Rum

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Rum
Profile
Japanese name:	ラム (Ramu)
Age:	Unknown
Gender:	Unknown
Occupation:	Black Organization second-in-command
Statistics
First appearance:	Unknown
Appearances:	Chapters: 33 Chapters: 3 Episodes: 24 Movies: 2 Openings: 3 Openings: 1
Actors
Japanese voice:	Unknown (movie 20)

Rum (ラム ,Ramu) is the second-in-command of the Black Organization and the second main antagonist in Detective Conan.

Background

Judging from Shuichi Akai/Subaru Okiya's descriptions, Rum appears to have high rank in the organization and is very close to the boss, Renya Karasuma. Later on, Ai Haibara remarks that Rum is second only to the boss of the Black Organization, suggesting that he/she is their second-in-command. While she had never met Rum herself, she had overheard other members of the BO give seemingly contradicting descriptions. Rum's identity, sex and mission are currently unknown.

Rum was involved with the death of Kohji Haneda, 17 years ago. Gin implies that it is an incident in which Rum had screwed up.

Appearance

Rum has a damaged eye which has been replaced with an artificial eye. It is unknown which eye was damaged. So far, characters with damaged eyes have been shown to either have a scar over the eye (e.g. Kansuke Yamato) or wear sunglasses (e.g. Hyoue Kuroda and Gozu) where one lens is drawn tinted so the damaged eye is not visible. (Recently in the manga Kuroda's lens has become see through). The anime treatment of the "false eye and glasses"-type characters shows their false pupils not contracting or enlarging like their working eye. However, there is no guarantee that Rum will follow either of these character models.

Various Black Organization members have given conflicting accounts of his/her overall appearance and build. Some say Rum is a strongly-built man, some say he/she looks feminine, and some say he/she is an old man. The conflicting descriptions of Rum's appearance suggests that he/she doesn't present himself to others in a straightforward fashion.

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  Rum's silhouette with a strongly-built man physique (episode 792).

• 

  Rum's silhouette with a feminine physique (episode 792).

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  Rum's silhouette with an elderly physique (episode 792).

Appellations

Picture	Name	What they call Rum	What Rum calls them
	Gin	Rum Close aide of that person (ano kata no sokkin)	-
	Vermouth	Rum	Vermouth
	Hidemi Hondou	Rum	-
	Bourbon	Rum	Bourbon
60px	Curaçao	Rum	Curaçao

Picture	Name	What they call Rum	What Rum calls them
	Shuichi Akai	Rum	-
	Subaru Okiya	Rum	-
	Jodie Starling	Rum	-
	James Black	Rum	-

Picture	Name	What they call Rum	What Rum calls them
	Conan Edogawa	Rum	-
	Shinichi Kudo	Rum	Kudo Shinichi
	Ai Haibara	Rum	-

Plot overview

Scarlet Epilogue (Manga: 898, Anime: 783)

Shuichi Akai (as Subaru Okiya) calls Jodie Starling and Andre Camel to the Kudos' house. He informs them that the undercover CIA agent Hidemi Hondou reported to him that a new organization member is on the move. As she only sent three letters "RUM", Akai deduces that it was done in a hurry. He recalls having heard the code name a few times when he was still infiltrating the organization, and notes that the member seems to be really close to the boss. Akai also tells them to report this back to James Black, while emphasizing that their new threat is someone even more important than Gin.

Scriptwriter Murder Case (Manga: 906-908, Anime: 792-793)

Conan asks Haibara about Rum. She tells him that she never met Rum in person but has heard of the number two-ranked agent in the Organization. His/her characteristics differ depending on who is describing him/her. Some say he/she is a strongly-built man, some say he/she looks feminine, and some say he/she is an old man. Others believe that all of these are just descriptions of body substitutes Rum uses. Haibara also says there is one characteristic that is the same for all stories about Rum -- one of his/her eyes is damaged and has been replaced with an artificial eye.

They then encounter a murder case where all three suspects happen to have characteristics like Rum's: Kuramichi Habanaka a 40 years old strong-built man, Ronpei Sakaba a 31 years old feminine-looking man, and Denji Shibakaru a 63 years old man.

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  Kuramichi Habanaka, a strongly-built man matching Rum's first physical description.

