Why do we introduce the popular anime “Detective Conan” on ocean+alpha? Some of you may be wondering. The latest installment in the “Detective Conan: Submarine of Black Iron,” the 26th in the “Detective Conan” film series, will be released on April 14 and will take place in the waters around Tokyo’s Hachijojima Island, a place familiar to divers, where Conan and his Detective Boys will go whale-watching. In the trailer, there is a brief glimpse of a diver who appears to be diving. If the film is set in the Japanese sea, ocean+α’s editors are curious to see what it will be about. Here, we would like to introduce the whale-watching activities on Hachijo-jima Island as well as this film.
A deadly ocean battle royal unfolds at the Pacific Buoy, a marine facility in the waters around Hachijojima.
First, let me give you a brief synopsis. The setting for this story is the waters around Hachijojima Island, Tokyo. Engineers from around the world have gathered to connect the “Pacific Buoy,” an offshore facility that connects security cameras owned by police forces around the world, to a network controlled by a European police organization in preparation for full-scale operation. There, a “new technology” based on a facial recognition system is being tested. Meanwhile, Conan and the Detective Boys are on a whale-watching trip to Hachijojima when they receive a phone call informing them that a member of the European police force has been murdered in Germany by a black-ops organization called the Jin*.
The caller is a senior member of the “Organization of the Black Clad,” a criminal organization that is believed to be engaged in drug trafficking and the assassination of important people, and is Conan’s greatest nemesis.
Conan, who is disquieted, infiltrates the “Pacific Buoy” and finds that a female engineer has been kidnapped by the black-ops organization. Furthermore, a USB drive containing important information in her possession ends up in the hands of the organization. A dark shadow also creeps up on Conan’s friends who are staying at Hachijojima…” The story goes.
What kind of drama will unfold in the waters around Hachijojima?
Hachijojima actually offers whale-watching tours
Finally, I would like to introduce whale-watching on Hachijojima Island, which Conan and the Detective Boys also experience, and which you should definitely learn about before watching this film.
Many people think of Okinawa or Kagoshima’s Amami Oshima Island as places where whale-watching can actually be experienced, but humpback whales have also been spotted from late November to early April in the waters around Hachijojima, which is located relatively south of the Izu Islands. As depicted in this film, whale-watching tours are actually held, and the encounter rate for the 2021-22 season is said to be 85%.
The Hachijojima Tourism Association also posts on its official Twitter page.
By the way, as you may have noticed, April 14, when this film will be released, is just as the whale-watching season is ending. You may want to visit Hachijojima as a preliminary study before the film’s release.
Special site for Hachijojima humpback whales
The trailer also clearly depicts a beautiful cone-shaped mountain that is thought to be Hachijo-fuji, the symbol of Hachijojima. For those who have visited Hachijojima before, they will be able to enjoy this film with a very familiar feeling. We can hardly wait for its release.