Renya Karasuma
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| Renya Karasuma | |
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| Japanese name: | 烏丸 蓮耶 (Karasuma Ren'ya) |
|---|---|
| Age: | over 140 (thought to be dead) |
| Gender: | Male |
| Date of birth: | unknown |
| Relatives: | Mrs. Karasuma (mother, deceased) |
| Occupation: | Aristocrat (formerly) Black Organization boss |
| Nicknames: | Ano kata (あの方 lit. "That Person") Boss (ボス Bosu) |
| 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 boss behind the Black Organization, who is respectfully called as Ano kata (あの方 lit. "That Person") by his subordinates, and the primary antagonist in the entire manga and anime franchise Detective Conan.
Contents
Background
Renya Karasuma was a wealthy and influential multi-millionaire who is the most powerful person in Japan, with a lot of famous, powerful and political people contacts, and also rivals Jirokichi Suzuki, the senior adviser of the Suzuki Financial Group. He is said to have died elderly between forty and twenty years prior to the current timeline, during the Showa period, under mysterious circumstances.[1] During his lifetime, he had collected over three hundred pieces of antique priceless art. When his mother had died, he inherited Sunset Manor from her and over time filled his vacation home with his silver crest which depicts a rolled-up crow. Below are several examples about that logo:
He found a clue about the King, Queen and Knight leading to a vast fortune left by his mother and supposedly hidden in that beautiful western-style manor house, but he was unable to solve it himself. Consumed by his own greed for the treasure, he came to hire 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. The Karasuma family had declined, and the house had fallen into other hands. Hardly anything has been touched since the incident and those murders were the cause behind the numerous old bloodstains all over in the house.
Head of the shady Karasuma Group, a Shinjuku[2] institution that pay well as sponsor but there are a lot of bad rumors going around about them[3], he directs activities and plans crimes to protect and advance interests of those Conan calls "The Black Organization". While mysteriously operating behind the scenes, he communicates with his subordinates only through text messages. His phone number, encoded as the famous children song Nanatsu no Ko, is #969#6261[4], purposefully made non-functional by Gosho Aoyama to prevent prank calls.[5] Haibara warns Conan of the danger of calling it, likening it to Pandora's Box. He is responsible for promoting agents[6] and deciding on their alcoholic code names, but he doesn't have one own. The FBI think that only a few of the highest ranking executive agents like Gin or Vermouth could lead them to the elusive boss.
Personality
Though not much is known about his personality, Renya Karasuma is described by the famous detective Furuyo Senma as a greedy, cruel and impatient man. He appears to be materialistic as he was driven by his own greed while searching for the hidden treasure inside Sunset Manor. Furthermore, he seems not to value the cost of human life as he brutally killed numerous people that he invited just as motivation to find the treasure faster, a decision made by himself who was driven by his own insanity.
Intelligent and manipulator, he is fairly ruthless, willing to dispatch senior agents who have been loyal to the Black Organization 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.[7] Somehow, he can maintain loyalty and unity within the organization despite many agents disliking or even outright wishing to murder certain others. He is known to give permission to agents who wish to pursue certain secret missions, such as Bourbon and Vermouth's plan to make sure Shuichi Akai was truly dead.
He is especially close to Vermouth, who is described as his favorite, much to the chagrin of her enemies and those who mistrust her. He is also close to Gin, who often acts as an intermediary between he and other agents. Gin usually takes the lead planning role in assassinations that he has ordered. While most agents follow his orders, some agents have acted contrary to his wishes. As Conan before, he notices the photo of Pisco pointing his gun at the ceiling. Unless he bring Conan back alive, Irish should think his true identity is something the boss would find hard to believe.
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 Black Organization. In that regard, he's more like Vermouth than Gin who doesn't believe a single person who can take the syndicate down in one shot exists.
Appearance
Renya Karasuma has only appeared as an ominous silhouette: the hair extended to the neck, a large nose shaped like a beak, and a somewhat obese body shape. He dressed in black with a white scarf, held 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 and sometimes is used to introduced the Black Organization enshrouded in mystery or even other unrelated cases. The operatives dress in black, which Akemi Miyano says is supposed to resemble crows, so he is a crow-like man and Sunset Manor was his personified nest. He is right-handed.
