Detective Conan: The Million-dollar Pentagram Anime Film Review – Review

If I had to sum up this movie in one word, it would be insanity. The Million-dollar Pentagram is a film that hits almost every single beat you want to experience in a high-octane action film. We have explosions, cameos from characters throughout the franchise, unlikely alliances as well as fun twists and turns at every corner. This is the kind of film that is throwing something at you every ten minutes. If there’s one major compliment I can give the film, it is I was never once bored watching it. However, does the entertainment value translate to a good quality film? I would argue that it depends on what the film is trying to achieve.

The film has quite a few threads and storylines going on. The main storyline involves the theft of antique swords that hold the key to solving a mystery from history. At its base level, this is a treasure-hunting movie with Conan, Heiji, and Kaito Kid finding this treasure before the generic mobsters do. This part was consistently entertaining as I was left guessing who was behind everything, what this mysterious treasure was, and what it was all building towards. Not only did the overall mystery catch me off guard in a few places, but some very unique puzzles utilized specific setpieces and the overall climax had a much more melancholy tone than what I was expecting from this film.

Naturally, this is accomplished with gorgeous animation and set design. The story makes use of Hakodate’s setting to great effect. The credits also showed a lot of live-action footage that I assume was used as a reference for the film. Every visual here is rendered in stunning detail, with a few segments done by guest animators. I like the running gag in the series that Gōshō Aoyama, the mangaka for Conan and Kaito Kid, has an art style that, unfortunately, makes a few of his characters look the same, so the film leans into it in some surprisingly clever ways. The music is also some of the best I’ve heard from the franchise, with big, bombastic numbers making some scenes as grandiose as they should feel.

The film does suffer a little when it comes to suspension of disbelief. There were a few instances where characters would cross paths with each other in a way that felt a little too convenient for plot progression and where guest appearances felt like they were getting in the way of the actual story. I also cannot tell you how many times the bad guys surrounded our heroes, and I kept thinking to myself, “Why aren’t the bad guys pulling out their guns?” This is what I mean when I said you have to look at the film from an action movie perspective because when you try to look past the cheese and the fan service, you are left with a film that really falls apart under the weight of its own ambition. When you have two characters having a sword fight on top of a biplane, you need to be in it for the ride at that point.

I wasn’t expecting that Conan himself would not be much of the main character of this film. While he is present throughout the film and arguably is the one who breaks down the reveal at the end, this story is more about his rival, Heiji, than anything. The way that Heiji is introduced in this film makes him exude stronger main character energy than Conan, who actually doesn’t do anything for the first third of this film. Heiji is also in the middle of what you could call the film’s main B plot, where he is simultaneously trying to find the ideal location to confess to his childhood friend. This is a plot point that carries over from the original series, and to the best of my knowledge, that plot point still has not been resolved to this day, so you can already sort of piece together where that plot point goes. Unfortunately, that makes the plot feel more like fluff that takes up the runtime, but it did lead to some pretty funny moments throughout the film. The point is: if you’re not a fan of the bait-and-switch with Heiji more or less taken over as the main character, that could be seen as a detriment.

That’s not an unreasonable concern to bring up, considering that Kaito Kid was also a huge part of the film’s marketing. While he was involved throughout, his presence felt more functional than character-driven. There is a reason why he is here, and there are even some reveals that tie the lore of his series to the lore of Detective Conan, as they both exist in the same universe. However, I would’ve liked a little bit more direct interactions between him and Conan specifically. Again, as it stands, he seems to have more of a rapport with Heiji throughout the film, and while it is cute, it also doesn’t get any major resolution. Things are strongest in the middle when focused on the main action plot, but when you look at all the branching storylines and how they overlap, things get a bit messier.

Overall, despite being a little bit misleading, I can say that this is one of the more enjoyable Detective Conan movies that I have seen in recent years. At worst, it’s pure charming fan service wrapped in a gorgeous-looking, action-packed spectacle. The comedy is solid, and the mystery is engaging with some amazing set pieces in mind. It is a film that will keep you entertained from beginning to end, as long as you’re willing to go along with the foundation that it sets up.

If you’re in the UK, the film was released for the first time with English and Chinese subtitles on September 27.