The Moonlight Sonata Murder

Chronology
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Episode 1000-1001 (Int. Episode 1057-1058)
Information
Title:	The Moonlight Sonata Murder
Japanese title:	ピアノソナタ「月光」殺人事件 (Piano Sonata "Gekkō" Satsujin Jiken)
Original airdate:	March 6, 2021 (Part 1) March 13, 2021 (Part 2)
Broadcast rating:	7.2% (Part 1) 8.2% (Part 2)
Manga case:	#18
Season:	31
Manga source:	Volume 7: Files 2-7 (062-067)
English version
English title:	The Moonlight Sonata Murder
Dubbed episode:	1000-1001
English airdate:	March 15, 2023 (Tubi)
Case
Cast:	Conan Edogawa Kogoro Mouri Ran Mouri Juzo Megure Detective Horita Detective Sugita Detective Saitoh Detective Sogawa Unnamed officer
Case solved by:	Kogoro Mouri (via Conan)
Next Conan's Hint:	Tsukikage Island (Part 1) Piano (Part 2)
Staff
Director:	Yasuichiro Yamamoto Nobuharu Kamanaka
Organizer:	Yasuichiro Yamamoto
Storyboard:	Yasuichiro Yamamoto
Episode director:	1000: Akira Yosimura 1001: Yasuichiro Yamamoto
Animation director:	Masatomo Sudo (Chief) 1000: Nobuyuki Iwai Keiko Sasaki 1001: Nobuyuki Iwai Akio Kawamura Kazunori Ozawa (effects)
Character design:	Masatomo Sudo Rei Masunaga (sub-character) Hiroshi Ogawa (design works)
Voice Cast: Minami Takayama as Conan Edogawa Wakana Yamazaki as Ran Mouri Rikiya Koyama as Kogoro Mouri Chafurin as Juzo Megure Miyuki Sawashiro as Narumi Asai Shinpachi Tsuji as Tatsuji Kuroiwa Tetsuo Sakaguchi as Hideo Kawashima Masashi Sugawara as Masato Shimizu Norihiro Inoue as Kazuaki Hirata Rika Fukami as Reiko Kuroiwa Shiro Saito as Ken Nishimoto Ryota Takeuchi as Shuichi Murasawa Riki Kagami as Boss Kozo Mito as Staff Mugihito as Police officer Katsumi Toriumi as Announcement
Music
Opening song:	ZERO kara Hajimete
Closing song:	Reboot

The Moonlight Sonata Murder (ピアノソナタ「月光」殺人事件 ,Piano Sonata "Gekkō" Satsujin Jiken) is the 1000th and 1001st episode of the Detective Conan anime. It is a remake of Moonlight Sonata Murder Case.

Cast

Characters
Conan Edogawa Kogoro Mouri Ran Mouri Juzo Megure Detective Horita Detective Sugita Detective Saitoh Detective Sogawa Unnamed officer

Gadgets

Gadgets
Stun-Gun Wristwatch Voice-Changing Bowtie

Case

Situation

Part 1

Kogoro recieved a strange letter from a man named Keiji Asoh, asking him to investigate something on Tsukikage Island in the Izu coast, under Tokyo's jurisdiction. Kogoro, Ran, and Conan go to the island to only discover that Keiji Asoh had died twelve years ago.

Suicide? (Past)
	Location: Keiji Asoh's house on Tsukikage Island Victim: Keiji Asoh and his family Age: 44 years old Cause of death: Burning Keiji Asoh killed his family, set his house on fire, and played Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata as his house burnt around him.

They then meet Narumi Asai, who told them where to meet the mayor. At the community center, they discovered a room with a piano, where the former mayor was found dead two years ago.

Murder? (Past)

Location: Community center piano room on Tsukikage Island Victim: Isamu Kameyama Age: 54 years old Cause of death: Heart attack Two years ago, Kazuaki Hirata heard the Moonlight Sonata playing from the community center and discovered the body of the mayor slumped over the piano. Although he died from heart attack, the similarity to the death of Keiji Asoh caused the islanders to think the piano has been cursed.

While the group are waiting outside, suddenly the first movement of Moonlight Sonata is played, and Hideo Kawashima was found dead in the piano room.

Murder

Location: Community center piano room on Tsukikage Island Victim: Hideo Kawashima Age: 56 years old Cause of death: Drowning Suspects: Masato Shimizu, Kazuaki Hirata, Shuichi Murasawa, Reiko Kuroiwa, Ken Nishimoto, and Narumi Asai Hideo Kawashima's sodden body found slumped over the cursed community piano as the first movement of Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata played in the background. Water marks show the body had been dragged to the piano through a back door in the piano room which leads to the sea.

Conan then realized that the murder will happened again, and they decide to sleep at the piano room, along with the policeman and Narumi Asai.

Megure arrived the next day and start intrograting the suspect. While intrograting Reiko, the second movement of Moonlight Sonata is played, and Tatsuji Kuriowa was found dead at the broadcasting room.