Plot overview
The Gathering of the Detectives! (Manga: 299-302, Anime: 219)
One stormy night, the six world greatest detectives Kogoro Mouri (along with Ran and Conan), Saguru Hakuba (and his pet hawk Watson), Furuyo Senma, Shukuzen Oogami, Harufumi Mogi, and Ikumi Soda were called by Kaitou Kid to an old mansion covered in blood in the isolated Shizuoka Prefecture mountains, an Inaka Village[8] at 2 km from Okuno Dam[9] and six miles from a lonely gas station. While they were having their so-called "last supper", the host[10] told that this mansion belonged to Renya Karasuma, who forty years ago had died at age 99, and that there is a treasure hidden inside. That name seems to trigger the guests attention. Hakuba had long heard of the blood-chilling tragedy only in frightened whispers, but were lies about an out-of-control auction from the powerful business world caused by two art robbers with marijuana cigarettes smoke.
At the end of the case, it is revealed that two years ago, after Senma accidentally let the story slip to him, Oogami immediately tracked down the house and started to look for the treasure, but he couldn't solve the riddle. He had put himself into massive debt to buy the house and was in serious trouble, so he came up with the plan to assemble a team of great detectives, but he was poisoned with potassium cyanide by his partner Senma before did just like Karasuma forty years ago. Along with Kogoro, Hakuba, Mogi, and Soda, Conan solved the riddle: using the only clock in the dining room which is the switch, a layer comes off the entire outer walls of the building, revealing solid gold underneath. Soda notes that it must be worth 100 billion yen, and that only Karasuma could do something on such a scale. Sunset being when the sky shines gold, it is literally a "Golden Manor".
Disguised as Kogoro from the start, Kaitou Kid had come for Karasuma's treasure, but it was too big for him to carry away. Oogami, who wanted to kill the young maid Aki Ishihara and all the others blaming Kaitou Kid once the treasure was found, and Senma, who killed him and almost created another same tragedy to decipher that riddle her father left for her while she was still alive, were all along possessed by Renya Karasuma.
Stradivarius Murder Case (Manga: 470, Anime: 385)
Conan visualized the boss as a big criminal silhouette behind Gin, Vodka, and Vermouth, with evil aura in the anime version to distinguish him from minor criminals.
The Strange Family's Request (Manga: 479, Anime: 398)
Conan visualized the boss as a criminal silhouette behind Gin, Vodka, and naked Vermouth in the anime version. It'd be a bad idea to send a message to that address, but Conan is calm down sure he'll get his chance one day and he'll contact the boss.
The Missing Maria Higashio Case (Manga: 1008, Anime: TBD)
Yusaku Kudo and Subaru Okiya have come to 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, Conan visualized Renya Karasuma as a silhouette before Gin, Vodka, naked Vermouth, Chianti, and Korn, as also his crest and the pet crow on his left shoulder.
Non-canon plot overview
The Last Wizard of the Century (Movie: 3)
While Conan chases down leads on their organization, he's constantly confronted by difficult cases. In the introduction sequence, one night running on ancient Greek ruins, he is suddenly stuck behind by a huge red demon with evil aura, of course the boss as the heart of the Black Organization, who moves among numerous yellow pieces, that represent all minor cases.
Time Travel of the Silver Sky (TV Special: 1)
A software created by Professor Agasa can give the identity of anyone in the world and tries to find out the boss' identity between Tomoaki Araide, Sharon Vineyard, Chiyoko Yuasa, Yusaku Kudo, four Shinichi's classmates, and a circus white lion, but eventually failed because of his untouchable forbidden area.
The Black Organization...Revealed (Special Manga: 294, Anime: TBD)
When she reveals to Conan the Black Organization's plan to use Generic's memory erasure drug in order to have complete control of the world, Haibara visualized the boss as a criminal silhouette clutching a globe.
Appellations
Relationships analysis
Black Organization
Rum
Rum is the second-in-command in the organization, meaning that he must trust him/her.