• 

  Ronpei Sakaba, a feminine man resembling Rum's second physical description.

• 

  Denji Shibakaru, an old man similar to Rum's third physical description.

Department Store Stabbing Case (Manga: 939-941, Anime: 843-844)

While not directly related to Rum's plot, this case showed how several different people could see the same person and describe them as completely different. The culprit in this case flees down the stairs past various people of different heights and past objects of different colors, which resulted in the Detective Boys giving contradicting eye witness accounts. To further liken the situation to Rum, Genta even claims that he saw the number two written on the culprits clothes. In addition this case had a secondary plot point involving mascara.

Kohji Haneda's Death Case (Manga: 950, Anime: 862)

Asaka's photo.

After Conan and Subaru solve the murder of Kunihisa Hiyama, they realize they can solve the dying message of Kohji's case. They decipher the meaning of the missing letters on the mirror of Kohji Haneda's room. Kohji's dying message from 17 years ago was "ASACA RUM", so Rum might be involved in his death and the death of Amanda Hughes, a big fan of Koji's, along with the disappearance of Asaka, her bodyguard.

Since the dying message was "P T O N", the answer to it must contain all of the missing letters of "U MASCARA"
PUT ON MASCARA - P T ON = U MASCARA
U MASCARA - ASACA (for Asaka) = U M R
Which can be rearranged to make RUM
making the answer "ASACA RUM"

Soul Detective Murder Case (Manga: 951-953, Anime: 863-864)

Conan decides that the missing bodyguard Asaka is most likely Rum.

After the case was over Masumi speaks to Mary and says that the only information that Gaito Hotta, the soul detective, had was that he believed Asaka to be a woman. He was going to pretend that he had summoned Kohji's spirit and have it say that a woman was going to kill him. According to Masumi, the culprit said that someone saw Asaka holding "that small mirror".

Conan considers that if Asaka is Rum, then perhaps what Haibara said about being feminine refers to looking girly on the outside but strong like a man on the inside. If Rum had been a bodyguard 17 years ago, then their age must be pretty high. Conan also ponders the possibility that Mary is Rum after having shrunken, being girly yet strong and older than she looks.

A song named ASACA (Manga: 954-957, Anime: 866-867)

Rokumichi Hado, a famous artist coming back from a seventeen year hiatus, announces a new song called "ASACA". Because of the spelling and the timing, Conan and Subaru go to the concert hall to investigate. There they encounter Bourbon and Vermouth in disguise as Azusa Enomoto who are trying to get in as well. Their presence suggests that the Black Organization decoded Kohji's dying message mirror and are investigating for the same reasons as Subaru and Conan. By the end of the case, both groups determine that the song being named "ASACA" is only a coincidence and not related to Rum or Kohji's murder.

Curse of the Nue (Manga: 958, Anime: TBA)

Conan inwardly comments about Vermouth and Amuro's presence in the last case. He states that they must have been there because they know about the code "ASACA RUM" that was left by Kohji Haneda 17 years ago. When Azusa mentions that she had seen two strangers approach the detective agency, Conan immediately assumes that it might have been Gin and Vodka, but it turns out to be Heiji and Kazuha instead.

Burning Tent Murder Case (Manga: 987-989, Anime: TBA)

Kuroda is shown looking at the Kohji Haneda case on his computer. He seems to make some kind of connection between the case and Rumi Wakasa. This story incidentally, also reveals that Rumi cannot see with her right eye, squarely making her a candidate for Rum's true identity.

The Field Trip to Kyoto (Manga: 1005, Anime:TBA)

In the end of the case, the 3 Rum suspects, Wakasa Rumi, Kanenori Wakita and Hyoue Kuroda are mentioned in the side notes. All 3 suspects appear in the same page, and seemingly focusing on Shinichi's involvement in the case.

Missing Maria Higashio Case (Manga: 1008, Anime:TBA)

Rum sends an email to Bourbon, asking him to gather information about Shinichi, telling him to hurry up stating that "Time is money".

