Renya Karasuma

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Renya Karasuma
Profile
Japanese name:	烏丸 蓮耶 (Karasuma Ren'ya)
Age:	over 140 (thought to be dead)
Gender:	Male
Date of birth:	unknown
Relatives:	Mrs. Karasuma (mother, deceased)
Occupation:	Aristocrat (formerly) Karasuma Group CEO Black Organization head
Status:	unknown (but still alive)
Statistics
First appearance:	Manga: File 300 Anime: Episode 219
Appearances:	Chapters: 5 Chapters: 1 Episodes: 7 Movies: 1 Openings: 2

Renya Karasuma (烏丸 蓮耶 ,Karasuma Ren'ya) is the mysterious head behind the Black Organization, who is respectfully called Ano kata (あの方 ,lit. "That Person") by his subordinates, and the true central antagonist of the entire manga and anime franchise Detective Conan.

His name has been a long-kept secret for most of the series, but on December 13, 2017, Gosho Aoyama finally revealed his identity. Before this revelation, only Minami Takayama, the director and the producer of the anime staff in The Darkest Nightmare knew who the boss was.

Background

Renya Karasuma and the Black Organization.

Renya Karasuma was born toward the end of the Edo period. He was a wealthy and influential multi-millionaire who is the most powerful person in Japan, with a lot of famous, powerful, and political contacts in the world. He is richer than the Suzuki plutocrats in Tokyo and Ooka family in Kyoto. He is said to have died over 100 years old sometime between forty and twenty years prior to the current timeline, during the Showa period, under quite mysterious circumstances and with his legacy unknown. During his lifetime, he had collected over three hundred pieces of antique priceless art. When his mother died, he inherited the Sunset Manor, a huge western-style manor house, from her and over time filled his vacation home, that personified his nest, with his silver crest which depicts a rolled-up crow.

Forty years ago, he found a clue leading to a vast fortune left by his mother and supposedly hidden in that manor house, but he was unable to solve it himself. Consumed by his own greed for the treasure, he hired people to solve the riddle for him, such as the archaeologist Kyosuke Senma, and then began killing them as motivation for the others to work faster. After his supposed death, the Karasuma family had died out, and the house had fallen into other hands. Hardly anything has been touched since the incident and those murders were the true cause behind the numerous old bloodstains found all over the house.

He founded the shady Karasuma Group, a big company in Shinjuku that pay well as a sponsor but there are a lot of bad rumors going around about them. He is the man at the center of it all, directing illegal activities and plans crimes to protect and advance the interests of those Conan calls the "Black Organization". While mysteriously operating behind the scenes, he communicates with his bleak subordinates only through text messages. His phone number, encoded as the famous children's song Nanatsu no Ko, is #969#6261. He is responsible for promoting agents deemed worthy and deciding on their alcoholic codenames, but he doesn't have one of his own because he is no ordinary member. He lives in Kurayoshi, Tottori.

Personality

Though not much is known about his personality, Renya Karasuma is described by the famous detective Furuyo Senma, who hasn't ever met him, as a greedy, corrupt, 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 human life, as he brutally killed numerous people that he invited just as motivation to find the treasure faster. He had become all-consuming for power and his ambition is dreadful.

Wise and quiet, intelligent and manipulative, he is ruthless, willing to dispatch senior agents who have been extremely loyal to him 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 organization, despite many members disliking or even outright wishing to murder certain others. The FBI believed he was hoping to nip a potential obstacle in the bud because Yasuteru Domon, who is a politician hard on crime and not part of the Diet yet, may have a chance of becoming the next Prime Minister. He thought Shuichi Akai could become a silver bullet, someone who is especially dangerous to the entire organization. Unless he brought Conan back alive, Irish thought his true identity is something the boss would find hard to believe.

Appearance

Renya Karasuma is a crow-like man who has only appeared as an ominous shape. Looking like a Tengu who led the evil forces, he is bald on the top of his head with the rest of his hair extended to the neck, with a large nose shaped like a beak, and a somewhat obese body shape. He dressed in black with a white scarf, held a walking stick with a ball handle on his right hand with long nails like a bird's leg, and on his left shoulder there is a pet crow, the creepy bird which is also depicted on his crest. He is right-handed.

