Other than joining the group viewing of Detective Conan: Zero The Enforcer film screened in CGV Teraskota, I also interviewed one of the community members who was also a staff in this event, Panji Moulana. He told us various things regarding the community and the efforts to put together the event.
Here is our interview with Panji Moulana:
Would you like to introduce Conan Fans Club community and its origins to KAORI’s readers?
Conan Fans Club community was formed in 2011 as a medium to gather Detective Conan fans in Indonesia. It can also be a place where fans of mystery and detective-themed stories can gather as well. We usually discuss a lot of issues and interesting themes that are featured in the series, such as the trend of cyber-terrorism in Detective Conan: Zero The Enforcer film.
Speaking of which, is this the first group viewing organized by Conan Fans Club?
Yes it is. Usually when we want to watch a film together, we first create an appointment with other members who would like to watch it as well, then we meet up at the cinema where we decided previously. We finally held this event to raise this Conan fandom so that it can be as mainstream as other anime fandoms in Indonesia.
Actually, by holding this organized viewing event, we hope that Conan‘s 24th film could take place in Indonesia. I’ve heard that the plot for the next film (23rd) will take place at Marina Bay, Singapore. By holding gatherings like this routinely, we hope someday Gosho-sensei will eventually notice that the Conan fanbase in Indonesia is huge and include some elements of Indonesia in his story later on.
I see that this event is also being held in other regions, such as Bandung, Yogyakarta, and Medan. Are there any challenges in holding this organized event?
One of the greatest challenges is to handle the participants in order to follow the pre-arranged procedure, such as inviting the participants to fill the questionnaire in the beginning of the event. Promoting this event was also a challenge as Odex, the distributor of the film, had only announced the screening date two months before. Thus, the promotion became hasty as we have little preparation time. We were also worried that if this film only got shown in few cinemas, we wouldn’t have enough time to promote the event, etc. But despite the limited preparation, we managed to proceed with the event smoothly.
For the event in other regions, after the organizer in Jakarta proposed the idea to hold the event, friends in their respective regions wanted to hold similar event there. After that, we gathered representatives of each regions to coordinate the event via social media, starting from choosing the date, promotion, etc.
The event here is held in CGV Teraskota, BSD, Tangerang. Is there any special consideration on choosing the location or any other factors outside the organizer’s expectation?
We chose CGV Teraskota because here we can hold other activities with fans in its large lounge, such as games and introduction session. We previously contacted CGV Depok and Central Park, Jakarta, but the lounge of the two cinemas could not be used for those activities as it would make other customers uncomfortable. Additionally, the number of chairs here is more than other CGV cinemas, so we can gather more fans from Jabodetabek area.
Aside from this event, does the Conan Fans Club community hold other events as well?
We usually hold gathering events, which was last held on 25 February this year. We held games and introduction sessions of each member.
As one of Detective Conan fans and also core member of Conan Fans Club community, is there a message or hope for the fans of this series in Indonesia?
I hope that we can turn the wheel of this fanbase so that Detective Conan will be more popular in Indonesia. We also hope that the distributor will continue to release the latest Detective Conan film again. Perhaps, our other wish is that Aoyama-sensei can create a Conan story based in Indonesia.
Report and photos by Tanto Dhaneswara of KAORI Newsline
