Renya Karasuma

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Renya Karasuma
Profile
Japanese name:	烏丸 蓮耶 (Karasuma Renya)
Age:	149 about (supposedly dead)
Gender:	Male
Date of birth:	1852 (anime version)
Relatives:	Mrs. Karasuma (mother, deceased)
Occupation:	Black Organization Boss
Nicknames:	Ano kata (あの方 ,lit. "That Person") Boss (ボス ,Bosu) Kuromaku (黒幕 ,lit. "Mastermind")
Statistics
First appearance:	Manga: File 300 Anime: Episode 219
Appearances:	Chapters: 5 Chapters: 1 Episodes: 7 Movies: 1 Openings: 2
Actors
Japanese voice:	Unknown
English voice:	Unknown

Renya Karasuma (烏丸 蓮耶 ,Karasuma Renya) is the boss of the Black Organization, which they respectfully refer as Ano kata (あの方 ,lit. "That Person"), and the primary antagonist of the series. Conan Edogawa and many intelligence agencies wish to uncover him and cause the destruction of the Black Organization.

For many years, until December 13th, 2017, in addition to the author Gosho Aoyama, only Minami Takayama, his former wife and the voice of Conan, and the anime production knew who was the mysterious boss.

Background

Renya Karasuma was known to be an elderly multi-millionaire and powerful man who allegedly died forty years ago under mysterious circumstances with his legacy unknown. Which means that he may not died, but became younger. He was the most powerful person in Japan according to Yusaku Kudo. Looks like he had a lot of contacts with famous and powerful people decades ago. He was always getting chased around by cops and detectives. His crest is a creepy bird logo according to Ran Mouri: a rolled-up crow.

According to Furuyo Senma, the old famous detective who can solve a case just by sitting down in an armchair, Karasuma inherited the old black Sunset Manor (黄昏の館 ,Tasogare no yakata) in the isolated Tokyo mountains at Nishitama, 2 kilometers from Okuno Dam and six miles from a lonely gas station, from his mother and was his vacation home, which for Kogoro Mouri looks more like Dracula's castle and up close even more like a haunted house. He found a clue leading to a vast fortune left by his mother and supposedly hidden in the western-style manor house he had inherited:

“	On the night the two travelers looked up at the sky, a demon appeared in the castle and the king ran wild with his treasure in hand. The queen wept for forgiveness, her tears falling into the holy grail, and the knight killed himself with his own sword.	„
— The clue to the riddle about the treasure.

But he was unable to find it any further to solve the riddle himself. With him being consumed by his own greed for the treasure, he came to hire people to solve the riddle for him, and then began killing them as motivation for the others to work faster. They had made copies of the riddle to hand out on a cheap mimeograph print on straw paper. Hardly anything's been touched since the incident and those murders were the true cause behind the numerous old bloodstains all over in the house, although an attempt to clean it off, not an out-of-control party on the second stormy night in the middle of an illegal auction to sell off over three hundred pieces of the priceless art Karasuma had collected during his lifetime, caused by two men with marijuana leaves tobacco drugs and then disappeared with the art, leaving eight dead and a dozen others unconscious. Among those men were Senma's own father, archaeologist Kyosuke Senma. Spray luminol onto blood, and active oxygen inside the blood will oxidize it, giving off a bluish-purple fluorescent light, and Watson, Saguru Hakuba's pet hawk, seems to have picked up a fancy for blood in the time they've spent together in England.

Karasuma is believed to be dead. A fake story says that he died in 1951, half-a-century prior to the series, at the age of 99, but Senma claims that he lived at least ten more years, which means that if he is dead, he died between forty and twenty years prior to the series, back in the days before they invented copiers. Renya had passed on, the Karasuma family had died out, and the house had fallen into other hands when it was still beautiful. Thirty-eight years later, when Senma accidentally let the story slip to him, the famed gourmet detective Shukuzen Oogami immediately tracked down the house and started to look for the treasure two years, but he couldn't solve the riddle. He had put himself into massive debt to buy the house and was in serious trouble, but he was poisoned by his accomplice Senma with potassium cyanide, who wanted to decipher the riddle that took her father's life at all costs. The mansion still has traces after Karasuma's crest on the silver specially ordered by him, not just the flatware, but everything in the house, from the doors, flooring and handrails down to the chess pieces and playing cards. The last young maid chased by Oogami from many applicants was Aki Ishihara and the job paid very well, but the cook's fallen ill and can't come in that day.

