Case Closed Movie 01: The Time Bombed Skyscraper

名探偵コナン 時計じかけの摩天楼 (Meitantei Conan Movie 01: Tokei Jikake no Matenrou)

7.9(49,114)
MAL Score
Ranked #1001
Popularity #2788
  • Adventure
  • Comedy
  • Mystery
  • Detective
Episodes
1
Duration
1 hr 34 min
Aired
Apr 19, 1997
Status
Finished Airing

Synopsis

Conan Edogawa finds himself in an awkward spot when Ran Mouri invites Shinichi Kudou to the movies—and he can’t come up with a believable way to turn her down. Before he can untangle that problem, a far more serious threat takes over his day.

A large cache of plastic explosives has been stolen, and the culprit issues a direct challenge to Shinichi: locate and neutralize the bombs planted throughout the city. With time running out, Conan must track the devices, keep civilians safe, and uncover the identity of the mastermind—and why Shinichi has been singled out.

Otaku Consensus

The Time Bombed Skyscraper earns its reputation as the Conan film that can onboard newcomers without flattening what longtime fans like: Kenji Kodama’s tight direction, the clean self-contained structure, and the Ran/Shinichi emotional throughline give it more shape than a routine TV case. Its most common limitation is scale; even favorable reviews frame it as a very strong anime-original episode with a theatrical animation budget rather than a franchise-defining cinematic leap.

Why You Should Watch

Watch this if you want a compact detective thriller that values procedure, timing, and character tension over lore dumps. As the first Detective Conan theatrical film, it gives enough context for the age-regression setup to work for newcomers, then leans into a citywide suspense format that feels closer to an old-school mystery serial than a modern action blockbuster. It scratches the same itch as The Kindaichi Case Files for clue-driven sleuthing, with a touch of Patlabor-style public-safety urgency through its police, train, and urban-disaster elements. The appeal is not just “who did it,” but how Conan has to operate while socially trapped between being Conan and being Shinichi, especially around Ran.

Key Characters

  • C
    Conan Edogawa

    Conan is compelling here because the film turns his usual child-detective advantage into a logistical handicap, forcing him to solve a large-scale crisis while lacking Shinichi’s adult credibility.

  • R
    Ran Mouri

    Ran gives the movie its emotional pressure point, with her connection to Shinichi making the case feel personal without needing to derail the mystery mechanics.

  • S
    Shinichi Kudou

    Shinichi’s presence matters even when he cannot appear normally, turning his reputation as a detective into both a weapon against him and a burden Conan has to carry.

What Makes It Stand Out

  • 1

    This is the first Detective Conan theatrical film, released on April 19, 1997, and it functions as an unusually accessible entry point because it briefly re-establishes Conan’s core premise before committing to its feature-length case.

  • 2

    Kenji Kodama both directed and storyboarded the film, giving it a tighter, more unified sense of pacing than many long-running-TV-series movie spinoffs.

  • 3

    TMS Entertainment’s production expands the TV series’ visual language into a larger urban suspense format, with Yukihiro Shibutani as art director and Hiroyuki Mitsumoto handling art design.

  • 4

    Katsuo Oono’s music connects the film to the familiar Detective Conan sound while supporting a more thriller-oriented structure built around timed escalation rather than a single drawing-room reveal.

  • 5

    AniList’s tag profile is unusually specific for a mystery film: Detective at 100%, Terrorism at 84%, Police at 80%, Age Regression at 80%, and Trains at 79%, reflecting how the movie blends franchise identity with public-crisis suspense.

Fun Facts & Trivia

Fun fact 1
The film’s MAL score sits at 7.87 from 49,114 votes, with a rank of #1001 and popularity position of #2788, showing a solid long-tail reputation rather than a niche-only following.
Fun fact 2
AniList records a close parallel reception at 77/100 and 201 favorites, which aligns with the broader critical view of the movie as a dependable early Conan feature rather than a polarizing experiment.
Fun fact 3
Hirotoshi Takaya served as animation director, with Yasuichirou Yamamoto credited as assistant animation director and Yutaka Kawasuji among the key animation staff.
Fun fact 4
Several English-language review summaries position the movie as a good first stop for viewers who have never watched Case Closed, specifically because it explains the essentials without requiring a full TV-series catch-up.
Fun fact 5
The film is frequently discussed as chronologically tied to the early anime era, which is why reviewers often compare it to a high-budget anime-original episode instead of treating it as a standalone reboot.

Studios

  • TMS Entertainment

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