Non-Canon Plot Overview

Movie 20: The Darkest Nightmare

Rum doesn't appear in this movie directly:

• Haibara imagines his/her three silhouettes like in file 906, and his/her artificial eye.
• When she finally regained her lost memory, a Curaçao's flashback shows Rum speaking to Vermouth through a computer in an altered voice. Vermouth was about to execute Curaçao because her brain recorded facts inconvenient to the Organization, but Rum's voice stopped her. He appointed Curaçao as his/her right-handed agent.
• Rum sends orders to Vermouth and Gin ordering them not to execute Bourbon and Kir because he/she received a new message, apparently from Curaçao, that they weren't NOCs.
• Rum also orders them to retrieve Curaçao to verify if the message is authentic or not.
• Vermouth has a conversation with him/her by the end titles, while she is in her car along with Kir. She lets Kir listen to what he/she has to say before hanging up.

Relationships analysis

Black Organization

Renya Karasuma

The boss is his/her only direct superior.

Curaçao

Curaçao is a member who works as Rum's right-hand agent but has only appeared in movie 20.

In the past, because her brain recorded facts inconvenient to the Organization, Vermouth was about to execute her, but Rum's voice stopped her. Rum then appointed her as her right-hand agent. Presently, Rum charges her to break into Tokyo police headquarters and accesses classified secret files on spies planted in the Black Organization by many intelligence agencies.

Speculation

Gender

So far, all the Black Organization code names for men are liquors while women's code names are wine or wine-based cocktails. Rum should be a man if this pattern holds.

Haibara's list of potential descriptions "strong man, feminine man, and elderly" all suggest Rum is a man, although Conan has entertained the possibility Rum is a woman by suspecting Mary.

Conan currently suspects Asaka of being Rum. Gaito Hotta, who witnessed Asaka holding a small hand mirror, believed Asaka was a woman. Hotta's reliability is questionable, because the hand mirror—typically a woman's accessory—that a witness saw Asaka holding could have been Kohji's.

Individual characters

Asaka

Conan implicates the missing bodyguard Asaka as Kohji Haneda's and Amanda Hughes' killer from 17 years ago. The encoded dying message left by Kohji using a broken mirror seems to point to Asaka being Rum. While it unclear whether Asaka is Rum or merely related (the extent of Kohji's knowledge of Rum and Asaka and how he came by it is unclear), the Black Organization itself believes the decoding "ASACA RUM" is correct by being paranoid about things named "Asaca" with a C connected to a 17 year ago timeframe. Gaito Hotta assumed Asaka was female. Gin refers to Kohji Haneda's murder as "a job which Rum had screwed up seventeen years ago..."

Chikara Katsumata

Chikara Katsumata is a famous shogi player who currently holds the Osho title. Since he is a character introduced in file 899/900 in the Rum arc, he is a potential candidate. As a male, he fits the liquors-for-men codename pattern, and he appears to be old enough that he could be involved in Kohji's murder 17 years ago. Traditional japanese clothing for men is considered to be very old fashioned (versus the western suit) and would age him up in the eyes of those who do not know he wears a kimono because he plays shogi professionally. Other shogi players such as Shukichi Haneda and Koji Haneda meticulously care for their appearance because they are photographed often, and so they possess or carry beauty products more typically associated with women, like handmirrors and folding fans. Assuming Chikara possess beauty items like his peers, someone who knew might assume he was feminine. It's unclear if Chikara has a fake eye due to his limited number of appearances. Chikara is conveniently linked to shogi which the dead Koji Haneda was interested in.

Kanenori Wakita

Kanenori Wakita is a wanderer who has recently taken up a job at Irohazushi as a sushi chef, and prides himself as an Edokko (Tokyo-ite) detective. He has an eye patch over one eye and claims he injured it recently which has resulted in him currently being a waiter rather than a chef because of the use of knives. Conan briefly considers him a suspect. Wakita is now also a disciple of Kogoro.

Muga Iori

Muga Iori is a butler of Momiji, a high school student. He has been shown to be rather stealthy when meeting Conan and Heiji during a case. Megure and Takagi were also not actively aware of his presence and didn't notice his later disappearance from the crime scene. As a butler, Iori is expected to have physical strength and his long hair can make him look effeminate. However, it is unknown if he has any eye issues.

Kiyonaga Matsumoto

Kiyonaga Matsumoto is a middle-aged strongly-built man whose left eye has a scar over it.