The riddle has been solved by the great detectives Conan Edogawa, Saguru Hakuba, Harufumi Mogi, and Ikumi Soda forty years later. It's strange the only clock in a huge house is the one in the dining room. So "The night the two travelers looked up at the sky" means midnight, when the long hand and short hand of the clock both point up. Placing the hands at 12, the key to solving the riddle is the word Senma wrote in blood, "Trump card". He was talking about "playing cards". The king, queen, and soldier in the riddle stand for the King, Queen, and Jack in a deck of cards. The treasure stands for diamonds, the holy grails stands for heart, and the sword stand for spades. So "treasure" and "king" means the King of Diamonds, "Holy grail" and "queen" means the Queen of Hearts, and "sword" and "soldier" means the Jack of Spades. Now Conan turns the hands of the clock in the direction the face of cards in the house are facing. Thirteen to the left, twelve to the left, and eleven to the right. The coating came off. There's gold inside and it's so heavy, this thing is made of solid gold. The walls are crumbling and the gold's showing through. That clock has been the switch to peel off the outer wall. According to Soda, only Karasuma would do something on such a scale, and it must be worth 100 billion yen. Sunset is when the sky shines gold. It's literally a "Golden Manor". Kaitou Kid comes for Karasuma's treasure, but he has changed his mind. That thing's a little too big for a thief's pocket.

As the highest authority, he directs the Black Organization's activities and plans crimes to protect and advance its interests. He communicates to subordinates by text messages. His phone number follows the tune of the first few notes "Mother crow, why do you cry?" of the children song Nanatsu no Ko. The number is #969#6261, which was purposefully made non-functional by Gosho Aoyama to prevent prank calls. Haibara warns Conan of the danger of calling it, likening it to Pandora's box. He is responsible for promoting agents and deciding on their alcoholic code names. The FBI think that only a few of the highest ranking executive agents like Gin or Vermouth could lead them to the elusive boss.

Personality

If Senma's story is true, then Karasuma is described as a greedy, cruel and impatient man. He appears to be materialistic as he was driven by his own greed while searching for the hidden treasure inside the Sunset Manor. Furthermore, he seems not to value the cost of human life as he killed numerous people that he invited as motivation to find the treasure faster. His house was swarming with cameras hidden all over and monitored from a room somewhere, has no phone line, and they're well out of cellular range. Turn the knob from the inside and a needle pops out, and mook who came on the second floor of the central tower would get a poisoned needle in the palm when they tried to leave. There were guns under pillow in the rooms. Oogami and Senma, who wanted to decipher the riddle and psychologically created another same tragedy, were all along possessed by him.

He is fairly ruthless, willing to dispatch in person senior agents who have been loyal to the Black Organization for many years for a single mistake. Vermouth says that he is always careful to the extreme, the type to ruin the plan by overthinking it. Somehow, he can maintain loyalty and unity within the codenamed ranks despite many agents disliking or even outright wishing to murder certain others. He is known to give permission to agents who wish to pursue certain secret missions, such as Bourbon and Vermouth's plan to make sure Shuichi Akai was truly dead.

He is especially close to Vermouth, who is described as his favorite, much to the chagrin of her enemies and those who mistrust her. He is also close to Gin, who often acts as an intermediary between he and other agents. Gin usually takes the lead planning role in assassinations that he has ordered. While most agents follow his orders, some agents have acted contrary to the wishes of him.

