The Unsolvable Ice Trap

Chronology
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Episode 687 (Int. Episode {{{int-episode}}})
Information
Title:	The Unsolvable Ice Trap
Japanese title:	誰にもとけない氷の罠 (Darenimo Tokenai Kōri no Wana)
Original airdate:	February 16, 2013
Broadcast rating:	10,40%
Filler case:	#204
Season:	22
Manga source:	TV Original
Case
Cast:	Conan Edogawa Ai Haibara Professor Agasa Detective Boys
Case solved by:	Professor Agasa (via Conan)
Next Conan's Hint:	Will-o'-the-wisp
Staff
Director:	Yasuichiro Yamamoto
Screenplay:	Asami Ishikawa
Storyboard:	大河桝玖
Episode director:	Shigeru Yamazaki
Animation director:	Akio Kawamura Masanori Hashimoto
Voice Cast: Minami Takayama as Conan Edogawa Kenichi Ogata as Professor Agasa Megumi Hayashibara as Ai Haibara Yukiko Iwai as Ayumi Yoshida Wataru Takagi as Genta Kojima Ikue Otani as Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya Takaharu Onishi as Akira Haraguchi Akira Sasanuma as Forensics officer Yasuo Muramatsu as Tarou Yamaguchi Tokuyoshi Kawashima as Kazuyuki Ogi Hitomi Nabatame as Mika Itakura Kōsuke Meguro as Tetsuya Shiota
Music
Opening song:	TRY AGAIN
Closing song:	Hitomi no Melody

Cast

Characters
Conan Edogawa Ai Haibara Professor Agasa Ayumi Yoshida Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya Genta Kojima

Gadgets

Gadgets
Voice-Changing Bowtie

Case

Situation

At the Ice Festival, Conan, Haibara, Agasa, and the Detective Boys are having a great time together. While in the festival, they meet the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Ice Festival named Mika Itakura. Her father, the former village head, was Agasa’s old friend but unfortunately, he died in a car accident last year. While the detective boys and the others are walking together, they meet the ice engraver named Tetsuya Shiota who made an awesome ice sculptures. The Detective Boys are really impressed at him when he built an ice sculpture of a bear while using a chain saw. The people in the village also made an awesome work of the ice festival. Until sudden, the village head named Tarou Yamaguchi and the secretary named Kazuyuki Ogi appear and they both say that they are going to remove the ice sculptures so the hotels are going to be built soon. Yamaguchi has already signed the contract which make Mika and Shiota disappointed. Suddenly, the main gate collapses which makes Yamaguchi decide to cancel the festival but Mika and Shiota along with the other villagers insist on rebuilding it.

Later at night, Shiota and Mika are taking the group to the Ice Hotel so they could sleep. In order to liven the festival up, Shiota suggested the idea of building the Ice Hotel. The village does have financial difficulties. Therefore, the chief is trying to attract people to Resort Toto. However, the village still can't attract much attention. The ice hotel they made then caught the eye of the chief. He negotiated and it shows an interest beyond. The ice hotel is made for the festival, but it’s been reversed now, so they’re forced to close it down. When they arrive, they see the beautiful view of the ice hotel. While walking around it, they witness Ogi being kicked out by Yamaguchi while he’s telling his secretary that he’s useless. He then throws the papers at him and closes the door. Ogi picks up the papers and flees after insulting the village head and noticing the others looking at him.

Inside the ice cabin, the Detective Boys are enjoying lying down on the fluffy beds. Mika wishes them good night and closes the door. At 4:06 AM, Mitsuhiko comes out of the restroom and sees something that scares him. He goes back into the ice cabin trembling about what he saw. The next morning, when Ogi come inside Yamaguchi’s ice house, he screams and Yamaguchi is found dead with strangle marks on his throat. Conan tells Haibara to call the police immediately.

Murder
	Location: Ice Hotel Victim: Tarou Yamaguchi Time: Around 2:00 AM Cause of death: Strangulation Suspects: Mika Itakura, Tetsuya Shiota, and Kazuyuki Ogi

The police arrive at the Ice Hotel and investigate the crime scene. The police inspector from Niigata Prefecture, Akira Haraguchi, confirms that the cause of death was the suffocation by the compression of the airway. The estimated time of death is around 2 AM. Since the strangulation is not at the back of the neck, the culprit imposed a fine string-like weapon on the top of the sleeping bag which was burned around the neck.

Afterwards, Inspector Haraguchi is questioning Mika. She was at the festival repairing the main gate with Shiota, who left the workplace at 12 and 4 AM, each for 10 minutes. Conan mentions that it seems like the entrance to the Yamaguchi’s ice house needs a key and wonders how the culprit would even get in. Haraguchi suggests that there can be many key duplicates, but Mika confirms that Ogi is the only one with duplicates. He then nervously claims that he is responsible for waking Yamaguchi up in the morning. Ogi actually doesn't have an alibi, as he was working alone on some documents at his office during the time of the crime.

While Conan walks alone at the side of the big ice house, he notices a small hole. He looks through it and sees two crime scene investigators working around the bed. The Detective Boys run to Conan but Ayumi accidentally slips. The reason why the ice floor is slippery is because ice melts when pressure is applied. While Conan is explaining that fact, an idea occurs to him. Mitsuhiko comes and adds that he saw the chief's ghost last night, which makes Conan finally figures out who the culprit is after hearing Mitsuhiko’s strange testimony.

People

Mika Itakura
	27 years old Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Ice Festival

Tetsuya Shiota
	43 years old Ice engraver

Tarou Yamaguchi
	Victim (strangled) 61 years old Village head

Kazuyuki Ogi
	34 years old Secretary

Akira Haraguchi
	31 years old Inspector from Niigata Prefecture Police

Resolution

  Show spoilers »

The police are about to take Ogi to the station but stopped by Conan using Agasa’s voice with the Voice-Changing Bowtie. Conan says he finally understands the whole truth of the case. He explained that there's no need to enter the dome because the murder weapon killed Yamaguchi by itself. To help Conan, The Detective Boys bring a big block of ice, two PET bottles, and a string. Conan ties the string with the two PET bottles and puts the string on top of the block of ice. The string slowly goes down as the ice melts with the help of the bottles' weight on both sides of the big ice cube, but the ice soon re-freezes. The culprit tried to do this trick outside of the dome when the chief was sleeping. Haraguchi deduces that Mika is most suspicious, but Shiota defends her claiming that being a woman, she can't get rid of such a weight in a short time. To support Conan's conclusion, Genta brings a small block of glass which is the weight that was actually used by the culprit. When Haraguchi tries to pull the cord out of the ice, he can't because the cord has already frozen. In order to make the string burn easily inside the ice, the culprit used a magnesium tape along with a lighter, which explains the scorch marks that were made on the sleeping bag. When Agasa uses the lighter, the ribbon creates a will-o’-the-wisp which is what Mitsuhiko saw last night. After magnesium burned, a white matter appears behind it which is called magnesium oxide. The same thing was observed in the dome. In addition, for the success of this trick, one must know the position of the sleeping village head. There's only one person that knows that. It is Tetsuya Shiota who designed the ice hotel. As evidence, there should be magnesium oxide ,white powder, on Shiota’s sleeve; it adheres when using the murder weapon. Shiota confesses to his crime. He killed Yamaguchi because he embezzled the expenses of the festival. Shiota also made Ogi the prime suspect as he’s the one who played with brakes of the car to make it look like an accident. Shiota used the ice hotel to get an iron-clad alibi. He waited for the best possible time to kill the village head, as well as causing the gate to collapse in order to create an alibi for Mika.

See also

• Season 22