Luxury Liner Serial Murder Case

Chronology
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Episode 22-23 (Int. Episode {{{int-episode}}})
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Information
Title:	Luxury Liner Serial Murder Case
Japanese title:	Gōka Kyakusen Renzoku Satsujin Jiken (豪華客船連続殺人事件)
Original airdate:	July 1, 1996 (Part 1) July 8, 1996 (Part 2)
Season:	1
Manga source:	Volume 3: File 1~6
English version
English title:	Smooth Sailing
Case
Cast:	Conan Edogawa Ran Mouri Kogoro Mouri
Case solved by:	Kogoro Mouri (via Conan)
Staff
Director:	Kenji Kodama
Organizer:	22 Kenji Kodama 23 Kuchiru Kazehara
Storyboard:	22 Kenji Kodama 23 Kuchiru Kazehara
Episode director:	22 Kou Matsuzono 23 Toshiya Shinohara
Animation director:	22 Hirotoshi Takaya 23 Masatomo Sudo

Cast

Characters
Conan Edogawa Ran Mouri Kogoro Mouri

Gadgets

Gadgets
Voice-Changing Bowtie Stun-Gun Wristwatch

Case

Situation

Part 1

Thanks to Kogoro, he overslept and made Ran and Conan miss their boat while they were on vacation. Luckily, the island happen to be where the Hatamoto family have their weddings, and when their were just leaving the island, the passengers of a nearby boat noticed them and picked them up. However, trouble strikes when the clan leader Gozo Hatamoto is found murdered.

Murder

Location: Gozo's room in the Hatamoto Family Cruise Boat Victim: Gozo Hatamoto Suspects: Takeshi Hatamoto After confronting Takeshi on his heritage, Gozo never showed up for dinner. The butler Suzuki went to his room, unlocked the door, and found Gozo dead from a blade wound in his abdomen. However, the murder weapon was found in the room. Takeshi was suspected because his lapel flower was found in front of the door.

Takeshi Zaiki who just married Natsue Hatamoto is the prime suspect since his flower was found at the crime scene and Gozo was the reason that his father committed suicide. He is then locked in the storeroom. Later, Tatsuo Hatamoto is found murdered too and the storeroom door is unlocked, making it seem that Takeshi have escaped.

Murder
	Location: Deck of the Hatamoto Family Cruise Boat Victim: Tatsuo Hatamoto Suspects: Takeshi Hatamoto Conan heard a weird sound, the sound of something hitting the water and then a thud, and discovered the body of Tatsuo propped up on the railing. He was killed by a blow to the head.

Part 2

To make matters even worse, a blackout occurs and Ichiro Hatamoto is stabbed in the leg.

Attempted Murder
	Location: Bathroom on the Hatamoto Family Cruise Boat Victim: Ichiro Hatamoto Suspects: Takeshi Hatamoto A blackout occurred and after much confusion in the dark, Ichiro was found stabbed in the leg. Joji's knife was found nearby.

People

Natsue Hatamoto
	22 years old Second daughter of Gozo Hatamoto's deceased eldest son, Shoichi

Takeshi Hatamoto
	24 years old Natsue's husband Employed at Hatamoto Bussan Married into the Hatamoto family Maiden name, "Takeshi Zaiki"

Gozo Hatamoto
	Victim (stabbed) 72 years old Director of the Hatamoto group Head of the Hatamoto clan

Kitaro Hatamoto
	47 years old Mariko's husband Vice-president of Hatamoto Construction Married into the Hatamoto family

Joji Hatamoto
	41 years old Gozo Hatamoto's second son French chef

Ichiro Hatamoto
	Victim (stabbed) 21 years old Only son of Kitaro and Mariko Hatamoto Art student

Mariko Hatamoto
	43 years old Gozo Hatamoto's eldest daughter Kitaro's wife

Akie Hatamoto
	26 years old Daughter of Gozo Hatamoto's eldest son, Shoichi Natsue's older sister

Tatsuo Hatamoto
	Victim (beaten) 26 years old Akie's husband Musician Married into the Hatamoto family

Kenji Suzuki
	64 years old Hatamoto family butler

Resolution

  Show spoilers »

• Evidence
  • Breadcrumbs were found in the crime scenem. Gozo Hatamoto's grandson, Ichiro was a skilled artist who specialized in charcoal drawing, and breadcrumbs can be used as erasers when drawing with charcoal. The crumbs were stained not only in blood, but in charcoal; they likely were inside Ichiro's sleeve and were released as he struggled with Gozo.
  • In contrast, the white flower that was found in said crime scene (the main "evidence" against Takeshi, who wore it on his lapel) lacked of any blood stains, therefore Conan deduced that it was "planted" in the scene to make it look like Takeshi was the killer.
  • Takeshi "ran away" from the storeroom he was thrown into... but the door could NOT be opened from the inside due to how it was built. Therefore, it was impossible for him to simply open the door and run away, so someone should have released him from the outside. Ichiro did that to make everyone believe Takeshi was on the loose and ready to kill again; In reality, Takeshi did run away once he noticed the door was open... but by then he found out about Tatsuo's death and heard the tearful Akie blame him for the murder, so he hid in the closet in Gozo's studio to wait for any outcomes.
  • The murder of Tatsuo was actually another fortuite incident. He actually was killed by Ichiro because he saw him drop the knife he used to kill Gozo in the sea, so Ichiro panicked again and beat him with the first blunt object he found: a metal pipe.
  • Ichiro's attacker was... himself. He used a trick to make the lights go out, and once this happened he stole his uncle's cooking knife, locked himself in the bathroom and stabbed his own leg, blaming Takeshi for it. It's hard to believe that a struggle in the dark would result in someone being stabbed merely in a non-lethal spot, but in the heat of the moment no one would really notice.

• Conclusion

The killer was Ichiro Hatamoto, Gozo's grandson and Natsue's cousin and unlucky childhood friend. He had not straightforwardly intended to kill his grandfather, but after dinner they got into a very ugly verbal fight. Ichiro couldn't withstand Gozo's abusive treatment and attacked his grandfather, and in the middle of the struggle he took a knife that was on the table and stabbed him to death.

Once he realized what he had done, Ichiro started to cover his own steps, making everyone believe that Natsue's husband Takeshi (and his love rival) was the real killer. Takeshi himself had reasons to be angry at Gozo Hatamoto: his family owned a small business that was absorbed by the Hatamoto company (causing the suicide of Takeshi's dad) and Gozo himself not only knew it, but he abused Takeshi because of it, thinking that he was a mere gold digger (which he wasn't, since he did truly care for Natsue). Therefore, Ichiro easily dropped fake leads that led to Takeshi being blamed for Gozo's death, and later for Tatsuo's...

• Motive

Ichiro Hatamoto, as explained, was in madly in love with Natsue, which was indicated when in his notebook was nothing but drawings of Natsue. But Gozo had repeteadly said no when he asked him if he could marry her, and kept mistreating Ichiro afterwards; this specific time, Gozo's taunts were directed to Ichiro himself, threatening to not support his college career as a promising artist, and calling him a failure to the Hatamoto family.

It should be noticed that in Japanese society, first cousin marriage is relatively acceptable and not that unheard of. Ichiro's own parents Mariko and Kitarou actually were first cousins and in love ever since they were teenagers; 25 years ago they did manage to get Gozo's approval for their marriage, but it actually took them lots of time and much pleading with the old man. Therefore, Gozo was horrified when he saw that the grandson he looked down on was developing feelings for his favorite granddaughter, whom he also had appointed as his only heir...

Gallery

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  Title card

See also

• Season 1