Mikeneko Holmes no Yuurei Joushu - Reviews

When I saw this Mikeneko Holmes OVA has only been watched by 30 people on Anime Planet, I was quite surprised. Dedicated fans of Detective Conan manga will have come across the titular novels and TV series thanks to mangaka Gosho Aoyama recommending them at the end of one of the volumes of Detective Conan. Surely, an OVA linked to such high recommendation should have more views, right?

After watching this episode, I believe the only people who even know about it are either those hardcore fans of Detective Conan or the people who have watched the live action adaptation or read the original novels. The former being highly unlikely because it's very rare to find any English translations for the novel. Now that brings us to one of the issues with this single episode project - it makes way more sense if the viewer is somehow already familiar with the franchise than it would to anyone else. 

You're thrown into this plot with little to no coverage for all the relevant characters. Sure, you do learn who is who while watching but it's impossible to make any connection with these characters' personalities or quirks. This OVA feels more like an episode of a long running monster of the week detective anime being taken out and published seperately. 

There are multiple (won't say how many exactly for spoilers) deaths in this OVA and there is a glaring plot hole in the conclusion of the mystery. Apart from this issue everything else about this episode is acceptably average for its time.

It is indeed very clear how Aoyama sensei might have got the inspiration for so many of his murder cases from the source material. It just makes me even more sad to know that the translations for the original novel either didn't exist or the translated copies are just too rare to be found so easily these days.