The True Culprit is On the Run

Chronology
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Episode 1104 (Int. Episode 1162)
Information
Title:	The True Culprit is On the Run
Japanese title:	真犯人は逃走中 (Shinhan'nin wa Tōsō-chū)
Original airdate:	November 18, 2023
Broadcast rating:	6.5%
Filler case:	#407
Season:	28
Manga source:	TV Original
Case
Cast:	Conan Edogawa Ai Haibara Detective Boys Juzo Megure Wataru Takagi Kazunobu Chiba
Case solved by:	Conan Edogawa
Next Conan's Hint:	Shortcut
Staff
Director:	Yasuichiro Yamamoto Nobuharu Kamanaka
Screenplay:	Yuki Notsuka
Storyboard:	Masaki Ozora
Episode director:	Yosuke Fujino
Animation director:	Yukari Kamiaka Zi Dengjia Michitaka Yamamoto Kaoru Nagakawa Marie Nagano Yoshitsugu Hatano Ken Araya FALCO Suzuki Joji Yanase
Character design:	Masatomo Sudo Rei Masunaga (sub-character) Hiroshi Ogawa (design works)
Production cooperation:	Azeta Pictures
Voice Cast: Minami Takayama as Conan Edogawa Yukiko Iwai as Ayumi Yoshida Ikue Otani as Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya Wataru Takagi as Wataru Takagi, Genta Kojima Chafurin as Juzo Megure Isshin Chiba as Kazunobu Chiba Takahiro Miyamoto as Kanta Sakaguchi Yukari Watanabe as Woman
Music
Opening song:	Unraveling Love ~Sukoshi no Yūki~
Closing song:	…and Rescue Me

The True Culprit is On the Run (真犯人は逃走中 ,Shinhan'nin wa Tōsō-chū) is the 1104th episode of the Detective Conan anime.

Cast

Characters
Conan Edogawa Ayumi Yoshida Genta Kojima Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya Ai Haibara Juzo Megure Wataru Takagi Kazunobu Chiba

Case

Situation

On another peaceful morning, the Detective Boys were hanging out on the park, playing football cheerfully, while rejoicing the cozy day. Accidentally, Genta used excessive strength to kick the football, which led the ball to land midst the bush. Ayumi thus went inside to fetch the football. And luckily, she found the ball effortless, but just as she raised her head to observe the vincinity, she was utterly astounded - right next to the fallen football, there was a rather "fresh" corpse lying on the ground...

Murder
	Location: Unknown park Victim: Jiro Takamatsu Age: 50 years old Cause of death: Blunt-force trauma Suspects: Unknown He was hit by a large rock, evidently picked up from the park. An abundance of blood was splattered around the crime scene.

According to the investigation by Detective Takagi, the victim is apparently a loan shark and runs a financial business in a nearby building. He always wears luxury clothes and equips expensive accessories (such as his golden watch); however, they found his wallet in his dead body to be empty, and those so-called luxury goods disappeared as well. So they boldly assume the murder to be a robbery, and from someone who probably could not afford the high interest rate of the loan the victim offered.

Detective Boys follow the blood traces.

Conan claimed that no one entered his sight ever since two o'clock, when the Detective Boys began playing football in the park, which means, it would not be possible for the culprit to flee after murdering Takamatsu. Despite that, Genta pointed out a shortcut path he knew for exiting this park - this offered Conan a breaking point in this elusive case. He found some blood on the plant, nearby the path they took to exit the park, so it could be deduced that instead of escaping through the proper gateway, the culprit used the shortcut. Following the traits left by the culprit, since there were loads of blood ejected from the crime scene, the culprit must have a considerable amount of blood on them, traces of blood are bound to be retained on his getaway. And, in fact, there were dozens! Ayumi used her perceptive keen eye and found several of them, until the blood stain indications ended. On the huge crossing road, they met Takagi and Chiba again, and learned the fact that the investigation might come into a halt due to the miniscule clues they had found.

Conan felt rather discouraged; he compromised, he insticaged everyone to go home. Mitsuhiko was puzzled: he could not believe that Conan actually gave up on cracking the case, which shocked him completely. Haibara explained that probably Conan realised the case was not suitable for a detective to unravel, as it is a random indiscriminate murder committed by a random culprit, which does not have any relationship to the victim, so victim's friend circle could not be inquired about, and as a result, no suspects can be narrowed down to. At this instant, they just got to see a lady cleaning the mess near a metal pole; it was supposedly caused by a guy riding a bicycle, who bumped into the pole. Conan's sorrow had transformed into pure chuckle in just a heartbeat - he got it, the truth, and the trick the culprit used to flee in the middle of the city pavement with a bunch of witnesses, and had a large amount of blood stained on their clothes.

People

Jiro Takamatsu
	Victim (bludgeoned) 50 years old Moneylender

Woman
	Witness

Resolution

  Show spoilers »

Obviously, the guy who bumped into that metal pole was the culprit, for what? Of course to utilise the ambulance to escape in a way that his blood from the victim would not be spotted.

Within the Hospital

The Detective Boys visited a sickhouse in a hospital, and the patient was named Kanta Sakaguchi. Conan and the rest began revealing the trick he used to flee using the ambulance. Haibara proposed the famous quote "the best place to hide a leaf is in a forest", Sakaguchi camouflaged the blood from the deceased Takamatsu with his own blood, by bumping into the metal pole to cause the injury. That way, the police would not track him down in this aspect. The bicycle was just a random one being parked casually by someone, seemingly abandoned.

Kanta Sakaguchi
	30 years old Culprit

Planned Accident
	Location: Unknown street Victim: Kanta Sakaguchi Age: 30 years old Injury: Blunt force trauma Culprit: Kanta Sakaguchi

Conan then showed him the evidence he got: a piece of paper that was initially stuck on that bicycle.

Abandoned bicycles will be removed. Abandoning bicycles is prohibited in this area. Please park your bicycle at a parking station.

When Sakaguchi was in a rush, he hastily took out this piece of paper off the bicycle and left it near a bush. And some fingerprints with the blood he had were deposited. After seeing the positive proof, Sakaguchi was enraged; he seized that apper from Conan's hand and immediatly ate it.

Megure's Arrival and the Motive

Sakaguchi recounting his crime.

Despite that, Inspector Megure arrived as well, demonstrating him the final evidence - the bloody clothes they obtained from the hospital, which was tested to have some blood components of the deceased.

Sakaguchi confessed the sin. He explained that he did not know the victim; he only saw him sleeping on top of the bench in the park, so he attempted to steal the golden watch. However, Takamatsu woke up abruptly midway, and they got into a fight, eventually leading to the death of Takamatsu.

Aftermath

After the case has been solved, the Detective Boys were on their way home, and Genta proposed that he knew another shortcut to go. He led everyone into the off-beaten-track forest, and Mistuhiko roared that they would definitely get home faster and easier with the normal route. Implying that shortcuts may not always be the optimal solution, just like how they tried to find shortcut in this murder case.

Trivia

• Due to the highly coincide of this episode's title with the well-known Japanese variety show Run for Money (逃走中), its official Twitter account posted jokes like "Run for Money in Conan!?".

In other languages

Language	Title	Translation
Arabic	المجرم الهارب	The Fugitive Criminal
French (Subbed)	Le vrai coupable est en cavale	The true culprit is on the run

See also

• Season 28