Jimmy Kudo is an intelligent high school student who is forced to take a poison that transforms him into a kid. Kudo takes the name Conan Edogawa and helps Detective Richard Moore by solving cases that Moore can’t on his own. Moore’s daughter, Rachel, casually dated Kudo when he was full sized. Part of the appeal of the Case Closed series is how much fun childhood looks to adults and how Conan gets a second change to do so. However, there are many frustrations such as Conan, who is still in love with Rachel, unable in his current condition to do anything about it. If only Conan could reverse the effects of the poison and terminate his situation.
Watching Captured in Her Eyes, there are several scenes that make childhood look fun set up against the problems and frustrations of childhood. During the opening sequence at Tropical Land amusement park, Rachel and Jimmy are seen laughing and enjoying each other’s company for the moment. Towards the end, there is a similar scene set at Tropical Land that show Rachel and Conan together, but it is not the same for Conan because he can only remain a kid in Rachel’s eyes.
In the beginning, Conan witnesses the murder of a detective in broad daylight. This mysterious killer will continue to baffle police and the Moore Detective Agency throughout the movie.
When the killer murders another detective during a wedding party, Rachel develops amnesia and is it up to Conan to use his small size and great thinking ability to save her and hopefully bring her memory back.
Captured in Her Eyes does a great job of capturing your attention right at the beginning. Like in any good mystery, smaller mysterious are solved and explained as Conan desperately tries to solve the big mystery of who the mysterious killer is and what is his motive. The scenes move fluidly from the start, however the ending was a letdown.
For all the build up and empathy invested in the characters, when the action kicks in during the ending, Captured in Her Eyes falls flat. Part of the reason is how hokey the scene looks with Conan riding a high-speed skateboard sailing through the air to land on a roller coaster. There was a lot of realism in the movie up to that point. If this was a crazy anime like Fooly Cooly it would work fine because the viewer would expect something that could never happen in real life. However since Case Closed is presented as being somewhat possible the ending jars the viewer by showing hokey stunts and situations that could only occur in animation.
Overall, Captured in Her Eyes has a lot to offer anime and mystery fans of all ages. If only the ending was tighten up more, this would have been a great movie. There are still wonderful moments and sly humor to make Captured in Her Eyes worth the DVD purchase. You may want to re-watch it to see how certain mysterious as set up and explained.
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