You can run, but you can’t hide.
Creative Staff
Story/Art: Gosho Aoyama
Translation/Adaptation: Tetsuichiro Miyaki
What They Say
A Devil Of A Case
A killer stalks a rich man’s family, leaving a white glove at the scene of each crime. His latest victim leaves a dying message–claiming the killer is from Hades itself! Is Conan dealing with the devil? Then Conan meets Satan…Satan Onizuka, that is, a washed-up rock star in demonic makeup. But is his devilish persona just an act for the fans? When Satan’s agent is murdered, Conan starts to wonder what evil thoughts lurk beneath the mascara…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
Sometimes a cold case suddenly bursts into flames, as Conan learns in this volume of Case Closed. Throughout most of this volume it’s business as usual for the teen turned child detective, even if that business involves one of the most sadistic murders we’ve seen in this series.
The case the back of the book blurb describes involves yet another murder occurring right in front of Conan and his kid compatriots. It’s probably the weakest case in the volume, although the killer took great pains to cover his tracks. The clues leading to harder evidence are coincidental at best, and there is no doubt that the culprit was the murderer because we see him identified by the killer before the murder. The stinger at the end of the case is a bit of melodrama which is pure fiction (blood can’t stay in a human’s eye like that, come on.)
That murder which opens the volume would happen to involve the year-old death of the son of a certain family. Then when the father appears to commit suicide in the group’s presence the case goes from cold to hot. It’s not so much the staged suicide that is horrific, even though it should be. It’s the fact that the murder was set up so that when the group rushed the door they caused the murder! As horrible as that seems, it was the slow tortured death of the son and the lead up to the death of the father which would make any reader pause. Especially since the motive seems so… weak. What a psychopath.
The events which lead Conan to that old cold case just happen to involved Eisuke. His late mother used to work there as a maid. Throughout the volume he keeps popping back up and they keep coming back to the fact that Rena and his sister look identical, but can’t be the same person because the blood types differ. This seems like a dead end, and it is, but Eisuke doesn’t drop it even though he concurs. When Eisuke isn’t heard from over the course of winter break Conan panics and contacts his friends at the FBI. Eisuke had visited the hospital anyway, and he may have had tails.
This is when things really heat up. The FBI agents give Conan the missing backstory on Eisuke’s father, whose real identity is surprising. It also means that Eisuke’s life is in danger and that Rena is in danger of being found by the Men in Black. Suddenly it’s a race against the clock to find the spy before they find their target. Not only that, but Rena is awake and it’s only a matter of time for her before the others realize it too. From there it’s back to the usual methods to ferret out the crook, but the stakes are high and there are still mysteries surrounding Eisuke and his family.
In Summary
Some of the most gruesome and vindictive murders are committed in this volume of Case Closed, but that’s only half of it. Eisuke is getting closer and closer to the truth even as he should be getting turned back. His dead end to finding his sister might be his literal dead end. A few key revelations about his father up the stakes for both him and the FBI and they’re key witness. Now there’s a missing person and a race against the clock. Case Closed hasn’t been this exciting for a long time.
Content Grade: A –
Art Grade: A –
Packaging Grade: B
Text/Translation Grade: B +
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Viz Media
Release Date: January 12th, 2016
MSRP: $9.99
