Hello! What is your analysis of the last manga chapter? and what do you think happened 17 years ago in the Haneda Kohji case?
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).
