#carasuma

File 1103-1104 Review

This case has proven to be the most exciting and extremely anticipated case that I have especially been waiting for. Kohji case was always the backbone of what made Rum arc so thrilling to read.

This chess tournament case opened up with Wakita finding out about Conan and Wakasa being together in a chess tournament and recalling standing in front of Kohji's corpse with a grin (File 1103).

Two major details immediately stook out to me in this scene when I saw it. The first was that Kohji's right palm was shown to not be carrying his shogi piece charm (as indicated through the imprint), which we learned is currently in Wakasa's possession (File 1008/1052).

The evidence of the crime scenes implicated that Amanda was killed successfully according to BO's M.O, where they left the crime scene as if nothing had happened, while Kohji's was a failure, due to potentially being an accidental witness that had to be taken care of in a rush (File 948).

This flashback scene is therefore indicating that Rum was the first person to see Kohji's corpse not holding the piece after killing him, meaning that he just took it (and it was latter passed on to Wakasa), or that Wakasa was with Rum after he killed Kohji and took it just before this flashback scene takes place. This is further highlighting my theory that Rum views Wakasa as an ally rather than an enemy (for him to have let Wakasa get ahold of the piece). This is consistent with him admiring her stunt in File 980 and not acting against her after seemingly having met her 17 years ago when she was together with his enemy, Akai Tsutomu (File 1099).

The second major detail is that Rum hardly changed appearance-wise after 17 years. This is further supporting my theory that Rum's old man face is a disguise altogether, which makes sense with how he was willing to expose himself to a potential spy (Rye) 2 years ago when he was testing his loyalty (despite being someone who is extremely careful with revealing his identity to the point of disguising his voice during calls and spreading inconsistent rumors of his appearance).

This was then followed by us getting the reveal that Kuroda was present the day of Kohji's and Amanda's murder 17 years ago, where he met Wakasa (who was following Amanda) (File 1103).

This memory recall scene is heavily implicating that Wakasa is the person that was seen following Amanda and being called "Asaka" by her. This could essentially be considered confirmation to that Amanda's bodyguard "Asaka" was indeed Wakasa. However, there is a very significant inconsistency that Gosho introduced with this reveal. Wakasa's overall appearance doesn't match with the photo of the person who was said to be "Asaka". This is not the first time Gosho has shown this inconsistency with Wakasa's past appearance, as he has shown what she looked like 17 years ago when she interacted with Tsutomu after the Kohji case (File 1099) which also didn't match with the photo.

The "Asaka" on the photo does not have the same hairstyle as Wakasa, nor does she wear the same suit. This opens up the possibility that while Wakasa could be the person Amanda was seen calling "Asaka" there was someone else that day who was captured in the photo and who resembled Wakasa slightly and was mistaken as her. This person could also have been the one that was seen carrying the hand-mirror that ended up with Kohji according to Hotta's investigation (File 953), especially if Hotta relied on that photo to get the testimony on "Asaka".

If that is the case, then that would mean there are two "Asaka", one that is the real one (Wakasa) and one that is a mistaken one (the person in the Asaka photo).

It's however also possible that in the upcoming flashback case, we will see Wakasa change her appearance and look like the person in the "Asaka" photo. Therefore, I'm withholding my conclusions on my current theory regarding the Asaka mystery.

Afterwards, we learn through the magazine cover of File 1104 that Rum had the same cat-like eye 17 years ago during the Kohji case. This basically indicated that the eye that was revealed in File 1100 was actually his real eye that he lost (likely after the Kohji case by Tsutomu's hands), rather than his prosthetic eye, meaning that Rum was born with Iris Coloboma (cat eye syndrome).

We then learn through Kuroda's memories that was triggered (File 1104) that he had entered Amanda's room and found her corpse sitting next to a chessboard that had a knight piece with a wristwatch around it.

The page essentially reveals that Amanda left a dying message to implicate her killer to be someone with a left eye resembling a cat eye, in a rush as she was suffering. This was done using her right index to smear the lipstick from her lips on the left eye of a white knight piece, while also putting her lips on the frame of her wristwatch to leave a mark resembling the pupil of a cat eye. This dying message trick was foreshadowed in the dressing room case (File 969-971), where the victim smeared lipstick on her nails for a dying message.