Plot overview

Kaitou Kid and the Murder (Manga: 299-302, Anime: 219)

The world's greatest detectives Kogoro Mouri, Saguru Hakuba, Furuyo Senma, Shukuzen Ogami, Harufumi Mogi, and Ikumi Soda were invited to an old mansion covered in blood in the isolated mountains of Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, six miles from a lonely gas station. Saguru had long heard of the blood-chilling tragedy only in frightened whispers, but were mostly lies about an out-of-control auction resulted in a massacre when two robbers infiltrated the mansion as wanderers and dosed the people with marijuana. The host told them that this huge mansion belonged to Renya Karasuma and that there is a treasure hidden inside. That name seems to trigger the guests attention, since he had tremendous influence throughout Japan.

Conan came along with Ran and solved the riddle about the King, Queen, and Knight: using the hands of the only clock in the dining room, which is the switch, as the combination for a lock, a layer peels off the entire outer walls of the black building, revealing solid gold underneath. Only Karasuma could do something on such a scale, and it must be worth a hundred billion yen. Sunset being when the sky shines gold as the sun goes down, it is literally a "Golden Manor".

Kaitou Kid had come for Karasuma's treasure disguised as Kogoro, but it was too big for him to carry away and then flees from the area. Ogami, who was in serious trouble since he had put himself into massive debt to buy the house two years ago and wanted to kill the maid Aki Ishihara and all the others blaming Kaitou Kid once the treasure was found for him, and Senma, who killed him and almost created another tragedy to decipher that riddle her father left for her before turned herself in to the Tokyo police, were possessed by Renya Karasuma all along.

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

Conan visualizes the boss as a big black figure behind Gin, Vodka, and Vermouth, with an evil aura to distinguish him from all the other minor criminals.

Suspicious Cellphone Case (Manga: 479, Anime: 398)

Conan visualizes the boss as a black figure behind Gin, Vodka, and a naked Vermouth in the anime version. It'd be a bad idea to send a message to that address, but Conan is calm, sure that he'll get his chance one day and he'll contact the boss.

Missing Maria Higashio Case (Manga: 1008, Anime: 942)

Yusaku Kudo and Subaru Okiya have reached the conclusion that "ASACA" and "RUM", the dying message left at the scene of Kohji Haneda's murder, is actually one single name: "CARASUMA". When Yusaku reveals it to his son and Professor Agasa, Conan visualizes Renya Karasuma as a shape before Gin, Vodka, a naked Vermouth, Chianti, and Korn, his crest and the pet crow on his left shoulder. That's why Shinichi's parents decided to stay in Japan and think of a plan, just what Conan wanted.

TV Drama Filming Site Murder Case (Manga: 1025, Anime: 995)

When Haibara reminds the drug her parents were forced to create by the Black Organization, which shrunk Shinichi and Haibara's bodies, she visualizes Renya Karasuma as a shape behind her parents, the pet crow on his left shoulder, and that drug.

Trapped at Hatoyama Farm (Manga: 1051, Anime: TBD)

When Rumi Wakasa, talking with Sumiko Kobayashi about someone named "Karasuda" as a crow, imagines that person all black and sly, a conspirator who's hard to get close to, Conan visualizes Renya Karasuma as a shape and the pet crow on his left shoulder, suspecting that she is a candidate for being the organization's second-in-command, Rum, and might personally know him.

Non-canon plot overview

The Black Organization...Revealed (Special Manga: 294, Anime: TBD)

When she reveals Conan the organization's plan to use Generic's drug to manipulate one's memories to have complete control of the world, Haibara visualizes the boss as a black figure clutching a globe.

A criminal wasn't made in a day (Hanzawa the Criminal: 20, Anime: TBD)

Hanzawa-san visualizes Renya Karasuma as a shape, his crest and the pet crow on his left shoulder.

Appellations

Picture	Name	What they call Renya Karasuma	What Renya Karasuma calls them
	Rum	Ano kata	-
	Gin	Ano kata Our superior	-
	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	Mastermind (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	-

Relationships analysis

Black Organization

Rum

Rum is the second-in-command in the organization, meaning that Karasuma must trust Kanenori Wakita the most, enough to make him the highest ranking executive agent. However, Rum is scolded by the boss when his actions could threaten the secrecy of the organization, for example by burning an island to lure out their target.

Gin

He trusts Gin enough to make him an executive agent in the organization, and for good reason: Gin is among the most loyal of the high-ranking members. Gin follows the boss' orders closely and virtually never acts against the organization's greater interests, and in return the boss entrusts Gin to direct critical missions and key assassinations. The boss 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. Although Gin follows all orders from the boss, he acts on his own initiative on more than one occasion, as deciding to poison Shinichi Kudo with the recently approved APTX 4869 or to kill Vermouth if she does anything weird even if she is his favorite. For this reason, the FBI thought Gin would be able to lead them to the boss if they captured him.

Vodka

Vodka fears consequence to act without the boss' permission, for example by killing Vermouth during a spy mission, but of course Gin takes full responsibility for his partner in the general oversight division.

Vermouth

Vermouth is known as Karasuma's favorite member by the other members although the reason for the favoritism is unknown, to the point of giving her limited independence and protecting her from other members who hate, mistrust, and wish to kill her. 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 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. However, even then, he still willingly sends her into deadly missions. He has also unintentionally allowed Chris Vineyard to undermine the organization by protecting someone she thinks is especially dangerous: Conan Edogawa. During a Halloween party, he discovered that Vermouth was up to something without the organization's knowledge, so he ordered Gin and Vodka to investigate. Aboard the ship, a man that Vermouth blackmailed to murder a director began screaming someone called Vermouth was to blame. Later on, he sends a text message to Vermouth's cellphone: "It looks like I have given you too much freedom. Come back to my side, Vermouth." Conan tried to force Vermouth to surrender and take him to find the boss, but failed. Jodie Starling hopes to capture Vermouth, who could lead the FBI to the elusive boss.

Chianti

Chianti fears him even more than she proves to fear Gin and must work with Vermouth due to direct orders from the boss. In order to avenge Calvados' death, she would've killed Vermouth a long time ago, if she wasn't his favorite, but swears she'll definitely kill her in the end. Furthermore, she proves to be envious for what Kir has used to make him let her join their group four years ago, but she and Kir are very friendly.

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 corroborated her story, so he promoted her to the codename Kir in recognition of her loyalty and sheer savagery. In truth, he was fooled. Ethan Hondou was Kir's father and they both are CIA spies infiltrating the organization. Hidemi Hondou 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 prove that the story was true. He orders Kir to assassinate the politician Yasuteru Domon while holding an interview. However, his assassinate plot was averted by the combined efforts of the FBI and Conan. The injured Kir was then captured by the FBI and was hospitalized in Haido Central Hospital for weeks. After the organization easily retrieved Kir from the FBI, Gin became suspicious of how ineffective the FBI's plan was and that Shuichi Akai did not make 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, Andre Camel becomes a suspect in a coincidental murder case. The 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. Conan, Akai, and Kir conspired to fake that death.

Bourbon

He dispatches Bourbon to search for the escaped scientist Sherry. However, Tooru Amuro received his permission to execute a second, secret mission: verified Shuichi Akai's death by disguising himself as Akai and approaching his FBI colleagues. In truth, with the indirect support of the National Police Agency, Rei Furuya has been persevering to turn in Shuichi to the organization to earn higher ranks to get closer to the boss. Moreover, Bourbon is one of the few people who know his secret relationship with Vermouth.