Gin
He trusts Gin enough to make him an executive agent in the general oversight division, and for good reason: Gin is among the most loyal of the high-ranking Black Organization members. Gin follows his orders closely and virtually never acts against the organization's greater interests, and in return he entrusts Gin to direct critical missions and key assassinations. He 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. Although Gin follows all orders from the boss, he acts on his own initiative on more than one occasion, as deciding to poison Shinichi Kudo 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 fears consequence to act without his permission, but being only the general oversight division secretary, Gin takes full responsibility.[15]
Vermouth
Vermouth is known as his 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 hates, mistrusts and wishes 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 Black 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.[16] However, even then, he still willingly sends her into deadly missions. He has also unintentionally allowed Vermouth to undermine the organization by protecting someone she thinks is especially dangerous: Silver Bullet. During an off-season Halloween party aboard a ship, discovered that Vermouth was up to something without the Black Organization's knowledge, he ordered Gin and Vodka to investigate. At the party, a man that Vermouth blackmailed to murder a director began screaming someone called Vermouth was to blame. Later, he sends a text message to Vermouth's cellphone informing her that her freedom was now being restricted and she was to return: "It looks like I have given you too much freedom. Come back to my side, Vermouth."
Chianti
Chianti fears him and, being a direct order from him, she must also work with Vermouth.[17] For avenge Calvados' death, she would've killed Vermouth a long time ago for real, if she wasn't his favorite, but swears she'll definitely kill her.[18] She seems envious for what Kir has used to make him let her join their four years ago.[6]
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 coincided with her story, so he promoted her to the codename Kir in recognition of her loyalty and sheer savageness. In truth, he was fooled. Ethan Hondou was Kir's father and they both are CIA spies infiltrating the Black Organization. Rena 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 make it appear like the story Ethan had just explained. He orders Kir to assassinate the politician Yasuteru Domon while holding an interview. After the Black Organization easily retrieved Kir from the FBI, Gin became suspicious of how ineffective the FBI's plan was and that Shuichi Akai did not made a strong move. Gin thought that Shuichi is hiding something and relays his doubt to him, who also agrees. He and Gin plan a test of Kir's loyalty. Meanwhile, an FBI agent becomes a suspect in a coincidental murder case. The Black Organization hears about it, and taking advantage of the FBI's distraction, 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. Akai and Kir conspired to fake Akai's death.
Bourbon
He dispatches Bourbon to search for the escaped scientist Shiho Miyano. However, Bourbon received his permission to execute a second, secret mission: verified Shuichi Akai's death by disguising as Akai and approaching his FBI colleagues. In truth, Rei has been persevering to turn in Shuichi to the organization to earn higher ranks to approach more closely to him.
Shiho Miyano/Ai Haibara
He orders the execution of Shiho Miyano after she boycotted the development of APTX 4869 and rebelled against the Black Organization.[19] Before she could be even executed, Shiho manages to escape and he ordered the Black Organization to hunt her down and murder her.[20][21] Conan figures out his full number, but Ai Haibara warns him not to call it. She knows all this from the start: the email address and the person behind it.
Pisco
Pisco has served him for many years. 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. After Pisco was accidentally caught on camera in the act of murder, showing him holding his gun in the newspaper, he direct ordered Gin to kill Pisco, which the latter does even though Pisco knew where Sherry is.
Rikumichi Kusuda
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 write to his e-mail address every day.
Irish
He orders Irish to disguise himself as Kiyonaga Matsumoto, infiltrate into Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, and retrieve a memory card with the personal information of all the Black Organization agents that have infiltrated various organizations, before the police catch the serial killer, who took it from their agent Masaaki Okakura he murdered without knowing what is on it, and find the card. When he discovers Conan's true identity, Irish plans to capture and bring the boy before him to discredit Gin, who killed Pisco, whom Irish respected like a father. 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 orders Generic to leave Sherry alone with her experiments and to make a new drug that controls memories. He planned to use this drug on all the most important people in the world, in particular to make the US president think who is one of the organization members, ergo having complete control of the world. However, Generic escapes the Black Organization using the same method as Sherry.
