The Blank Year

Chronology
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Episode 1030-1031 (Int. Episode 1087-1088)
Information
Title:	The Blank Year
Japanese title:	空白の一年 (Kūhaku no Ichinen)
Original airdate:	December 11, 2021 (Part 1) December 18, 2021 (Part 2)
Broadcast rating:	7.0% (Part 1) 7.0% (Part 2)
Filler case:	#361
Season:	31
Manga source:	TV Original
Case
Cast:	Conan Edogawa Kogoro Mouri Juzo Megure Wataru Takagi Kazunobu Chiba
Case solved by:	Kogoro Mouri (via Conan)
Next Conan's Hint:	Dog (Part 1) Thunder and lightning (Part 2)
Staff
Director:	Yasuichiro Yamamoto Nobuharu Kamanaka
Screenplay:	Nobuo Ogizawa
Storyboard:	Masaharu Okuwaki
Episode director:	1030: Masahiro Takada 1031: Minoru Tozawa
Animation director:	Seiji Muta (supervisor) 1030: Akio Kawamura 1031: Keiko Sasaki
Character design:	Masatomo Sudo Masanori Hashimoto (sub-character) Hiroshi Ogawa (design works)
Production cooperation:	1030: BIG BANG
Voice Cast: Minami Takayama as Conan Edogawa Rikiya Koyama as Kogoro Mouri Chafurin as Juzo Megure Wataru Takagi as Wataru Takagi Isshin Chiba as Kazunobu Chiba Kenji Nojima as Ritsuo Esaka Shigeru Shibuya as Police officer Shinnosuke Ogami as Keinobu Kuroda Saki Suzuki as Amano Kozo Shioya as Takuzo Kinbara Akiko Takeguchi as Tae Kinbara Masafumi Kimura as Keisuke Hida Mana Hirata as Toko Mizutani Ryota Asari as Mamoru Chimura Kikumi Umeda as Auntie Sanryo Odaka as Old man Naomi Sano as Dog owner Ringo Yoshioka as Staff
Music
Opening song:	YURA YURA
Closing song:	SWEET MOONLIGHT

The Blank Year (空白の一年 ,Kūhaku no Ichinen) is the 1030th and 1031st episode of the Detective Conan anime.

Cast

Characters
Conan Edogawa Kogoro Mouri Juzo Megure Wataru Takagi Kazunobu Chiba

Gadgets

Gadgets
Stun-Gun Wristwatch Voice-Changing Bowtie

Case

Situation

Part 1

Kogoro just finished his investigation report when he heard someone almost got hit by a car.

Attempted Murder
	Location: An intersection in Koneru Town Victim: Ritsuo Esaka Age: 28 years old Method: Pushing into traffic Suspects: Takuzo Kinbara, Tae Kinbara, Keisuke Hida, Toko Mizutani, and Mamoru Chimura

Kogoro then discovers that the man, Ritsuo Esaka, does not remember what happened during the past year.

They later go to detective agency, where Esaka tells about how suddenly one year has passed, and how he recovered his original memory while forgetting the memory from the past year. He checked his train card history and he used to left from and returned to Koneru. They conclude that he must have lived in Koneru for the past year.

Meanwhile, there is a news about Akira Kisugi, a con artist who suddenly disappeared six months ago and was found buried in the mountains of Wakabadai three days ago, partially skeletonized.

Murder (Past)
	Location: Wakabadai Victim: Akira Kisugi Time: 6 months ago Suspects: Akira Kisugi's victims

Later, they go to Koneru, and ask a police there if he knew Esaka, but the police does not recognize him. Kogoro then try to use shock theraphy to make Esaka regain his memory, but it does not work. Esaka later becomes scared to know if he had done something bad, so he runs away. Apparently, they find out that the police they previously meet is a serial burglar faking as police, so they try to ask the real police at Koneru Station police box. The police recognized Esaka, and says that he was found by an old man named Takuzo Kinbara.

They later visit Kinbara residence, where they meet Takuzo and his wife, Tae, and three other people who helped Esaka. For the past year, he had been living under the name Taro Koneru, lived in an apartment Mamoru's father owns, and worked at Hida's construction company. Mizutani also frequently cooked meal for Esaka.

Later, Kogoro asks if there is anyone who has grudge against Esaka, but they say that Esaka never did anything wrong.

On the way to celebrate Esaka's recovery, a dog appears. Esaka is so scared that he climb up a nearby pole. They later find out that Esaka remember the dog's name, which means his memories are returning.

While they are celebrating, a thunder appears, and Esaka feels that there was a scene that is related to dog and thunder. After he goes home, he suddenly interested in Akira Kisugi's death.

Two days later, Ritsuo Esaka is found dead in his apartment. According to police investigation, he commited suicide.

