#itakura's software

File 1141-1143 Review

Hi, it's going well thank you. Yes, I have indeed a lot thoughts on the latest case, and especially File 1141. This case-opening chapter was without a doubt one of the most exciting and highly anticipated moments in the history of this series in terms of mystery lore.

This case started with Kogoro seemingly sneaking around talking to someone about preparing a gift for someone that is a teen girl, despite Ran's birthday being revealed to be awhile away (File 1141). This leads to Eri getting involved in trying to figure out if Kogoro had some secret affair going on.

All of this leads to Eri mentioning how a client of hers mistook a cat's cry for that of a baby's, leading to them talking about how female cat's mating cries can sound like that of a baby's...

...which lead to Conan getting triggered and recalling in flashes none other than one of the biggest DC mysteries that has been shelved for decades, the Itakura software & Vermouth mysteries from Vermouth arc (from File 380).

These were direct redraws from File 380, when he was reading Itakura's diary about Itakura's meeting with Tequila, reluctantly accepting the software order from Vermouth, his regrets and fears of its consequences for humamity, as well as including Conan's recall of Haibara's similar line as Vermouth that was he was pondering (acting "against the stream of time").

This moment couldn't have been less expected to take place right now amidst the unresolved plots of Rum arc, which made for a very impactful development for me. The significance of Conan suddenly recalling this is that it's Gosho's narrative technique of reviving subject matters that are about to be addressed soon, meaning... we are about to finally develop this old highly awaited mystery from decades ago, which is not short of insane and exciting at the same time.

As for why/how Conan recalled this subject matter, it makes sense that it has to do with the long-running "Cat's cry" mystery that Agasa mentioned was noted in Itakura's diary from when Itakura was conversing with Vermouth on the phone (File 398), since Eri was just talking about a cat's cry.

What's more, there is a possibility that Conan may have also reacted to Eri's mention of "give him a good taste of his own medicine" & Ran's "Don't you think that the medicine is working too well?".

That is because it fits perfectly well with how Conan even recalled Haibara's warning of "not rushing things" and that "humans can never go against the stream of time" and that "if they forcibly try to change that they'll be punished" (File 191/380) (alluding to tampering with biological time/age manipulations and its consequences, as referenced even by Masumi in regards to the antidote's age correcting effect in File 1037). Because if what Haibara was referencing was how the Boss (over-100-year-old Karasuma Renya) forcibly tried to revert time on his body to a youthful state by "taking his own developed medicine" in a rush, and then it leading to that "the medicine worked to well" and shrank him into the age of a 7-year-old kid, it would directly coincide with those trigger words that Conan heard. If Conan was able to recall those intrinsic details from those lines, then it might be indicative of that Conan had previously speculated this far internally about Haibara's and Vermouth's words and later forgotten them as time passed (hence his confusion over his sudden recall),... that the BO are trying to "raise the boss from the dead against the stream of time" (fix his current state with a drug) after "getting punished from previously having forcibly gone against the stream time" (taking a drug that worked too well and got him stuck in an undesired state).

For more details on my BO research & goal theories, check my posts below:

As for why Vermouth ordered the completion of Itakura's software, I have written my theory about it in detail in the post below:

We also got to see the first meeting between Eri and Amuro, as well as Amuro giving a little hint of acknowledgement of Conan's hidden capabilities, but this time from the perspective of his newly acquired awareness of his true identity (File 1141).

I do wonder if this meeting and Eri's hunch about Amuro's true profession is gonna go somewhere, like for example her finding out that he is a Public Security officer as a result of them intertwining in a criminal case. Eri finding out and keeping his occupation hidden (just like Koumei) would be something in character and fitting for her, which I would also appreciate (especially if it leads to them working more honestly together in cases).

Ultimately, it was revealed by the end of the case (which was overall enjoyable, albeit simple and straightforward) that it was indeed Kuriyama (Eri's paralegal assistant) that Kogoro was secretly communicating with to get help in deciding Ran's birthday present ahead of time (File 1143).

I thought it was promising for Gosho to already tease Ran's birthday this soon (despite it being awhile away), since it's almost as if he is signaling the beginning of something major to transpire soon in association with the case that involves Ran's birthday. It could be something related to ShinRan's relationship, but it could also be related to some major main plot status quo change. Ran's birthday is something Gosho has had in mind for awhile (probably since the mention of Shinichi's birthday back in Movie 4), so it's gonna be very exciting to see what he has planned for such a monumental event.

Considering that we didn't further develop Conan's memory triggers in the resolution chapter, my current prediction for the upcoming case is that it will involve Conan further recalling and reinvestigating the Itakura software mystery (potentially after getting new leads). Gosho had recently teased in an interview related to the premiere of Movie 28 that the FBI & Camel (with his new appearance) will make a return in the manga soon, and considering the FBI's tight connection to Vermouth (who ordered the software), I could see there being some form collaboration between them and Conan partaining to Itakura's software in the horizon (leading to Conan's eventual deduction on what the software's purpose was).

Itakura Software Theory

I think that Itakura's software is a virus software that can erase any data you want on a mass scale from everywhere that is connected to the internet.

This idea stems from the Black Organization's shown interest and usage of the throroughly-introduced Night Baron Virus in File 72-77.

During Tequila case (File 116), they were shown to be looking for programmers, even after Vermouth having already force-hired Itakura into creating the software 1 year ago for her own agenda (File 380).

After that, we had Haibara's intro (File 181) that revealed that they got ahold of the Night Baron Virus, that they used as a trap to delete sensitive data that is opened on unauthorized computers.

Gosho replied to a fan question saying that one could have figured out what Itakura software's purpose was if one properly read and understood the story (SDB 60+).

Night Baron virus is our only and best basis for guessing at what kind of software they were aiming to create when looking for the best programmers in the world, since it's the only program/software we have seen them associated with. So the best conclusion to arrive at is that Itakura's software was meant to be something akin to erasing data, but on a larger scale. If the BO got ahold of such a software, then they could truly harm humanity (as Itakura mentioned in File 380), since digital data is heavily relied on in society (economy, hospitals, etc) and erasure of it on a mass scale could mean life and death for many people.

This potential purpose for the software fits perfectly with the hinted personal agenda that Vermouth had when she force-hired Itakura.

During Mystery Train (File 823), Yukiko hit the mark while speculating in front of Vermouth regarding the purpose of the software when she asked her if it had something to do with why she is hiding Shinichi and Sherry's shrinking.

If Vermouth's reason for hiding the shrinking is to hide any progress to the foolish research in order to stop the Boss from achieving his goal, then using a software that can erase the entire saved research data, as well as any research data related to it from the whole world on a mass scale would benefit her immensely.

This would also be a betrayal against the boss on the highest level that it makes sense why Vermouth hurriedly hung up on Itakura as the boss was approaching with his cat (File 398).

The explanation behind the cat's cry was according SDB Black+, that speculates that "a cat alone doesn't feel like the reason Vermouth would hang up. But maybe someone hugging a cat was approaching her. And maybe that someone was Karasuma..."

Detective Conan Opening 50 - ANSWER