Chekhov MacGuffin

Don't forget to give your theories about how Conan knows it was a murder. I wonder if Megure/whatever officers show up will play along? I have been super busy lately, so I promise to say something about the case later.

He's had failures. Getting shot on the rooftop by Conan was a minor one, because he failed to consider Sherry had an assistant, which is the most likely rational explanation for how Sherry escaped the cell in the first place. From Gin's perspective, Vodka had to hold off the mysterious guy (Shinichi) because neither Org member had any idea of how many shots he had. Then of course there was Akai's hello in Org vs. FBI. Gin ran away from that fight. Akai's fake death is going to be a serious blunder on his part, regardless of who you think Akai is at the moment.The Black Org as a whole has the exact opposite problem of the one you claim them to have. They get their arses handed to them most times they appear and basically Gosho has to work overtime to make them not appear weak. Black Org failures include: their bombs stopped, they lost their 10 billion yen, Sherry escapes and Gin and Vodka can't do anything about it because Gin has to take out Pisco who got caught, they don't get any data from Itakura's CD, Vermouth gets messed up and almost captured and Calvados commits suicide, the boss's number gets uncovered, their assassination gets thwarted, Kir gets captured, and Gin acquires some internal bleeding courtesy of Akai, their agent who finds Kir has to commit suicide, and Akai, Kir, and Conan basically completely manipulate them with their plan to return Rena and fake Akai's death. You could complain the situations they get in always allow a somewhat dignified path of retreat that preserves some of their appearance of danger, but the truth is they fail. A lot. I don't think money is the primary reason why Gosho is continuing. He is a well regarded writer; if he was truly burned out or out of ideas, he could write something else and still get a good contract. He said in an interview that it's especially hard to write the BO chapters. They are even more work because they are going to be microanalyzed by the readers too, so no mistakes or contradictions with prior or future material are acceptable. By dealing with the BO in chunks at a time (which naturally means they are going to be spaced out) rather than evenly spread, he is setting up the structure of the plot so that it is less likely to run into problems. Dealing with the BO in chunks also means that he has more "free" cases that he doesn't have to force into the overarching plotline which gives him extra flexibility to use a greater variety of tricks and settings. Personally I like it when more of the weekly cases tie in with the greater plot, but I can understand why it is easier to write when you aren't forcing a case. I agree that it's always been about the weekly cases from the start, not the BO; however saying that "He wants to end the BO stuff." makes no sense. It's the overarching plotline that ties together the series. Getting rid of it destroys the direction of the series: Conan defeating the guys who shrunk him so he can get his body back and return to the light with a better personality. I think the root of the problem here is that plot cases have been a lot more spaced out in the Bourbon arc than they have been since the start of the Vermouth arc, and people don't like that.

There was no reason for the BO to play act shooting Kogoro. If we start with the assumption the Black Org was pretending to try to kill Kogoro, their boss, in order to fool the FBI into thinking he was unrelated to them, then it would be weird for them not to follow through with the murder. It would create more suspicion than it is worth to fail in front of the FBI (even if they didn't know Akai was watching), especially since it's possible the FBI might try to shelter Kogoro or watch him in order to protect him or something like that. Also Ai has met with Kogoro (first that comes to mind is the "Hunted Kogoro case" just before Red vs Black) and has had no "Black org reaction." Also if the boss was Kogoro, he should be really intelligent. That means he should have caught on to Conan's and Ai's situation, yet isn't helping the Black Org find them which doesn't make any sense, a la reasons why Agasa isn't the boss.

That scene is definitely not in the manga at V24. I checked Sherry's Return before asking the question here because that's where I thought it was too. I though for sure it was ep176 but actually it was Movie 5 "Countdown to Heaven" about 44 minutes mark.

Because not spoiling the ending and not wanting to prematurely end the story are signs of author greed.Gosho has said in a recent interview that he wants to retire eventually which I am sure equates to finishing Detective Conan. He has also said that he has the ending in mind. The guy is going to tell the story at his own pace and he will will reach the conclusion eventually. If you can't stand the pacing, don't read DC for a few months, then read all the chapters all at once, rinse, repeat.

