Renya Karasuma

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Renya Karasuma
Profile
Japanese name:	烏丸 蓮耶 (Karasuma Ren'ya)
Age:	unknown (thought to be dead)
Gender:	Male
Date of birth:	unknown
Relatives:	Mrs. Karasuma (mother, deceased)
Occupation:	Aristocrat Karasuma Group chairman 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 overarching 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 important revelation, only Minami Takayama, the director and the producer of the anime staff in The Darkest Nightmare knew who the infamous boss was.

Background

Karasuma's criminal organization.

Renya Karasuma was a wealthy and influential multi-millionaire who was the most powerful person in all of modern Japan, with an extensive range of contacts all over in the world. He is richer than the Suzuki plutocrats in Tokyo and the Ooka family in Kyoto. He is said to have died at over 100 years old about twenty years prior to the current timeline, under quite mysterious circumstances and his legacy is unknown. During his lifetime, he had collected over three hundred pieces of priceless art and antiques. About sixty-seven years ago, at his birthday party, he met Amanda Hughes, an American VIP.

When his mother died, he inherited the Sunset Manor, a huge western-style manor house, 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 supposedly hidden in the manor, 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 died out, and the house fell into other hands. Hardly anything has been touched since the incident and those murders were the true cause behind the numerous dried bloodstains found all over the house.

He founded the shady Karasuma Group, a big company in Tokyo that pays well as a sponsor but is associated with various bad rumors. He is the man at the center of it all, directing illegal activities and planning crimes to protect and advance the interests of those Conan calls the "Black Organization". While mysteriously operating behind the scenes, the boss communicates with his ruthless 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 does not have one of his own because he is the big boss and does not need a codename. However, he does not want anyone in the organization to know about his current location.

Personality

He is described by the famous detective Furuyo Senma, who hasn't ever met Karasuma but hated him after learning that her father was killed, as a greedy, corrupt, cruel, and impatient man. He is materialistic as driven by his own greed while searching for the hidden treasure inside the Sunset Manor. Furthermore, he doesn't value human life, as brutally killed numerous innocent 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 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

He 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 his left arm behind the back and 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 were invited to an old mansion covered in blood in the isolated mountains of Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture. 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 one stormy night and dosed the people with marijuana. The host told them that this huge mansion belonged to Renya Karasuma, who died half-a-century ago, at the age of 99, and that there is a treasure hidden inside. That name triggers the guests attention, since he had tremendous influence throughout Japan.

Conan 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. Shukuzen 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 all the others blaming Kaitou Kid once the treasure was found for him, and Furuyo Senma, who killed him and almost created another tragedy to decipher that riddle her father left for her, were possessed by 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 and Subaru 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 Agasa, Conan visualizes 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 Karasuma as a shape behind her parents, the pet crow on his left shoulder, and that drug.

Trapped at Hatoyama Farm (Manga: 1051, Anime: 1053)

When Wakasa, talking with Kobayashi about someone named "Karasuda" (crow field) as a crow, imagines that person all black and sly, a conspirator who's hard to get close to, but someone with such a name might well be a bright and cheery person instead, Conan visualizes 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.

Yusaku Kudo's TV Show Case (Anime: 1072)

Conan, Yusaku, and Akai visualize Karasuma as a shape behind Gin, Vodka, and Vermouth, and the pet crow on his left shoulder.

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)

In an old-fashioned requiem shop, Hanzawa visualizes 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	Karasuma Renya Karasuma-kachō Karasuma Renya-shi Carasuma	-
	Amanda Hughes	Karasuma Renya Karasuma	-
	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 him the most, enough to make him the new highest ranking executive agent after his late father's long service. Rum has his support to do criminal activities, such as blackmailing big names in the political and financial world in order to strengthen their position. About forty-seven years ago, Rum appeared at the International Economic Forum's annual general meeting on behalf of him, who was absent due to poor health. However, Rum is scolded by the boss when his conspicuous actions can threaten the secrecy of the organization, for example by burning an island, instead of searching closely to lure out their target. Even Rum has not seen him in a long time and has been trying to find out about his whereabouts.

Gin

He trusts Gin enough to make him the chief administrator 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. He needs Gin to do the more criminal works, as other men are prevented from acting to that extent. Although Gin follows all orders from the boss, he acts on his own initiative on more than one occasion, as deciding to poison Shinichi 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 is the managerial secretary in the organization. He is scared of 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 Conan, someone she thinks is especially dangerous. 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 hopes to capture Vermouth, who could lead the FBI to the elusive boss.

Chianti

Chianti is scared of him even more than she proves to be scared of 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 have a cordial relation.

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 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 Akai did not make a strong move. Gin thought that Akai is hiding something and relays his doubt to him, who also agrees. He and Gin plan a test of Kir's loyalty. Hearing about Camel became a suspect in a coincidental murder case, the organization takes advantage of the FBI's distraction, so 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 Akai's death by disguising himself as him and approaching his FBI colleagues. In truth, with the indirect support of the National Police Agency, Rei Furuya has been persevering to turn in Akai 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. 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 unbelievable 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 and her only hope, will make a rash move and get himself killed. However, she isn't scared of her former boss more than Gin, Vermouth, or Rum. 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 under 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 a flash photo in the act of murder, showing him holding his gun in the newspaper about two celebrities' covert romance. 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 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, which took without knowing it from a black agent murdered before them, before the police catch the serial killer and discover what the card holds. When he discovers Conan's true identity, Irish plans to capture and bring the boy before him to discredit Gin, who killed his mentor, Pisco. 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.

Enemies

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 the two never actually confronting each other in person, every time he sees someone on a cell phone or sing Nanatsu no Ko, 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, his parents or friends, 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 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).

Quotes

“	It looks like I have given you too much freedom. Come back to my side, Vermouth.	„
— Karasuma's message to Vermouth, file 434, page 13

Name origin

Like Karasuma Avenue in Kyoto, "Karasuma" literally means "crow circle", as the logo in his crest or a Tengu, who is also "Crow-billed Tengu". It is a very unusual surname that can also be translated "Karasumaru", just like the noble Karasumaru family with a similar crest, 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

• The anime version's huge painting in his former manor's dining room is a replica of The Queen of Sheba visits King Solomon, but with an inverted orientation. Since sunset also indicates an idea of "glorious sun that goes out", he was just like the wisest but later corrupt King Solomon.
• 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, the boss in The Great Adventures of Professor Agasa 2 game, and Minamoto no Yoritomo in the book Yoshitsune Chronicles.

In other languages

Language	Given Name	Family Name
Japanese	蓮耶 Renya	烏丸 Karasuma
Arabic	رينيا Renya	كاراسوما Karasuma
Catalan (Catalonia)	Renya	Karasuma
Catalan (Valencia)	Renya	Karasuma
Chinese (Simplified)	莲耶 Liányē	乌丸 Wūwán
English	Renya	Karasuma
French	Renya	Karasuma
Galician	Renya	Karasumaru
German	Renya	Karasuma
Indonesian	Renya	Karasuma
Italian	Renya	Karasumaru
Korean	Eok Man 억만	Oh 오
Russian	Рэнъя Ren'ya	Карасума Karasuma
Spanish	Renya	Karasuma
Thai	เรนยะ Renya	คาราสึมะ Khārās̄ụma
Vietnamese	Renya	Karasuma

See also

• Characters
• Black Organization
• Karasuma Group
• Crow