Delicious Temptation

General Trivia

1) Names!

In the Wealthy Daughter Murder, all participants have a number in their last name.

Takashi Ichieda (一枝隆)

Yuuji Nikaido (二階堂優次)

Takuya Mifune (三船拓也)

Reika Yotsui (四井麗花)

Osamu Gojou (五条修)

Masashi Rokuda (六田将司)

Yone Nanao (七尾米)

Yaeko (八重子)

But in addition to having numbers 1-8 represented in each character, there’s technically a hidden number in Reika’s name. Though the kanji itself isn’t used, “Rei” is a homonym with the Japanese word used for zero, 零.

2) Of The Times: Mobile Phones

Excluding Conan’s silly bento box fax machine phone, the Wealthy Daughter Murder is the first time we see a commercial cell phone mentioned, with Ichieda’s phone.

Which makes sense, because this chapter was published in late 1995, at the beginning of a massive cell phone boom in Japan.

In 1994, mobile phones shifted from a primarily “rental” system to one of purchase and ownership. This was especially important because from the late 1980s into the early 1990s, NTT held a near-monopoly on the mobile phone market. As you'd expect, then, mobile phones were considered luxury items that only the wealthiest of CEOs and executives could ever hope to afford. One anecdote I found laid out a typical price plan for a phone in 1992 (and keep in mind that the calling charge was a separate fee!):

Warranty: ￥100,000

New Membership Fee: ￥45,800

Network Connection and Phone Rental Fee: ￥16,000/month

The 1992 Yen to USD exchange rate was an average of 127. So in 1992 terms, a mobile phone was a one-time fee of about $1150, plus a monthly fee of $125. The price clearly gets worse with inflation (something like ￥170,000 for the one-time cost and ￥18,500 for the monthly fee), and even WITHOUT inflation, the ￥145,800 one-time price is STILL more expensive than a high-end smartphone today!

When the system changed in 1994, phone models were decoupled from their providers because they were owned instead of rented, and prices for the models and services utterly plummeted due to introduced competition.

Add to this the introduction of the Personal Handy-phone System (PHS) in 1995, an even cheaper option for cellular service, and you have an explosion of new mobile phone users.

And you can see that in the numbers on the chart above! (Pulled from "Mobile phone industry: A microcosm of deregulation, globalization, and technological change in the Japanese economy.") 

3) Japanese Culture: Gyotaku

魚拓 (gyotaku) is a traditional method of capturing the likeness of fish you’ve caught that dates back to the 1800s.

There are multiple methods, some fancier and more difficult to pull off than others, but Toshimitsu in the Diplomat Murder Case is likely using 直接法 (chousetsu-hou), or the direct method of transfer.

After the fish is cleaned, prepped, and “posed” on a surface with things like needles, sumi ink is painted onto the surface, followed by damp washi or rice paper to capture its likeness. Sometimes, this process may have to be repeated multiple times; each fish reacts a little differently to the ink, so it may need to be painted a couple times before a good print is produced.

And because sumi ink is non-toxic, the fish can be eaten once it’s cleaned!

Though originally used as simply a method of recording fish size, there are stories of samurai using it to compare their catches in competitions, and it eventually developed into an artform in its own right.

3) Japanese Chinese Culture: Baiganr

Known by many names (Kaoliang Liquor or sorghum liquor among them), Heiji’s “gift” is a regional type of baijiu produced predominantly in Taiwan in modern times.

Due to the drink’s popularity in China, it’s a top-ranker world-wide, out numbering whiskey, vodka, gin, tequila, and rum sales combined.

Gosho claims to have chosen this particular drink as a nod to Pycal, a Lupin III villain named after the same drink. Amusingly enough, though, the drink has proven scientific benefits for cardiovascular health.

4) Short & Sweet References

First, Conan picks up a few manga in the Library Murder case that are fairly transparent references to some of Gosho's own manga

Kaitou Boy: Kaitou Kid (Magic Kaito)

Samurai Brat: Kurogane Yaiba (YAIBA)

Mysterious Bat: God's Bat (Yonban Third/Third Base Fourth)

We also have our umpteenth Kogoro Akechi reference in the Wealthy Daughter Murder, but this time Kogoro is referred to as the "Heisei Kogoro Akechi." For more information about the era Conan initially takes place in, check out the Week 1 Case Notes.

The Yotsui Group is also a reference to the Mitsui Group, a former Big Three zaibatsu, using the same referential method as the Yotsubishi/Mitsubishi reference last week. A zaibatsu is a vertically integrated business conglomerate that is family-owned, and usually consists of a holding company, a bank, and a bunch of related industrial subsidiaries. These were phased out by the American occupation after WWII and largley replaced with keiretsu, which are more like a bunch of interlocking companies that have shares in each other. In addition to Mitsui, the other Big Three zaibatsu were Sumitomo and Mitsubishi, and all three operate as keiretsu to this day.

5) In Parallel

We finally have our first example of this! Let's take a look at the dates.

Diplomat Murder Case Serialization: Dec 6, 1995 - Jan 17, 1996

Roller Coaster Murder Case Air Date: January 8, 1996

Why is this particular parallel important? Well...

真実はいつも一つ (There is always only one truth) and similar phrases are inextricably tied to the franchise now, but the source of this phrase is actually Michihiko Suwa, who had worked in a leading role on the anime adaptation for its first nearly 1100 episodes.

Episodes 1-332: Producer

Episodes 333-940: Chief Producer

Episodes 950-974: Planning

Episodes 975-1099: Supervisor

As this particular chapter would have been released on January 10th - two days after the anime aired - this was likely an intentional nod to the anime-original narration including the now famous line.

6) Food For Thought

A very simple one this week, but once again, we reinforce the core idea that no one deserves to die, this time via Yone in the Wealthy Daughter Murder. This time, though, that idea is expanded two-fold using circumstances specific to this case:

Believing that no one deserves death does NOT at all equate with forgiving and forgetting.

A highlighting of the suffering of those left behind.

Character Spotlight: Heiji Hattori

Sometimes, a new character gets introduced that comes with a lot of interesting info - much of which we get to talk about right away. This time, we get to do just that with our favorite Osakan detective, Heiji Hattori!

1) Names!

Heiji Hattori (服部平次): Heiji’s last name comes from the same source as Shinichi’s - Tantei Monogatari - but instead of referring to a private detective, Heiji’s namesake is Police Detective Hattori. Though Tantei Monogatari’s Kudou isn’t super fond of Hattori (he IS bit of a bumbling detective, after all), Hattori is fairly cooperative with Kudou’s less-than-legal tactics, and seems to serve as supporter and understanding presence. His first name, meanwhile, comes from Zenigata Heiji, a detective in Kodou Nomura’s historical mystery book, “The Arrest Notes of Zenigata Heiji.”

Heizou Hattori (服部平蔵): Heiji’s father also has multiple sources for his name! The first source is Onihei Hankachou, a series of historical fiction novels starring the very real Hasegawa Nobutame, otherwise known as Hasegawa Heizou. Hasegawa was the head of the Arson, Burglary, and Gambling Post created after the Kansei Reforms of the late 1700s. The name is also meant to bring to mind the Sengoku era samurai Hanzou Hattori. Both figures were often associated with 鬼 in their nicknames: 鬼平 (onihei) for the former, and 鬼の半蔵 (oni no hanzou) for the latter.

2) Japanese Culture: Osaka

Heiji is from Osaka, in the Kansai region of Japan. Due to Kansai containing the old pre-Meiji Era capital of Kyoto, and Tokyo literally meaning “Eastern Kyo” (Eastern Capital), it’s all too easy to draw East-West comparisons between the two.

Above you'll see a map I borrowed from The Gate to Kansai, with some notes on which prefectures most people probably think of when Kansai is brought up in conversation.

This area has a distinct dialect, with the prefectures within having slight variations on that dialect. Heiji’s speech, as an anime character, seems to have some mixed receptions. Much of what you'll read below is information I've personally gleaned either through first-person Japanese accounts, or some key-term searching various websites.

First, there's the fact that Heiji can sound a little old-fashioned to some listeners. Given his debut chapter was in 1995, this makes plenty of sense.

Why not update Heiji with the times? That's because he's also burdened with Anime Shorthand. Just as there are certain stereotypical accents in English you may not actually hear often in real life (like the abundance of "eh" in Canadian accents, or the posh Queen's English to represent all of England), there are similar short-hands for Japanese dialects in Japanese media. There are a lot more words and phrases in proper Kansai or Osaka dialect that simply wouldn't translate to a national Japanese audience, so instead a number of easily understandable aspects to Kansai-ben are chosen to immediately tell the audience "Hey, this character is from Kansai!" You also run the risk of pissing off the locals if you use those words and phrases incorrectly, so the short-hand is also the safer choice.

Despite it being Anime Shorthand, though, that's really the only source of "discomfort" native Kansai-ben speakers seem to feel. Part of it is because otherwise, his speech is technically sound. It is not egregiously incorrect, it simply comes on a little strong; most modern Kansai-ben sounds much softer than Heiji's use of it.

Another part that may help get this across is that Ryou Horikawa, Heiji's voice actor, is actually natively from Osaka! He's been in the business quite a while, with other notable roles (aka roles that made me go "WHAT DO YOU MEANNN???") including:

Vegeta (DBZ)

Karasu (Yu Yu Hakusho)

Miktran (Tales of Destiny)

Captain Falcon (Super Smash Bros. Series)

3) Let's Unpin That!

Though we won't be able to take this one out of the cork board completely, we will be able to wiggle it out just a little more.

Let's start by going over what we can of the behind the scenes of Heiji's creation:

Gosho felt if he was going to be introducing a new detective, he may as well make him speak differently. Thus, he’s from Osaka! In service of this, his at-the-time editor, Mitomu Asai, was largely in charge of making sure Heiji’s Kansai-ben was correct.

If we take Magic File 4: The Osaka Okonomiyaki Odyssey as canon, Heiji likely lives in Neyagawa - Asai’s hometown.

Heiji’s darker skin tone is meant to serve as another point of contrast between him and Shinichi.

But why did Gosho conceive of a new high school detective at all? For now, that part of the pin is largely still in the corkboard.

If you're wondering which pin we're trying to unstick, specifically, here's an excerpt from Week 2:

There are a couple of stand-out early cases that involve our mysterious organization that TMS chose to adapt without any organization elements. This had the secondary consequence in this case of actually keeping Akemi alive at the end of the corresponding anime episode, 'The Strange Person Hunt Murder Case.' The problem? She needs to die. The anime rectified this with a loose retreading of this case over 100 episode later that otherwise ignores the events of the previous episode, but that initial decision led to two separate but somewhat related consequences in the manga. What those are, and how they're related, is something we'll get into when it becomes relevant later.

We get to follow up on this a little bit now.

Due to the aforementioned extremely early anime decisions, Gosho had to push back a certain plot thread he’d wanted to go forward with at about the time the anime had been confirmed. In exchange, the anime team wanted a rival for Conan to bounce off of. Thus, we have Heiji! As a rival, Gosho figured a contrasting high school detective was the best option.

The next time we pick up this pin, we should be able to unpin it for good!