edgepedia

Arts and culture / Screen and stage / Film and television / Films and standalone screen works / Individual films by title and year / Franchise and series entries as standalone works / Anime 'the Movie' franchise entries

General · Edgepedia5 min read

Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet (名探偵コナン 緋色の弾丸)

Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet (名探偵コナン 緋色の弾丸, Meitantei Conan: Hiiro no Dangan) is a 2021 Japanese animated mystery film, the 24th theatrical feature in the Detective Conan series based on Gosho Aoyama's manga serialized in Weekly Shonen Sunday. Directed by Tomoka Nagaoka with a screenplay by Takeharu Sakurai, it was released in Japan on April 16, 2021 by Toho after a one-year postponement caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.1 • 2

Key factDetail
Position in series24th Detective Conan theatrical film, based on Gosho Aoyama's manga2
Japanese releaseApril 16, 2021 (Toho); 110 minutes1
Original scheduleApril 17, 2020; postponed on April 3, 2020 because of COVID-19, the first postponement in the series' 24-year history3
Key staffDirector Tomoka Nagaoka; screenplay Takeharu Sakurai; music Katsuo Ohno; animation by TMS/V1 Studio4
PremiseAbductions of corporate executives at a Tokyo party for sponsors of the World Sports Games (WSG), linked to serial kidnappings 15 years earlier in Boston5
Featured charactersFBI agent Shuichi Akai and the "Akai family": brother Shukichi Haneda, sister Masumi Sera, and mother Mary1
Japanese box office7.65 billion yen total; opening weekend of 1.69 billion yen from 1,122,000 admissions6 • 7
Theme song"Eien no Fuzaishoumei" (永遠の不在証明) by Tokyo Jihen, written by Shiina Ringo4

Spoilers

Story

The film is set around two announced events in Tokyo: the World Sports Games (WSG), a fictional world sporting festival held every four years, and the opening of the world's first "vacuum superconducting linear" train, developed with Japanese technology and advertised with a top speed of 1,000 km/h, timed to the WSG opening ceremony.1 • 5 As world attention gathers on Tokyo, executives of major tournament sponsors are abducted one after another at a party for WSG sponsors. Behind the scenes, FBI agent Shuichi Akai and his colleagues are monitoring the case. Conan Edogawa's deductions uncover a connection between the incident and the WSG serial kidnapping case that occurred 15 years earlier in Boston.5

The film's distinguishing feature is its focus on the Akai family. Shuichi Akai, the FBI sniper, appears in a theatrical film for the first time since the 20th entry, The Darkest Nightmare (2016). He is joined by his younger brother Shukichi Haneda, a professional shogi player; his sister Masumi Sera, a high school detective; and their mother Mary, a mysterious woman who calls herself the "sister outside the domain" (領域外の妹).1

Production and release

The film was produced by Shogakukan, Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation, Nippon Television, ShoPro, Toho, and TMS Entertainment, with animation by TMS/V1 Studio. Character design and chief animation direction were by Masatomo Sudo.4 Nagaoka had also directed the previous entry, The Fist of Blue Sapphire (2019).8

The 2020 postponement. The film was originally scheduled for April 17, 2020, and promotion had proceeded on the usual schedule, with the theme song, poster visual, and trailer all announced by February 2020. On April 3, 2020, Toho announced the postponement to limit the spread of COVID-19. This was the first postponement of a theatrical Conan film in the series' 24-year history, and 2020 became the first year since 1997 without a new theatrical Conan film.3 • 9 On December 3, 2020, the new date of April 16, 2021 was announced together with the "RELOAD Project," a promotional campaign that framed the titles of the previous 23 films as "12 bullets" in twelve sequential projects.3

Lead-up and formats. From February 11, 2021, a special compilation film focused on the Akai family, Detective Conan: The Scarlet Alibi, received a limited theatrical run with newly recorded narration by Conan, new footage, and the latest trailer for The Scarlet Bullet; it placed second in its first weekend, an unusual result for a compilation.3 • 10 The main film was the first in the theatrical series released simultaneously in IMAX, 4DX, MX4D, and Dolby Cinema, opened in the largest number of theaters in the series, and was announced for same-day release in 22 countries and regions with multilingual trailers in Japanese, English, Korean, German, and Chinese.3

Box office

The film opened on April 16, 2021 in 497 theaters nationwide, and its opening-day gross was 144 percent of The Fist of Blue Sapphire, which had been the series' highest-grossing film at 9.37 billion yen.11 In its first Saturday and Sunday it earned 1.69 billion yen (about 15.6 million US dollars) from 1,122,000 admissions, debuting at number one with the largest opening in the franchise's history; the three-day total from April 16 to 18 was 2.218 billion yen from 1,533,054 admissions.7 • 12 Its final Japanese box office total was 7.65 billion yen.6 The film was also released in China in 2021 under the title 名探偵柯南：緋色的子弾.13

Reception

On IMDb the film holds a rating of 6.3/10 from about 2,300 user ratings.14 In later franchise-wide rankings by Japanese box office, it placed tenth among the series' films, behind later entries such as Black Iron Submarine (2023) and The Million-dollar Pentagram (2024).15 Reviewers noted the film's reliance on the series' established formula; a News Lens International review judged the plot a miss while finding the action scenes effective for a large audience.16 French press reviews collected by AlloCiné gave it an average rating of 3.3 out of 5 across 15 reviews, with critics highlighting the blend of traditional 2D animation with 3D effects in the action scenes.17

Cast and theme song

Minami Takayama voices Conan Edogawa, with Wakana Yamazaki as Ran Mouri, Rikiya Koyama as Kogoro Mouri, and Shuichi Ikeda as Shuichi Akai. Actress Minami Hamabe appeared as a guest voice, playing Ellie Ishioka.4 • 1 The theme song, "Eien no Fuzaishoumei" (Eternal Alibi), was performed by Tokyo Jihen with lyrics and music by Shiina Ringo and arrangement by the band.4

References

  1. 名探偵コナン　緋色の弾丸 : 作品情報・声優・キャスト・あらすじ, 映画.com
  2. Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet, JFDB
  3. 名探偵コナン 緋色の弾丸, 宇宙wiki
  4. 名探偵コナン 緋色の弾丸, TMS Entertainment
  5. DETECTIVE CONAN "The Scarlet Bullet", TMS Entertainment
  6. FACT BOOK 2024, 日本映画製作者連盟 data, p. box office per title
  7. Japan Box Office: Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet Debuts at No.1 with The Franchise's Largest Opening, Crunchyroll News
  8. 名探偵コナン　緋色の弾丸, allcinema
  9. Detective Conan's Latest Anime Film 'The Scarlet Bullet' Postponed Due to Coronavirus, Crunchyroll News
  10. 名探偵コナン　緋色の不在証明 : 作品情報, 映画.com
  11. 『名探偵コナン 緋色の弾丸』前作比144％の大ヒットスタート！, シネマトゥデイ
  12. 劇場版「名探偵コナン緋色の弾丸」作品データ・興行収入推移データ, koware.net
  13. 2-5. 中国で公開された日本映画（2021年）, JETRO
  14. Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet (2021) - Ratings, IMDb
  15. 名探偵コナン映画人気ランキング全29作, Selectra
  16. Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet (2021), Rotten Tomatoes
  17. Critiques Presse pour le film Detective Conan - The Scarlet Bullet, AlloCiné

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026

© 2026 Biostate AI. Free to use with credit under the Edgepedia Community License. Embed a reference card.

Report an error

Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet (名探偵コナン 緋色の弾丸)

Pick at least one reason.