings with the help of a group of hand-picked individuals called the "Seven Samurai", but for some reason Kaito Kid decides to get involved. This in turn causes the police to become involved, as everyone tries to protect the paintings fromKid while making sure the exhibition goes off without a hitch. There were two things that I found annoying about the story: 1) it was not well-executed. It felt like the writers wanted to make the story more interesting by adding random plotlines and events unrelated to the main story, but this only served to make the movie unnecessarily complicated. Since the characterization was weak to begin with, the movie was unable to justify these creative decisions. 2) It was quite predictable. Anyone who is familiar with the Conan franchise can pretty much tell how this story will play out after the first 15 minutes. This can be a good or bad thing depending on how the writers further develop the story, but in this case it definitely did not enhance the viewing experience. Art (7/10) The movie was well-animated, employing bright colors and beautiful shots of New York City and Tokyo. The animators also did a great job setting the atmosphere and mood for various scenes. One sequence taking place on an airplane really stood out for its great visuals and intense action. Sound (5/10) For the most part, the soundtrack was quite enjoyable and complemented the movie. Not the most memorable soundtrack of all time, but effective nonetheless. I do have to say that the ending song was terrible, and did not belong there at all. Characters (3/10) Characters can make or break a movie, and in this case the characters did the latter. We all know that the new characters introduced in a Conan movie are one-shot characters, but the Seven Samurai were boring and generic even for one-shot characters. When the writers tried to utilize them to further the plot, it was rendered ineffective because none of them possess any personality whatsoever. It felt like they were introduced for the sake of the storyline, and then completely abandoned. There was also an old lady character who had some sort of personal connection to one of the Sunflower paintings, but the writers spent extremely little time sketching out her storyline, therefore stripping it of all its emotional value. On the other hand, it was nice to revisit the rivalry between Conan and Kaito Kid. For some reason though, most of the main characters in the Conan universe play extremely small roles in the storyline and mostly let stuff happen to them, and even Conan doesn't do as much detective work as usual. Kaito Kid may be as charming as always, but the plot doesn't do him any favors as well. Enjoyment (6/10) I enjoyed most parts of the movie, especially the action scenes, while other scenes were utterly unenjoyable. I really wanted to like this movie, but I couldn't look past the flimsy plot and ineffective characterization. Verdict Out of all Conan movies, this is one of my least favorite, along with the Jolly Roger one. For long-time viewers of Conan, I would recommend re-watching a previous movie featuring Kaito Kid instead of seeing this one. For anyone new to the Conan franchise, I would recommend movie #7 or #10 instead, since both feature well-executed and exciting storylines that also further develop the relationships among the main characters. I know the team behind Conan can do better than this, so I'll be looking forward to the 20th movie!

The most recent Detective Conan film has come and gone, and this one is a bit different. Similar to the 10th movie (Requiem of the Detectives), we have our littlest detective out to protect the fine arts, though in this case, Conan must save one of Van Goh's most important paintings, the Sunflowers. Is this movie an amazing art heist wannabe, or a copied flop? Oh, and did I mention Kaito Kid? Cause yeah, Kaito Kid. Story (6/10): After the Suzuki Zaibatsu purchases the originally thought destroyed 2nd Sunflowers painting, Kaito Kid essentially declares that he'll steal it. But since this is completely outside of thethiefs usual M.O., all characters involved become suspicious, especially after the messages and methods become violent. Conan and friends are now on a deadline to get the Sunflowers Exhibition up and running, but it still doesn't answer the main problem: why is Kaito Kid after the paintings? The story here is a bit of a mixed bag, to say the least. There's a lot right but enough wrong that it's hard not to address. The good things are that it really takes a smart approach to trying to defeat Kid, showing all the work that goes into everything behind the scenes. It's really quite fun to see just what Suzuki Jiro does to show off his extreme wealth. All the stuff that connects with the Sunflower paintings themselves is also interesting, and a little heartwarming. There are some problems with the movie. The resolution to who is after the paintings is WEAK. And I don't just mean weak, I mean WEAK AS FUCK. (Yes, f-bomb worthy weak.) True, the clues do tell you who it is, but God almighty is it a letdown. In connection to that, there's a random confession to a crime dead center in the climax that basically comes out of nowhere and does nothing to change the plot AT ALL. Also almost everything to do with Kaito Kid is basically worthless, and yes as a fan of his, that sucks to say. I'll elaborate more in the below section, but suffice to say, this is probably the weakest movie that Kid has been a part of. Overall it isn't a bad story, but man, the parts that are bad are standout bad. Art (8/10): As is per the norm, the art is excellent, giving all the scenes wonderful color and action. Though I must point out that there are a few 'quality' background scenes here and there that are a bit more standout than I would usually critique. Sound (7/10): Back to basic Conan movie music, but as usual that isn't a bad thing. Though I must point out the track that plays during the climax of the movie, as it was really damn good. Character (6/10): I do have some positives and negatives in relation to the regular cast. First the disappointing: it feels like they dumbed down Conan and Ai. While nothing extreme or distracting, it just feels like the two smartest characters in the show almost don't have that much of an impact in solving the crime. Conan doesn't have to work hard to figure anything out and really only gets like 2 clues total to work with in the entire movie. It just feels like he got pushed out of his own movie. Not all is bad though. The Suzuki's (Jiro and Sonoko) are actually more entertaining here than they've been in a while. Ran, her Dad, and Inspector Nakamori are also treated with respect and given quite a lot to do here. Basically the main side characters here are treated well and are really fun to watch. Kaito Kid is also barely in the movie. Technically he is in most of it, but he doesn't even have a freaking line until 20 minutes near the end. Despite being the main 'antagonist', he's just a non-factor in the story too much of the time. It honestly feels like the movie is trying to play Kid like he was back when his introduction was a bit more mysterious, but by today, where his manga is a thing and he had his own anime last year, it just doesn't work anymore. With the movie exclusive characters, they are just boring and forgettable. True, Inspector Charlie is the best of the bunch, but he's ultimately not that important in the long run. The other characters have literally 3-8 lines of dialogue and no personality at all. Hell, I don't even remember their freaking names after just watching it. They're close to the top of a Worst DC Movie Cast list for being just there and irrelevant by the end. (As is traditional at this point, I need to make my complaint: why are the freaking Detective Boys in this damn movie? Their scenes are worthless and they literally serve no purpose. I don't want to hate on them, since as Quarter of Silence has shown us, when given real purpose, they are great characters. But here? They should've been excluded from the entire second half when the exhibition takes center stage. Hell, even the Professor is kind of awkwardly shoved into the movie, with all his scenes being really bad comedy.) Enjoyment (7/10): I did have more fun with this movie than I did the last one, if you can believe it. Probably because I do like a good art heist film. Granted, as noted above, the second half is where I started getting lost. While the actual climax is really fun, I was just disappointed that we didn't really get a Conan vs. Kid film. I really should know by now that we'll never get one of those until a miracle happens, but I still held hope that this would be the one. Again, while it seems like I'm complaining, I really did have some fun with this movie. (Also there's a tiny call back to something from the 18th movie here, which is kinda cute.) Detective Conan: The Hellfire Sunflowers is probably one of the more average movies in the series, though it isn't awful by any means. While the side characters are really given a time to shine, the story has some major flaws in its second half and doesn't really feel like the Conan/Kid focused movie that it's trying to be. If you're a DC fan, I as always recommend that you watch it at least once for completions sake, but non fans aren't going to find anything interesting here. 6/10 = average by DC standards; second half is weak, with the mystery reveal failing to impress; there are better Conan/Kid movies, like the 14th (being the best); the main older side characters do kind of get a chance to shine;