Others
Shinichi Kudo/Conan Edogawa
Shinichi Kudo, alias Conan Edogawa, is the greatest enemy of his organization, all for the sake of returning to his original form. He is indirectly responsible for Shinichi's whole life-threatening situation. When he met Gin and Vodka on a bullet train to Kyoto, Conan hoped that they could be meeting their mastermind in the dining car, but the resolution revealed that it wasn't his primary target.[22] Gin's discussion with Pisco about the planned murder of Nomiguchi revealed to Conan his existence. Conan forced Vermouth to surrender and take him to find the boss, but failed. Asking confirm to Kyosuke Haga about that old song, Conan later uncovers his phone number, but Haibara warns him of the danger of calling it. From now on, until this comes to a close, Shinichi is in a do-or-die situation.
Shuichi Akai
Capturing a high ranking member of the Black 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 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 due to a mistake made by Andre Camel. In the two years since the mission failure, he came to regard Akai could become the Black Organization's silver bullet, the threat whom he fears the most.
Kyosuke Senma
Kyosuke Senma was an archeologist who Karasuma invited to his manor house forty years ago. He wanted Senma to find the treasure before he died of old age. He had made copies of the riddle on a cheap mimeograph print on straw paper to hand out, and left one stuck between the piano keys. It was a very well-paid job. His wife and then 23-year-old daughter Furuyo received large sums of money, along with a letter from him, almost every day. But after six months, the money and letters suddenly stopped coming. Senma, who had never given their his address, vanished forever. Become a famous detective, Furuyo only found out the truth when she held his last letter, which she had kept as a memento, against a light. He had written a secret note by poking tiny holes in the paper left for her with a needle. He recorded the riddle of the treasure and wrote that many other scholars had been invited to the manor. He also wrote that Karasuma had begun to kill those scholars, one by one, as a warning to the others, and that even if he found the treasure, he too would be killed. She didn't tell the police about it because it was twenty years after the fact, when Renya had already passed on. Presumably a victim of his treasure hunting fanaticism, Senma did solve the riddle, and left a clue about it in a note letters written in blood on the piano, revealed with luminol, and Karasuma never activated the device clock because never knew the answer to the riddle: "I've finally gotten hold of the trump card that will decipher Karasuma's riddle, Kyosuke Senma." His old daughter was taken into custody for Oogami's murder.
Different looks
File:BossBlackshadow7.jpg The boss as a criminal silhouette (episode 398). |
Speculation
The fact that his supposed 'death' should have occurred forty years ago could fit with Haibara's thought that Shinichi had gotten involved in a project that the organization had worked on for a half century, and that there could be some unbelievable people, that are not supposed to be a part of this world.
It is clear that he, to be still alive, must have been rejuvenated and hide inside another known person.
Name origin
"Karasuma" is literally "crow circle", as his crest or a Tengu, a long-nosed demon that is also "Crow billed Tengu" and as that bird represents Karasuma Avenue in Kyoto.[23]
"Renya" is a name also used for women, written with the characters for "lotus" and "father".
Character inspiration
Gosho Aoyama was inspired by the fictional character Professor James Moriarty, the main antagonist in the Sherlock Holmes' series, to create the Black Organization boss.[24] Just like Moriarty, the boss 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.[25] He is depicted as a cold-blooded person who doesn't leave a single scrap of evidence, while working and remains anonymous to the public, and the silhouette similar to Moriarty's in the novels.
Trivia
- The anime version big painting in his manor dining room is a Visita de la reina de Saba a Salomón replica, but with an inverted orientation. Solomon was the most wise King of Israel, but in his old age, many years after the Queen of Sheba's visit, became corrupt due his many foreign wives, so received divine punishment and a glorious kingdom falled after his death. There is a possible parallel, because he was also the most rich and powerful man in all of Japan in his time, but eventually turned into a devil for his own selfish reasons.
- According to Kaitou Kid, his house looks more like Dracula's Castle than Sunset Manor. Because he sure is a terrible character, there's no doubt he is a cruel vampire, also known as a murderer, and the Japanese believe black crows carry souls to the beyond.
- In addition to the author, until we finally reached his identity, only Minami Takayama, his former wife and Conan's voice actor, and the anime production knew who was the boss.
