Rum

Rum
275px
Profile
Japanese name:	ラム (Ramu)
Age:	Unknown
Gender:	Unknown (Gaito Hotta assumed female)
Occupation:	Black Organization second-in-command
Statistics
First appearance:	Unknown
Appearances:	Chapters: 33 Chapters: 3 Episodes: 24 Movies: 2 Openings: 3 Openings: 1

Rum (ラム ,Ramu) is a member and the second-in-command of the Black Organization in Detective Conan.

Background

Judging from Shuichi Akai/Subaru Okiya's descriptions, Rum appears to have high rank in the organization and is very close to the Boss. Later on, Ai Haibara remarks that Rum is second only to the Boss of the Black Organization, suggesting that he is their second-in-command. Rum's identity and mission are currently unknown.

Appearance

Rum has a damaged eye which has been replaced with an artificial eye. It is unknown which eye was damaged. So far, characters with damaged eyes have been shown to either have a scar over the eye (e.g. Kansuke Yamato) or wear sunglasses (e.g. Hyoue Kuroda and Gozu) where one lens is drawn tinted so the damaged eye is not visible. The anime treatment of the "false eye and glasses"-type characters shows their false pupils not contracting or enlarging like their working eye. However, there is no guarantee that Rum will follow either of these character models.

Various Black Organization members have given conflicting accounts of his overall appearance and build. Some say Rum is a strongly-built man, some say he looks feminine, and some say he is an old man. The conflicting descriptions of Rum's appearance suggests that he doesn't present himself to others in a straightforward fashion.

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  Rum's silhouette with a strongly-built man physique (episode 792).

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  Rum's silhouette with a feminine physique (episode 792).

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  Rum's silhouette with an elderly physique (episode 792).

Appellations

Picture	Name	What they call Rum	What Rum calls them
	Gin	Rum Close aide of that person (ano kata no sokkin)	-
	Vermouth	Rum	-
	Hidemi Hondou	Rum	-
60px	Curaçao	Rum	-

Picture	Name	What they call Rum	What Rum calls them
	Shuichi Akai	Rum	-
	Subaru Okiya	Rum	-
	Jodie Starling	Rum	-

Picture	Name	What they call Rum	What Rum calls them
	Conan Edogawa	Rum	-
	Shinichi Kudo	Rum	-
	Ai Haibara	Rum	-

Plot overview

File:The RUM text message.jpg

The text message that Shuichi received.

Scarlet Epilogue (Manga: 898, Anime: 792)

Shuichi Akai (as Subaru Okiya) calls Jodie Starling and Andre Camel to the Kudos' house. He informs them that the undercover CIA agent Hidemi Hondou reported to him that a new organization member is on the move. As she only sent three letters "RUM", Akai deduces that it was done in a hurry. He recalls having heard the code name a few times when he was still infiltrating the organization, and notes that the member seems to be really close to the boss. Akai also tells them to report this back to James Black, while emphasizing that their new threat is someone even more important than Gin.

Scriptwriter Murder Case (Manga: 906-908, Anime: 792-793)

Conan asks Haibara about Rum. She tells him that she never met Rum in person but has heard of the number two-ranked agent in the Organization. His characteristics differ depending on who is describing him. Some say he is a strongly-built man, some say he looks feminine, and some say he is an old man. Others believe that all of these are just descriptions of body substitutes Rum uses. Haibara also says there is one characteristic that is the same for all stories about Rum -- one of his eyes is damaged and has been replaced with an artificial eye.

They then encounter a murder case where all three suspects happen to have characteristics like Rum's: Kuramichi Habanaka a 40 years old strong-built man, Ronpei Sakaba a 31 years old feminine-looking man, and Denji Shibakaru a 63 years old man.

Department Store Stabbing Case (Manga: 939-941, Anime: ??)

While not directly related to Rum's plot, this case showed how several different people could see the same person and describe them as completely different. The culprit in this case flees down the stairs past various people of different heights and past objects of different colors, which resulted in the Detective Boys giving contradicting eye witness accounts. To further liken the situation to Rum, Genta even claims that he saw the number two written on the culprits clothes. In addition this case had a secondary plot point involving mascara.

Kohji Haneda's Death Case (Manga: 950, Anime: TBA)

Asaka's photo

File:Kohji's mirror.png Kohji's dying message mirror is a flip mirror

After Conan and Subaru solve the murder of Kunihisa Hiyama, they decipher the meaning of the missing letters on the mirror of Kohji's room. Kohji's dying message from 17 years ago was "ASACA RUM", so Rum might be involved in his death and the death Amanda Hughes, a big fan of his, along with the disappearance of Asaka, her bodyguard.

Since the dying message was "P T O N", the answer to it must contain all of the missing letters of "U MASCARA"
PUT ON MASCARA - P T ON = U MASCARA
U MASCARA - ASACA (for Asaka) = U M R
Which can be rearranged to make RUM
making the answer "ASACA RUM"

Soul Detective Murder Case (Manga: 951-953, Anime: TBA)

Conan decides that the missing bodyguard Asaka is most likely Rum.