The FBI believed he was hoping to nip a potential obstacle in the bud because Yasuteru Domon, who is a politician hard on crime, may have a chance of becoming the next Prime Minister. He thought Akai could become a "Silver Bullet", someone who is especially dangerous to the Black Organization. In that regard, he's more like Vermouth than Gin who doesn't believe a single person who can take the syndicate down in one shot exists.

Appearance

Renya Karasuma's appearance was only shown as a silhouette in the manga and anime debut. According to it, he was an ominous crow-like billionaire: the hair extended to the neck, a high nose, and a somewhat obese body shape. Holds a walking stick with a ball handle on his right hand with long nails, and on the left shoulder is placed a crow-like bird that is also his crest.

Plot overview

Haido City Hotel Murder case (Manga: 238-242, Anime: 176-178)

Though he does not appear, he is briefly mentioned by Gin, that he ordered them to silence the politician Shigehiko Nomiguchi, in which Gin taskes Pisco to carry the mission. After Pisco was caught in the act in the newspaper, showing him holding his gun, he orders Gin to kill Pisco, which the latter does.

The Gathering of the Detectives! (Manga: 299-302, Anime: 219)

The seven greatest detectives Conan Edogawa, Kogoro Mouri along with Ran, Saguru Hakuba, Furuyo Senma, Shukuzen, Oogami, Harufumi Mogi, and Ikumi Soda were called to a mansion covered in blood by Kaitou Kid, and while they were having their so-called "last supper" was told by the inviter this mansion belonged to Renya Karasuma forty years ago. The name Karasuma seems to trigger the guests attention.

During a reality television deduction competition between high school detectives, Conan cited that case a while back, on he and Saguru Hakuba were together, when Heiji Hattori asks him where he had meet the high-school detective from the East.

Stradivarius Murder Case (Manga: 470, Anime: 385)

File:Ano Kata.JPG

Anime version.

Conan visualized him as a big criminal silhouette along with Gin, Vodka, and Vermouth, with evil aura in the anime version.

The Strange Family's Request (Anime: 398)

File:BossBlackshadow4.jpeg

Anime version.

Conan visualized him as a normal criminal silhouette along with Gin, Vodka, and naked Vermouth in the anime version, but not in the manga.

The Missing Maria Higashio Case (Manga: 1008, Anime: TBD)

Conan visualized Karasuma along with Gin, Vodka, naked Vermouth, Chianti, and Korn.

Not so long ago, Subaru Okiya told Yusaku and Yukiko Kudo about the cipher left at the crime scene of Kohji Haneda's murder. They've reached the conclusion that "ASACA" and "RUM" might not be two different words, but rather, that these eight letters form one single name: "CARASUMA", that means Renya Karasuma.

If that theory is correct, Conan has made an enemy out of the most powerful person in Japan, a multi-millionaire that is not supposed to be a part of this world. That's why they decided that until this comes to a close, Yukiko and Yusaku will stay in Japan and think of a plan. From now on, they're in a do-or-die situation. Just what Conan wanted.

We finally reached the identity of the Boss of the Organization. All for the sake of returning to his original form.

Non-Canon Plot Overview

TV Special: Time Travel of the Silver Sky

Christies YP, a software created by Professor Agasa, can give the identity of anyone in the world and then tries to find out the identity of the boss between Tomoaki Araide, Sharon Vineyard, Chiyoko Yuasa, Yusaku Kudo, four Shinichi's classmates, and a circus white lion, but eventually failed with "UNTOUCHABLE" and a red alarm sound flash "進入禁止領域" (Shin'nyū kinshi ryōiki ,The forbidden area).

Special Manga: File 294

When Haibara reveals to Conan the Black Organization's plan to have complete control of the world, she visualized him as a criminal silhouette clutching a globe. The character design is a bit different from the main comic and as the criminal silhouette he looks like the devil, like Arrack and Generic.