Suicide?
	Location: Ritsuo Esaka's apartment Victim: Ritsuo Esaka Age: 28 years old Time: 7 PM Cause of death: Poisoning Suspects: Takuzo Kinbara, Tae Kinbara, Keisuke Hida, Toko Mizutani, and Mamoru Chimura

Part 2

The police say that it is a suicide because there is a suicide note written on the laptop, and the apartment was locked, with two keys a re found inside the room. There were also two phone call made by Esaka, one to Hida Industries construction company, and one to weather information system. It turns out that Esaka was at Wakabadai on June 10, the same day where Akira Kisugi was murdered, and there was also a lightning strike on that day. The police deduce that the murderer is Ritsuo Esaka.

However, Conan finds out that one of the cup is placed differently on the shelf, which means that someone was there with Esaka before his death.

Later, they go to Wakabadai and ask people if they recognize Esaka. A woman who owns takoyaki shop says that on that day, Esaka was chased by a dog and he climbed a pole. Later, he saw something, before a lightning appeared. The direction he saw is the street where Akira Kisugi's residence and a temple located. Conan deduces that Esaka saw the culprit, and only tried to kill him recently because they don't know where he live, which also means that the culprit lives in Koneru.

However, among the suspect list, no one lives in Koneru. They later asked Takuzo about it, but he haven't heard anything about it. Hida, Mizutani, and Mamoru later decide to help Kogoro searching anything suspicious.

Conan decides to investigate the intersection where Esaka almost got hit by a car. Next to the intersection is bicycle parking lot, where Takuzo works at. After some futher investigation, Conan knows the culprit.

People

Ritsuo Esaka
	Victim (poison) 28 years old Amnesiac

Keinobu Kuroda
	42 years old Serial burglar Fake police officer

Akira Kisugi
	Deceased (murdered) 38 years old Con artist

Takuzo Kinbara
	71 years old Bicycle parking lot employee

Tae Kinbara
	70 years old Takuzo's wife

Keisuke Hida
	53 years old Construction company manager

Toko Mizutani
	26 years old Koneru Credit Union bank employee

Mamoru Chimura
	20 years old Cram school student

Amano
	Dog owner

Shishimaru
	Amano's dog

Man A
	Police officer stationed at Koneru Station police box

Woman A
	Takoyaki shop owner

Woman B
	Dog owner

Dog
	Woman B's dog

Old man
	Bicycle parking lot employee

Man B
	Bicycle parking lot staff

Man C
	Police detective at Wakabadai police station

Resolution

  Show spoilers »

The culprit is Takuzo Kinbara. On June 10, he and his wife were going to the temple at Wakabadai to attend the second anniversary death of Katsuhiro Doigaki, Tae's younger brother. At the same time, he saw Akira Kisugi. He demanded an apology from Kisugi, as he was responsible for indirectly killing Kisugi for conning him out of his money.

The two struggled with each other however Takuzo was distracted after noticing that Esaka had witnessed the two of them. Takuzo immediately recognized Esaka, but he got dragged off by Kisugi into a alleyway. He managed to free himself from Kisugi, but in the process, he pushed Kisugi too hard into a wall. Causing Kisugi to die from receiving a blow to the back of his head. Takuzo later buried his body, thinking that he didn't need to worry about Esaka witnessing him. He was even more relieved when Esaka suddenly disappeared from his neighborhood.

Katsuhiro Doigaki
	Deceased Tae's younger brother Akira Kisugi's victim

Three days later Kisugi’s body was found, Takuzo saw Esaka walking around the neighborhood, so he attempted to kill Esaka by pushing him on to the street but failed. He was relieved when Esaka did not remember anything from the past year, but when Esaka started regaining his memory, Takuzo became scared again. So last night he visted Esaka, poisoned him, and made it looked like he committed suicide. He also already made a spare key for Esaka's apartment at a nearby hardware store. There is also a single hair on Kisugi's body that does not belong to him, but most likely belongs to Takuzo.

Takuzo admits that he murdered Esaka, because he afraid of getting arrested for Kisugi's murder but not because he would spend time in jail, but because his frail wife would be alone.

Aftermath

The police later arrest Takuzo, as he is leaving Hida promises to look after his wife Tae. Kogoro later wakes up and tried to recall the last thing he did.

Trivia

• Keinobu Kuroda (黒田佳展 Kuroda Keinobu) is mistakenly written in the ending credits as Keinobu Kuroi (黒井佳展 Kuroi Keinobu).
• Some of the characters' Japanese Surnames have relatively regular patterns. Named after gold, wood, water, fire and earth, this is called gogyo:
  • 金原妙 Tae Kinbara - represents gold (金).
  • 木杉彬 Akira Kisugi - represents wood (木).
  • 水谷統子 Akira Kisugi - represents water (水).
  • 火田啓介 Keisuke Hida - represents fire (火).
  • 土井垣克広 Katsuhiro Doigaki - represents earth (土).

In other languages

Language	Title	Translation
Vietnamese	Một năm trống rỗng

See also

• Season 31