After the case was over Masumi speaks to Mary and says that the only information that Gaito Hotta, the soul detective, had was that he believed Asaka to be a woman. He was going to pretend that he had summoned Kohji's spirit and have it say that a woman was going to kill him. According to Masumi, the culprit said that someone saw Asaka holding "that small mirror".

Conan considers that if Asaka is Rum, then perhaps what Haibara said about being feminine refers to looking girly on the outside but strong like a man on the inside. If Rum had been a bodyguard 17 years ago, then their age must be pretty high. Conan also ponders the possibility that Mary is Rum after having shrunken, being girly yet strong and older than she looks.

A song named ASACA (Manga: 954-957, Anime: TBA)

Due to an artist announcing a concert with a new song called "Asaca" Conan, Ran, Sonoko, and Subaru go to the concert hall to investigate. There they encounter Amuro and Azusa who are trying to get in as well. Ran comments that it seems weird that Azusa is present due to her mentioning in a previous case that she is not interested in music. Conan determines that this "Azusa" is actually Vermouth in disguise and that she and Amuro are there for the same reason. By the end of the case it is determined that the song being named "Asaca" is only a coincidence and not related to Rum.

File:Conan and Bourbon dying message.jpg

Conan thinks that Amuro knows about the dying message.

Curse of the Nue (Manga: 958, Anime: TBA)

Conan inwardly comments about Vermouth and Amuro's presence in the last case. He states that they must have been there because they know about the code "Asaca Rum" that was left by Kohji Haneda 17 years ago. When Azusa mentions that she had seen two strangers approach the detective agency, Conan immediately assumes that it might have been Gin and Vodka, but it turns out to be Heiji and Kazuha instead.

Non-Canon Plot Overview

Movie 20: The Darkest Nightmare

Rum doesn't appear in movie 20 directly:

• Curaçao's flashback shows Rum speaking through a computer in an altered voice.
• Vermouth receives a call from him/her by the end titles.

Relationships analysis

Organization

The Boss

The Boss is his/her only superior.

Gin

Gin was disdainful of Rum, criticizing his/her sloppiness in the Kohji Haneda and Amanda Hughes murder case.

Speculation

Gender

So far, all the Black Organization codenames for men are liquors while women's codenames are wine or wine-based cocktails. Rum should be a man if this pattern holds.

Haibara's list of potential descriptions "strong man, feminine man, and elderly man" all suggest Rum is a man, although Conan has entertained the possibility Rum is a woman by suspecting Mary.

Conan currently suspects an individual named Asaka is Rum. Gaito Hotta, who witnessed Asaka holding a small hand mirror, believed Asaka was a woman. Gaito's reliability is questionable and perhaps influenced by the handmirror, typically a woman's accessory.

Individual characters

Asaka

Conan implicates the missing bodyguard Asaka as Kohji Haneda's and Amanda Hughes' killer from 17 years ago. The encoded dying message left by Kohji using a broken mirror seems to point to Asaka being Rum. While it unclear whether Asaka is Rum or merely related (the extent of Kohji's knowledge of Rum and Asaka and how he came by it is unclear), the Black Organization itself has confirmed the decoding "ASACA RUM" to be correct by being paranoid about things named "Asaca" with a C connected to a 17 year ago timeframe.

Mary

Conan considers the possibility Mary is Rum after being shrunken. She is feminine but tough on the inside like a man and perhaps older than she looks, which is one way of interpreting Haibara's description of Rum.

Hyoue Kuroda

Hyoue Kuroda is a middle-aged strong-built man. His right eye was injured in a previous incident. Chief of the first division of Nagano Police, his favorite drink is black tea, which is actually a dark red color. He was first introduced at the end of file 913.

In file 925, Haibara said to Conan that she hadn't felt the Black Organization "aura" from Kuroda. She had only gripped Conan's shoulder because Hyoue's face and expression were really scary. In fact, she implied Kuroda couldn't be Rum as he saw her and should have noticed she resembles Shiho Miyano. If he were Rum, he would've broken into Professor Agasa's house, yet this didn't happen.

Kansuke Yamato

Kansuke Yamato is a strong young man, but limps like an old man because he uses a cane to compensate for an injured left leg. Kansuke has long hair pulled back into a ponytail which could be considered feminine if he let it down. Kansuke's left eye is also damaged, but he does not use an artificial eye. Gosho Aoyama disclaimed Kansuke Yamato from being Rum in two animal crossing hints.

Taka'aki Morofushi

Taka'aki Morofushi is a young man with a feminine physique. So far, there's been no indication he has a prosthetic eye.

Shukichi Haneda

Shukichi Haneda is a young man with no indication of a prosthetic eye. He has seen both Conan and Haibara twice, giving him an easy opportunity to find Sherry and report it to the Black Organization.

Kiyonaga Matsumoto

Kiyonaga Matsumoto is a middle-aged strongly-built man whose left eye has a scar over it.

The Old Man at Shuichi Akai's loyalty test

Since Gin never appeared at the loyalty test, it was very likely the old man was a member of the Black Organization who went to scout ahead and reported that "Dai Moroboshi" was a spy. If he has a prosthetic eye is unknown, and he does not appear effeminate nor strongly built.

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Three descriptions for one person

Various members of the Black Organization all disagree about Rum's overall appearance. For this to be the case, Rum must not present himself to others straightforwardly. There are several possibilities why this could be:

• Rum can disguise himself well.

Fairly straightforward as far as explanations go, Rum could appear to different agents with different faces and builds leading to confusion. Since he is the number two of the Black Organization and likely close to the boss, he has a need for security and secrecy and is probably also multi-talented like most other codenamed agents.

• He has features of all three types leading to different conclusions.

Rum might have features of all three types of builds so that each witness comes to a different conclusion about his appearance depending on what they personally emphasize. As an example, Kansuke Yamato is a strongly built man, uses a cane like an old man, and his ponytail could give someone the impression he is feminine. If Kansuke tended to only appear to others in shadowed environments, then it's possible he could be mistaken for an old man or even a woman when viewed in profile.

The confusion may not stem solely from appearance. In The Department Store Stabbing Case, the three detective boys give conflicting statements of the same stabber because they each saw different things depending on their vantage points and personal prejudices. Metropolitan Police Detective Love Story 4 and Kobayashi-sensei's Love are cases with a similar theme. Similarly, members of the Black Organization with different backgrounds might come to different conclusions depending on the context they encounter Rum in.

If members of the Black Organization only interact with Rum by video-phone conversation, they might come to different conclusions about his appearance depending on how he speaks. If Rum uses old style Japanese like an elderly person might, has a deep voice like that of a well built man, but is excessively polite and uses pronouns like watashi (私 ), then three different conclusions of his overall appearance can result.

• The codename Rum is shared by more than one person.

Also self explanatory, but requires each Rum persona to have a fake eye - a pretty unlikely coincidence if each of their eyes was lost in a separate accident.

In a postcard from Gosho in 2016 he said that Rum was one person.

• Rum uses body doubles.

Rum using body doubles with different builds was suggested by Haibara to explain why different Black Organization agents had different impressions. It does not explain the fake eye common between them, unless these doubles were required to wear one.

Contradictions about the fake eye

File:Nick griffin bnp from flickr user britishnationalism (cropped).jpg

A man with a prosthetic eye (left eye)

It is particularly odd that the Black Organization members are unanimous about Rum having a fake eye while disagreeing about obvious appearance facts that are typically the first to be noticed. Prosthetic eyes are usually subtle, as shown in the picture on the right, and can be easily mistaken for some other type of ocular problem such as lazy eye. That implies there is some distinct reason why everyone agrees that Rum has a prosthetic eye while disagreeing about other obvious facts. There are several possibilities why this might be:

• The prosthetic eye Rum uses when talking to other members of the Black Organization is very obviously fake

While such an obvious fake eye would be detrimental in public because it would draw attention, Rum may prefer using a non-subtle prosthetic when in the presence of the rest of the Black Organization. For instance, Rum could use an obvious fake for the purposes of intimidation or to draw attention away from the rest of him so that he is not well remembered. Rum could also use a mechanical gadget in place of his eye that augments his vision.

• Rum's prosthetic eye is a rumor everyone knows.

One possible reason everyone agrees about Rum's fake eye is because it is an oft-circulated fact that he has one. Perhaps there is some tale about how he lost it that gets passed from member to member. In this case, it wouldn't even matter if Rum actually had a fake eye so long as everyone was inclined to say that he did.

Animal Crossing hints

A joke panel in which Gosho introduced the character Lum Invader as Rum. Click the image for more information.

In two promotional messages sent out through the video game Animal Crossing: New Leaf for Nintendo 3DS sometime around or slightly before September 3rd 2014, Gosho said:

• "Actually, Rum has already appeared lol"

• Please note that Gosho, as a crossover joke, has introduced a character named Lum Invader from another manga as the Black Organization member Rum. Gosho also showed Lum in a panel in file 906 and referenced the earlier gag in the concurrent Sherry's soliloquy. Gosho may have been intending to mislead fans with this animal crossing by exploiting the ambiguity between Rum and Lum.

• "Kan-chan is not Rum ^^"

Taking these hints at face value, Rum has appeared at or before File 906.

Gallery

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  Kir's mail for Shuichi/Subaru (episode 783)

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  Three Rum's silhouettes (file 906)

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  Three Rum's silhouettes with fake eyes (episode 793 only)

See also

• Characters
• Black Organization
• Rum (Alcohol)