Appellations

Picture	Name	What they call Renya Karasuma	What Renya Karasuma calls them
	Gin	Ano kata	-
	Vodka	Ano kata	-
	Vermouth	Boss Ano kata	Vermouth
	Chianti	Ano kata	-
	Hidemi Hondou	Ano kata	-
	Rei Furuya	Boss	-
	Pisco	Ano kata	-
	Irish	Ano kata	-

Picture	Name	What they call Renya Karasuma	What Renya Karasuma calls them
	Conan Edogawa	Kuromaku Boss Karasuma Renya	-
	Hiroshi Agasa	Boss	-
	Kogoro Mouri	Karasuma Renya	-
	Yusaku Kudo	Karasuma Renya	-

Picture	Name	What they call Renya Karasuma	What Renya Karasuma calls them
	Shuichi Akai	Boss Target	Silver Bullet
	Subaru Okiya	Boss	-
	Jodie Starling	Boss	-
	James Black	Boss	-

Picture	Name	What they call Renya Karasuma	What Renya Karasuma calls them
	Kohji Haneda	Carasuma	-
	Furuyo Senma	Karasuma Renya Karasuma Renya	-
	Ikumi Soda	Karasuma	-
	Kyosuke Senma	Karasuma	-
	Hidekazu Nagai	Ano kata	-

Relationships analysis

Black Organization

Rum

Rum is his right hand, then the second-in-command in the organization. Rum's identity, gender, and mission are currently unknown, but the three suspects are Hyoue Kuroda, Rumi Wakasa, and Kanenori Wakita.

Gin

He trusts Gin enough to make him an executive agent, and for good reason: Gin is among the most loyal of the high-ranking Black Organization. Gin follows his orders closely and virtually never acts against the Organization's greater interests, and in return he entrusts Gin to direct critical missions and key assassinations. He often issues orders to Gin directly by text message for him to disseminate to the others, and the two are implied to contact each other fairly often about instructions and suspicions. For this reason the FBI thought Gin would be able to lead them to the boss if they captured him.

Vodka

Even Vodka fears to challenge his anger, but it's Gin who takes full responsibility.

Vermouth

Vermouth is known as his favorite member by the other members although the reason for the favoritism is unknown, and he allows her some degree of independence. Bourbon reveals that there is some sort of connection between Vermouth and the boss, implying that her relationship with the boss goes further than merely being his favorite member. Bourbon also notes that he has arranged for her secret to be revealed to the whole Black Organization in case something happens to him, and points out that the other members would be quite surprised if they knew the nature of the relationship. During an off-season Halloween party aboard a ship, discovered that Vermouth was up to something without the Black Organization's knowledge, he ordered Gin and Vodka to investigate. At the party, a man that Vermouth blackmailed to murder a director began screaming someone called Vermouth was to blame. Later, he sends a text message to Vermouth's cellphone informing her that her freedom was now being restricted and she was to return: "It looks like I have given you too much freedom. Come back to my side, Vermouth."

Chianti

Chianti fears to challenge his anger and, being a direct order from him, she must also bear Vermouth. For avenge Calvados' death, she would've killed Vermouth a long time ago for real, if she wasn't his favorite, but swears she'll definitely kill her. She seems envious for what Kir has used to make him let her join their four years ago.

Kir

He promoted Kir because she had uncovered a spy and confronted him. The spy, Ethan Hondou, overpowered and tortured her for information, but Rena Mizunashi remained silent. Although completely crippled, Rena bit Ethan's wrist to force him to drop his gun, and then killed him. The bite marks and Ethan's recording device coincided with her story, so he promoted her to the codename Kir in recognition of her loyalty and sheer savageness. In truth, he was fooled. Ethan Hondou was Kir's father and they both are CIA spies infiltrating the Black Organization. Rena had made a mistake and was about to be uncovered as a spy. Ethan, who had prepared appropriately ahead of time in case this happened, told Rena to tell the organization she discovered he was a spy and tried to confront him. Ethan then committed suicide after maiming himself and his daughter to make it appear like the story Ethan had just explained. He orders Kir to assassinate the politician Yasuteru Domon while holding an interview. After the Black Organization easily retrieved Kir from the FBI, Gin became suspicious of how ineffective the FBI's plan was and that Shuichi Akai did not made a strong move. Gin thought that Shuichi is hiding something and relays his doubt to him, who also agrees. He and Gin plan a test of Kir's loyalty. Meanwhile, an FBI agent becomes a suspect in a coincidental murder case. The Black Organization hears about it, and taking advantage of the FBI's distraction, Gin calls out Kir and tells her his order. In order to regain his trust, she is to call Akai out to meet with her and kill him. Kir meets with Akai at Raiha Pass and apparently kills him. However, he was fooled again. Akai and Kir conspired to fake Akai's death.

