''Case Closed: The Phantom of Baker Street'', known as in Japan, is the sixth ''

Case Closed ''Case Closed'', also known as , is a Japanese detective manga series written and illustrated by Gosho Aoyama. It has been serialized in Shogakukan's ''shōnen'' manga magazine ''Weekly Shōnen Sunday'' since January 1994, with its ch ...

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

, released in Japan on April 20, 2002. ''The Phantom of Baker Street'' is the first film in the series written by

Hisashi Nozawa was a Japanese screenwriter and mystery novelist. He won the Kuniko Mukōda Prize in 1998 for his screenplay ''Nemureru Mori'' (A Sleeping Forest) and '' Kekkon Zen'ya'' (The Night before the Wedding). He also won the Edogawa Rampo Prize in 1997 ...

. This was the last of the ''Case Closed'' films done in

cel animation Traditional animation (or classical animation, cel animation, or hand-drawn animation) is an animation technique in which each frame is drawn by hand. The technique was the dominant form of animation in cinema until computer animation. Proce ...

. It was released on February 16, 2010, in America on DVD. This film brought 3.4 billion

yen The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar (US$) and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the e ...

in the box office. The story features several characters from and references to the

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a " consulting detective" in the stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with observation, deduction, forensic science and ...

series, which ''Detective Conan'' is heavily inspired by, and

Jack the Ripper Jack the Ripper was an unidentified serial killer active in and around the impoverished Whitechapel district of London, England, in the autumn of 1888. In both criminal case files and the contemporaneous journalistic accounts, the killer wa ...

Plot

Child prodigy Hiroki Sawada—who, by the age of ten, is already a

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the mo ...

grad student and has developed a DNA Tracker software—has been under the guardianship of Thomas Schindler, CEO of the software giant Schindler, Inc., since his mother died. One night, in a heavily guarded room at the top of the Schindler building where Hiroki lives, he finishes an

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech re ...

system,

Noah's Ark Noah's Ark ( he, תיבת נח; Biblical Hebrew: ''Tevat Noaḥ'')The word "ark" in modern English comes from Old English ''aerca'', meaning a chest or box. (See Cresswell 2010, p.22) The Hebrew word for the vessel, ''teva'', occurs twice in t ...

, and sends the software through the telephone lines. The guards become suspicious when he does not respond. They bust open the door, but discover that Hiroki has disappeared, apparently having leapt off the building. Two years later, at the Beika City Hall, Schindler, Inc., holds a demonstration of an immersive

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), educ ...

game called Cocoon. Conan,

Richard Richard is a male given name. It originates, via Old French, from Frankish language, Old Frankish and is a Compound (linguistics), compound of the words descending from Proto-Germanic language, Proto-Germanic ''*rīk-'' 'ruler, leader, king' an ...

Rachel Rachel () was a Biblical figure, the favorite of Jacob's two wives, and the mother of Joseph and Benjamin, two of the twelve progenitors of the tribes of Israel. Rachel's father was Laban. Her older sister was Leah, Jacob's first wife. Her aun ...

and the Detective Boys (including Haibara Ai) are attending the demonstration, but cannot participate without special badges, which have been allocated to children associated with the game's investors and prominent socialites such as Serena. Dr. Agasa and

Booker Kudo The manga series '' Case Closed'', known as in Japan, features a large number of recurring fictional characters created by Gosho Aoyama. The series takes place in modern-day Japan and follows an amateur detective Jimmy Kudo (Japanese name: Shin ...

, who have been involved in the development of the game's setting, attend the event. Agasa gives Conan a badge, while the other Junior Detective kids trade ''Premium Golden Yaiba Cards'' for badges. When security discovers that Kashimura, a top employee of Schindler, Inc., has been killed. Booker and Conan rush to investigate. Discovering that Kashimura's keyboard has blood stains on three of the keys (R, T, and J), Conan decides to participate in the demonstration, hoping that the game would lead him to an answer. Booker reasons out that J-T-R stands for "

". When the demonstration begins, Hiroki's artificial intelligence system, Noah's Ark, announces it has taken control, but it tells the audience that if none of the fifty people are able to survive the game, it will kill the kids in reality using a large electromagnetic burst. The kids must choose one of five types of games while the audience watch helplessly, unable to shut the game down. Conan and the Junior Detectives choose the fifth, a re-creation

19th century London During the 19th century, London grew enormously to become a global city of immense importance. It was the largest city in the world from about 1825, the world's largest port, and the heart of international finance and trade. Railways connecting ...

set in the world of

. Conan and his friends track down

221B Baker Street 221B Baker Street is the London address of the fictional detective Sherlock Holmes, created by author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. In the United Kingdom, postal addresses with a number followed by a letter may indicate a separate address within ...