This page also confirmed that the current Kuroda we know was indeed physically there during the Kohji case 17 years ago, unlike Akai Tsutomu (who got involved after Kohji's death). This officially debunks the popular theory that Kuroda is Tsutomu. This was a pleasant surprise, since the conclusion of Kuroda being Tsutomu wasn't an interesting twist in my opinion. This case is however marking the beginning of Kuroda's true character introduction/development, since we have been teased through his constant recalls that Kuroda's flashback of the Kohji case is gonna get revealed in File 1106-1109 (the confirmed case chapters after this chess case). I can't wait to start properly enjoying his story journey and love him more as a character.

The last important detail that needs to be addressed is the official confirmation of the relevance of a knight piece, which I have been speculating for a long time to be the second object in Wakasa's pocket (File 989).

However, the intriguing aspect to this is the fact that it was revealed to be a part of Amanda's dying message, rather than a suspiciously important piece in Kohji's room. This is a very interesting narrative direction by Gosho, as it basically gives a default explanation to why Wakasa would be carrying a knight piece in her pocket (once it gets revealed) that doesn't make the potential existence of a continued-Kohji-dying-message obvious, just like with the shogi piece that was suspiciously clenched in Kohji's palm that was explained off as simply being a good luck charm he foolishly clinged to. I think however that this is Gosho's attempt to mislead the reader from suspecting that Kohji used his shogi bishop piece, with the help of shogi-shaping the letter "U" in the hand-mirror (Which Gosho added as an easter egg in File 996) to hint to its abbreviation "UMA", and a chess knight piece (its starting position "G") to expose his killer's (Rum's) true identity of being "CARASUMA MUGA" (who has been disguising as an old man for 17 years to hide his true identity).

As for the current murder case in the chess tournament, I think the culprit is Oogawara. He lost for the first time on purpose against Kurumi to end the match faster in order to get an opportunity to kill Kishitani. He probably already shot an arrow in the wall beforehand and made the "thwack" sound to create an alibi for himself for the attempt at Kisaki's life and sneakily slashed Kisaki's jacket horizontally later. He then killed Kishitani with the crossbow, left the restroom and put the cleaning sign in front of it so no one discovers the corpse immediately. Afterwards, he used a glass that was specially prepared so he can break it with his grip strength. He then probably stabbed an arrow against his bag and broke the glass with his hand to get everyone's attention before the bag with the arrow fell to the ground to create the illusion of an arrow getting shot. The shards that was found crushed inside a glasses case might have been a part of the glass break trick or the object used to cut Kisaki's jacket.

The dying message Kishitani left probably exposes Oogawara as the culprit, and it is also a huge easter egg/foreshadowing to my ongoing theory that the Knight piece starting position G1 is a part of Kohji's dying message, just like Kogoro's race reference during Rum's intro case (File 975).

It wasn't mentioned or directed in the broken mirror or had any clue, mark emmbed or shown in the mirror so that the letters should re-arrange itself into two words. Akai and Conan all had in mind about ASAKA, the bodyguard so while re-arranging the words it got matched up co-incidentially.

The co-incidence was for plot*

For example - let's imagine that someone wants to give a secret message through decipher or secret code to someone. They would try their best to the other person know the actual message without leaving any room for confusion.

Then in this case, if the person who left the message, he/she wants help desperately. So if they wanted that the message should get solved into two words they would have left a clue or mark. So that the detective will notice and re-arrange the words into two parts. But it wasn't the case.

Also, here Asaka was just a suspect who ran away. It's not a confirmation that she/he was the murderer. So also not necessary that the code should get rearranged itself into "ASAKA"

Technically and generally the letters should make one word. So it ended up being CARASUMA at the end.

File 1103-1109 Predictions

I think it will be the latter; a plot progressing/setup case leading up to the climax. It is also timely to reveal what happened between Rum and Tsutomu 17 years ago (after the Kohji case incident), that lead to Rum losing his left eye. That's what I'm currently expecting the promotional video for File 1103 is hinting to with "There is the untold tale..."

