Chekhov MacGuffin

This happened on the spoiler cbox a couple days ago. I want to transcribe it here for reference. Some of my awful grammar and spelling has been fixed to avoid further public embarrassment. I also added on a few bits in my statement for clarification. Shadow: [i'm] also struggling with imagining what the Mystery Girl actually'd have to say to drive the story forward - in the best event she can describe the past of how she got shrunk or Akai's past or whatever but theoretically speaking she shouldn't have anything on Rum (where the plot wants to go now) unless it is again very coincidental and she happened to be THE victim who got shrunk by Rum himself, etc.. Chek: I was thinking the Mystery Girl would have to say she worked for MI6 and she tried to get Atsushi and Elena out of the Organization by faking their deaths, but something went wrong and they died for realsies. And that relates to the project they took over when they first joined the Organization, the one that is 50 years old which Shiho and Vermouth alluded to. Then maybe the Black Org found out about the exit plan later, and someone tried to silence the MG, thus shrinking her? I assume she wasn't shrunk way back when because Masumi wouldn't have been conceived yet (unless Masumi is lying about her age and is Shiho's age rather than one-two years younger). Oh and then Akemi was born to a different mother or something, alluding to someone else's connection with the BO (and fixing the really inconvenient Akai cousin love problem). And then it becomes a plot point that Ran and Akemi look alike. [strongly implying the Mouri family background is mixed up in all of this] Kor: "And then it becomes a plot point that Ran and Akemi look alike." <-- sorry not really sorry Chek: You will never be forgiven for your sins, Kor. My innocence has been soiled by your uncouth, yet convincing theories. Second order of business, whoever edited the APTX page committed a pretty massive overreach. Haibara was clearly talking about just Conan and Haibara, the only two human data points she had at the time (besides Vermouth who is a mystery case). Also secondly trying to pin an exact age range on that Japanese term is really pushing it.

Sorry for the random question, but I have a question about Chinese slang. There is a certain story genre where the protagonist hero is very powerful and conquers all the enemies and challenges he comes across. If someone appears in the story who might dethrone the hero, the hero surely gets a power up to make sure that doesn't happen. In English there isn't a word for this type of story. We might call it a "power fantasy" story, but I heard that there is a specific Chinese slang term for it. Does anyone know it?

I looked at the better image and you can make out rectangle shapes and lighter colored thin white bars reflected in her eyes. She is definitely looking at the spy list. She is the spy mentioned in the plot summary. The only thing left to confirm is that the Black Organization sent her and that she isn't from the Bangladeshi Special Branch or something instead. We probably can't confirm that until more plot comes out later.

Some larger photos of the magazine preview special shared by Jimmy Kudo in the DCTP spoiler cbox https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CVLHXzGUEAASeMb.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CVJxj5ZUkAQbH1P.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CVLnivKUAAIUb2Z.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CVK4aEmU8AAdlBo.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CVJxj5aUwAEg01b.jpg My take on one of the shots

Apologies for the double post but the plot synopsis has been posted at the Movie 20 website and ANN http://conan-movie.jp/news20/ https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2015-12-01/20th-detective-conan-film-title-visual-story-unveiled/.95985 On a dark night, the Japanese police is raided by a spy. Different countries' intelligence agencies—such as England's MI6, Germany's BDN, and America's CIA—as well as the FBI's secret files are going to be taken, but public safety officers lead by Tooru Amuro arrive just in time. The spy steals a car and escapes. The spy and Amuro are then locked in a dead heat on the highway, and just as it is about to cause an accident with multiple cars, the spy's car is hit by FBI agent Shuichi Akai's rifle bullet and falls of the roadway. The next day, Conan and his friends go to a newly-remodeled aquarium in Tokyo. Under the main attraction, a Ferris wheel, Conan finds an attractive woman alone and injured. Her left and right eyes are different colors. But the woman is in a state of amnesia where she doesn't even remember her own name, and the cellphone she's carrying is broken. Conan and his friends promise to help her regain her memory, so they stay with her. Throughout all this, Vermouth is watching behind the scenes. Afterwards, she pulls out a silencer and speaks into an attached intercom, "It's as planned, Gin." It sounds like the plot of the classic Episode 24: The Mysterious Woman With Amnesia Case

I threw "junkoku" as hiragana into the japanese dictionary I use for reference. I got back 殉国 【じゅんこく】 (n) dying for one's country (like the soldier in a war sense). The title has quite the double meaning.