I have the feeling Sera's going to get put on a boat back to America or else become as rare as the FBI after the Bourbon arc is over. Gosho can't have a detective as good as she is competing with Conan regularly and "the rival" is already filled by Hattori.

Definitely file by file. Case by case causes description splits over the pages, and makes it less precise to describe what occurs in each file. Episode cases are okay because we combine all the episodes necessary into a coherent case. We can't do that for the the volumes, which leads to half on page and half on another in many scenarios. File by File looks like this

Yes it does. I was trying to find it earlier so I could merge. Links anyone?

My impression is that wolves are a personality type which Haibara and Sera share. Both are somewhat cold in certain aspects. Sera happily lead a man into the range of snipers hoping his head will become a fine red mist, while Haibara is just cold all around and is also somewhat less idealistic, sometimes more worried about being safe than stopping the BO from killing someone. I assume you refer to the following dialogue... Mitsuhiko: Oh! Now that you mention it, when we woke up in the morning, the Professor said that a high-school detective he knew stopped by and helped solved the case… Ah, but Haibara-san reminded us to keep that a secret, so… ... Sera: But how come you have to keep the thing about Kudou-kun a secret? That’s his house right next door, isn’t it? Mitsuhiko: Dunno… He’s always away from home but that day it seems he came back to pick up something he forgot, and stopped by at the Professor’s house… Sera: But isn’t there someone in there even now? I just saw the curtain shift slightly… Mitsuhiko: Oh, that’s likely… Genta: That Subaru guy! Mitsuhiko: His apartment burned down, so he was allowed to stay there! Sera: "Hmmm… And here I though someone had just settled in without permission, but it seems I was just getting worked up over nothing." I think that interpretation is overreaching. There is no evidence Sera knows about Subaru any more than he is occupying the place. She wondered how he landed the spot at Kudo manor, but then again, if Sera is looking for Akai and suspects ties along the lines of Kudo --> Conan ---> Akai, she may wonder if Akai moved into Kudo manor on his own volition in order to hide which is convenient because Kudo is out all the time which her explains her words perfectly.

Akai was actually pretty good at deduction. (Link to DCTP list of Akai's detective skills)

I am pretty sure Akemi is dead. If she faked her death that means she had to do it in Conan's arms and Conan is generally shown to be pretty good at telling when people are really dead. Akai had an easier time because he only had to trick someone looking on from a camera in the dark. There is also the problem of why Gin would cooperate with Akemi to fake her death when she has known ties to Akai Shuuichi. Gin would probably have to cooperate because assuming he is about on the same level as Akai, could tell by Akemi's movements if she was wearing a bullet proof vest. Assuming Also, Akai's death had contradictions, Akemi's unfortunately didn't.

The anime makes tons of mistakes that make solving the arc mystery (Vermouth, Kir, Bourbon) impossible or really hard. There is no getting around the fact that the manga is the only solution for someone serious about mystery solving. In my experiences talking to people, trying to figure out any of the Black Org related plot using the anime only is pretty much a sure fail.

It was explicitly confirmed in an official guidebook as well. Check around page 7 of this thread.

The search box is terrible to the point of being unusable in about 75% of the cases I want to use it. That three letter word restriction is really annoying. Even if you use uncommon words or quoted phrases it fails. I'd rather see it replaced with a google/other search function site search instead.

This is definitely one of the reasons I prefer DCW's fanbase to DCTP's. You aren't going to stop haters from hating, but for the most part the haters over here are a lot more congenial and participate in far less bashing and whining which makes for much nicer threads when the issues are contentious (like pairings) or like vs. dislike. I hope it stays that way. Just keep the "coolness" to DCTP please.

You know, Ran has never once complained about her parents being separated. Sure she tries to get them back together, but she is emotionally balanced in that regard. There are at least a dozen places where she cries annoyingly, you don't have to go making one up to make a point about it. There was a case about how Ran actually purposefully avoids doing this. She doesn't go with Sonoko when she can't pay for everything herself. (V39-8 pg 17)Also tone down the character bashing Parkur.

If you try to include more than 10 quote boxes per post, you can't post, even if the post is well below the allowed character limit. Can we increase it to something like 20 or 30 quotes per post (or no limit?) because I have run into this problem before when doing line by line responses to people.

