Hands down my favourite Kogoro episodes. Early Kogoro was my favourite and he was actually pretty smart on his own, just tended to be rash, assume the worst every time, and accuse people of things before he had all the information when it came to most of these cases and honestly most of the things he said weren't necessarily outlandish so he wasn't completely stupid
But either way Episodes 27-28 'Kogoro's Reunion Murder Case' are the best
Best Kogoro ever.
I love that Conan knew what happened but chose to let Kogoro figure it out because it would give him the closure he needed to deal with the fact that one of his friends had become a murderer and the other was dead.
I'm sad that we rarely see this type of Kogoro content because it made him seem more human rather than just a puppet for Conan to use.
(I stopped watching after the late 800s btw so I don't know what's going on currently. If he's better now than before, that's cool.)
“The Truth Behind the Car Explosion Case” (150-151) is one of the best anime original cases I’ve seen so far because of its emotional impact and connection to Kogoro.
He visits one of his former students from when he used to tutor, a woman that is the target of a murder attempt that kills her sister instead of her. Once they catch the culprits in the first part, it seems like the case is closed, but it’s not.
It’s really nice to have Kogoro solve a case mostly by himself again. After sitting through episodes of Conan tranquilizing him, it gets tiring and it feels like he has no sense of agency anymore. It’s heart-wrenching to watch Kogoro get offended at the idea that one of his close friends could be an accomplice to the murder, only to start investigating on his own, and having to come to the hard truth that his friend must turn herself in.
This case is similar to “Kogoro’s Class Reunion Murder Case” (027-028) and “The Unseen Suspect” (305-306) in that regard, and it acts as a good supplement to those cases adapted from the manga.