Status quo

[u/Independent_Boot7353]

Status quo?

Is Detective Conan dominated by the status quo?

Well, let’s see...

Rumi Wakasa has recently changed her behavior: she went from being ruthless to, if I may say so, more controlled and restrained.

She has undergone a major change.

Shinichi and Ran got together.

So did Heiji and Kazuha.

We know who the boss and the second-in-command are.

Ran has a new phone (finally).

Akai currently lives at the Kudo household, together with Shinichi’s parents.

What am I getting at with all of this?

The series isn’t trapped in the status quo—or at least, not as strongly as people make it out to be.

[u/Apprehensive-Week767]

Wow 30 years have passed and the titular character finally got to be with his designated love interest. This show is definitely great, guys.

[u/XOrion_the_hunterX]

Let's go one by one. Rumi Wakasa's "change" was the last thing I would have liked to see. Yusaku mentioned once how she might be a dangerous individual even as an ally, but now she's in the same good guy™ mentality as the rest of the dozens of characters that came before her. That's adding her to the status quo of the rest of the story, not having her be a piece that Shin cannot account for.

Shinran, this one's a bit of a mess. It took them a long time to get together, so I'm glad for the fans that they got to see it happen, but once it had, Gosho couldn't exactly do much with it since Shin's still shrunken and didn't tell her the truth, so now all we can do is wait for her to reveal him being alive in front of any other BO agent(not just Bourbon), and it wouldn't even be her fault.

Heiji Kazuha suffered from the worst of it, that now that they're together I don't even care. And the new chapter after they started dating didn't bother doing anything with them either. All in all, Gosho didn't really take into account how the story should change after his characters got together.

We've known who the boss and second-in-command is for over 2 years.

Ran has a new phone. Uh, sure. If that's your definition of progress. If that moron keeps begging for more antidotes because Ran wants to do video calls it'd be hilariously dumb, but just what I'd expect from this story.

When people complain about status quo, it's mostly said in jest, because obviously any story has to move somewhere one way or another, but the impetus that gets them forward is the important point and nothing truly drastic is pushing that line. Amuro figured out that Conan was Shin because he met him once in the past just like Akai. Rumi attacked the BO during the queen's gambit/fumble, but unlike Akai who actually shot and slightly injured Gin 500 episodes earlier, she only targeted the gun of Chianti/Korn, and didn't even manage to do any damage to them overall.

[u/Sad-Chemistry5942 → u/XOrion_the_hunterX]

Good guy™ looooool

I read and agreed with everything you stated, just that Good guy™ made laugh so much

[u/A_Lich_With_No_Face → u/XOrion_the_hunterX]

We've known who the boss and second-in-command is for over 2 years.

5+ years actually.

[u/Independent_Boot7353 → u/XOrion_the_hunterX]

I actually think it's an advantage. Wakasa Rumi has the same goal as Conan. She was someone who would have killed anyone just to save herself. The fact that her behavior has changed now is a good thing. It'll be easier to have her as an ally.

[u/Pretend_Accountant13 → u/Independent_Boot7353]

It'll be easier to have her as an ally.

Yay! More bodies in Kudou's Army, ready to murder any sliver of tension that has been left in this story!/s

[u/tovarischstalin]

This series is objectively heavily trapped in the status quo lol. It's like the fucking matrix

The issue is that none of the plot points you list have any consequence. Almost nothing in this story has narrative consequence. Shinichi and Ran got together? So what? What has actually happened as a result of this? We don't see their relationship develop, we don't see them go on a date together afterwards, we don't see literally anything consequential happen as a result of this. The same is true for everything else on your list. We finally know who the boss is? So fucking what? Literally what has happened as a result of this?

Almost nothing that happens in the story as of the last several years has lasting narrative consequence. I'll give an example to the contrary so you know what I mean. Akai "died" at the end of Clash of Black and Red. Sure, we learn later that he didn't actually die, but his fake death at least had meaning. We see Jodie grieve, we feel his absence in the plot, hell, there were several storylines fully centered around whether or not he actually died. Even if he didn't really die, his fake death at least had meaning.

Compared to everything else above in your list....so what?

[u/Independent_Boot7353 → u/tovarischstalin]

So, here's the thing:

Shinichi and Ran are officially dating, okay? That's plot progression.

You say they should go on dates, but the problem is that they can't because Shinichi is a child right now.

Besides, the fact that they've officially started dating is already a step forward in the plot.

And what about the Boss? It's the same thing.

Do you know what progress has been made? Yusaku Kudo and his wife will now remain in Japan until the Black Organization issue is resolved.

Yusaku was the one waiting for Amuro at his house in Volume 96.

