The Akabeko and the Three Lucky Men

Chronology
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Episode 1102 (Int. Episode 1160)
Information
Title:	The Akabeko and the Three Lucky Men
Japanese title:	赤べこと3(さん)人の福男 (Akabeko to San'nin no Fukuotoko)
Original airdate:	November 4, 2023
Broadcast rating:	6.5%
Filler case:	#405
Season:	28
Manga source:	TV Original
Case
Cast:	Conan Edogawa Ran Mouri Sonoko Suzuki Wataru Takagi Kazunobu Chiba Kamen Yaiba
Case solved by:	Sonoko Suzuki (via Conan)
Next Conan's Hint:	Festival
Staff
Director:	Yasuichiro Yamamoto Nobuharu Kamanaka
Screenplay:	Akatsuki Yamatoya
Storyboard:	Hiroaki Takagi
Episode director:	Minoru Tozawa
Animation director:	Keiko Sasaki
Character design:	Masatomo Sudo Nariyuki Takahashi (sub-character) Hiroshi Ogawa (design works)
Voice Cast: Minami Takayama as Conan Edogawa Wakana Yamazaki as Ran Mouri Naoko Matsui as Sonoko Suzuki Wataru Takagi as Wataru Takagi Isshin Chiba as Kazunobu Chiba Yuji Ueda as Toshiharu Fukumoto Keiko Sakai as Hajime Fukura Taishi Murata as Junya Fukui Kaoru Morota as Motoko Bekobe
Music
Opening song:	Unraveling Love ~Sukoshi no Yūki~
Closing song:	…and Rescue Me

The Akabeko and the Three Lucky Men (赤べこと3(さん)人の福男 ,Akabeko to San'nin no Fukuotoko) is the 1102nd episode of the Detective Conan anime.

Cast

Characters
Conan Edogawa Ran Mouri Sonoko Suzuki Wataru Takagi Kazunobu Chiba Kamen Yaiba (book cover)

Gadgets

Gadgets
Stun-Gun Wristwatch Voice-Changing Bowtie

Case

Situation

Bekobe's exhibition ceremony with dancers wearing loincloths.

Conan, Ran, and Sonoko visited an exhibition by an up-and-coming artist, Motoko Bekobe. Motoko has been releasing avant-garde works that combine traditional akabe with modern art, and are evidently attracting further attention across the globe. The three of them first saw a ceremony in the New Beika Modern Art Museum, there were several men dancing, wearing loincloths, cheering up for the big day. They constantly uttered the peculiar motto "Akabeko Bekoe", hinting everyone about Bekobe's success.

After the event had ended, they shifted their steps and diverted their sight onto the actual exhibition. Within the hall, they could clearly see all kinds of Akabekos, which varied in size and colour and all possessed extraordinary imagination and creativity, despite the fact that there were barely any of those classical red ones. Conan thus began to explain the legend of this craft: it was apparently a folk craft from the Fukushima Prefecture, with persistant wobbling heads; it was a toy made for children around the Aizu region of Fukushima; during the Edo Period, a temple named Enzo-ji Temple was destroyed by earthquakes and needed reconstruction; it became an elusive issue back then since it was hard to transport materials up the cliff, which supposedly a red cow turned up out of nowhere to help the workers transporting these materials contributed to the rebuild of the temple. Just as Ran and Sonoko were astonished by the "weird facts" Conan knows, an abrupt scream kicked in from the staff room. When they dashed towards there to check the situation out, they found Motoko Bekobe's body lying on the floor, accompanied by some sort of "dying message".

Murder
	Location: Bekobe's resting room Victim: Motoko Bekobe Age: 36 years old Cause of death: Strangulation Suspects: Junya Fukui, Toshiharu Fukumoto and Hajime Fukura Her left hand was holding an akabeko, and she wrote the katakana word "Fuku" with blood using her right hand.

At first they thought it would be a piece of cake to target the culprit, since the hint "Fuku" may tell it all. However, the three possible candidates for this murder all contain the initial "Fuku" in their names, so the dying message is quite meaningless in this aspect. The only way for cracking this case is to interrogate them with questions.

• Junya Fukui, Bekobe's ex-boyfriend, now working as her dancer, although they broke up some years ago, he still treated her as a business co-worker as he claims "he does not like mixing business matters with personal affairs". (Additional clue found out by Conan: he is currently on debt, and was urged for the return of the money)

• Toshiharu Fukumoto, Bekobe's business partner, runs everything for Motoko, including handling negotiations, aquiring materials, and managing her schedule. He occasionally slips out Hakata dialect, since he was originally from Kurume in Fukuoka, although he intended to speak standard Japanese. (Additional clue found out by Conan: he went to the bathroom after some time, went into one of the compartments and caught Conan's attention)

• Hajime Fukura, Bekobe's former co-worker, but his attitude was fairly atrocious when he was answering the police's inquiries. Also made Sonoko suspect him to be the culprit.

