越智浩仁 Hirohito Ochi is also one of those veteran artists who have been involved in the production of Detective Conan since the very beginning, with a style of his own. He has worked on a vast number of episodes, particularly those featuring the Detective Boys, and initially collaborated mainly with the Animation Director 大河原晴男 Haruo Ogawara in the early stages of the series production. Like his peer Masato Sato, he was also appointed as the series director (505 to 666) during an extremely difficult period, primarily working on openings and endings. One of the differences from the others is that he also wrote his own original scripts for the series, the most well-known being : Dracula's Villa Murder Case and A Cursed Mask Coldly Laughs.
Let's take a look at his work during Detective Conan's prime.
One of Ochi's distinctive traits is his use of experimental colored backgrounds in transition scenes, blending them with the tone and style he wants to convey. He incorporates onomatopoeia, manga speech bubbles, pastel pencil backgrounds, cartoonish scenes, and even typography. This use of almost childlike backgrounds not only adds style but also emphasizes the fact that Shinichi has the body of a child.
A diverse framing palette, offering a bit of everything…
With a preference for low-angle shots, often playing with Conan's size in the process.
Unlike Sato or Yamamoto, who make the scenes where Conan finds clues or is in a moment of reflection more dynamic, Ochi prefers static backgrounds with a blue gradient, even later in the anime.
He is also obsessed with the mid/late afternoons depiction, which can range from a simple orange to red.
What's interesting about the Ochi episodes is that they make full use of Gosho Aoyama's early artstyle. The scenes are very dynamic and exaggerated, using Masatomo Sudo's flexible designs to the fullest, with Ogawara further enhancing this sensation (where the adaptations of Magic Kaito have failed doing this, for example).
The scene in the top right, was animated by the very famous Character Designer 岸田 隆宏 Takahiro Kishida.
Ochi wrote, storyboarded, and directed episodes 88 and 89 Dracula's Villa Murder Case, which are of great quality. There are inspirations from Dezaki's direction (notably Oniisama E), which is not surprising because he is a reference for everyone, as well as from the Japanese movie Evil Dracula (the atmosphere, the hallways, the manor, the sofa in the center, etc...).
Oniisama E (1991) Dir : Osamu Dezaki
and Evil Dracula (1974) Dir : Michio Yamamoto
His creativity when it comes to adapting chapters has always been evident, using everything at his disposal, both in the framing and the photography : #176 opening scene.
Not to mention perhaps his most well-known episode, which he wrote, storyboarded, and directed : #184 A Cursed Mask Coldly Laughs. It takes everything from episodes 88 and 89 and elevates it : the atmosphere, the theme of the curse tied to the mask, the suspense, and an extremely unconventional way of solving the mystery, visually simple yet complex in practice, in a very Aoyama-esque manner. One could almost believe the episode was written by Aoyama himself, though that is not the case.