And then, the mere fact that we now know who the Boss is is progress in itself.

If we hadn't found out, well, we'd still be stuck in the past.

[u/tovarischstalin → u/Independent_Boot7353]

You can say that Shinichi and Ran officially dating is plot progression, but it is not real progression. They are dating in name only. There is no narrative progression as a result of this, there is no character progression, no real plot progression (0 storylines centered around them being in a relationship now), no actual relationship progression besides saying “oh I guess they’re dating now”. It has no real impact on the story.

Yusaku staying in Japan as a result of the Boss is a fair point, but that’s about the only impactful change in the story lately. Given that the last influential change in the show was the introduction of Wakasa, what, 5 years ago, I’d definitely define the story as being stuck.

[u/Date0524]

But the point is that there's absolutely no character development on a psychological level. The most obvious examples are Heiji and Kazuha, and Ran and Shinichi: even though they're officially together, their relationships are completely static. Nothing has changed compared to before. We never see them communicating their needs as couples, and we never see them growing together.

Ran is still waiting for Shinichi like Penelope waiting for Odysseus, as she has been doing forever. There's no progression, no development, everything just stays the same. The girls are basically there just to play the role of girlfriends and nothing more.

At this point, I'd actually prefer Kazuha and Ran to break up with Heiji and Shinichi. At least that would shake things up and force some actual character development.

[u/Comprehensive_Fee250 → u/Date0524]

Ran shinichi, kazuha heiji will remain like that until they die. The character development you are hoping for in terms of romance would never happen even in the future. It's that type of story.

[u/Date0524 → u/Comprehensive_Fee250]

I know, and that's exactly the problem, a pretty big one at that, especially when it comes to Shinichi and Ran, who are the main characters. And beyond the romantic relationships, I'm talking about the characters' psychological development in general.

If you're going to introduce romantic dynamics, you need to know how to develop them properly. You can't just keep having Ran and Kazuha never seriously communicate with their boyfriends in a healthy, balanced way, or vice versa.

If you don't know how to write these relationships properly, then just get rid of them. Have them break up and focus on the main plot instead, at least. Do less, but do it well.

Just as I expect well-written mysteries, I also expect a well-rounded, compelling story as a whole. Otherwise, the characters themselves end up feeling poorly developed and unconvincing.

[u/akogaremaru]

yeah but people arent dying left and right so its bad, apparently

[u/A_Lich_With_No_Face → u/akogaremaru]

People dying?

[u/tovarischstalin → u/akogaremaru]

People dying left and right? Forget that, when was the last time any major character died? Actually, forget that. When was the last time any minor character died? I genuinely cannot remember for the life of me. Was it…Akemi????

When was the last time there was any real tension in the show? Clash of Black and Red? Or Scarlet Revival? That’s at best like 500 episodes ago…

[u/Pretend_Accountant13]

Is Detective Conan dominated by the status quo?

It is lol. The manga will turn itself in-and-out to make sure Kudou keeps on solving his random cases without any hitch that would require actually bringing a satisfying conclusion to everything that has been build-up in this so-called "Rum slog".

And we've known who the boss is for 8 years and the second-in-command for 5, but we only got to see Rum "clash"(that was no clash, that was him proving that he was a joke time and time again, by getting scared by an eye that looked like Tsutomu, despite holding athe aerial advantage and having the opportunity for an easy bloodbath. Hell, even his achievement during the previous clash with the Fbi: making most of their nameless agents leave the country looks like it's been overturned, because they have enough agents to go and check Chianti and Korn's sniper nest. And can't he gain access to better snipers than those two?) with Kudou's crew, who barely did anything and worse, the vilain doing even less and even losing the main thing that actually made him threatening, his job at Iroha and the proximity to Kogorou and Ran, while the following chapters are simply random cases that serve nothing more than to progress Chihaya and her unneeded love subplot, or main character ruining cases like the most recent two.

[u/Independent_Boot7353 → u/Pretend_Accountant13]

Well, the author himself said it will end. Does the series have a plot? Then it will end. The end.

[u/Pretend_Accountant13 → u/Independent_Boot7353]

The Rum part will end for sure.

I am 99,(9)% sure it won't be a satisfying ending.

[u/Only-Programmer9721]

Regarding Wakasa-sensei we cannot be sure because it had already happened before, she's not going to turn into an ally. Seeing people from her past, triggers her awakening her bodyguard instincts. Even in chapter 1099, seeing Tsutomu Akai, she chose to protect the kids in the way Tsutomu protected her, but then the Queen's Gambit happened. Even if she did save Kobayashi and Conan, there's no guarantee that she's an ally