, only to find that Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson are at Dartmoor. Since Holmes cannot help, the kids find

Sebastian Moran Colonel Sebastian Moran is a fictional character in the stories written by Arthur Conan Doyle. An enemy of Sherlock Holmes, he first appears in the 1903 short story "The Adventure of the Empty House". Holmes once described him as "the second most ...

and

Professor Moriarty Professor James Moriarty is a fictional character and criminal mastermind created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle to be a formidable enemy for the author's fictional detective Sherlock Holmes. He was created primarily as a device by which Doyle could ...

. Moriarty tells Conan that he trained Jack the Ripper when Jack was a

street urchin Street children are poor or homeless children who live on the streets of a city, town, or village. Homeless youth are often called street kids or street child; the definition of street children is contested, but many practitioners and policym ...

. The professor gives the children a clue about the next victim, who turns out to be

Irene Adler Irene Adler is a fictional character in the Sherlock Holmes stories written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. A former opera singer and actress, she was featured in the short story " A Scandal in Bohemia", published in July 1891. Adler is one of the ...

, Holmes's only love. Some of the events lead to more kids being eliminated from the game, including the Junior Detectives. Meanwhile, in the real world, Booker investigates the case and reveals that Kashimura's murderer is the company's president, Thomas Schindler, who Hiroki had discovered was a descendant of the original Jack the Ripper. Eventually only three are left: Conan, Rachel, and another child named Hideki Moroboshi. They follow Jack the Ripper to a train and reveals Jack among the passengers. However, Jack captures Rachel and sets the train on a runaway course. After being unable to stop the train, Conan and Hideki confront Jack on top of the train where he has tied himself to Rachel. Hoping that Conan can figure out the situation, Rachel sacrifices herself by jumping off the train and into a ravine, pulling Jack with her. As Conan begins to lose hope, Sherlock Holmes appears and gives Conan some useful advice that eventually helps Conan and Hideki survive the game when the train crashes into the station. After winning the game, Conan reveals that Hideki is actually Hiroki, who has manifested himself as Noah's Ark. In a private conversation, Hiroki says he was satisfied with the outcome, as he was hoping the kids can paint a brighter future than their parents, and that he was happy he could also participate as a player in the game. He releases the children from the game and then erases himself.

Cast

Music

The film's theme song is " Everlasting" by

B'z are a Japanese rock duo, consisting of guitarist, composer and producer Takahiro "Tak" Matsumoto and vocalist and lyricist Koshi Inaba, 佐伯明『B'z ウルトラクロニクル』ソニー・マガジンズ、2003年。新型光�B'zはなぜ ...

. It was released on July 2, 2002, on their album, ''

Green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

''. The official soundtrack was released on April 17, 2002. It costs ¥3059 including tax.

Home media

VHS

The VHS of the film was released on April 9, 2003. It was discontinued soon after 2006 as it was switched to DVD.

Region 2 DVD

The Region 2 DVD was released on December 18, 2002. The DVD includes the film in widescreen and the trailer.

Region 1 DVD

The Region 1 DVD was released on February 16, 2010, by

FUNimation Entertainment Crunchyroll, LLC, previously known as Funimation from 1994 to 2022, is an American entertainment company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony as a joint venture between Sony Pictures and Sony Music Entertainment Japan's Aniplex that specializes ...

. The DVD includes the film with both English dub and Japanese dub with English subtitles.

Reception

In addition to winning third place in the film series request project held on the official website in 2006, Aoyama commented that it was his mother's favorite film. In addition, it won the second place in the popularity poll of 19 successive films held in 2016. Carlo Santos of

Anime News Network Anime News Network (ANN) is a news website that reports on the status of anime, manga, video games, Japanese popular music and other related cultures within North America, Australia, Southeast Asia and Japan. The website offers reviews and oth ...

commended the film's departure from the series' cinematic formula with its "picturesque" London setting and double mystery alongside the usual "action-packed ending", but felt it was hampered by poorly paced execution, "inconsistent production values", and no utilization of Sherlock Homes himself, calling it "an awkwardly stretched-out episode instead of a feature film, and Holmes doesn't even show up to help."

Box office results

The final box office revenue of this work was 3.4 billion yen, exceeding 3 billion for the first time, and since it was the second largest Japanese film in 2002, Suwa is said to be a monument. This record wasn't broken until it was updated to 3.5 billion yen in the 13th film, '' The Raven Chaser''.

References

External links

* * {{TMS Entertainment films 2002 anime films Animated films set in London Animated films set in Tokyo Phantom of Baker Street Films about Jack the Ripper Films directed by Kenji Kodama Films set in 1888 Funimation TMS Entertainment Toho animated films Virtual reality in fiction