Murder

Location: Community center broadcasting room on Tsukikage Island Victim: Tatsuji Kuroiwa Age: 56 years old Cause of death: Stab wound Suspects: Masato Shimizu, Kazuaki Hirata, Shuichi Murasawa, and Ken Nishimoto Tatsuji Kuroiwa was found stabbed in the broadcasting room. The body was discovered by Ken Nishimoto soon after the second movement of the Moonlight Sonata began playing over the sound system. On the floor is music sheet inscribed in blood.

Part 2

Conan realised that the music sheet left with the victims are codes. The old policeman then revealed that Keiji Asoh left some music sheets in his safe. While they are trying to unlock the community center storage room, Conan heard a sound coming from piano room. He then saw a suspicious person checking below the piano. Conan try to chase the person, but the person ran away. Conan tripped and found Shuichi Murasawa unconsious on the floor.

Attempted Murder
	Location: Community center piano room on Tsukikage Island Victim: Shuichi Murasawa Age: 27 years old Injury: Blunt force trauma Suspects: Kazuaki Hirata

Not long after that, Ken Nishimoto is found hanged in the storage room, along with music sheets.

Murder

Location: Community center storage room on Tsukikage Island Victim: Ken Nishimoto Age: 55 years old Cause of death: Hanging Suspects: Masato Shimizu, Kazuaki Hirata, and Shuichi Murasawa Ran found Ken Nishimoto's hanged body in the storage room. At his feet was coded sheet music purporting to be his will. Although it wasn't playing, the third movement of Moonlight Sonata was recorded on the tape cassette nearby.

After looking at Keiji Asoh's last music sheets, Conan realized who is the culprit.

People

Keiji Asoh
	Deceased (burned) 44 years old (12 years ago) World-renowned pianist

Narumi Asai
	26 years old Tsukikage Island Clinic doctor

Isamu Kameyama
	Deceased (heart attack) 54 years old (2 years ago) Tsukikage Island former mayor

Tatsuji Kuroiwa
	Victim (stabbed) 56 years old Tsukikage Island current mayor

Reiko Kuroiwa
	27 years old Tatsuji's only daughter

Kazuaki Hirata
	31 years old Mayor's private secretary

Shuichi Murasawa
	Victim (beaten - injured) 27 years old Reiko's fiancé

Hideo Kawashima
	Victim (drowned) 56 years old Wealthiest man in town

Masato Shimizu
	49 years old Fisherman

Ken Nishimoto
	Victim (hanged) 55 years old Unemployed

Police officer
	60 years old Tsukikage Island police station officer

Man A
	Town hall employee

Man B
	Town hall manager

Forensics officer
	Tokyo MPD forensics officer

Kenta
	Tsukikage Island elementary school boy Narumi's patient

Man C
	Fisherman

Resolution

  Show spoilers »

The person who knocked out Murasawa in the piano room was Kazuaki Hirata. The bandage on his left hand was the result of smashing the window when he was trying to escape.The piano room was his meeting place with Kawashima when doing business: dealing drugs. He was using the piano's secret compartment as a hiding place for the drugs to which he exchanged later for large sums of money. The reason why he was always talking about the cursed piano was because he wanted to keep everyone in the town away from it. Murasawa saw the drugs that he had left in there earlier so he hit him. Still, he was unrelated to the murders because he wouldn't have related the piano to the crimes.

In the second murder, they found that he had been dead for only a few minutes but when Conan fell on the code of blood, it didn't smear when it takes 15-30 minutes for human blood to dry. It was just a trick that the killer used to manipulate the time of death of the victim. Upon looking at the pictures, there was a button that was shining near Kuroiwa's neck. But after the body was moved, the light was turned off. This was actually the reverse button. While the police weren't looking, the killer turned off the light. The killer used the reverse side (the blank side that didn't have the song), which played for over 30 min and then it reversed. That was when the 5 minutes and 30 seconds of gap played before the music started.

In the third murder, the killer didn't have the time to put a chair or desk at Nishimoto's feet because he had to escape in time.

The purpose of drowning Kawashima was to send the forensic examiner back to Tokyo, because it was impossible to do an autopsy on the island. The tape in the second murder was a setup so the killer could create an alibi.

Conan deduced that the killer was Narumi Asai and that she was, in fact, Asoh's aforementioned son, Seiji Asoh. Asai was probably the surname of the family that adopted him. After graduation, he came to the island as a female doctor. The pronunciation of his name was not written on his diploma, nor the medical license, because if they checked his history, they would have found out that he was a man: the kanji forming Asoh's name could be read as either "Seiji" (a male-only name) or "Narumi" (a female-only name): coupled with Asoh's feminine features and rather girlish voice, it let him masquerade as a female doctor rather well, plus falsifying the times of death and manipulating the crime scenes.

Suddenly, Seiji dissapeared. It turns out that Seiji, who had realized that he had been found out, locked himself inside the community center piano room and set it on fire, intending to die like his father.