That's been like the entire Bourbon arc. Masumi sleeptalking on the train "Shuu-nii" but not confirmed to be Akai's sister until very recently, Okiya with Shuuichi's eye on the mystery train but not confirmed until The Scarlet Showdown...

@DCUniverse. Wouldn't that change be made because haoris (or whatever shogi players wear during tournaments) have a white lining on the inside? Professional shogi players typically have several different color outfits (Meijin match clothes), so there is no reason to assume that is Shuukichi's only outfit and that he doesn't have a lighter haori, or some other outfit with sleeves like that. When it comes to clues, the strongest clue so far is when Sera tried to call her middle brother in the Ramen Restaurant. The middle bro -- the one who has apparently been calling Masumi -- is the ramen lover who introduced her to the restaurant - and the one who matches Yumi's description as a ramen lover with stubble and glasses and sloppy clothing. Shuukichi and the middle bro are "weirdly in sync" as Conan noted. If Shuuichi was calling Masumi while Yumi was calling ShuuKichi they wouldn't be in sync with the hangups (unless Shuuichi was also calling Yumi too with Shuukichi's voice and literally everything would be super weird and awkward about that setup.) Remember Gosho plays fair with his mysteries, so there would have to be another clue to explain why the two of them synced up for some other good reason - not "oh it was just a coincidence *laughs*~" Yumi also so very conveniently said Shuukichi was named "Chuukichi" to Sera. (Callback to the Shinichi/Kinichi situation?) That kind of convenience only makes sense if Gosho was trying to keep Masumi from realizing she and Yumi are referring to the same person.

I can't decide if that pun is hilarious or terrible. I can see CSIS on one part of the spoiler images, so it looks like we are going to get some more intelligence agencies. I bet the Canadians, Germans, and English are happy they are getting some representation.

Repost from DCTP. Thanks Wakarimashita and others! If anyone figures out why Conan is riding the world's smallest self-immolating pony, let me know please.

I am with Heliotropic on this one. It also makes the intelligence agencies look incompetent too, should all those codenamers be spies. It stretches my suspension of disbelief beyond breaking. That many groups with state-level resources and they can't take the BO down? It's simply impossible. So maybe they can't find the boss, but that much manpower could destroy the entire BO infrastructure to the point where the Organization becomes totally impotent. All those agencies combined could simply blitz the Organization at the hideouts they know about and and capture most of the medium level codename agents and the not codenamed ones, and maybe some of the executive ones as well. With their combined investigative powers they could easily track down most of the cash, weapons caches, sponsors, shell companies, laboratories, etc. The boss maybe escapes, but they will have gotten 90% of the Org and ruined its operation and the boss's plans. Without legs or a body, the head is useless. And good luck if the boss tries to rebuild, because everyone will be alerted and on the lookout.

I don't think the Shuichi theory works out after Yumi's Ramen case. There are too many hints for Shuukichi being the middle bro right now. The only hint that might point to Subaru contacting Masumi by phone is chapter 800's showdown where Amuro, Masumi, and Okiya were all seen on a phone with unknown parties. Since then, no more clues that could be interpreted as phone interactions between Masumi and Okiya have appeared. There have been a lot for Shuukichi, most notably the Masumi Yumi hangup during the Ramen case and Masumi's description of her middle bro and his personality. If Okiya was involved with Masumi by phone I would expect more clues to have appeared by now. The hints that Shuukichi was at the sea meeting are 1) He knows about the wizard (text to Masumi in the bowling alley case) and 2) Shuukichi immediately treats Conan as a skilled detective with no prompting or testing in his intro case. The second point is important because I think Shuukichi figured out Conan is Shinichi because he met Shinichi as a boy during the sea meeting. His memorization skill allows him to remember Shinichi's face from back then. Most of my middle bro theory is now highly outdated (with no plans to reupdate), but this part is still relevant. To abridge... After Sera texts her brother Conan's picture without telling him about her suspicions about Conan's true identity, the brother then asks if she met the Wizard. It seems non-coincidental for the middle brother to bring up the Wizard right after Sera reveals to him she met Conan. Unlike most people, the brother easily acknowledges that Conan is a brilliant detective. (860.16) ... Masumi has neglected to tell her brother that she knows Conan is Shinichi, so the brother is probably not aware that she knows Conan's secret identity. Thus, he may have asked her that in order to probe if she knows Conan's identity without revealing that he himself already knows Conan is Shinichi.