Bourbon

He dispatches Bourbon to search for the escaped scientist Shiho Miyano. However, Bourbon received his permission to execute a second, secret mission: verified Shuichi Akai's death by disguising as Akai and approaching his FBI colleagues. In truth, Rei has been persevering to turn in Shuichi to the organization to earn higher ranks to approach more closely to him.

Shiho Miyano

He orders the execution of Shiho Miyano after she boycotted the development of APTX 4869 and rebelled against the Black Organization. Before she could be even executed, Shiho manages to escape and he ordered the Black Organization to hunt her down and murder her.

Pisco

Gin relayed his orders to Pisco: silence Shigehiko Nomiguchi, a politician who was going to be arrested for bribery, and use APTX 4869 if it was necessary. Pisco's act of murder was accidentally caught on camera, so he direct ordered Gin to kill Pisco.

Rikumichi Kusuda

He sends Rikumichi Kusuda to Haido Central Hospital to act as a patient while searching for Kir, who is currently held captive by the FBI. Kusuda write to his e-mail adress.

Irish

He orders Irish to disguise himself as Kiyonaga Matsumoto, infiltrate into Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, and retrieve a memory card with the personal information of all the Black Organization agents that have infiltrated various organizations, before the police catch the serial killer, who took it from their agent Masaaki Okakura he murdered without knowing what is on it, and find the card. Irish sends an email to him about Sumire Shindo, a new tipster with information about the serial murder. When he discovers Conan's true identity, Irish plans to capture and bring the boy before him to discredit Gin, who killed Pisco, whom Irish respected like a father. Irish believes that he would definitely demote or have Gin killed for carelessly leaving Shinichi alive. However, because his cover was blown, Irish was killed by Chianti under Gin's orders before Conan can force him to reveal the boss' true identity.

Generic

He orders Generic to leave Sherry alone with her experiments and to make a new drug that controls memories. He planned to use this drug on all important people of the world, in particular the US president, ergo having complete control of the world. However, Generic escapes the Black Organization using the same method as Sherry.

Others

Shuichi Akai

Capturing a high ranking member of the Black Organization who could lead the FBI to the boss was the goal of Shuichi Akai's spy mission. After three years of infiltration, he gave the undercover FBI agent the codename "Rye" and ordered him to work under Gin. The FBI's plan to capture Gin fell apart when Akai's true allegiance was uncovered due to a mistake made by Andre Camel. In the two years since the mission failure, he came to regard Akai could become the Black Organization's silver bullet.

Kyosuke Senma

File:EP219-Kyosuke Senma

Kyosuke Senma visualized by his old daughter.

Kyouske Senma was an archeologist who invited to his manor house forty years ago. He wanted Senma to find the treasure before he died of old age. It was a very well-paid job. His wife and then 23 years old daughter Furuyo received large sums of money, along with a letter from him, almost every day. But after six months, the money and letters suddenly stopped coming. Senma, who had never given their his address, vanished forever. Furuyo only found out the truth when she held his last letter, which she had kept as a memento, against a light. He had written a secret note by poking tiny holes in the paper left for her with a needle. He recorded the riddle of the treasure and wrote that many other scholars had been invited to the manor. He also wrote that Karasuma had begun to kill those scholars, one by one, as a warning to the others, and that even if he found the treasure, he too would be killed. She didn't tell the police about it because it was twenty years after the fact. Presumably a victim of his treasure hunting fanaticism, Senma did solve the riddle, and left a clue about it in a note letters written in blood on the piano, and Karasuma never activated the device clock because never knew the answer to the riddle: "I've finally gotten hold of the trump card that will decipher Karasuma's riddle. Kyosuke Senma."