Unavoidable double post because only 10 quotes are allowed per post. Maybe we can change that... Pisco also has it with him, Gin suggest pisco could use it. It was use as a weapon. the "prototype" in the sense mean it still did not achieve its original purpose, but use well as weapon.Exactly what User4869 said, they wanted to start using them to murder people because they are forensically very sneaky. Why use a gun to kill someone when you can make it look like they had a heart attack instead?

They get to high place to observe environment. Vodka tells the businessman they made sure he was alone from the roller coaster. I'm not sure it was mentiond but the point is people in amusment park normally only mind their own business. Tropical land exist in Magic Kaito, also the stage for DC first case so Gosho would want to use it. Register in what? the BO victim list?. not sure what you're mean. why would they want to register it? I assume your observations are based off the anime. In the manga, only Vodka reacted to Kudo's name when it was revealed. The only thing that Gin reacts to (and only by turning around and looking) is Shinichi shouting that it wasn't an accident and it was a murder. Gin, being a smart as he is, probably noticed that as well, but thinks they will have a better chance of escape without body search (they had guns on them) if he insists it was an accident or that the obvious suspect did it. Later it was stated that Gin isn't good with the names or faces of the people he has killed. What I find curious about the scene is that Gin goes over to where Megure and Shinichi are and examines the diagram of the crime scene that Megure and Kudo were kneeling over on the ground. Perhaps he planned to reveal the person responsible in order to avoid a body search if Kudo failed? He could find in everywhere if it just a stick but.... The bat is silent, not leave trace as much as gun and if gun is use Shinichi will be dead and Ran would cry. This is an acute case of anime-screws-it-up-itis. Gin had a piece of piping, presumably left over from the ferris wheel construction. Gin told Vodka not to use any guns because the police were still around. Silenced or not, it may attract attention from trained cops unlike normal civilians who wouldn't recognize the sound source so readily. Also, the pipe would leave traces in the form of copious blood spatter on his clothes if Gin actually beat Shinichi to death. What if Shinichi's body was found quickly, Gin was stopped at the exit by police, and someone noticed that the directional blood splatter on the bottom of his sleeves couldn't have gotten there from the roller coaster case? He could set up as Pisco's suicide since Pisco was just being found out of being the culprit. In Shinichi case he did not have motive for suicide. Moreover, Gin got shot by Conan's watch and polices are coming, he need to hurry. Pisco corsps was burn in the fire so trace are not many to find. I explained above it was the gunshot sound that was the problem, not the using of guns and bullets per say. Gin could have pistol whipped Shinichi to knock him down instead of using the pipe no problem.I disagree with User 4869 here. I think Gin didn't care that Pisco's death looked like a murder because he was shot through the forehead and then had his house burnt down. I do agree that Gin was rushed for time because of the fire and firemen on the way, the police in the building being called, the tranquilizer in his body, and the bleeding gunshot wound, which is why he didn't bother with any more elaborate means of disposing of Pisco. The fire helped hide some of the incriminating evidence, like the computer, and burning Pisco's house down also helped hide additional evidence. Basically as long as the investigation dead ends, the Org doesn't care that it looks like murder. Pisco's death and Akai's death are similar in this regard.

How instant is instantly? My theory is something along the lines of "just because you die doesn't mean your body stops moving." Basically he hit the knife, the high center of balance of the knife and the body combined with the slippery-ness of the handle point and any ice means he tipped onto his side, and then spasming (is that a word?) flopped onto his belly. See cadaveric spasm and postmortem spasm.

Most people who subscribe to the Okiya is Akai theory do so based on the comprehensive evidence supporting the theory. Gosho makes his mysteries solvable, and most people who have voted Akai have been following Okiya case discussions where various clues and interpretations have been argued over quite extensively. Also, I've been tracking case voting results for about 95 chapters now and, for the majority of cases, the correct answer is in fact the most voted option. This is especially true when there are a lot of voters and one option dominates the others by a large margin. Basically, the majority is wrong some of the time, but rarely so when there has been a lot of discussion, a lot of voters, well thought out theories, and one solution that is largely favored over the others, all of which are true in discussions involving Okiya's identity.