Conan, carrying Asoh's last music sheets with his message for the then-young Seiji, managed to slip in and told Seiji, who was sitting at the piano, to keep on living.

Seiji's motive dated back when his father, the pianist Keiji Asoh, and his family was murdered. Kawashima, Nishimoto, Kuroiwa, and Kameyama used Asoh's international concerts as a front for their international drug trade. When Asoh stated that he wouldn't cooperate any longer, they got scared that their secret might be exposed, so they locked the family in their home and set it on fire. This was all written in the sheet music that he left behind in the safe as his confession to his remaining son. Seiji was hospitalized in Tokyo at the time of the murder.

Seiji went back to the island, under his "Narumi" disguise, because he never believed the official "Keiji Asoh killed his family and himself" version and wanted to find out the truth. When he told Kameyama that he was Asoh's son, the late mayor was terrified and told him everything and then had a fatal heart attack. Seiji played the Moonlight Sonata that his father loved so much upon seeing the mayor dead, and ultimately that gave him the idea of taking justice in his own hands.

When Seiji was done, Conan insisted that he should escape and live; Seiji refused, however, saying that he was now also like his father's murderers, covered in blood. Then, he grabbed Conan and threw him through the window, saving his life. Afterwards, he played one last music code message in the burning flames: "Thank you, little detective".

Suicide
	Location: Community center piano room in Tsukikage island Victim: Seiji Asoh Cause of death: Burning Seiji commites suicide after he was discovered to reunite with his father, sadly, Conan didn't manage to save him.

As for Murasawa, he was an admirer of the late Asoh and he was the one who kept the donated piano in tune just like that night.

After the case, while on the boat returning to Tokyo, Conan and Ran talked about Seiji. Ran wonders why did he sent Kogoro the letter when he knew how risky that would be for his plan, and Conan speculates that Seiji wanted Kogoro to stop him.

Adaptation changes

Manga to reboot changes

• Because the case consists of six manga chapters and being adapted into two episodes, there are some alterations to the case:

• Some scene are removed:

• Narumi's explanation about the mayor candidates.
• Conan's early deduction that the culprit might be a man.
• People's anger after the first case.
• Narumi's discussion with Kogoro, Conan, and Ran while going back to the inn.
• Kogoro running back to the crime scene after realizing that the murders aren't over yet.
• Narumi, Kogoro, and the policeman's discussion about Kameyama's death.
• A suspicious person peeking through the window, followed by Conan and Kogoro chasing that person.
• Megure questioning people's alibis after the second murder.
• Nishimoto's reaction towards Keiji Asoh's last music sheets.
• Some of the suspects' backstory.
• Megure retelling the events of the case.
• Megure playing the third movement of the Moonlight Sonata recordings.
• The moment where Conan tranquilizes Kogoro.

• Some bits of dialogue are removed:

• People's dialogues while Conan is running to the piano room.
• Hirata mentioning that the piano plays itself.
• People's dialogue about who Kogoro is.
• The dialogues about who left the main room after Kawashima.
• Megure's dialogue about guarding the building.
• Kogoro's explanation about the remaining suspects to be interrogated.
• Kogoro's question about who might attacked Murasawa and Reiko's answer.

• The tension between characters and their emotions are less intense compared to the manga.
• Ran notices that the music sheets are strange just by looking at them, and plays the sheets to prove it. In the manga, she recognized it while playing the sheet.
• Megure is being shown hearing the second movement of Moonlight Sonata recording, while in the manga he just claims to have heard it.
• Conan just recognized the drugs by simply looking at it. In the manga, he recognized it by licking it.

  Show spoilers »

• Some part of the deduction are being cut, especially the drugs deal backstory and the part about the culprit having to be a man.
• Some part of Seiji's explanation to Conan are removed.
• The scene where Hirata is being questioned by Megure after the end of the case is removed.

Original version to reboot changes

• Four metropolitan police detectives are added in.
• The eyes of the victims are all closed instead of open, probably to make it less scary for the viewers.
• In the first anime version, the election car's announcement is made by a woman, voiced by Yukiko Iwai, while in the reboot, the actor is changed for a man.

Trivia

• During the end credits of episode 1001, there is a title card reads, "Special Thanks To everyone who loves Conan For the Next Mystery".
• Pianist Aimi Kobayashi plays the Moonlight Sonata in the episode.
• These episodes are the last episodes to be produced under the name TMS/V1 Studio.

In other languages

Language	Title	Translation
Catalan (Catalan dub)	El cas de l'assassinat de la sonata "Clar de lluna"	The case of the murder of the "Moonlight" sonata
French (Subbed)	Le Meurtre de la Sonate au Clair de lune	The Moonlight Sonata murder
Thai	คดีฆาตกรรมเปียโนโซนาต้า "แสงจันทร์"	Moonlight Sonata Murder Case
Vietnamese	Vụ án Piano bản Sonata Ánh Trăng

See also

• Season 31
• Moonlight Sonata Murder Case