NOTE: This was originally meant to be a submission for a local newspaper in Cebu, Philippines. However, it seems that the essay was rejected.
One of my all-time favorite anime series is "Detective Conan". You know, that show where this teenage detective named Shinichi Kudo was forced to drink a drug by thugs in an attempt to silence him, but instead turned him into a child who has taken the name Conan Edogawa and has set on a mission to find the thugs who shrunk him into a kid and find the antidote, while solving a lot of crimes along the way?
Anyway, I grew up being a fan of the anime series ever since GMA introduced it to the country last 2001. I'm not exactly sure what was the exact reason why I loved this show. I guess the story was just so intriguing and catchy for someone who was not a big fan of crime dramas then. I guess the character of the intelligent Conan was the perfect match for someone who spent years being labeled as one of the top in the class, and was a great example of how smart guys can also be very cool-looking dudes.
Being a fan of Detective Conan, or DC in short, led me to a very big challenge. And that is to follow the story of the series. If this was Samurai X, it would be fairly easy, 'coz the 95-episode series already concluded years ago and some networks are even giving marathons of the show. But DC was different; the show has over 500 episodes (and running) and over 50 manga volumes (and counting). Add it up with the lack of a high-speed Internet connection in my home, reluctance to spend money on burning CD after CD of the episodes, and the lack of episodes in YouTube and CrunchyRoll, and I've got the problem of catching up on the latest in the show.
That's when the DVDs came in the picture. Ever since the pirated (or bootlegged) DVD mania spread in the city, I somehow had a feeling inside me that's wishing that I'd be able to come across a store where they sell a Detective Conan DVD. Soon, I actually did find a store. In fact, it wasn't just a store; they were stores. There were a lot of them selling DVDs of DC episodes and movie for less than a hundred pesos. I got so excited with this flow of DC resources that one night, I decided to buy one DVD. And then, the dilemma had a new twist.
After buying the DVD, the inner fan in me started to bug me a lot. Was buying the DVD okay or not okay? Was it okay for me to buy this DVD of a crime-busting anime character by supporting the internationally acknowledged crime of piracy? Would Gosho Aoyama, the creator of the series, appreciate me for trying to follow the show through illegal means? What would Conan do? Will he thank me or despise me for what I've done?
These questions bugged me a lot until I arrived home. There I tried playing it in our DVD player. For some reason, I was relieved that the DVD didn't work in our player. When my dad proposed that he replace the DVD with another DVD of his choosing, I was more than happy to let him do it.
These days, more and more shops are selling DVDs of the show, as it continues to have more and more episodes being produced in Japan. And admittedly, I'm so way behind of the story. But now, I just shrug off their offers of a Detective Conan DVD for sale.
No matter how slow I've been in catching up with the series, I plan on never buying another pirated DVD of Detective Conan. I just don't think I can stomach the idea of supporting a detective series by supporting criminals. I don't think Conan would even do that, and would be very disappointed in me if I did it. I guess being a true fan of Detective Conan is not much about being able to catch every episode of the show, but it's more of applying what you have learned from this fictional story in the real world.