I tried to keep it spoiler free, only my Final tought goes into detail and give some spoilers. --- To begin, I liked the anime. I'm a big 1412 (Kid) fan but not that big of a DC fan. So I'm only going to compare of what I've seen. To start, the beginning starts a bit suprising, but soon after the action begins. It gives you a wrong understanding about what is going on. But that's how I like it, it keeps you wanting to watch. Everything what Kid does is weird, and even when you watched the Magic Kaito 1412 serie, you still don't have aclue about what is going on. Kid only steals jewels, so why does he steals paintings? (Not really a spoiler here, because it is already mentioned at the early beginning of the film what he is about to do.) Even the thinking of Conan isn't told. It are some short moments were he thinks, but no real breaktrough. When the film develops at the searching-non action part you still don't have a clue about what is going on. Only when the movie reaches her Climax things are rather suprising. Kid doesn't dp what you would think he would do and even some Jesus-things are put into it. xD When Kid does that thing with paintings when everything can't get worse, you'll be not suprised when you've watched the Magic Kaito 1412 series. Actually, it's the moment you waited for, were your taughts about him really being not what he was in the 1412 series just vanished. And it really made me laugh. Further, when the whole complot was told, it was rather weird how it was all put together, but at the end, you'll forget about it due to that one moment with Kid and the inspector. (?) So... Story 7/10 It wasn't bad, but it wasn't breathtaking either. It could have some improvements here and there, but the story doesn't lack anything nor does it comes out unrealistic. Art 6/10 Typical DC and 1412 art. Not my favourite, but still decent and not annoying to look at. Sound 8/10 The music was good, it didn't "wake me up" from the story to irritate me that it doesn't fit together. But not much to say about it. Character 5/10 It's typical to DC and 1412 that it hasn't a character development. Maybe it would've been better if the police realised what Kid has done for the other people. Enjoyment 9/10 This is personal, but I really enjoyed it. It was worth spending 2 hours for it. I personally recommend this if you are a 1412 fan, but it way dissapoint you if you are a DC fan. Overall 7/10 Nothing much to say here, it speaks for itselfs. I would love to give an 8 but that would be a bit to unrealistic compared to the points I've given the other stats. --- Final toughts: [SPOILERS!] With the aircraft, a plane can fly with 1 engine (even with 2) damaged or broken. So that was a rather weird moment for me. The end was good, but it needed that one extra thing to make it shine. I would've loved if Conan personally comes to Kid and thanks him for helping and saving the girl. So that was my review. If I was you, go and press the watch button! You're still reading this? I recommended you to press the watch button... PRESS THE BUTTON! (xD)

Listen, I have to agree with some of the other reviews saying that the story is a little predictable and, for a Detective Conan movie, it is not great. However, if you enjoy Detective Conan and love any Kaitou Kid appearance, then this movie is very very enjoyable. All around the movie is very fun to watch and although predictable it does draw you in. The art, as always, is very well done and beautifully animated. Again, if you love Kaitou Kid, this is the movie to watch. I very much enjoy the comraderie between Conan and Kid and this movie definitely delivers on thatend. If you are looking for something entertaining, not to be taken too seriously, this is definitely the movie to watch.

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