We have after all had Gosho teasing it beforehand, starting with the OdaxAoyama interview.

And then in in File 1099 & 1100, through Wakasa's memory and Rum's thoughts.

Since it will be a Chess tournament case that is 7 chapters long (according to magazine preview and animal crossing hints) , I'm also expecting Kohji case deduction progression from Conan, where he will be reminded of the chess tournament Kohji went to the US for the day he died. I think we will finally get a the reveal of the relevance to the second object in Wakasa's pocket in File 989 (potential knight piece), and that a chessboard was also a relevant evidence in Kohji's crime scene together with the Bishop shogi piece charm and hand-mirror, forming Rum's true identity ("CARASUMA MUGA").

Detective Conan FILE 1008 Review/Discussion

CARASUMA

"CARASUMA" was heavily implied to be the mirror-message of Kohji's dying message. As predicted, it did end up becoming the most reasonable letter arrangement, and it further enforces the idea that the clenched scissor case (File 948-950) is Gosho's parallel to the actual case from 17 years ago, since the mirror message "CARASUMA" ended up being a surname, just like the glass message "SENBA".

Wakita's move and Rumi's shogi piece

Wakita finally made his move. He went to Agasa's house to pry on Kudo Shinichi. This is a strong indication that he is interested in Shinichi for some reason. Following my suspicions about him being a Boss-associated BO agent, his actions does go in line with him wanting to confirm if Shinichi survived the APTX drug.

This was later followed by half a page dedicated to the Rum suspects, where we not only see Wakita giving off a serious reaction to the Shinichi cover-up, but also Rumi being in possession of a shogi piece.

The shogi piece she had beside her was the "promoted bishop" abbreviated as "Uma"("horse"). If this is an indication to her figuring out, or being in a possession of, the missing object, that Kohji was clenching between his hand and scissor, that was taken from the crime scene, then this also follows my prediction that Kohji was using "UMA" as a part of the dying message. Since "Uma" means "horse", and we not only had the "horse" reference for the Rum movie cover but also directly used canonically in relation to "Pirate's Spirit"/"Rum"/the culprit of the Kohji case(File 975), it further foreshadows that "Uma" is most likely the right word from the piece. Same would imply if the shogi-like missing shape of "U" in the hand-mirror was hinting to the Shogi piece that start with "U". As for whether Rumi's shogi piece is the exact same one as the one that was taken 17 years ago, that is yet to be determined. Same goes for the object in her pocket, however, since Gosho revealed the shogi piece now, it lessens the chance that the object in her pocket is something else but the Uma piece.

All that's left now is for the knight piece to be revealed, in order to complete the potential full name of Rum: Karasuma Muga.

Rum's new objective

After the Rum-suspects scene, we finally got the awaited development that we have been waiting: an objective for Rum. We have been due an official goal for the antagonist of this arc, and this is our only confirmed goal that we have gotten from Rum. Rum sent a text to Bourbon demanding information about Shinichi, and that was followed by an english idiom "Time is money!". This is our first time getting a canon glimpse at Rum's writing, and the first unique thing we get is him writing in english. This could be Gosho's indication that Rum has been influenced by an english-speaking country. Following my theory about Muga being Rum, it does go well in line with him, since he was portrayed to have gotten European/British influence.

A very interesting finding that the Japanese fans made was that "Time is money!" in Japanese ("Tokiwa Kanenari") is an anagram for "Wakita Kanenori". Considering that Gosho reminded us of Wakita's full name pages before this idiom was sent by Rum, it highly suggest it could be an intentional hint to that "Wakita Kanenori" is a fake name derived from the anagram of the idiom "Time is money!". Since Wakita was using idioms and metaphors in his introduction, it makes sense that he would use this idiom often as well (along with others like "It's like encountering a demon in the darkness"). Just like my suspicion that Gin was using one of Wakita's idioms, this could be Gosho's hint that Rum is also using one of Wakita's idioms (which further supports Wakita's BO affiliation and his potential high position to be able influence agents like Gin, and especially Rum).

Karasuma Renya

Lastly, The biggest shocker was at the end, when Karasuma Renya was revealed to be, or at least have been, the Boss of the BO.