Detective Conan Movie 09: Strategy Above the Depths

Conan Edogawa has to contend with a murder on a luxury cruise ship and the Detective Boys running around causing chaos in Strategy Above the Depths, the ninth Detective Conan movie, and it works surprisingly well. The gang boards the St. Aphrodite — a massive, brand-new ocean liner — for what's supposed to be a relaxing vacation courtesy of Sonoko Suzuki's family. Then Sonoko disappears during a game of hide-and-seek, the CEO of the company that built the ship turns up dead, and suddenly Conan is piecing together a mystery that threads back to a shipwreck fifteen years ago. The middle of the ocean is a genuinely great setting for a locked-room style mystery — nobody's leaving, the clock is ticking, and the stakes keep climbing. It balances the usual Detective Conan humor with a plot that's actually layered, connecting past and present in ways that feel earned rather than cheap. If you've seen Movie 8: Magician of the Silver Sky or Movie 11: Jolly Roger in the Deep Azure, you'll know the format — self-contained, movie-length mystery with high production value and a satisfying payoff. And if Movie 10: Requiem of the Detectives hit you emotionally, this one shares that same sense of personal stakes woven into the larger case. You don't need to be deep into the main series to follow it, which makes it a solid entry point for anyone curious about the movies.