DCUniverseAficionado

Honestly, the twist that the butler of a romance subplot character is Rum actually looks pretty valid to me. The only issue is that, in Super Digest Book Black Plus, Gosho said that Rum was either Hyōe, Rumi or Kanenori—and only one of those three—his answer to that specific question didn't leave room for him to give an evasive answer and leave open the possibility of a fourth suspect. If it turns out there is a fourth suspect, and that suspect is Rum, then Gosho didn't just mislead, evade, or misdirect with this answer—he straight-up lied. And I don't recall Gosho straight-up lying when it comes to questions regarding the unrevealed big mysteries of the series. I don't recall him ever declaring, be it in Let's Talk Days or SDBs or interviews—before the reveals—that Vermouth wasn't disguised as Dr. Ariade, or that Hidemi Hondō and Rena Mizunashi weren't the same person, or that Scar Akai was Bourbon, or that Bourbon was Tōru Amuro. So I don't think he'd lie about Rum only being either Hyōe, Rumi or Kanenori. In spite of this, I can't deny the possibility that Kanenori is actually Tsutomu Akai—if there was evidence proving he couldn't be Papa Akai, though, then I'd easily name him as my top suspect, even above Muga. For me, the possibility that Kanenori = Papa Akai and Gosho's answer to that SDB Black+ question are my biggest points of contention—if it turns out that there are only 3 Rum suspects, and Kanenori turns out to be Tsutomu, then Rum must be Hyōe or Rumi (I don't honestly think that Rum is Tsutomu—Gosho subverting Shūichi's Gundam-inspired backstory and make his dad the second biggest of the bads, instead of really dead and/or a heroic figure, is quite a longshot). If it ends up that only Hyōe or Rumi can be Rum, then one of them has been playing the long game and biding time, in spite of knowing info that could be devastating to Team Conan if they simply acted on it—Rum waiting to spring a trap on Team Conan and the NOCs despite knowing such important info to his goal seems to go against his impatience. From here, we have to consider the Vermouth = Rumi possibility. If that's true, and Tsutomu is Kanenori (and not Rum), then Hyōe must be Rum (assuming there is no fourth suspect, of course). I want to say that Hyōe's knowledge precludes him from the suspect list completely, but I just don't know if he's biding his time or not. So, at this time, my ranking of the suspects, in terms of how likely it is that they'll turn out to be Rum, goes like this: Most likely: Kanenori and/or Muga Second-most likely: Rumi Least likely: Hyōe

He was eager to talk to Taka'aki—after that conversation, Taka'aki thought of Rum's signature phrase. If Hyōe is just Rei's/Tōru's NPA boss, then he may be looking to loop in the older Morofushi on the plan Team Conan's proposed to Rei/Tōru (the plan that still hasn't been revealed—just like the plan they came up with during the Vermouth arc climax). Apart from that, he did go out of his way to approach Rumi—Rumi's probably related to any purely personal motives he may have—yet he didn't intervene while the Kyōto case aftermath was going down, like Kanenori (and to a lesser extent, Rumi) did. He even ordered Rei/Tōru to help Shinichi/Conan out with a case. Out of the 3 suspects and Muga, I'd be most surprised if Hyōe turned out to be Rum, honestly.

Yeah, I noticed that, too, while reading 1,040—especially the bit where he actually counted the minutes and seconds. And what's your opinion on the impatience and time sensitivity of Hyōe, Rumi and Kanenori, by comparison?

It is, indeed, movie context—from Movie 21, specifically (though if you're fluent in Japanese, you likely won't need to watch Movie 21 to get why Momiji calls Kazuha that). UPDATE: 1,041 spoiler pics are now out: https://imgur.com/a/4Gvaktk UPDATE (8/30): A (very blurry) spoiler pic from 1,042 is now out. UPDATE (9/1): Courtesy of Manaphy's translation, here are the 1,042 text spoilers: UPDATE (9/3) Apparently, the text spoilers above are fake/incorrect. Courtesy of Spimer's translation, here is a translation of the actual 1,042 text spoilers: Will update again once the 1,042 spoiler pics come out and settle this confusion. UPDATE (9/3) All 16 pages of 1,042 are now out. The text spoilers translated by Spimer are confirmed to be correct. 11 week break to come—we can expect 1,043 spoilers around November 22nd.

File 1,040 text spoilers are now out, courtesy of Sakaki and Baka: EDIT: 1,040 spoiler pics now out, with translation courtesy of Murakami, and the following link provided by Baka: https://imgur.com/a/BMRlP6B No break next week—we can expect 1,041 spoilers at this time next week. UPDATE: Here's a 1,040 text summary, courtesy of Murakami:

RULES 1. Please use spoiler boxes until a full English translation is available. 2. NO DIRECT LINK to any Japanese scans (RAWs) or English scans (Japanese spoiler images are allowed as long as the amount and quality of which are very far away from a full scan). HOW TO USE A SPOILER BOX? Just simply type the following: [spoiler]Text you want to write[/spoiler] 1,039 spoilers are now out... in fact, all 16 pages of the file (albeit in very low resolution) are now out. Break next week—we can expect 1,040 spoilers at this time in two weeks. UPDATE: Here are text translations by Fujiwara and Anthony Lim:

That's Movie 6: The Phantom of Baker Street.

