Hobgoblin2012

But when did he ever manage to do that? Mitsuhiko may sometimes try, but Genta?

I think his "honesty" is in the fact that he always sends the murderer to prison no matter what. I don't want to start a long off-topic, but every time this subject is touched, I would like to say: to put it briefly, I personally always feel very, very sorry for the murderers in DC, so I think that, from a moral point of view, if he sends them to prison, he should at least feel sorry for their situations if he pretends to be better than them and should realize it's the victims who are the real villains in most of the stories (and in some cases, even murderers of innocents). DC is different from most detective series in this aspect. For the rest, I agree with you, even though I still like Conan a little better because of the funny situations, but as Shinichi he is interesting too.

I know most people will disagree, but I think certain particular kinds of "honesty" are worse than corruption. I think only a policeman from a totalitarian country can really say "there is only one truth", given the ambiguous situations that form the settings for most crimes in DC. Also, he is more self-admiring when he is Shinichi than when he is Conan.

Conan is funnier.

I haven't watched it for long. I have discovered it about 4 years ago. However, I think I will watch it to the end no matter how long it takes, I want to know what will happen. The promise of a "happy ending" by Gosho is too vague in my opinion, I want to know the details.

Well, it's just that she is too mysterious, not a very open person. I wouldn't know what to expect from her. But maybe when I said that I was just too annoyed at people who say she is so much better than Ran. If we don't consider the hypothetical ConanxAi pairing, then I don't really dislike Ai, even though I am annoyed that she and Agasa prevent Conan from telling Ran the truth (I know theoretically it's for her safety, but in my opinion it really doesn't matter to the BO whether she knows or not, if they discovered who Conan is, they would have killed his friends anyway, just to be sure). Anyway, Ai is an interesting character, contributes very much to the story, I want for her to have a happy ending, it's just I don't want her to marry Shinichi. I understand that Gosho for now doesn't seem to have such an intention, but if the number of ConanxAi fans in Japan becomes bigger than ShinichixRan fans, how should we know he doesn't change his mind? It's the big market after all, even though I really hope Gosho cares more about his ideas than about making more money.

Yes, I prefer childhood friend pairings over others, it's just a matter of personal taste. I am always very touched by the innocence and tenderness of the affection between two children, if that happens. At least in such cases there is a guarantee it's really love and not just sex, as often happens between people who met as adults. Anyway, I always prefer if the character stays with the first love, childhood friend or not. I like monogamy and hate polygamy (not going to impose this to anyone, but my personal view on the matter is this). If Ai was Conan's first love, I would have rooted for them to be together, even though I would have still liked and respected Ran. Heiji and Kazuha.... Well, I wouldn't call constant arguing and being at each others' throats "chemistry". Shiratori and Kobayashi only knew each other for several minutes as children, so in my opinion they aren't really childhood friends. And I don't consider Ran dull at all. In fact, I would like to have such a good-hearted and loyal friend like her in real life. Also, I must notice that, while I don't like ConanxAi, I at least don't insult Haibara's character. And I don't think they will choose someone else, I just suspect there might be a lot of cliff-hanger endings, for example I can't imagine Heiji and Kazuha confessing love to each other.

I like childhood friend pairings because they RARELY win, they may be used often, but the main character usually chooses someone else at the end, and in this case it's as if the childhood friend pairing never existed (at least for me). And Gosho hasn't yet finished the manga, we don't even know whether these 7-8 pairings will have a definitive happy ending (not a cliff-hanger one), therefore for now it's as if they weren't yet complete. Therefore, I wouldn't say that childhood friend pairings aren't original. Can you name me at least one anime (apart from Lamune, Hani Hani and one of the Amagami arcs) where the childhood friends stay together at the end? Most people can't name such examples, so I really don't get it why the childhood friends get on their nerves.

reliable

I haven't yet watched a "bad" anime in a sense that it's badly written and boring enough not to get to the end, but there are some depressing animes which can be considered "bad" from a point of view of somebody who loves happy endings, as myself. For example, Moryo no Hako had a very depressing effect, made me cry for one of the characters, life seems pointless after stories which are that depressing.

If he arrested the murderers of the original crime in which innocents are killed, he could prevent the revenge murders in which the perpetrator is almost always portrayed sympathetically, putting in a questionable light (at least for me) the value of Conan's work.

Three days

I know, I just meant it's funny what did they do in the translation.

I once read there was a law in some small city in Israel, according to which you can't walk near the city hall shaking a snake above the head. On one hand, it's ridiculous, on the other hand I think snakes wouldn't be happy it it was cancelled

This is weird especially considering the fact there was an episode where they travelled to America from Japan.

Genta in DC is the absolute masterpiece of all time! Have you ever seen a character so charismatic, intelligent, shrouded in mystery? He is the real mastermind behind Conan's success and the reason Gosho is so famous. If they don't rename the series "Detective Genta", it's not to spoil the plot for the fans!

Could somebody tell me what did they do to the country the events are taking at in the English translation? Did they change it to the USA or did it stay Japan in spite of the changed names?

The Gummi bears (not to be confused with the Care Bears) !

My favorites are all episodes where we don't have the usual tear-jerking story about somebody who didn't get justice through the law and starts killing the guilty ones out of despair. I don't remember all episodes with such a plot, but I would choose as favorites: Furinkazan The fearful traversing murder case Heiji Hattori's desperate situation And the one about a thief caught by the Detective Boys with Conan getting everything wrong, I think it was episode 225 (Secret of the high sales). Too funny! By the way, many people say they like the manga episodes MUCH more than the anime specials, saying they are much more interesting. Is there really such a difference in quality? I used to watch the series without checking which episode was manga-based and didn't notice much difference, I mean, some surely were more interesting than others, but I didn't get the impression it was determined by whether they were manga based or not.

I would be really surprised if Shiratori was the boss. He initially appeared as a quite ridiculous character when continuously stalking Sato with all the other policemen and gave an impression to have been introduced only to serve as an "annoyance" and obstacle to Takagi and Sato. It would be strange if Gosho chose to make a character associated with such ridiculous situations the boss.

I read Gosho said he wants to send the message that murder is inexcusable no matter what. I would understand this if he didn't portray so many murderers as pitiful or even sympathetic, to me it seems he contradicts himself in such a way, since in this case the reader or viewer has to make efforts to judge the murderer harshly. Just my opinion.

I agree, the point I was trying to make from the beginning wasn't about "dropping the charges", but about "doing less time in prison" than other kind of criminals (and also about "feeling compassion", but I think that discussion can be closed now, as I think we don't disagree about it that much). But I agree with what you said about remorse, repentance etc and the following effect on the sentences.

I think you misunderstood me. I wasn't talking about babies who later become serial killers or time travel. I just made the "baby" example as the most innocent victim possible and the "serial killer" example as the worst victim possible. Just to express my opinion that even if both murders are premeditated, we shouldn't put them at the same level from a moral point of view. Meaning, that if you kill an innocent person for pleasure it's different from when you kill a dangerous killer to save others, even though both actions are premeditated.

By the way, correct me if I am wrong: weren't there cases in which the murderer actually tried to seek justice by the law before killing? Like in the episode about the karaoke bar where the victim was a child murderer who wanted to kill Sonoko and the father of the murdered child killed him because he had been released for the lack of evidence (he also saved Sonoko's life by doing it). Or the case where a mother killed the murderer of her son and the corrupt lawyer who made him acquitted? She tried to seek justice legally and was denied. And the case of Ayumi's dentist where she killed the murderer of her little brother who has been acquitted because "the testimony of a child was not reliable"? Sorry I don't remember the numbers and names of the episodes. And about murder and manslaughter: maybe in many DC cases they will be charged with manslaughter instead of murder. For example, here: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/story/2012/04/05/sk-kim-walker-parole-120405.html the father was charged with manslaughter even though it was intentional, as far as I got it. But anyway, do you or Fangirlwhocanspell really feel that shooting a newborn baby in the head for pleasure and shooting a serial killer to save his future victims is the same, just because it was premeditated? I am asking in all honesty, not to provoke (I don't want anybody to feel insulted, but I admit I take DC stories very seriously, maybe TOO seriously).

I didn't ignore the counter examples, it's just I got the impression that in most of the cases (70-80%) the victims were plain evil, even when they didn't directly break the law. I apologize if you feel offended. It's just my opinion is that people who create the situations in which others go desperate to the point of breaking the law are morally much worse than those who actually break the law out of despair. Of course, I don't apply this to real life as in real life I never saw a situation which contained BOTH these elements (the murderer being pitiful and the victim being a complete scumbag), but in DC there are many. Maybe not 99%, but still many. Like Conan can't justify murder, I can't avoid feeling sorry for somebody who is completely ruined and cries because of it.