As Detective Conan celebrates 30 years in publication, it also faces some hallmark problems that long-running episodic stories run into: losing momentum and attracting new viewers. Many anime fans are likely familiar with the joke about getting other people into the series we love, asking them to “just give it a few hundred episodes” to get good. I'm something of a Detective Conan apologist; I've always enjoyed the series, from the manga to anime and movies, and even when they're not amazing, I often find it deeply entertaining. But I've also long been a fan of mysteries and detective fiction, so I also might have a higher tolerance for simply seeing what twists or mysteries Gōshō Aoyama and his writers come up with.

Recently, thanks to the 30th anniversary, I've been rewatching the series and getting other people into it, which has made these episodic collections on Netflix / Crunchyroll so valuable: they provide a very concise and curated collection of episodes that primarily deal with the “plot” of Detective Conan, which is solving the mystery of the Black Organization and APTX 4869. The first set, Conan vs The Black Organization, primarily focused on introducing the main thrust of the story and the usual cast of important characters, while the other two series, Rivals of the Great Detective and FBI Intervention, brought along the developments of the plot over the series' run.

This new set follows up on that of FBI Intervention in terms of the general timeline of the series, and this first part of Clash of the Red and Black is a collection of 12 episodes that lead up to the larger climactic saga that will likely make up the second half of the collection, as Clash of the Red and Black is also the name of a series of related cases, which is completely absent from this first half entirely. This first set is a little lopsided even more, as the initial set of episodes have very little to do with the plot to come: the first episode, Young Genta's Misfortune, is a pretty standard Detective Boys' Club storyline that involves Conan and his younger classmates: Ai, Genta, Mitsuhiko, and Ayumi. Without spoiling the case itself, the episode includes a brief offhand comment about Black Organization member Gin. I question including the episode in the set, except perhaps because of that single comment, and to round the set to 12 episodes total.

The next 3 episodes involve a more traditional Conan case: The Dissonance of the Stradivarius is a three-part mystery in which Conan, Ran, and Kogoro are summoned to an estate where a supposedly “cursed” Stradivarius violin is set to claim its latest victim. Like the first episode in this collection, this one has almost nothing to do with the developing web of people connected to the Black Organization and the seemingly inevitable collision of the FBI and BO. What is here is a classic Detective Conan mystery, with a few fun character callbacks and gimmicks, such as Shinichi's perfect pitch (and inability to sing). Kogoro gets to do his thing (both awake and asleep), as do Megure and some of the other MPD, but very little seems to connect this set of episodes to the collection's story thread aside from a small, easy-to-miss detail.

As episodes, the first four are entertaining, and the Stradivarius mystery hits many of the classic tropes and style Detective Conan is known for. But as a themed collection of episodes, they feel more like filler than anything else; even the small bits of connective storytelling and information they divulge aren't particularly important and read more like flavor than substance.

The rest of the eight episodes of this set, however, are all connected by the introduction of a new character: high schooler Eisuke Hondou, whose family and personal connections may provide keys to unlocking the identities of the Black Organization, while also drawing Conan and the others deeper into the web of danger and intrigue that may come from confronting them. The remaining eight episodes are broken into three cases, and each directly influences the Black Organization storyline, especially the members not yet fully explored. The Black Organization has always served as a dangerous, but rare, element to the Detective Conan storyline; from a storytelling perspective, their appearance in the story drives much of the main plot, but also one that can't occur all the time, at least not in the way the manga (and thus anime) would be published; having Conan constantly confronting a criminal organization of murderers and terrorists would make little sense, and also likely force the series to conclude faster than needed.