Apologies for the double post. 1,038 text spoilers in Chinese are out, courtesy of 2leaves and Fujiwara: We can expect the pics to come in the next few days. EDIT: Here are the 1,038 spoiler pics: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/6177613760?pn=2 4 week break after this—we can expect 1,039 spoilers around August 1st-3rd. EDIT (#2): Here are Pages 12-16 of 1,038, translated:

Here are more detailed text spoilers form 1,037, courtesy of Fujiwara: EDIT: The spoiler pics are now out: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/6173155793?pn=3 https://tieba.baidu.com/p/6173155793?pn=4 And here's a text summary, courtesy of Spimer:

Apologies for the triple post. 1,037 Text Spoilers are now out, courtesy of Erika, The Conanner and Fujiwara—though be advised, these early translations may change. If they do, I will update accordingly. Spoiler pics should be out pretty soon—will update when we receive them.

Apologies for the double post. 1,036 spoiler pics are now out: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/6163820077 No break next week—we can expect 1,037 spoilers this time next week. EDIT: Here are text spoilers for 1,036, courtesy of Spimer:

RULES 1. Please use spoiler boxes until a full English translation is available. 2. NO DIRECT LINK to any Japanese scans (RAWs) or English scans (Japanese spoiler images are allowed as long as the amount and quality of which are very far away from a full scan). HOW TO USE A SPOILER BOX? Just simply type the following: [spoiler]Text you want to write[/spoiler] 1,035 spoilers are now out: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/6156264909 No break next week—we can expect 1,036 spoilers this time next week. Here are the translations of the pics we have so far, courtesy of Fujiwara:

Apologies for the triple post. 1,034 spoilers have since released: http://imgur.com/a/iZFAcLi DC will return with 1,035 in five weeks—we can expect spoilers for that file around June 7th.

Apologies for the double post. A blurry spoiler pic from 1,033 is now out: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/6108211174 EDIT: And here's a less blurry version of the spoiler pic (plus another one): https://tieba.baidu.com/p/6109257248 And here's a translation of the two spoiler pics, courtesy of Fujiwara:

Here's a promotion (drawn by Gosho, of course) of Movie 23 in Issue #19 of Shonen Sunday:

RULES 1. Please use spoiler boxes until a full English translation is available. 2. NO DIRECT LINK to any Japanese scans (RAWs) or English scans (Japanese spoiler images are allowed as long as the amount and quality of which are very far away from a full scan). HOW TO USE A SPOILER BOX? Just simply type the following: [spoiler]Text you want to write[/spoiler] Here's a teaser of 1,032, courtesy of @Wsstalkback—the translation is courtesy of Spimer: UPDATE: 1,032 spoiler pics now out: https://imgur.com/a/Rso8z8x Here's the schedule for DC releases for the next month: Week of April 5th – 1,032 Week of April 12th – Break Week of April 19th – 1,033 Week of April 26th – Break (Magazine Break due to SS Double Issue) Week of May 2nd – 1,034

Someday...

There will now be a 3 weeks break between 1,031 and 1,032—we can expect 1,032 spoilers on April 4th/5th. And here are some 1,031 spoiler pics: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/6060090405?pn=2 EDIT: And here are translations of those pics by Fujiwara: https://imgur.com/a/jKfDx4s?fbc

A 1,030 spoiler summary is out, courtesy of presumenothing and Baka: And here are the spoiler pics, with translations by Fujiwara: https://imgur.com/a/6wCxtXu

No, it's not the lighting—Shinichi/Conan even called himself "Arthur Hirai" to Ran in the December trailer, so it seems to be a disguise applied to him by Kid.

Spoiler pics of 1,029 are now out, and Fujiwara has provided translation: https://imgur.com/a/QPwSONY? And here's a summary, courtesy of Spimer: No break next week—we can expect 1,030 spoilers at this time, next week.

Courtesy of Baka and presumenothing, we now have a short summary of 1,029 from Chinese fans:

Apologies for the double post. Both a 30 second and a 90 second trailer were just released on Toho Movie's YouTube channel. The official song of the movie will be "Blue Sapphire" by Hiroomi Tosaka. Here's a translation of the 90 second trailer, courtesy of Spimer:

Apologies for the double post. 1,028 spoiler pics are now out: https://tieba.baidu.com/p/6036494167?pn=2 And a summary (courtesy of Baka): No break next week—we can expect 1,029 spoiler pics this time next week. EDIT: And here's a very likely solution to the case, for those interested (this Japanese fan deduction was imparted to us by Mycroft): https://justpaste.it/67412

Here's a more detailed summary of the case, courtesy of Spimer: