Shuichi Akai

Shuichi Akai
Profile
Age:	?
Gender:	Male
Nicknames:	Shu (Jodie) Dai-kun (Akemi) Akai-kun (James)
Aliases:	Rye Dai Moroboshi
Statistics
First appearance:	Manga: Chapter 287 Anime: Episode 230
Appearances:	Chapters: 97 Chapters: 4 Episodes: 80 Episodes: 2 Movies: 4 OVAs: 0 Specials: 1 Openings: 22 Closings: 4
Keyhole number:	Volume 37
Actors
Japanese voice:	Shuichi Ikeda

Shuichi Akai (赤井 秀一 ,Akai Shuuichi) is an F.B.I. agent and a major figure in the battle against the Black Organization. He once assumed the identity of Dai Moroboshi (諸星 大 ,Moroboshi Dai) and infiltrated the Organization, where he was given the codename Rye (ライ ). During this time he made enemies with Gin and Bourbon and became romantically involved with Akemi Miyano.

Background

Shuichi Akai is an American of Japanese descent and member of the American Federal Bureau of Investigation, on special assignment in Japan to capture Vermouth. His superior is James Black and his partner is Jodie Starling. He had infiltrated the Organization under the name Dai Moroboshi - and the codename "Rye" - as a mole and dated Akemi Miyano, one of their low-ranking members, to feed information to the FBI. In order to facilitate the latter, and later because he had genuinely developed feelings for Akemi, Akai saw himself forced to break up his then on-going relationship with Jodie. Later on, his cover in the Organization was accidentally blown by his colleague Andre Camel, and when Akemi was killed, he declared her murderer, Gin (with whom he seems to have had some tensions even before his exposure), his personal enemy.

Infiltration of the Black Org

Five years prior to the current time-line, FBI agent Akai Shuuichi infiltrated the Black Organization using the alias Dai Moroboshi as a mole and dated Akemi Miyano, one of their low-ranking members, in order to meet Shiho Miyano and use her influence to get into the Black Organization. Although at first he was simply using Akemi as a tool, they both fell in love with each other. Akai distinguished himself as an agent and two years prior to the current time-line received the codename Rye and was called to work under executive agent Gin. The FBI laid a trap hoping to capture Gin at a warehouse where the meeting was supposed to take place, but the Organization discovered Akai's true allegiance and Gin never appeared.

Personality

Akai is a very professional agent. Even in personal matters, he remains cool, even detached, from anyone, but his redeeming value is a great sense of loyalty to anyone he knows. He is a skilled and relentless pursuer and detective, qualities which have labeled him the number one enemy of the Black Organization and earned him the nickname "Silver Bullet". He looks forward to opportunities to hunt the Black Org down and get revenge for Akemi. He also acts somewhat independently among the FBI and even his boss James Black has trouble getting ahold of him.

James Black says Akai is an introverted person who doesn't easily get close to people and he has become even more closed off since Akemi's death. He doesn't often say what he is thinking. Akai does seem to get along well with Conan.

Abilities

Intelligence

Akai is capable of thinking on par with Conan. He once set up a sniper ambush at a nearby building, knowing that the Black Organization will come and try to kill Kogoro. He also mentioned that he knew that "making them think the FBI set up the transmitter was the priority."

Sniping

Akai is shown to be very capable at sniping, to the point of shooting a small piece of gum out of Gin's hand from about 700 yards away. He also managed to get a shot on Gin from the same distance.

Plot overview

Bus Jack (Manga: 287-289, Anime: 230-231)

Akai's first appearance on the bus

Conan, Agasa, and the detective boys board a bus headed to a ski resort. Akai gets on the bus wearing a face mask in order to tail Jodie Starling and Vermouth who is disguised as Dr. Tomoaki Araide. The bus is hijacked by robbers demanding their boss be freed from prison and Conan discovers they must have an accomplice in the back row where Akai Shuuichi is sitting. Akai becomes a suspect. After the boss is freed, the robbers call Akai and Araide up to the front to put on the hijackers' ski jackets. Conan ruins the hijackers' plans by directing the bus driver to slam on the brakes, sending the hijackers crashing to the floor. Akai keeps his footing and goes to attack one of the hijackers but is confused when the robber faceplants before he could strike: Conan's tranquilizer dart got him first. The police move in to apprehend the hijackers and Akai watches as Araide accosts Conan for wanting to leave before having the gash on his arm tended. Before moving out, Akai records a message saying he couldn't find Vermouth's target, Shiho Miyano.