It would be when Conan and Ran saw Masumi as a kid. My guess is Shuukichi and Mary were there as well.

Just to make sure we are on the same page, I am asserting that Conan could be using Masumi's prior testimony that Mom, Masumi, Shuuichi all look alike to reach the conclusion that the girl is the mother. In order to reach that conclusion, Conan needed to know that Masumi and Shuuichi were siblings for sure, and he got confirmation just last chapter, thus making this line of thought relevant. While Sera's parentage seems totally obvious to us viewers, if you check the list of clues that Sera was Akai's sister, most of them were things Conan was not aware of: the name clue, Andre Camel and James Black finding her familiar, Sera chasing Scar Akai, sleeptalking on the mystery train, etc. I don't think hiding Conan's conclusion from the reader is pointless because if Conan came out and said what he thought at this stage, it would ruin the mystery girl's identity. That said, Haibara is also a good candidate because it would back the popular sisters theory.

I recall that Gosho did some design work for Hamtaro, that show about the hamsters. I am not sure what he did exactly, but Wikipedia claims he designed the human characters.

By force feeding him APTX until he shrank and sending him to live with Jodie or Amuro?

Here is a copyedit something from my wiki talk archives about the informant: TLDR: There were two informants. One was Vermouth who was asked by the boss to keep tabs on Akai. The other went in the hospital on Vodka's orders after Kusuda vanished to see how many FBI were around, but that person was not Camel or another spy embedded in the FBI. BO had no spies infiltrating the special Japanese FBI brigade at time of Red vs Black. Gin's first informant was Vermouth looking for Akai's car. The second was someone Vodka sent into the hospital to scope the place out after Kusuda disappeared. Gosho was being intentionally vague about the whole informant thing because he was actively encouraging the idea Camel was a BO spy up until he revealed that he was working with Akai on a secret plan instead. It is in the same vein as James Black making Akai sound like Gin in his first appearance. Here is how I reached my conclusion about the two informants. Vermouth: Vodka asks Gin in file 603 on page 5 if he had any calls from the informant. Gin's exact lines are "I haven't gotten anything from the informant... Anyway, according to that person's (ano kata) instructions, that plan is just to be extra sure; however, I haven't been counting on the informant from the beginning." Now, fast forward to when Gin berates Vermouth for being slow finding Akai's car because he parked far away. (603.8) "You're late Vermouth... that was a direct order from that person, right?" Vermouth being the informant perfectly matches up with Gin's lines: The order was from the boss Vermouth's info on Akai’s whereabouts was "extra"; the core of Gin’s plan was Vodka, Chianti, and Korn with the thermographers scanning the vans. Vodka was wondering why the informant was delayed, and Vermouth was delayed because she could not find Akai at first. Vermouth initially had not found Akai, so the informant had no information (not gotten anything). Gin was not counting on Vermouth's info because the opponent was Akai, and Gin had correctly predicted Akai anticipated being searched for and would make it difficult for the BO to find him. The reason why Gosho was being exceptionally vague here is because he wants everyone to think Camel might be a spy. It was part of the mystery. The other guy: The second informant is the one Vodka mentioned sending into the hospital after Kusuda ceased contact in 599.2. Of course this informant was made out to be Camel when he appeared later. Later it was revealed that Akai called Camel in, not Vodka. We still have no idea who Vodka sent in, but it would not have been a very difficult mission. Based on what was reported to Vodka, the informant's main responsibility was to find out if and how many FBI were lurking in the hospital, how they were arrayed, and what sort of resources they had with them (vans in the parking garage for instance). If there were a lot of FBI in a defensive formation, then Rena is hidden there. This informant could obtain this information by wandering around pretending to be a visitor or patient. I think it is very unlikely for the BO to have had a spy in the particular FBI group which was protecting the Rena at the hospital during Red vs. Black. (Thus Camel is not a spy) If there was a traitor in the FBI, Rena's holding location would have been known and thus there was no need for Vermouth to interrogate the child and act like she had found out new information - who would she need to fool when she is reporting it to her fellow Black Org members? Gin would not needed to deduce which van Rena was being held in. Sure, the Black Org could have followed all three at first to keep up appearances, but it was clear Gin did not initially know which van Hidemi was in and then deduced it on his own when he heard from Vermouth that Akai that was following the second van - a bluff. Conan appeared in front of the whole assembly of FBI during the strategy meeting of Red and Black. If a traitor has witnessed that, Conan would have been investigated if not killed ("accidentally" if that was the case) soon after Red vs. Black. If Conan was investigated, this would have likely led to the uncovering of Haibara Ai, as the people connected to Conan would be investigated. She could easily be spotted by someone tailing Conan to school while studying his movement routine for example.

