Amin Abbas
The Detective Conan series has been around for over 30 years and is considered one of the best-selling manga series of all time.
The latest movie of the Detective Conan series — titled ‘Detective Conan, The Million-dollar Pentagram’ — is the most successful and top grossing movie in the series history.
It beat last year’s ‘Detective Conan: Black Iron Submarine’s’ earnings thus making the series the first Japanese-animated movie franchise to have two consecutive films pass the 10 billion yen in earnings in Japan.
The movie’s main plot focuses on Kaito Kid as one of the main protagonists as he aims for a legendary Japanese sword which belongs to Toshizo Hijikata, the vice commander of Shinsengumi who lived in the end of Edo period that leads to a great secret that Kid is very interested in.
The movie’s other plot is where Heiji Hattori was looking for scenic spots around Hakodate in order to successfully confess his feelings to his childhood friend and love interest Kazuha Toyama.
As the movie’s story progresses, Conan and Heiji discovers that the stolen swords in Hakodate have a deep secret where a Japanese-American man known as the “Merchant of Death” who works as an arms dealer throughout Asia has emerged from the investigation.
He was looking for treasures believed to have been hidden somewhere in Hakodate by the first head of the Onoe family, who was heavily involved in the war industry during the World War II.
Rumor has it that it is such a powerful weapon that it could change the war situation that Japan was losing at the time, and the treasure and the sword Kid is aiming at seem to have something kind of connection.
The action in the movie is very noticeable where there are many engagements between characters as more details about the secret of the six swords are being revealed with more twists and turns come quickly, whether they be in the form of revelations, new characters in the hunt for the treasure, or startling betrayals.
The prominence of Kaito Kid and his important in supporting Conan through the movie gives greater urgency and weight to the characters in the plot, which has translated into faster pacing and a more riveting story.
Also, the movie sheds the light on the relationship between Conan and Kaito Kid, which has been in speculation for many years and the fans are recommended to watch the movie till the end to find it out.
One of the main highlights of the movie is featuring the amazing places of Hakodate like the star-shaped Goryōkaku and Mount Hakodate in a very stunning accuracy where the movie reveals the real-life Hakodate locations that were used as references for the animation. The screening of the movie had noticeable effect where the number of visitors to Hakodate had increased rapidly following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Overall, Detective Conan: The Million-dollar Pentagram brings unique experience and balance between Detective Conan and Kaito Kid as a crossover movie and provides spectacular action and faster pace of the plot as well featuring the beauty of Hakodate in a very remarkable way to the fans of the series to enjoy.