James Black Kidnapping (Manga: 325-327, Anime: 258-259)

Akai leers at the kidnappers.

James Black plans to meet with Akai in a stadium lobby after the Paul & Annie animal circus show. He was unable to meet with Akai at first because he was accosted by reporters thinking he was the show's wealthy sponsor and dragged away from them by the Detective Boys. Akai and James probably haven't met in a while because James doesn't know Akai cut his previously waist length hair. James is then mistakenly kidnapped by criminals who plan to ransom him. Akai, looking for James Black, drives past the Detective Boys. A prior member of the Black Org, Akai's gaze triggers Ai's senses, and she whips around asking if Conan saw who was driving the Chevrolet truck.

Somehow, Akai figures out where James is and catches up to the kidnappers' fake police car and begins following it. Akai quickly zooms ahead when Conan and the police arrange for an army of police cars to box in the kidnappers' car to force it to stop. Akai drives by Agasa's car and looks in, and Conan shields Haibara from his view. In the confusion of the aftermath, James leaves with Akai before he could be questioned by police. James retells the events of the kidnapping and asks if Akai brought him to Japan to "make [Akai's] lover come back to [Akai]." Akai affirms this and says that he wants "his lover (koibito) to regret they ever left me with tears of blood.". Akai's "lover" is a reference to the ironic codename he gave Gin: "koibito" meaning lover. He later makes Gin cry the foretold tears of blood when Akai's bullet grazes Gins cheek in the events of "Black Impact".

Conan's suspicion and Ran's memory

Conan suspects there is another Black Organization member who was present at the director's mourning party after considering how Pisco obtained another purple handkerchief which enabled him to leave the investigation. After the bus jack, Haibara tells Conan there was definitely someone from the Organization on the bus. Conan's first suspect is Akai Shuuichi whose behavior seemed suspicious. Conan recognizes Akai in the James Black kidnapping case. Conan shows sensitivity to the prospect of Akai investigating them when one of the suspects says he saw someone wearing a black beanie (really Makoto).

Sato's Matchup (Manga: 328-330, Anime: 253-254) and Bloody Valentine (Manga: 331-334, Anime: 266-268)

Ran notices Akai leave the restaurant where Miwako Sato was having her miai with officer Shiratori. Akai had come to check on on Dr. Araide who is really Vermouth in disguise. Ran realizes she met him somewhere once before, but she cannot remember where. Later, at a chocolate-making cottage, one of the suspects says he shot at a tall man wearing a black beanie thinking he was a bear. Ran says she might know the person in the black knitted hat and Conan wonders if she means Akai. He later starts to ask her about it, but changes his mind mid-sentence.

The Life of a Flower (Manga: 335-337, Anime: 269-270)

Takagi informs Conan all the records of Kogoro's cases were stolen from the police station on the day of the bus hijack incident and later returned. Conan begins to wonder who the target is and first suspects Akai may be behind the incident because of the timing. Akai stakes out the Kogoro Detective agency.

The Rotten Apple Case

Shuuichi in New York.

During a visit in New York, Ran encountered a strange man apparently working for the FBI during his hunt of a serial killer aka Sharon Vineyard loose in the area.

Meeting with Ran

Ran and Akai meet coincidentally in the street.

Black Impact

Akai with a sniper rifle aiming at the Black Organization 700 yards away.

Mouri Kogoro, Ran, and Conan help newscaster Mizunashi Rena with a door bell prank case. In order to catch the prankster, Conan sticks a bug and microphone wrapped in gum outside the door. The case is solved, but Conan forgets the bug and it gets stuck on Rena's shoe. Unfortunately Conan discovers Rena is a member of the Black Organization, Kir, and she is participating in an assassination mission. Conan has to retrieve the tracker before the Black Organization notices and suspects that Kogoro planted it. Jodie Starling contacts Akai and tells him about the predicament, but doesn;t say what he will do to help. James Black comments that Akai was always the reticent type, but has closed up even more since the death of his girlfriend (later revealed to be Akemi Miyano).

After hearing a lot of static on their radios, Gin looks for the cause of the interference and finds Conan's tracker on Kir's shoe which had been left in his car when she changed clothes. With the boss's approval, Gin abandons the original assassination plans and heads towards the Mouri Detective Agency to kill Kogoro. Conan stops Kogoro from being assassinated, but Gin still has Conan's tracker which has his fingerprints on it. As Gin holds it up for a closer look, it is shot out from between his fingers by Akai who had set up with a sniper rifle on a building 700 yards away.

Gin is shot by Akai.

Gin, perhaps anticipating who would be responsible, grabs Korn's rifle and uses it to locate Akai Shuuichi. At this time, Akai fires a bullet that passes through Gin's scope and grazes his left cheek causing it to bleed. At this time Akai says "we finally meet, my lovely, lovely koibito-san". Aoyama Gosho uses a japanese literary device to give the word "koibito" a double meaning. Japanese in Detective Conan includes the pronunciation, called "furigana", in hiragana next to the kanji. Normally the furigana matches the word in the kanji; however, Gosho used the kanji for "old enemy" (宿敵), but the furigana for "koibito" (こいびと), giving Akai's word a double meaning. The true meaning of what Akai meant is "old enemy", but what he said out loud was the furigana "koibito". Akai had ironically nicknamed Gin "loved one" despite thinking of him as his arch enemy. By grazing Gin's cheek, Akai fulfilled his promise he made at the end of the James Black Kidnapping to make his "lover" bleed tears of blood.

Akai then fired twice into Gin's bullet proof vest to encourage him to leave quietly, purposefully avoiding killing Gin although he was capable of finishing him. Akai's stated reason for letting Gin and the rest of the Organization members go was to avoid having a gunfight erupt in the middle of Beika city where innocent people might be injured. Despite Gin's reservations, Akai also successfully made the Black Organization think that the FBI was behind the tracker, and that Kogoro had been the bait to draw them into Akai's range.

Red vs. Black

Kir kills the 'Silver-bullet'.

Eventually, following the capture of Organization member Rena Mizunashi, he was introduced to Conan, and the two worked on a plan to re-introduce Rena, who was in fact a CIA mole, back into the ranks of the Organization. One condition of her reintegration, however, was that she should personally kill Akai, who had been declared the Organization's most dangerous enemy. Mizunashi lured him to an isolated spot for a meeting and shot him at point-blank range before incinerating his car with a bomb. Strangely, Akai seemed to accept his impending doom with great calm.

Faked Death?

Several abnormalities surrounding Akai's death invite the possibility that Akai faked his death with Conan and Mizunashi Rena's help. Inconsistent details like disappearing blood trails are evidence Akai's body was tampered with by someone other than Kir, and Conan's reaction to the news of Akai's death is suspiciously subdued. The theory is that Akai's death was faked by using blank cartridges and blood packets with small detonators to simulate gunshots. When Kir moves to the front of Akai's truck to prepare the bomb, it creates a gap of time where Gin and Vodka cannot see Akai's body with Kir's camera. At this time, Akai switches places with Rikumichi Kusuda's body which had been dressed up beforehand to look like Akai. Akai escapes the truck before it explodes. Meanwhile Conan's will loan Jodie Starling one of his identical cellphones which has Rikumichi's fingerprints on it. She will think they are Akai's and when she goes to validate the identity of the body with the police, it will match Rikumichi's fingerprints and she will be fooled into thinking Akai died.

Current Events

"Scar Akai"

Some time afterwards, during a stroll through Tokyo, Jodie encountered a man who looks exactly like Shuichi, but with a huge burn scar on the side of his face. Jodie was reluctant to believe that this man was Shuichi, and has not told anyone of her discovery, rather attempting to figure it out on her own. In the Detective Boys vs. Robber Group case, the man helped Conan defeat the robbery gang, though Conan himself didn't learn about his presence or involvement then.