After some time, Sonoko found a shocking clue on the internet - the webpage of Bekobe's art workshop had quite conservative statements, which completely contravened Bekobe's creative concept as an artist who mingles both traditional Akabeko and modern art. Sonoko deduced that the two of them were probably at odds in some matters. "I must hurry. Before anyone else interferes," Fukura thought. He was holding a metal stick and was about to smash the most famous "blue cow" masterpiece by Bekobe.

Attempted Destruction
	Location: Exhibition hall Object: Bekobe's artwork Culprit: Hajime Fukura

Conan reviewing the clues.

Conan arrived there timely and impeded this attempted crime, he did not like Bekobe's art work because, in his perspective, it disobeyed tradition, and he could not see the aesthetic of combining traditional art and modern art. Takagi arrested him for interference of public duties. Behind him, Sonoko was asking why he would destroy Behobe's artwork and murder her as well, but Fukura denied killing Bekobe. She then called him a loser. Ran felt that it was not suitable to call him that, but Sonoko said that "no matter how you prettify him, words only mean one thing". Conan heard it and mulled over... Akabeko Workshop, Fukushima, Akabeko, Fukuoka, the dying message "Fuku", along with the akabeko holding on the victim's left hand, and lastly, Sonoko's remark of "words only mena one thing". Conan understood everything.

People

Motoko Bekobe
	Victim (strangled) 36 years old Akabeko artist Real name: Motoko Inaba

Junya Fukui
	27 years old Dancer Bekobe's ex-boyfriend

Toshiharu Fukumoto
	39 years old Head of office Bekobe's business partner

Hajime Fukura
	42 years old Akabeko craftsman Bekobe's former co-worker

Resolution

  Show spoilers »

Conan tranquillizes Sonoko and begins the deduction.

Meaning of the Dying Message

Sonoko asks them to remove their pants.

The culprit is Toshiharu Fukumoto, as the dying message "fuku" originally intended to indicate the place of origin of the culprit, that Motoko knew beforehand: Toshiharu mentioned earlier that he is from Fukuoka Prefecture, indicating that he is involved in the murder. It turns out the dying message can also be read as "akabeko", that in Fukuoka dialect means loincloth. Sonoko asks the suspects to remove their pants, to discover that the three are using loincloths, except that Fukumoto's is much longer that the other ones, and like that the murder weapon is discovered. Conan was certain this was used as the murder weapon when he came after him to the bathroom, and he heard rustling sounds inside the compartment that Fukumoto went, and it was the sound of him rubbing the loincloth. Fukumoto tries to defend himself, but the decisive proof is a bloodstain on his loincloth that got there during the murder.

Motive

Fukumoto finally surrenders and explains his motive: the one who originally came up with the idea of Akabeko Art was Fukumoto himself 10 years ago back in Fukuoka, and he convinced Motoko to promote the idea, and finally both of them became successful. Things were going good, and they almost got married. Until Fukumoto discovered that she had signed a contract to start a new business without him. As he confronted her, Motoko replied that Akabeko art was hers, and that Fukumoto should be grateful of not being kicked out; Fukumoto was enraged and finally snapped and strangled her to death. He is arrested eventually.

Aftermath

Ran, Sonoko and Conan are at Mouri Detective Agency, as Sonoko shows off her detective skills after solving the case. It turns out that Akabeko were originally children's toys to not get the smallpox disease nad protect them. Conan thinks that if only the akabeko had protected Bekobe and Fukumoto, this case wouldn't have happened.

Trivia

• Sonoko compares Bekobe to "Janksy", a distortion of the famous British street artist Banksy.
• Hajime Fukura and Toshiharu Fukumoto's voice actors both come from the respective prefectures of their characters. Keiko Sakai comes from Fukushima Prefecture while Yuji Ueda comes from Kitakyushu (Fukuoka Prefecture).

In other languages

Language	Title	Translation
Arabic	دمية وجريمة	A Doll and a Crime
French (Subbed)	Akabeko et les trois Fuku	Akabeko and the three "Fuku"
Thai	อากะเบโกะกับหนุ่มผู้โชคดีทั้ง 3	Akabeko and those three Lucky Men

See also

• Season 28