I am a fan of keeping it simple. From the start of Bourbon's appearance to the end of his final conflict demarcates his arc. The Cellphone arc only exists because there was a gap between Vermouth's final conflict and Kir's first appearance. That's not the case with the Bourbon arc where Bourbon was still a threat the whole long drawn out time. Maybe best solution is to call this whole arc the "Bourbon and Akai" arc, adding Akai for both Shuuichi's death and his family's appearance.

I think that Movie 20's plot will be about someone who has obtained data on all the law enforcement spies inside of the Black Organization - a reverse of Movie 13. I'm not sure which agency (FBI, CIA, Japanese Secret Police) will be the source of the leak. For whatever reason this person isn't just handing it over to the Black Organization - maybe they want to sell it, or maybe they have some weird grudge and just want to kill spies. I don't know. The FBI needs to stop this person before this data is leaked to the Black Organization at large. Kir is in the movie because her info is on the list. I don't think Rum's fake eye will be subtle. How would everyone know and agree he has one if it wasn't immediately obvious?

Calling it now: an AO character with heterochromia designed to take advantage of Rum hype. The only reason Rum has been teased up for the movie was to entice fans to jump to conclusions and agitate the hype sectors. (Don't mistake this for jaded pessimism. Said AO character may be cool in the end.)

I think Vermouth disguised as Araide in order to go after Shiho. That is Vermouth picked Araide as a target because she already knew where Ai was from the very beginning and planned to get close. (It makes the most sense that Vermouth saw Ai and Conan at the party, and then searched around Shinichi's friends because she recognized him and found Agasa's place.) Her hunt for Ai in her office - pretending not to know where Ai was until later - was for the FBI's benefit because she knew she was being spied on and needed time to find out who all the FBI members were so she could get their names and addresses (she said she was doing this in the Showdown).

Episode 54 had a rating of 19,10%. The second season had seen already high ratings continue to increase. The manga was at or just before Haibara's introduction. There was no way anybody at TMS was thinking about prematurely ending Conan at this time.

It was during the Vermouth arc I think. If any of the good guys do killing, it will be pure defensive: To prevent someone else from dying only. And even then there may not be any killing done by the protagonists, because Gosho seems to think that all murder is bad, even when meant to protect someone else: Masumi was made to be wrong for trying to get a hostage taker in a suicide jacket shot for example. The post I couldn't find about Vermouth because DCTP had an outage was the one where I said she will 1) die sacrificing herself for Silver Bullet and Angel, or 2) she escapes the final confrontation alive and unarrested, but steals an antidote from Haibara so that she could age to her true age and then die as she was meant to because she feels it is the right way.