Another week down, another issue of Case Notes!
We've got a variety of stuff this week, from references to a brief history lesson, so let's get right to it.
1) Of The Times
Conan's deduction in the shinkansen case hinges on the existence of smoking and non-smoking cars... which means the case would have to undergo a serious rewrite if it was written today. Check out a brief overview of the Tokaido Shinkansen's history with smoking on its trains below!
1964: Shinkansen begins service. Smoking is possible in all cars, with ashtrays installed by seats.
1976: One (1) non-smoking car introduced.
1986: Expanded to four cars.
1990s: Increased to over half of all cars.
2007: Seats are non-smoking, with designated “Smoking Rooms” in certain areas.
2024: Smoking Rooms abolished; fully non-smoking.
2) Names!
We've added a few more people to our core roster, so let's take a quick look at them!
Sonoko Suzuki (鈴木園子): The meaning of Sonoko’s name is nothing to write home about (for now, anyway). Last name: Bell Tree; First name: Garden Child. What IS crazy is that she’s apparently named after a kouhai of Gosho’s in high school.
Gin & Vodka: We finally have these bozos’ names! Both Gin and Vodka are distilled liqueurs. They have little meaning other than Gosho thought liquer-based names were cool. For some extra fun facts: they were designed in about 30 seconds between them, Gosho writes/rewrites almost 100% of Gin’s movie dialogue, and Vodka was designed to be a sort of “pseudo-Watson” to help highlight everyone else in comparison because we can’t have EVERYONE in this organization be competent.
3) Japanese Culture
This week we have one major topic: multiplication tables!
When Conan overhears Gin and Vodka's plan to blow the train to smithereens, he begins to repeat the phrase 木端微塵 (koppa mijin, smithereens) in shock. He manages to stop himself halfway through... and then very badly (and wrongly, like a six year old would I suppose) begins to recite his multiplication tables.
The Japanese multiplication table is referred to as the 九九 (kuku, nine-nine). The supposed story behind this is that the method was brought over from China, which originally started with the highest number on the table. What makes the table a little different than, say, the English multiplication table is that it's meant to be a bare-bones and rhythmic way for children to memorize it. As a result, many of the phrases utilize common alternatives (or slightly odd) pronunciations to make it nice and easy.
Bear with me on the extended Japanese, but to use the example Conan and Kogoro spoke of (8x8=64)
First, the standard Japanese:
Presented in image format for easy reading.
The kuku version of this? Happa rokujuushi. "Ha" from hachi, and a Japanese grammar rule where H- sounds can change to B- or P- sounds is utilized to make it fun and easy to say. It's got the same vibes as saying "eigh-teight sixty four."
If you're familiar with Japanese numbers, he's a nifty chart from Wikipedia for the remainder of the kuku!
4) Short & Sweet References
Except it's not very short at all, since there are a number of references in MULTIPLE categories this week.
BRANDS
All of the brands featured in the background while the kids go about their treasure hunt are spelled juuuust a little wrong.
Denny's. An American family restaurant chain that has a fairly significant presence in Japan due to a business deal with Seven & i Holdings.
Budweiser. Beer.
PARCO. A Japanese chain of department stores.
BIC Camera. A Japanese electronics retailer.
LANDMARKS
This chapter features the DetCo equivalent of Tokyo Tower for the first time. As for the name "Touto Tower," it just replaces the second kanji of Tokyo with the “metropolis” kanji in Tokyo’s full name, Tokyo-to (東京都).
The bus the kids take is also based on the very real Toei Bus Line, To06 (都06, written with the same kanji as mentioned above). The actual line doesn't have a "Before Tokyo Tower" stop, but it DOES have two or three stops that are easily within walking distance of the tower, so they could have easily taken it irl.
YAIBA & Other Manga
After a certain event in YAIBA, a number of brands get changed to be more Oni-esque. One of these, as you can see below the TV, is ONY... which is a play on Sony. There's also an ad on a building for an alcoholic beverage of some kind called 鬼桜 (onizakura?). I couldn't find a specific reference for this one, so it's possible this also falls into the same idea of Oni-fied products.
Jubei likely comes from Jubei Yagyu, who also has a presence in YAIBA.
KAMEN YAIBA!! We have our first appearance of their favorite tokusatsu hero. Kamen Yaiba is clearly modeled after the Kamen Rider tokusatsu franchise, which began in the early 1970s. What it's also technically a reference to is a stunt that Yaiba pulls in one of his fights where he... wears Sayaka's swimsuit as a mask and claims himself to be Kamen Yaiba. The DetCo version of this character is obviously a much more straightforward take on a tokusatsu hero.
While Conan is busy looking for clues, the kids are looking at a bunch of Shogakukan-published magazines! From left to right we have...
Ciao: A shojo magazine. The character in the front is a little hard to make out, unfortunately.
Shounen Sunday. DetCo's own magazine is back, but this time we have Ranma Saotome featured on the cover. Ranma 1/2 ran in Sunday from 1987-1996, so it was another of DetCo's contemporaries.
Big Comic Spirits. A seinen magazine. The cover seems to feature one of its fruit-head mascot characters.
5) Detective Trivia
A rapid-fire list of references after Conan solves the code to win the Kamen Yaiba doll.
Detective Boys & Kobayashi: Kobayashi is the leader of Edogawa Ranpo’s Detective Boys.
Kogoro Akechi: The main detective character for Ranpo. The Detective Boys aid Kogoro Akechi.
Holmes: That sure goes without saying.
Hercule Poirot: Agatha Christie’s detective.
6) Redrawn
Another Volume 1 redraw when Conan flashes back to the day that changed his life after running into Gin and Vodka on the train. The entire scene is presented quite differently to account for space, so the only panel that is particularly close to the original scene is the segment where Gin is feeding Shinichi the poison.
7) Adapted Out, Adapted In
As mentioned in Week 2, TMS had a habit in the early Detective Conan anime of stripping the organization elements from some of their early adaptations. In Akemi's case, it had some interesting consequences (which I have not forgotten about, don't you worry), but it's not the only case that happened to.
The anime version of the shinkansen bombing case is only episode five of the anime, and it made two fundamental changes. The first is the introduction of Genta, Ayumi, and Mitsuhiko to the episode. Though this changes the general tone a bit, that's not as important as the second change: Gin and Vodka are replaced by doppelgangers. That means Conan, in the anime, never finds out their names in this case... and never organically finds out their names at all, if memory serves. He simply knows them, eventually.
It's another example of how the early anime adaptation was a bit of a Wild West in terms of adaptation standards with regards to canon.
8) Food For Thought
A shorter one, but one that stuck out to me.
Last week, we had a case that lightly touched on the idea of there being no such thing as a just killing. This week, at the end of the bandaged man case, Takahashi insists that everything he did, he did for Atsuko... and that he would now join her as an envoy of justice, now that he's gotten his revenge.
Conan immediately calls him out on this, which is in line with the museum case last week, but what sticks out to me more than anything is the way in which he does so: "if you want to die, then go ahead and do it!"
It ultimately works, since it shocks Takahashi out of his suicide attempt. But it's a flippant sentiment that seems to run contrary to the idea that no one deserves to die. Perhaps it’s motivated by Ran’s involvement in the case; she’s one of the most important people to him, after all, and she has nothing to do with Takahashi’s revenge.
“Revenge” as a particularly demonic motive is interesting to think about both with regards to Conan’s actions here (is his flippancy also, technically, revenge for Takahashi going after Ran?) and Conan’s actions in general (largely with regards to getting “revenge” on the organization that poisoned him). It's worth keeping in mind, mostly to see whether these sentiments from Conan remain or not.
