Detective Conan: The Culprit Hanzawa, a spin-off that will captivate you

Detective Conan

February is off to a good start, especially for Detective Conan fans. The spin-off Detective Conan: The Culprit Hanzawa from the TMS Entertainment studio arrives on Netflix, which unfortunately never bought the rights to the parent series. This 12-episode anime series no longer sees our miniature Shinichi solving cases and unmasking the culprits, but him: the assassin, or rather that black shape that represents the figure of the criminal in Gosho Aoyama's manga and in the successful television adaptation in disguise. It is the anime adaptation of Mayuko Kanba's work, published starting in 2017. This spin-off immediately presents itself as a pleasant surprise, and with its lightness it arrives at just the right time. But what is it that makes it so enjoyable and effective?

Why does Detective Conan: The Culprit Hanzawa work?

You don't have to be even. It's everything you don't expect Detective Conan: The Culprit Hanzawa is hilarious The spin-off has its own identity

Detective Conan: The Culprit Hanzawa

You don't have to be even

Detective Conan ( Meitantei Konan) , also known in the West as Case Closed , is one of those works that has seen many fans give up too soon and which, sometimes , discouraged newbies from approaching, having to recover more than a thousand chapters. Although J-Pop has given new life to the manga with the latest edition (which can be purchased on Amazon at  this link ), it is still not an easy task to keep up, given that it will turn 30 in 2024 . Of course, it is true that we are not talking about a full-bodied work like One Piece but a narration with self-contained episodes in which the main plot runs much slower than expected; precisely for this reason, its new spin-off should not be feared.



Detective Conan: The Culprit Hanzawa Detective Conan: The Culprit Hansawa, in fact, lets itself be watched without the spectator having to to be on par with Shinichi's story. It will be enough to recall what is known from the times when the anime was broadcast on Italia 1. Even those who are not perfectly up to date can enjoy this short spin-off and follow the story of Hansawa, the unmistakable black silhouette.

It's everything you don't expect

At the news of the undercover killer as the protagonist, if you don't know the manga, you would expect a long series of crimes committed by him while Conan tries to solve them, yet none of this is part of the Netflix spin-off, and it can be seen from the first episode. Hanzawa is a young assassin who, looking for a mysterious man to kill, needs permanent accommodation.

More than a criminal looking for a secret lair, it seems like watching a young man who has just decided to go live alone in greater Tokyo and start a new life. True, it almost seems like the incipit of Nana by Ai Yazawa, but in fact it is the first big surprise of this anime series. The protagonist is not exactly how we imagine him, so much so that he is even afraid of living in a house where a murder has been committed. These many contrasts between the silhouette we think we know and its true nature are a leitmotiv that will accompany the viewer from start to finish, in a long series of amusing comic gags.

Detective Conan: The Culprit Hanzawa is hilarious

From the first to the last episode, the protagonist is therefore entangled in various situations of an ordinary routine which, however, become almost paradoxical; not only, for example, the fear of murderers, but also futilities such as the desire to find black clothing - as if he needed it - and the consequent drama of discovering that they are no longer on sale. Detetive Conan: The Culprit Hanzawa is a hilarious anime, and its comic character also stands out in the opening theme, full of funny images that immediately tend to ridicule the protagonist and strip him of any cruel and malignant connotation.



Detective Conan: The Culprit Hanzawa The Netflix spin-off is full of irony that spills over into the Detective Conan series itself. This "child savior" here is seen as a demon bringer of trouble. It is only his fault that the lives of criminals are in danger, and for this he is a real threat to the city. This hilarious reversal isn't the only tease the series makes. Surely many of you, reading a chapter of Detective Conan, will have thought this at least once:

Incredible, I didn't understand anything but it has already solved the case!

These are Hanzawa's words, in a precise context, undoubtedly aimed at making irony on Aoyama's narrative  and, more generally, on detective stories in which the detective solves the mystery by noticing details that escape everyone, having the solution in the pocket even before the spectator puts together the few pieces available. It is a very strong feature in Case Closed : Conan always has the answer in hand, never revealing his deductions, at least not before posing as Goro .

The spin-off has its own identity

We have seen how the so-called black silhouette passes from total anonymity to being the first protagonist of a series tailored around him, without the characters of the main storyline being able to interfere. Even if sporadically a few well-known faces make themselves known ( Ran , Goro, Conan's friends, Professor Agasa ), it is to be appreciated that there are very few traces of the little detective. Not that seeing him again can't do more than pleasure, but not feeling the need to suggest that Detective Conan: The Culprit Hanzawa can do it alone, with a few references to the mother work, just enough to contextualize the character. So much so that you also get to know new personalities, including some not very different from the curious Hanzawa.



Detective Conan: The Culprit Hanzawa As well as the manga, also the anime of Netflix has its own style despite respecting the essential conditions of the original. There is an internal consistency between Kanba's work and TMS Entertainment's television adaptation, even explicitly mentioned by the silly silhouette at the end of what appears to be only the first season.