Taka'aki Morofushi

Taka'aki Morofushi is a young man with a feminine physique. So far, there's been no indication he has a prosthetic eye.

Mary

Conan considers the possibility Mary is Rum after being shrunken. She is feminine but tough on the inside like a man and perhaps older than she looks, which is one way of interpreting Haibara's description of Rum. But later in the manga she was revealed to be the mother of Sera, Shuichi and Shukichi and the wife of Tsutomu Akai.

Hyoue Kuroda

File:Kuroda full face image.jpg

Hyoue Kuroda is chief of the first division of Nagano Police and first introduced at the end of file 913. He is a middle-aged strong-built man with white hair that makes him look older. Kuroda has a bad right eye surrounded by extensive facial scarring which he hides behind a darkened glasses lens, but the eye is shown to be closed similar to Kansuke's eye socket and not an artificial eye like Rum is described as having. The circumstances behind the loss of his right eye are unclear, but it likely involved burning or caustic chemicals considering the extent of the scarring. Kuroda's favorite drink is black tea, which is actually a dark red color.

In file 925, Haibara said to Conan that she hadn't felt the Black Organization "aura" from Kuroda. She had only gripped Conan's shoulder because Hyoue's face and expression were really scary. In fact, she implied Kuroda couldn't be Rum as he saw her and should have noticed she resembles Shiho Miyano. If he were Rum, he would've broken into Professor Agasa's house, yet this didn't happen.

Rumi Wakasa

Rumi Wakasa is the new Deputy Homeroom Teacher at Teitan Elementary school for Year 1 Class B. Her personality seems to be that of a really clumsy and incapable teacher. She approached the Detective Boys on the grounds that she is scared of the old warehouse at the school and needed them to come with her. However, once she was out of sight of the Detective Boys, her personality changed dramatically to that of a skilled fighter with a scary face. Most likely her name is meant to resemble "ASAKA RUM", the code from Kohji Haneda's death, with the addition of a W and an I. In a recent case, Haibara seems to react to Rumi in a similar way that she does when she senses a BO agent. Haibara also noticed that Rumi could not see out of one of her eyes. However at the end of the case Haibara seems to defend Rumi to Conan who has become suspicious of her.

Rumi is unlikely to be Rum because the Black Organization has no motive to allow someone to use a name which draws attention to "Rum" and the Kohji Haneda case of 17 years ago. There is no apparent benefit the Black Organization would gain from publicly flaunting the names "Asaka" or "Rum", which can be linked to Kohji's murder. The Black Organization appears to want to cover up anything related to Rum and Asaka since they have sent Vermouth and Amuro to investigate possible references to it, and someone with significant reach is actively scrubbing the internet of information from the past murder case. It would also not make sense for the vital number two of the Organization to flaunt their identity where FBI agents have worked previously and risk being captured. In addition Haibara directly interacted with Rumi, yet Rumi did not appear to recognize Haibara either, instead focusing her attention on Conan.

Kansuke Yamato

Kansuke Yamato is a strong young man, but limps like an old man because he uses a cane to compensate for an injured left leg. Kansuke has long hair pulled back into a ponytail which could be considered feminine if he let it down. Kansuke's left eye is also damaged, but he does not use an artificial eye. Gosho Aoyama disclaimed Kansuke Yamato from being Rum in two animal crossing hints.

Shukichi Haneda

Shukichi Haneda is a young man with no indication of a prosthetic eye. He has seen both Conan and Haibara twice, giving him an easy opportunity to find Sherry and report it to the Black Organization. In File 972 he was revealed to be the middle brother of Akai family.

Tsutomu Akai

Shuichi Akai's father could be Rum although it's a low possibility. He was involved with Kohji Haneda's murder but wasn't an FBI agent according to Subaru Okiya.

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Three descriptions for one person

Various members of the Black Organization all disagree about Rum's overall appearance. For this to be the case, Rum must not present himself/herself to others straightforwardly. There are several possibilities why this could be:

• Rum can disguise himself/herself well.