Eisuke is a fun addition to the cast of secondary characters, but is also a character who is also tasked with the somewhat unfortunate role of being a plot device before anything else; There's some light tension about the idea that a new student could be something of a rival to Shinichi for Ran, as well as his love of Kogoro, of all things! Eisuke also has connections to Rena Mizunashi, a reporter who may have ties to the Black Organization as an operative known as Kir, further developing the web of connections. While Detective Conan is often talked about for the mysteries, action, and long-running plot, Aoyama is a competent and creative character writer. Some of the best parts of Conan aren't the mysteries themselves, but the cast of characters who orbit them, with idiosyncrasies and roles often played in fun, though not entirely stereotypical, ways.

Ran is a great example: she's both the pretty bishoujo character love interest, who is also an exceptionally powerful karateka (although these episodes really don't let her show that off), while Kogoro is such a failure of a father and detective that he somehow slips out of being infuriating to pathetic and sort of charming. Even Sonoko, the “rich girl” friend of the group, often gets to give honest reads of people that might otherwise seem rude. Eisuke fits into the puzzle with a deceptively attractive, polite attitude paired with unbearably bad luck; Sonoko even comments, “If you were a girl character in an anime, you'd be considered moe.”

As these episode sets are new releases in the sense that they've never been available before, the dub is also brand new. The Detective Conan dub cast and script are excellent, doing a great job of bringing Conan's feel to life in a completely different language. Perhaps on purpose, or by luck, these cases don't tend to feature wordplay or riddles, which helps the dub performances feel natural and makes the cases make sense to viewers. Although it isn't always possible or feasible, some of the strength of Detective Conan comes from the possibility that the viewer may figure out the secret of the mystery being solved before it is revealed to the audience, and language-based clues would make that almost impossible if the translation were too unnatural. I really like the cast, too, and Robert McCollum does a great job of bringing Kogoro to life in both facets of his character, as well as Megan Shipman's Ran; Molly Zhang continues to produce a great performance as Conan too, and her shift in Conan's voice ranges, from Shinichi's inner dialogues to Conan's “boy” voice when he's acting, all really work as a cohesive whole that does a great job of mirroring the original.

Something I did find interesting in this set of episodes is the shift in animation quality. These are far “newer” episodes than those of the previous sets, especially the first set, so the very rounded ears and faces that were iconic to the early episodes (which is especially notable when comparing these episodes to, say, The Roller Coaster Murder Case). Perhaps a slightly controversial take, but I don't mind the modernizing of the show's style in these more “recent” episodes (with the caveat that many of them came out twenty years ago), although the late '90s style is very iconic. What matters most is that the animation is consistent and feels natural, which it does, and the characters retain their iconic shapes and general silhouettes; sometimes, it can be odd to celebrate an anime for being on model, but considering how these episodes are 20 years old, they still look quite good. Also, worth shouting out: the first episode in this set includes the exceptionally iconic closing song by Mai Kuraki, “always”. Although the song is considered one of Kuraki (and Conan's!) best-loved songs, hearing it in an official release is a real treat, which is somewhat funny in that it's also on the most skippable episode in the entire set…!

The set of episodes ends by developing Eisuke's relationships and how intertwined and complex they are in connection to both the FBI and Black Organization, which sets up for the action to really explode when the next batch of episodes releases and the full Clash of the Red and Black plays out. Overall, the set of episodes is good but not exceptionally exciting, since much of it serves as a prelude to the action just around the corner. However, these episode selections serve another, albeit frustrating, role: they fill in the gaps between what episodes of Detective Conan are actually available officially in English, both subbed and dubbed; on Crunchyroll, for example, the episodes available jump from 128 to 754(!).

Perhaps one of the most frustrating things about being a Detective Conan fan is the bizarre way it has been localized and released outside Japan, and these episode selections illustrate that. While they do fill in the gaps of things we've never been able to officially watch, it is also just strange that one of the most iconic storylines from Conan's history, Clash of the Red and Black, is something that can only be watched piecemeal through sets of episodes and not complete seasons; that said, Part 1 has me excited for the release of the rest of Clash of the Red and Black, and I'm glad to see Detective Conan getting some love to make it both more available in general, but also making it easier to help get newer fans into the series and fall in love with it.