Chapter 169: The Fist of Blue Sapphire? More Like the Green Hat
Honestly, Kaede never expected Eriri to be so determined to watch a Detective Conan movie.
"Eriri, are you serious? You should know exactly how the Conan movies have been lately."
"Hehe, I know!"
Pulling Kaede toward the escalator heading to the cinema on the top floor of the mall, Eriri said with a smile, "Since we're already out, let's not waste time.
Although the plot of the movies has been getting worse and worse, I haven't seen this one yet, so I don't know what it's specifically like.
Even if it's really bad, isn't it fine to just watch it as an action movie?"
That actually made some sense.
Kaede thought about it and nodded. "True, and I haven't been to the movies with you, Eriri, yet. We can make up for it this time."
Arriving at the cinema inside the mall, they bought two tickets for the Conan movie, The Fist of Blue Sapphire, and then bought cola and popcorn.
After waiting for about ten minutes, they were finally able to enter.
After finding their seats, Kaede fed a few kernels of popcorn into Eriri's mouth while quietly saying, "To be honest, I've almost forgotten what last year's movie was even about."
"Hmm?"
Chewing popcorn, Eriri thought back, and finally gave a wry smile. "Hehe, I think I've mostly forgotten too. But wasn't the trailer for this one really hyped?
Makoto Kyogoku is in it! It's rare to have a character with such high combat power appear."
Kaede disagreed. "No, I don't think it's a matter of high combat power anymore. A character like Makoto Kyogoku shouldn't appear in Conan.
In my opinion, someone with his fighting ability should be in Dragon Ball or Fist of the North Star. That would make sense."
The two bantered back and forth, and the movie finally started.
Kaede had forgotten the plot of The Fist of Blue Sapphire ages ago. All he needed to remember was that none of the new Conan movies were normal.
Sure enough, right from the start, Kaede and Eriri were hit with an extremely outrageous plot point: Kaito Kid packed Conan into a suitcase and air freighted him to Singapore.
Leaving aside whether such a suitcase could actually bypass security checks, they decided to just assume it could, as this was the Conan universe, and it was just a "minor" invention.
But for Conan to be knocked out, stuffed inside, shipped via air freight, and only wake up upon arrival at the destination with absolutely no ill effects—his physical condition was a bit too good.
Next came Kaito Kid applying makeup to Conan. Seriously, just changing his skin tone made him a different person?
Taking a deep breath, Kaede rationalized to himself: "It's fine, it's fine. This is just the movie trying to make sure the audience recognizes Conan. The characters in the film actually see someone else. Yes, that must be it."
But this was truly too distracting!
Well, although it broke immersion, it was still within Kaede and Eriri's tolerance range. They watched, occasionally complaining, and moved past it.
It was understandable that Ran didn't recognize Kid disguised as Shinichi, since the two characters look almost exactly alike anyway.
However, later, when the key character, Makoto Kyogoku, appeared, the movie started developing in a worrying direction.
Eriri watched the Conan anime much less frequently than before; she rarely kept up with it, so her knowledge of Makoto Kyogoku wasn't much greater than Kaede's.
But after seeing his fighting skills today, especially punching apart Conan's ultra-long-range, high-power soccer ball, and then punching a clearly heavy-weight opponent ten meters away during a match, Eriri finally couldn't help but start complaining.
"Kaede-kun, you were absolutely right. This person really doesn't belong in Conan."
Nodding, Kaede said bluntly, "If you ask me, a character like this could be the absolute protagonist of an action movie, the Terminator type, if he were put into other films."
Gradually, both of them chose to empty their minds and stopped trying to think too seriously about the subsequent plot.
But they couldn't help it—the movie forced them to think! There were just too many bizarre elements!
What? Makoto Kyogoku withdrew from the tournament? A simple bracelet sealed his combat power?
What? Sonoko turned into a love idiot and couldn't even speak properly?
Although the final action sequence featuring Makoto Kyogoku was undeniably exhilarating and felt very much like One-Punch Man, Kaede and Eriri both had strange expressions after leaving the theater.
Throwing the trash from the cola and popcorn into the bin, Kaede let out a sigh and said, "The Fist of Blue Sapphire? I think it should be called The Green Hat."
Regarding Ran's actions later in the movie, Kaede truly couldn't understand what the production team was thinking, especially the twist at the end where Ran supposedly knew that the Shinichi beside her was fake all along.
Emm~~~ Who watches a Conan movie for this kind of 'green' (cuckolding) plot?
Not to mention, it wasn't even the real Shinichi and Ran having a sweet moment. Even Ai Haibara, whom the CoAi shippers wanted to see, only appeared for a brief moment, becoming increasingly marginalized as a plot device in the movies.
It's safe to say they delivered on none of the expected romance, but they gave you explosions and One-Punch Man action to your heart's content.
Eriri pursed her lips and said, "Kaede-kun, even though it was fun watching it as a popcorn flick, maybe we shouldn't come back for the movie next year?"
"We still have to watch movies. Let's wait for the EVA movie."
"Mm, let's go home then."
With incredibly conflicted feelings, the two took the escalator downstairs.
To cheer Eriri up, Kaede bought her a cup of milk tea, which finally brought a slight smile to Eriri's face.
On the way home, sipping her milk tea, Eriri asked, "Kaede-kun, how much longer will your aunt and uncle be traveling?"
"Them? Probably still over a week."
Kaede thought for a moment and said, "Didn't you see? My mom posted those photos of them having so much fun traveling everywhere."
"Hehe, I saw them!"
Eriri said with a laugh, "I really want to go traveling too! It looks like your aunt and uncle are having a great time."
"That's true. My dad hasn't had much time off in the past six months, so this trip is a good chance for him to relax. And there's no need to mention my mom; she's probably been wanting to travel for ages."
Kaede leaned over, snatched Eriri's milk tea, and took a sip. Seeing her quickly guard it after realizing what he did, he smiled and said, "As for us, how about we wait until winter? We can go anywhere you want."
"Really?"
Eriri looked at Kaede happily, but quickly showed a troubled expression. "But I still have the manga serialization."
"That's easy, isn't it? Just prepare two or three chapters in advance, hand them over to Editor Izumi, and then we can go traveling! Two or three weeks is enough time for us to have a good trip."
Going traveling really was a good choice. They didn't have time during the summer vacation, but they would have plenty of time during future winter and summer breaks. They could pick any location.