Sherry

He orders the execution of Shiho Miyano after she boycotted the development of APTX 4869 and rebelled against the organization. However, before she could be even executed, Sherry manages to escape. Naturally, he ordered the organization to hunt the traitor down and murder her, and to get rid of anyone associated with her. Asking confirm to Kyosuke Haga about that song, Conan later uncovers his phone number, but Ai Haibara warns him of the danger of calling it, likening it to Pandora's Box for his safety. Of course she knows all this from the start, the email address and the person behind it, but this important secret is extremely dangerous, so Haibara has been hiding his true identity because she fears Conan, who is clearly her love interest but not reciprocated, will make a rash move and get himself killed. However, she doesn't fear her former boss more than Gin or Vermouth. He had also separed her from Generic.

Miyano family

Twenty-five years ago, he wanted to buy the pharmaceutical company where Atsushi Miyano worked as part of a drug development team, but it went badly and that company was suddenly shut down. During the time Atsushi and his wife Elena were running their private clinic, they received invitations from him many times, but Atsushi had always refused his offer. However, nineteen years ago they went to his group's lab after all, so he sponsored their research to make APTX 4869. A plan was intended to create an acceptable reason to eliminate their eldest daughter Akemi, but backfired badly when her ability was underestimated. As a consequence, their second daughter Shiho, the lead researcher for that project, ultimately defected and escaped.

Pisco

Pisco is a big auto manufacturer chairman who had served him for many years. He trusted Kenzo Masuyama enough to make him an executive agent of the organization. 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. This conversation revealed his existence to Conan. Pisco successfully assassinated the target, but he was accidentally caught on camera in the act of murder, showing him holding his gun in the newspaper. He found that picture on the internet and, fearing that Pisco may expose the existence and goals of the organization to the public, ordered Gin to kill Pisco and burn his house to the ground, which the latter does even though Pisco knew where Sherry was.

Rikumichi Kusuda

For assurance, 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 continues to write to his e-mail address every day, until he was cornered by Shuichi Akai and killed himself.

Irish

He orders Irish to infiltrate the police and retrieve a memory card with the personal information of all their agents that have infiltrated various organizations, before the police catch the serial killer and discover what the card holds. The killer Kazuki Honjou took the card from the black agent Masaaki Okakura, who murdered before them, without knowing what is on it. 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 soon gives Generic orders to leave Sherry in her experiments and start on his own experiment of a drug to control memory. He is trying to use that drug to control the memories of all the important people around the world, such as to let the president of the US think that he is one of the organization's members, in order to bring the whole world under his power. However, Generic also runs away from the organization.

Others

Shinichi Kudo/Conan Edogawa

Shinichi Kudo, the high school student and world's greatest detective, currently shrank into a little kid, Conan Edogawa, due to Gin and is the arch-enemy of Karasuma's criminal organization. From the beginning, as responsible for shrinking his body with their pill, Conan must manage to reach their mastermind and catch the "Black Organization", as he calls them, in one fell swoop, all for the sake of returning to his original form. He is indirectly responsible for Shinichi's whole current life-threatening situation, but he has no idea someone like Conan exists. An extremely dangerous man, far worse than everyone else in the organization, he is a diabolical presence that chilled the boy to the bone, which no other man in black or minor criminal can do. In fact, despite they never actually confronting each other in person, every time he sees someone on a cell phone, Conan gets flashbacks to Vermouth, from whom he got a vital clue, the email address that could lead him to the name and whereabouts of the supreme commander who controls them, and suddenly he looks pale and frightened. From now on, until his mission comes to a close, anyone associated with Conan is in a do-or-die situation.

Shuichi Akai

Capturing a high-ranking member of the 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 Dai Moroboshi 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 by Rum due to a mistake made by Andre Camel. In the two years since the mission failure, he came to believe Akai could become the organization's silver bullet, the threat whom he fears the most, and is more like Vermouth than Gin.

Gallery

• 

  Renya Karasuma (episode 219).

• 

  The boss (episode 385).

Speculation

  Show spoilers »

Genichirou Kaneshiro

The fact that his supposed death should have occurred almost fifty years ago could fit with Haibara's thought that Shinichi had gotten involved in a project that the organization had worked on for half a century, and that there could be some unbelievable people, that are not supposed to be a part of this world. It is clear that he must have been rejuvenated of many years by using any sort of drug and been disguised as another person who has already appeared somewhere in the story.

