Valentine Murder Case

Chronology
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Episode 6 (Int. Episode {{{int-episode}}})
Information
Title:	The Valentine Murder Case
Japanese title:	バレンタイン殺人事件 (Barentain Satsujin Jiken)
Original airdate:	February 12, 1996
Season:	1
Manga source:	TV Original
English version
English title:	Tragic Valentine
Dubbed episode:	Episode 6
English airdate:	June 1, 2004
Case
Cast:	Conan Edogawa Ran Mouri Sonoko Suzuki Kogoro Mouri Inspector Megure Professor Agasa Detective Boys
Case solved by:	Kogoro Mouri (via Conan)
Next Conan's Hint:	Bar code
Staff
Director:	Kenji Kodama
Screenplay:	Toshiki Inoue
Storyboard:	Shigeru Morikawa
Episode director:	Yuji Yamaguchi
Animation director:	Takashi Hyoudo
Voice Cast: Minami Takayama as Conan Edogawa Wakana Yamazaki as Ran Mouri Akira Kamiya as Kogoro Mouri Chafurin as Inspector Megure Wataru Takagi as Genta Kojima, Next Conan's Hint Yukiko Iwai as Ayumi Yoshida Ryo Horikawa as Katsuhiko Minagawa Tomoyuki Dan as Toshihide Wakamatsu Nobuo Tobita as Naomichi Sakiko Tamagawa as Yoshimi Watanabe Naoko Matsui as Sonoko Suzuki Kazue Ikura as Kaori Sekiya Chiyoko Kawashima as Minagawa's mother Chiaki Morita as Susumu Minagawa
Music
Opening song:	Mune ga Dokidoki
Closing song:	STEP BY STEP

Characters introduced

Sonoko Suzuki
	17 years old Ran's best friend

Gadgets introduced

Stun-Gun Wristwatch
	A watch with a tranquilizer dart

Cast

Characters
Conan Edogawa Ran Mouri Kogoro Mouri Inspector Megure Professor Agasa Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya Genta Kojima Ayumi Yoshida Shinichi Kudo (background)

Gadgets

Gadgets
Voice-Changing Bowtie

Case

Situation

Murder
	Location: Minagawa household-Yard Victim: Katsuhiko Minagawa Cause of death: Poison Suspects: Toshihide Wakamatsu, Kaori Sekiya, Yoshimi Watanabe, Naomichi, and Minagawa's mother Katsuhiko collapsed dead onto the ground from poison outside his house after eating a piece of Yoshimi's chocolate.

People

Katsuhiko Minagawa
	Victim (poison) Captain of the Beika University tennis club

Toshihide Wakamatsu
	Member of the Beika University tennis club

Kaori Sekiya
	Member of the Beika University tennis club

Yoshimi Watanabe
	Member of the Beika University tennis club

Naomichi
	Member of the Beika University tennis club

Mrs. Minagawa
	Katsuhiko and Susumu's mother

Susumu Minagawa
	Katsuhiko's younger brother

Resolution

  Show spoilers »

• Evidence
  • Katsuhiko’s heart literally stopped on Valentine's Day. Beside his dead body, a cigarette and a chocolate bar were found among his usual items.
  • Before the tragedy, he was in his small party where they ate and drank. On Valentine’s day (because of the tradition), each girl gives a guy a bar of chocolate, to which the guy would consume preferentially.
  • Conan noticed that even though her son died, Katsuhiko's mother is doing the dishes.
  • Susumu drank the coffee, which makes his mother mad, but she suddenly had a change of heart and gave him some cake despite Susumu's previous troubles with cavities.

• Conclusion

After putting Kogoro to sleep with the Stun-Gun Wristwatch, Conan, using the Voice-Changing Bowtie, revealed how Katsuhiko’s real killer was his mother.

Katsuhiko does not smoke with filters, that’s why Naomichi’s attempt to poison him through this, failed. Meanwhile, his mother knew his habits, and put poison in his coffee, knowing that he wouldn’t eat the antidote in the cake. The reason she had a change of heart when Susumu drank the coffee is because he drank the coffee with the poison, so she quickly gave him the antidote in the cake so he wouldn't die. She also framed Yoshimi by switching the chocolates she gave him with a half-eaten bar that Katsuhiko apparently ate. Though his mother immediately washed all the cups and switched the chocolates, it is pointed out that forensics could inspect the drainage to find the poison and the swapped chocolate is already visibly melting through the culprit's kimono .

• Motive

When her husband’s business took a turn for the worse, Katsuhiko's mother had to think of the quickest way to acquire Katsuhiko’s estate, and save the house.

Katsuhiko is an orphan who was adopted by his only living relative when he was a kid. His foster mother knew he fell in love with Yoshimi since she closely resembled his deceased mother, so she framed her.

Dub changes

• The names of the characters in the English dub are:

• Katsuhiko Minagawa - Keenan Morris
• Toshihide Wakamatsu - Tommy Walker
• Kaori Sekiya - Kari Simmons
• Yoshimi Watanabe - Katie Watson
• Naomichi - Norman
• Mrs. Minagawa - Mrs. Morris
• Susumu Minagawa - Sammy Morris

Trivia

• This is the first anime case in which a murder victim is poisoned.
• This episode features the first use of the anime's second post-credits stinger image, featuring Conan in a "thinking" pose.

See also

• Season 1