Heiji Hattori takes the stage!note
"For a detective, you might be one of the best in the world. But as a samurai, you’re no good."
— Heiji Hattori (to Shin’ichi Kudo)
Detective Conan: Crossroad in the Ancient Capital is the 7th Detective Conan Theatrical Film in the franchise. It was directed by Kenji Kodama, written by Kazunari Kochi, produced by Michihiko Suwa and scored by Katsuo Ono. It was released on April 19, 2003.
Kogoro Mouri is called to a special case in the ancient capital of Kyoto. There, Conan meets Heiji and they team up once again to solve the case, recover the stolen Healing Buddha statue, and even discover the identity of Heiji's first love.
Trailer
Crossroad in the Ancient Capital provides examples of:
- Badass Biker: Hattori as usual. This movie has several (some CGI) chase scenes.
- Big Bad: The killer turns out to be Taiga Saijo. Saijo was second-in-command of the Genjibotaru antique robbery gang, and thus was designated as 'Benkei', despite his personal idolization of Minamoto no Yoshitsune (to the point that he practiced an old style of kendo attributed to Yoshitsune by himself). When the gang leader and head priest of the temple they were hiding in died, leaving behind a riddle image pointing to the location of the stolen Healing Buddha (which had its crystal ball accidentally removed) and a will to relinquish leadership to whomever finds it, Saijo then sought to monopolize the treasure for himself and use the earnings from selling it to a buyer via the Internet to turn the temple, his favourite place to practice kendo, into a personal dojo due to the fact that the temple will be taken down without the leader's supervision.
- A Day in the Limelight: Hattori takes second place to Conan in this film. There’s an argument to be made that Hattori’s The Protagonist this time around.
- Deuteragonist: Hattori has a lot of importance this time around.
- Identity Impersonator: Instead of the other way around like before, Shin’ichi impersonates Hattori for a bit.