The potential candidate, who is just identical to Karasuma's silhouette and personality, is Genichirou Kaneshiro, a computer company owner, due his old age, suspicious behavior pretending to be blind, affection for young women, and especially the fact who is after the mysterious person who claimed to be the creator of 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" meaning "golden castle", which is a clear reference to the Sunset Manor. His thick mustache and eyebrows, and maybe also his hair, are probably a disguise.

Conan, who visualized Gin and Vodka sometime before, had a glance full of bloodlust when all the seven participants of the mystery tour dispersed, the same for the boss' email address or Haibara sensing Gin and Vermouth, though he couldn't pinpoint the source, but he didn't have that reaction when the culprit, disguised as the Night Baron, suddenly appeared behind and throwed him over the balcony. After hearing that the victim fell, he rushed in front to beat the crowd, but without his walking stick. When he called it a poor story for the Night Baron to die and it ended the game, Conan gave him a suspicious look and abruptly called attention to the body.

Moreover, his old and loyal servant Shizue Hayashi is probably Vermouth in disguise. During the resolution, she whispered him about Sleeping Kogoro, but it wasn't revealed. He wanted the Night Baron to take revenge on the virus creator who ruined a program he wrote four years ago, but he didn't know what it was when Ran asked him, then Shizue promptly covered him with a high school girl dating simulator.

Name origin

"Karasuma" literally means "crow circle", as the logo in his crest. It is a very unusual surname that can also be translated "Karasumaru", then modeled after the noble Karasumaru family, or "Ugan", as the nomadic tribe Wuhuan is written in another notation.

"Renya" is a name also used for women, written with the kanji for "lotus" and "father".

Character inspiration

Gosho Aoyama was inspired by the fictional character James Moriarty, the main antagonist in the Sherlock Holmes' series, to create the Black Organization's head. Just like the "Napoleon of Crime", he doesn't show his face and works as a shadow behind the scenes, only pulling the strings on the crimes from far away, sort of like Al Capone did. He is depicted as a cold-blooded person who controls underworld and doesn't leave a single scrap of evidence, remaining anonymous to the public, and the shape similar to Professor Moriarty's in the novels.

Trivia

Conan against the demon boss.

• The anime version's huge painting in his former manor's dining room is a replica of Lucas de Heere's The Queen of Sheba visits King Solomon, but with an inverted orientation. Just like the story of King Solomon, the wisest but later corrupt monarch in the Old Testament, since sunset also indicates an idea of "glorious sun that goes out" as the wrath of heaven, he was the richest and most powerful man in all of modern Japan, but eventually became a crime lord.
• Due to his obese and aristocratic appearance, as well as his bird-like face, he bears a resemblance with the Penguin, the famous Batman villain, one of the author's favorite US comics.
• His central role as the hero's archnemesis is just like the alien boss of the evil organization Jocker in the children's show Kamen Yaiba.
• While chasing down leads on the organization, Conan is constantly confronted by difficult cases. In the introduction of movie 3, on a Greek palace ruins at night, he is suddenly attacked by a big red demon with evil aura from many yellow stratus, of course their boss behind all minor criminals.
• In movie 7, he is almost like the shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo, who was the black arch-enemy of his younger brother Yoshitsune as the most powerful man of Japan.

In other languages

Language	Given Name	Family Name
Japanese	蓮耶 Renya	烏丸 Karasuma
Arabic	رينيا Renya	كاراسوما Karasuma
Catalan (Catalan dub)	Renya	Karasuma
Catalan (Valencian dub)	Renya	Karasuma
Chinese	莲耶 LianYe	乌丸 WuWan
English	Renya	Karasuma
French	Renya	Karasuma
Galician	Renya	Karasumaru
German	Renya	Karasuma
Indonesian	Renya	Karasuma
Italian	Renya	Karasumaru
Korean	Eok Man 억만	Oh 오
Spanish	Renya	Karasuma
Thai	เรนยะ Renya	คาราสึมะ Khārās̄ụma

See also

• Characters
• Black Organization
• Karasuma Group
• Crow