Amin Abbas

DUBAI: Arab company Spacetoon Pictures announced recently that it is bringing the Japanese anime blockbuster ‘Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet’ to cinemas in the Middle East on May 27.

The movie, which has been released in Japanese theatres, had successfully made it to the top 3 highest opening weekends since the pandemic in Japan, and topped the China box office in its first 2 days moving ‘The Fellowship of the Ring’ from the forefront.

The story of the movie is set in Japan while preparing to commemorate the World Sports Games (WSG), the world’s biggest sports games, hosted in Tokyo. The Hyperlinear bullet train, the pinnacle of Japan’s advanced technology, will begin operation to coincide with the WSG’s opening ceremony. As the world watches, disaster suddenly strikes the host venue, where the sponsors of the Games are gathered. A crisis unfolds as several industry leaders are kidnapped in quick succession. That’s when Conan starts his investigations, while Shuichi Aki is helping him from behind the scenes.

The movie is set to be released in two versions; the original Japanese version with Arabic and English subtitles and the Arabic dubbing version. Spacetoon Pictures has worked on localizing and dubbing the movie into Arabic with a group of the most famous Arab voice actors, who are known for dubbing the Detective Conan anime series since its first run on Spacetoon TV in the early 2000s.

Commenting on this, Kamel Weiss, the Strategic Business Development Director at Spacetoon, said: “We’re so thrilled to bring ‘Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet’ to Middle East region, hoping to continue the series of successes this movie has created so far in each country it debuted in.”

Wiess added: “We always work on delivering new experiences to anime fans in MENA by bringing the top anime movies to the cinemas.”

Netizens in Middle East & North Africa (MENA) took to social media platforms expecting Spacetoon Pictures to bring the movie, as the company has previously brought other Detective Conan movies to the region, such as; Detective Conan: Zero the Enforcer and Detective Conan: The Fist of the Blue Sapphire, while other movies of the franchise were broadcasted on Spacetoon free-to-air TV channel and Spacetoon Go online streaming service.

Additionally, the movie prequel; Detective Conan: The Scarlet Alibi has been available online on Spacetoon Go since May 7. It is a collectible of episodes that gives the fans a closer look at the Aki Family, who plays a major role in the 24th movie The Scarlet Bullet. The film tells the story of each of the Aki’s, and explains their relationship with Conan and the Dark Organization.

‘Detective Conan: The Scarlet Bullet’ will be available in movie theatres across UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman and Iraq on May 27 in both Japanese and Arabic dubbed versions.