Gallery

File:BossBlackshadow.png The boss visualized by Conan as a big criminal silhouette with evil aura in the anime version (episode 385).

Speculations

According to the author Gosho Aoyama, the boss has appeared already, made his appearance as another character (Needs a source). Some potential candidates are:

• Genichirou Kaneshiro, a 74 years old computer company owner, due his old age, suspicious behavior pretending to be blind, affection for young women, and especially the fact who was after the Night Baron, a computer virus which has been used by the Black Organization to protect sensitive data. Furthermore, he quickly realizes that Conan is unusual and considers him suspicious. Kaneshiro (金城 ) meaning "golden castle" and could be referring to the Sunset Manor. Shizue Hayashi, his 56 years old servant, could be Vermouth disguised.
• Saizo Kano, the leader of a group of robbers dubbed as the "Organizer in the Shadows", who was supposedly murdered by his three accomplices twenty years ago, but his corpse was never found. His appearance was only shown as a silhouette and an old photo with a bullet hole over the face in the manga and anime debut. That name (叶才三 ,Kanō Saizō) meaning "three generations" and could be ideal for Karasuma if he was alive.

The fact that his suppose 'death' should have occurred 40-50 years ago could fit with Haibara's thought that Shinichi had gotten involved in a project that the organization had worked on for a half century.

Name origin

The first kanji "Karasu" is romanized for "Crows" in Japanese, which can fit with the children song The Seven Children, that he uses as his phone number, because there are crows included.

Karasuma is also a Kyoto Avenue's name, cited by Heiji in movie 7, Crossroad in the Ancient Capital, when he and Kazuha Toyama find the sword in a huge chest with a large amount of drawers related to the roads of Kyoto. The avenue is marked with two crows carved above and below the chest, at the beginning and end of the beam from top to down at the center of the chest between the various drawers.

Trivia

• Gosho Aoyama goes inspiration from Professor James Moriarty, the main antagonist in the Sherlock Holmes' series, to create the boss of the Black Organization. Just like Moriarty, the boss doesn't show his face and works behind the scenes, only pulling the strings on the crimes from far away. Gosho says that he tries to make it so that the boss is cold-blooded, won't leave a single scrap of evidence, and almost invisible.
• His rule as primary antagonist in the series recalls the Potato Baron, Yaiba's archnemesis in the children's show Kamen Yaiba.
• In the anime version, but not in the manga, the painting in manor dining room is a replica of Visita de la reina de Saba a Salomón by Lucas de Heere, although with an inverted orientation. According to the Bible, Solomon succeeded his father David and was the most just and wise King of Israel, but in his old age, many years after the queen of Sheba's visit, became corrupt and idolatrous, so the God punished that grave sin and a glorious kingdom falled after his death. It's possible that there is a parallel between the story of Solomon and that of Renya Karasuma, who was also the most rich and powerful man in Japan after the death of his mother, but then became corrupted.
• Renya Karasuma, the Sunset Manor, the crow's crest, and the gold treasure riddle are very similar to the late Gozoshi Isegawa, the Angel's Mansion, the bull's crest, and the gold treasure riddle in The Mysterious Angel's Mansion, with the difference that the former mansion owner was good and not evil.

In other languages

Language	Title	Translation
Japanese	烏丸 蓮耶	Karasuma Renya
Chinese	烏丸 蓮耶	Karasuma Renya
English	Renya Karasuma
French	Renya Karasuma
Italian	Renya Karasumaru	Renya Karasuma

See also

• Characters
• Black Organization
• "The Criminal"