Featured voices: Banjô Ginga, Hikaru Hanada, Tomoe Hanba

The biggest hit of the year in its native Japan, this manga adaption chronicles the adventures of a high school detective who, as the intro informs us, was turned into a child by a mysterious organisation. Adopting the identity Sherlock Holmes-evoking moniker Conan Edogawa, he resolves to track down the organisation. Conan’s latest case involves the legendary Kid, the Phantom Thief, a dapper jewel pilferer who has set his eyes on acquiring a precious antique. Also in the complicated mix is Conan’s pal, Detective of the West, a gangster called Brian(?!), an eccentric professor and a gang of wannabe child detectives. The near incomprehensible plot is even more unwieldy than the title, taking in numerous twists, exposition dumps and a gallery of supporting characters. Unsurprisingly, it eschews exploring the existential ramifications of a young adult reverting to a child’s body in favour of action and high jinks. The characterisation often feels a little retrograde with all the female characters, save one, depicted as dizzy airheads, and the corpulent child detective depicted as greedy and lazy. Propulsive pacing just about sustains interest over a one-hour-fifty-minute running time and the animation is frequently dazzling, with Conan’s groovy jazz-scored truncated origin story a flashy highlight.

David Willoughby

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