Fairly straightforward as far as explanations go, Rum could appear to different agents with different faces and builds leading to confusion. Disguise is a potential skill Rum could have. He/she is the number two of the Black Organization and likely close to the boss, so he/she has a need for security and secrecy and is probably also multi-talented like most other code named agents. That said, there is currently no evidence that Rum has attempted a disguise or has been involved in any plots where disguise is necessary.

• He/she has features of all three types leading to different conclusions.

Rum might have features of all three types of builds so that each witness comes to a different conclusion about his appearance depending on what they personally emphasize. As an example, Kansuke Yamato is a strongly built man, uses a cane like an old man, and his ponytail could give someone the impression he/she is feminine. If Kansuke tended to only appear to others in shadowed environments, then it's possible he/she could be mistaken for an old man or even a woman when viewed in profile.

The confusion may not stem solely from appearance. In The Department Store Stabbing Case, the three detective boys give conflicting statements of the same stabber because they each saw different things depending on their vantage points and personal prejudices. Metropolitan Police Detective Love Story 4 and Kobayashi-sensei's Love are cases with a similar theme. Similarly, members of the Black Organization with different backgrounds might come to different conclusions depending on the context they encounter Rum in.

If members of the Black Organization only interact with Rum by video-phone conversation, they might come to different conclusions about his appearance depending on how he/she speaks. If Rum uses old style Japanese like an elderly person might, has a deep voice like that of a well built man, but is excessively polite and uses pronouns like watashi (私 ), then three different conclusions of his overall appearance can result.

• The code name Rum is shared by more than one person.

Also self explanatory, but requires each Rum persona to have a fake eye - a pretty unlikely coincidence if each of their eyes was lost in a separate accident.

In a postcard from Gosho in 2016 he said that Rum was one person.

• Rum uses body doubles.

Rum using body doubles with different builds was suggested by Haibara to explain why different Black Organization agents had different impressions. It does not explain the fake eye common between them, unless these doubles were required to wear one.

Contradictions about the fake eye

File:Nick griffin bnp from flickr user britishnationalism (cropped).jpg

A man with a prosthetic eye (left eye)

It is particularly odd that the Black Organization members are unanimous about Rum having a fake eye while disagreeing about obvious appearance facts that are typically the first to be noticed. Prosthetic eyes are usually subtle, as shown in the picture on the right, and can be easily mistaken for some other type of ocular problem such as lazy eye. That implies there is some distinct reason why everyone agrees that Rum has a prosthetic eye while disagreeing about other obvious facts. There are several possibilities why this might be:

• The prosthetic eye Rum uses when talking to other members of the Black Organization is very obviously fake

While such an obvious fake eye would be detrimental in public because it would draw attention, Rum may prefer using a non-subtle prosthetic when in the presence of the rest of the Black Organization. For instance, Rum could use an obvious fake for the purposes of intimidation or to draw attention away from the rest of him/her so that he is not well remembered. Rum could also use a mechanical gadget in place of his/her eye that augments his/her vision.

• Rum's prosthetic eye is a rumor everyone knows.

One possible reason everyone agrees about Rum's fake eye is because it is an oft-circulated fact that he/she has one. Perhaps there is some tale about how he/she lost it that gets passed from member to member. In this case, it wouldn't even matter if Rum actually had a fake eye so long as everyone was inclined to say that he/she did.

Animal Crossing hints

A joke panel in which Gosho introduced the character Lum Invader as Rum. Click the image for more information.

In two promotional messages sent out through the video game Animal Crossing: New Leaf for Nintendo 3DS sometime around or slightly before September 3rd 2014, Gosho said:

• "Actually, Rum has already appeared lol"

• Please note that Gosho, as a crossover joke, has introduced a character named Lum Invader from another manga as the Black Organization member Rum. Gosho also showed Lum in a panel in file 906 and referenced the earlier gag in the concurrent Sherry's soliloquy. Gosho may have been intending to mislead fans with this animal crossing by exploiting the ambiguity between Rum and Lum.

• "Kan-chan is not Rum ^^"

Taking these hints at face value, Rum has appeared at or before File 906.

Trivia

• His/her role in the series recalls second-in-command of the boss in the children's show Kamen Yaiba.

Gallery

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  Three Rum's silhouettes with fake eyes (anime version of episode 793)

See also

• Characters
• Black Organization
• Rum (Alcohol)