Case Closed: The Crimson Love Letter

There is a bombing at a television station in autumn. In the same period Japan's largest karuta tournament is being prepared; the game rests on memorising old poems and the championship is watched across the country. People around the tournament are targeted. Conan goes to Osaka. Heiji and Kazuha are there. Kazuha is competing, and something from Heiji's childhood comes out: years ago he played karuta with a girl and she took a promise from him. Heiji does not remember it. Kobun Shizuno directs. Minami Takayama and Kappei Yamaguchi are among the voices. The source is Gosho Aoyama's comic series. It is the twenty first feature in the series and broke the Conan box office record in Japan to that date. The game at its centre is karuta, a card game made from the poems of a hundred poets and widely played in Japan. Its second matter is the relationship between Heiji and Kazuha; for followers of the series that strand is the real subject. The narrative takes place in Osaka and the local dialect and use of the city work inside it. The action gathers in the last section and ends with a fire. The mystery is weak beside the average of the series and the film gives its weight to the relationship. Its limit is independence; without knowing Heiji and Kazuha's history half the narrative hangs loose. Who it is for: followers of the Conan series and anyone curious about Japanese games. Who it is not for: it is not an entry point, the mystery is weak, and the finale overblown.