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They say only one truth prevails, but is that the case with the mystery of The Bride of Halloween? Case Closed is one of the longest ongoing franchises in Japan. It has a solid following here in the United States with a very…interesting English release history. I was looking forward to seeing how this franchise still holds so many people's hearts. The Case Closed movies are interesting as they are separate from the main series—but when you consider the fact that a majority of the show itself is a bunch of separate one-off mystery adventures that sporadically include characters from the shows expanding cast, then maybe it's better to call these films big budget versions of those one-off mysteries. As the series went on and the overarching mystery began to involve more characters, the production staff tried to include as many of those characters as possible. This holds true for the movie as well, meaning that people who have not watched the series in years need to be front-loaded with exposition.

This is delivered in the form of a montage at the beginning of the film with the iconic Case Closed theme playing in the background—and it was pretty nostalgic as someone who grew up with the early Funimation releases. However, it became very apparent that there was a lot I needed to learn to understand all of the star players in this film—like Rei Furuya and detectives on the police force. Early in the show, the main trio that forwarded the plot was Conan, his childhood friend Ran, and her father Kogoro, a private detective that Conan worked around. In this movie, Ran and Kogoro are effectively sidelined and most of this movie is Conan working directly with more recent characters introduced in the franchise. This makes the film feel awkward for non-diehard fans—but if you can push through that awkwardness, there's quite an exhilarating film here.

Case Closed: The Bride of Halloween rides that perfect tightrope between an engaging mystery film and a fun action movie. Many gorgeously well-animated set pieces make great use of the environment and a surprisingly strong amount of character choreography. There are some instances where a character will get out of a situation in a way that strains my suspension of disbelief a bit but that's only because there's a surprisingly grounded sense of action here. The fight scenes feel impactful, the chase scenes have a strong sense of urgency, and there are nail-biting scenes that carry a surprisingly strong amount of tension. The main villain in the film uses specially designed bombs and the film does a good job of making it feel like anything can happen. No major players will die, but despite knowing that, there were still one or two moments that made me believe for a second that there were going to be genuine consequences.

It also helps that almost all of these characters have a great sense of synergy with each other. There are a lot of exposition scenes where characters will sit in a room and go over the pieces of what they discover, but I never found myself bored. The writing was snappy and there was just the right amount of levity injected into the scenes. You get the sense that characters like Detective Sato and Takagi care about Conan's well-being. The villain of the film was someone who I called almost immediately but the way that the show revealed how the other characters found out it was them was pretty well thought out. I would be lying if I said the seeds for deduction weren't there at the end during the climax—which had one of the more unique bomb setups I've seen in a movie thus far.

My biggest issue with the film might revolve around the titular character himself. I had to go and confirm this after watching the film but I'm pretty sure almost none of the adults that Conan interacts with in this film know about his secret identity. As far as I know, they think he's an inquisitive kid with a good eye for detail. That's fine but there are a lot of scenes in this film where Conan is talking with the other adults or in life-threatening situations and none of the other characters question just how involved he is. There are even moments when people let him look at evidence and investigate on a similar level to the other adults in the room. Maybe this is all something that has been properly set up in the show proper but in this film, Conan is front and center in a way that makes me question the intelligence of all the other adults in the room.

Conan is still an incredibly likable character who is just fun to watch whether it's kicking a giant soccer ball or putting a complex puzzle together. That said, I would say brush up on some of your Cased Closed knowledge before jumping into this film to get the full effect. But as far as action mysteries go, I think there's a reason why Case Closed remains at the top of the ladder.