- Due his obese and aristocratic appearance, as well as his bird-like face, he bears a resemblance with Penguin, the famous Batman villain, one of the US comics favorited by the author.
- His role as Shinichi/Conan's arch-enemy is just like the Potato Baron, the fiend boss of an evil organization in the children's show Kamen Yaiba.[26][27]
In other languages
| Language | Given Name | Family Name |
|---|---|---|
 Japanese |
蓮耶 Renya | 烏丸 Karasuma |
 Chinese |
莲耶 Renya | 乌丸 Karasuma |
 English |
Renya | Karasuma |
 French |
Renya | Karasuma |
 Galician |
Renya | Karasumaru[28] |
 German |
Renya | Karasuma |
 Italian |
Renya | Karasumaru[28] |
 Spanish |
Renya | Karasuma |
See also
References
- ^ Senma's father was working for Karasuma around forty years ago, back in the days before they invented copiers. However, when Senma discovered the secret message in her father's letter twenty years ago, Karasuma was already dead. The old bills of 10,000 yen forty years ago were in circulation from 1958 to 1986.
- ^ All his subordinates' anime version cars have indeed Shinjuku (新宿) as license plate.
- ^ Manga Volume 95, File 8; anime episode TBD.
- ^ In episode 398, the number is wrong #696#6261.
- ^ In real life, # signs can't be used in an email address, but Gosho Aoyama decided to use them here to prevent pranks.
- ^ a b Manga Volume 53, File 10; anime episode 464.
- ^ Manga Volume 67, File 8; anime episode 581.
- ^ Inaka Village (稲香村 Inakamura) is a common name to many little unnamed villages across the countryside of Japan, who just have a few houses, rice fields and without any large cities near it.
- ^ Anime original information, according to the villa junction and not Tokyo as Saguru Hakuba said.
- ^ The host dummy wears a frightening phantom's purple hood with only two eye slits, just like the members of the KKK, one of the secret societies that were the sources of inspiration for his crime organization.
- ^ Manga Volume 24, File 7; anime episode 176.
- ^ Manga Volume 42, File 10; anime episode 345.
- ^ Manga Volume 4, File 4; no anime version.
- ^ Manga Volume 29, File 5; anime episode 231.
- ^ Episode 345 and movie 13.
- ^ Manga Volume 85, File 5; anime episode 783.
- ^ Manga Volume 48, File 10; anime episode 425.
- ^ Manga Volume 49, File 1; anime episode 425.
- ^ Manga Volume 18, File 9; anime episode 129.
- ^ Manga Volume 18, File 7; anime episode 129.
- ^ Manga Volume 24, File 11; anime episode 178.
- ^ The anime version replaced Gin and Vodka with two lookalike criminals unrelated to the Black Organization, and the line about their mastermind was omitted.
- ^ Movie 7: Crossroad in the Ancient Capital
- ^ Aoyama's latest interview for NHK (2017)
- ^ Interview with Aoyama Gosho March 2014
- ^ Manga Volume 23, File 10; anime episode 156.
- ^ Manga Volume 92, File 7; anime episode 895.
- ^ a b The second kanji can also be translated as "maru".
| Rum arc topics | ||
|---|---|---|
| Main interest | Renya Karasuma • Rum • Case from 17 years ago | |
| Potential suspects | Hyoue Kuroda • Rumi Wakasa • Kanenori Wakita | |
| Connections | Kohji Haneda • Amanda Hughes • Tsutomu Akai • Asaka | |
| Related Articles | APTX 4869 • APTX 4869 Victim list • Rum arc timeline | |
| Cases of interest | The Scarlet Return • Three First Discoverers • Just Like a 17 Years Old Crime Scene • Soul Detective Murder Case • The Stage of Betrayal • Mystery of the Burning Tent • Search for Maria-chan! • The 36-Cell Perfect Game • The Spark That Fell on the Ranch • Yusaku Kudo's Detective Show • The Black Organization's Scheme • Akemi Miyano's Time Capsule • Kaitou Kid and the Siren Splash • Chess Tournament Murder Case | |