Subaru Okiya

One popular theory is that Subaru Okiya is Shuichi Akai. Okiya first appeared not long after Akai's apparent death. Okiya and Akai have many similarities, such as appearance and left handedness. Conan trusts him and ignores Haibara's reactions to him. Conan also seemed to know about the place where Okiya lived before they met. Ran also feels like she recognizes Okiya from somewhere. The name "Okiya Subaru" continues the pattern of puns on "Char Aznable" that "Akai Shuuichi" and his alias "Moroboshi Dai" follow.

Relationship Analysis

• Shuichi Akai and Akemi Miyano

Shuichi originally met Akemi Miyano by accident. She accidentally hit him with her car when he was walking in the street. Akemi was concerned over this, and helped take him to the hospital, watching over him until he was better. When he woke up, he felt no anger over what she did, and even asked for her name, to which a very flustered Akemi told him her name, while he told her his fake name: Dai Moroboshi. After this, both of them discovered they were in the Black Organization, and began dating. However, for Akai, there was a catch involved. To the FBI, Akai's relationship was merely a stepping stone, something to use to take advantage of the Black Organization, and to get information. However, as James Black later recalls, Akai had begun to fall in love with Akemi, and consider her his real girlfriend.

The last text message Akemi had sent Shuichi, before her death.

In Akemi's heart, she always felt that Akai (Dai,) really wasn't who he seemed to be. Later, due to a massive error by Andre Camel, Akai is discovered to be an FBI agent, leading to his exile from the Organization. When Akemi discovers this, she runs to him in tears, sad and angry, and afraid that Akai really had only used her to get information on the Organization. When Akai asks her why she never said anything about her suspicions before, Akemi basically hints it is because she loves him. After this, Akemi and Akai don't hear from each other for a long while, and Akemi's role in the Organization dwindles because they believe that she gave information about the Organization to Akai. After the successful bank heist, she is killed by the Organization. However, on the day of the heist, Akemi sent Akai a long text message, tell him that after the heist, when she is finally free from the Organization, if he wants to be her real boyfriend. Akai is never able to answer this, as she is killed by Gin. Akai treasures this text message, and it was even still in his phone, many months after Akemi's death.

• Shuichi Akai and Jodie Starling

Later on in the series it shows that Akai and Jodie used to go out in episode 563 and he broke up with her because he was going out with Akemi and didn't want to feel guilty about two timing them.

• Shuichi Akai and Gin

Shuichi Akai and Gin are rivals and hate one another. Akai refers to Gin as "Koibito", which means lover which is ironic as he thinks of Gin as his arch enemy.

• Shuichi Akai and Haibara Ai

When Haibara first met Akai, she thought he was a member of the Black Organization. They do not meet very often, but Akai seems to know of Haibara's identity.

• Shuichi Akai and Conan Edogawa

Akai and Conan are capable of thinking on par with one another. In the short time they have worked together, Akai has come to respect Conan's intellect and deductive skills. It may very well be the case that he might one day find out that Conan and Shinichi Kudo are really one and the same person. However, there is speculation amongst fans that Akai already knows Conan's secret, due to the fact that he figured out that Ai was formerly Sherry and (more than likely) learned about her research for the Black Organization and the two possible effects of APTX 4869.

• Shuichi Akai and Ran Mouri

To Akai, Ran reminds her of Akemi.

Name origin

Akai's name comes from the Mobile Suit Gundam character Char Aznable, whose nickname was the "Red (Akai) Comet", and Char's voice actor Shuichi Ikeda (who is also Akai's voice actor). Additionally, his alias, Dai Moroboshi, comes from Char's real name, Casval Rem Deikun (sounds like Dai-kun in Japanese). Moroboshi can also mean falling star, another possible allusion to Red Comet.

Trivia

• Akai's voice actor, Shuichi Ikeda, is the real-life husband of Akemi Miyano's voice actress, Sakiko Tamagawa.

See also

• Characters