The Novelist Known as the Demon King

Chronology
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Episode 1014 (Int. Episode 1071)
Information
Title:	The Novelist Known as the Demon King
Japanese title:	魔王と呼ばれた小説家 (Maō to Yobareta Shōsetsuka)
Original airdate:	July 31, 2021
Broadcast rating:	4.0%
Filler case:	#352
Season:	31
Manga source:	TV Original
English version
English title:	The Novelist Known as the Demon King
Dubbed episode:	1014
English airdate:	March 29, 2023 (Tubi)
Case
Cast:	Conan Edogawa Kogoro Mouri Juzo Megure Wataru Takagi Kazunobu Chiba
Case solved by:	Kogoro Mouri (via Conan)
Next Conan's Hint:	Curtains
Staff
Director:	Yasuichiro Yamamoto Nobuharu Kamanaka
Screenplay:	Nobuo Ogizawa
Storyboard:	Masaharu Okuwaki
Episode director:	Minoru Tozawa
Animation director:	Seiji Muta (supervisor) Keiko Sasaki
Character design:	Masatomo Sudo Rei Masunaga (sub-character) Hiroshi Ogawa (design works)
Voice Cast: Minami Takayama as Conan Edogawa Rikiya Koyama as Kogoro Mouri Chafurin as Juzo Megure Wataru Takagi as Wataru Takagi Isshin Chiba as Kazunobu Chiba Kousuke Okano as Ryunosuke Bito Yasuhiro Takato as Haruo Chigasaki Sanae Kobayashi as Miyuki Degawa Masaki Aizawa as Shintaro Tawake Hidenobu Kiuchi as Naoya Akaike
Music
Opening song:	ZERO kara Hajimete
Closing song:	Reboot

The Novelist Known as the Demon King (魔王と呼ばれた小説家 ,Maō to Yobareta Shōsetsuka) is the 1014th episode of the Detective Conan anime.

Cast

Characters
Conan Edogawa Kogoro Mouri Juzo Megure Wataru Takagi Kazunobu Chiba

Gadgets

Gadgets
Stun-Gun Wristwatch Voice-Changing Bowtie

Case

Situation

Kogoro and Conan happens to walk by a famous writer's house. They see patrol cars surrounding the house and meet Megure and Takagi. Takagi reveals the famous writer was found shot to death in his house. Both Kogoro and Conan check the crime scene with Megure and Takagi.

Murder
	Location: Shintaro Tawake's house Victim: Shintaro Tawake Age: 55 years old Cause of death: Gunshot wound on abdomen Suspects: Naoya Akaike, Miyuki Degawa, Ryunosuke Bito, and Haruo Chigasaki

Seemingly, the victim Tawake was shot while he was sleeping on the sofa. In addition, the victim was killed in a room that sunlight isn't permitted to pass through, due to the north-facing window the room possess. The estimated time of death is around noon, and most likely he was shot by the shotgun that was tossed nearby the sofa.

After a tremendous search with regards to the crime scene, Conan discovered several clues that might come handy towards the case. Firstly, there are blood stains scattered on that north-facing window. However, surprisingly, the curtains aren't contaminated by the blood stain. This implies that the crime might have been carried out with the curtains opened and was closed by the culprit in all likelihood. If that is the case, then why didn't the culprit bother to do that?

Secondly, the house that is located in front of that north-facing window seems to be vacant, which all shutters of it are closed. This is a great environment for the crime because that it will not be spotted by the neighbour, plus that there is also a construction going around nearby this conceals the sound of the shotgun. Last but not least, the forensics guy come across with a wooden tiny bench which has blood deposited as well. Conan once again contemplates: "Why would that be necessary?"

Tawake's four apprentices discussing the case.

After a while, Conan and the police meets the four apprentices of Tawake. The cropse was discovered by Akaike and Degawa, they all claim that they didn't touch the crime scene. Owing to the death of this mystery author, Akaike then cancels the appointment of dentist he asked yesterday which was instructed by Tawake himself. Through their conversations, the police notices that they all call their teacher the "Demon King". The reason turns out to be that Tawake forces his apprentices to be ghost writers for him. That is, to write books for him, and publish it with only a few modifications of his. Furthermore, Tawake's reputation doesn't look so great according to his apprentices. He had always pledged them that they will gain the chance to debut one day if they persistently write books for him. Nonetheless, that isn't the case as he lied towards them.

As the four of them have don't get along with the victim very well, they now become the crucial suspects of the case, this leads to the verification of their alibis. Finally, they were only able to confirm Akaike's alibi. The rest was apparently writing when the crime was implemented, so they don't have alibis, they then get into a quarrel to blame each other for the crime. Since the victim was fed with sleeping pills before his death, Akaike deduces the murderer must be an outsider because if the culprit is capable of slipping the pill, he will also be able to just directly poison him.

"Is this the truth?" Conan looked at himself in doubt. "Wait a minute," the bloodstain behind the curtains, the noisy construction area, the north-facing window, the contaminated wooden bench, as well as... The shotgun that belongs to the victim... These trivial clues have now jointed together, Conan then picks up a small piece of aluminium foil from the floor. All of his perplex have now faded away utterly, he chuckled: "I have finally figured out the trick that the culprit used."

People

Shintaro Tawake
	Victim (gunshot) 55 years old Mystery writer

Naoya Akaike
	38 years old Tawake's apprentice

Miyuki Degawa
	30 years old Tawake's apprentice

Ryunosuke Bito
	35 years old Tawake's apprentice

Haruo Chigasaki
	33 years old Tawake's apprentice

Resolution

  Show spoilers »

The next day, the police and the four suspects come back to the scene. Conan then tranquilized Kogoro, the sleeping Kogoro said that everyone has overlooked the howdunnit of the case.

Howdunnit

The trick set-up.

The culprit made a trick to shoot the shotgun automatically, by tying the weapon onto the wooden bench (which is the one that had the blood stains on top of it) with strings, this is a phenomenon that causes fire due to the focused sunlight that will ignite the bullet and will eventually shoot it. Meanwhile, those apprentices of Tawake have instantly noticed that this is the famous trick prevalent in mystery novels. However, Bito pointed out that it is impossible to work in the cirme scene, because in order for the sunlight to ignite the shotgun deposited on the wooden bench, it must be in a south-facing room. In reality, to make this work in a north-facing room, which is basically the crime scene, the culprit used a concave mirror made with aluminum foil and put inside the neighbouring room which seemed to be vacant, the sunlight this way will reflect and bounce off the mirror that causes a change in direction to reach the bullet.

The concave mirror placed in the neighbouring house.

To conceal the shotgun noise, the culprit picked the time when there were external noises that may disguise the gunshot, which is the construction racket. The reason that the culprit gave sleeping pills to the victim is to make Tawake to stay stationary which can allow this automated trick to hit the target. This trick also explains why the culprit needed to shut the curtains, this is to prevent the trick to be revealed, as it might look obvious if they left the open. Additionally, the culprit uses this method is to create an alibi, so the culprit is the one with an alibi, Naoya Akaike.

Evidence

As a murderer, Akaike decided to discover the body of Tawake along with Degawa, to drag someone to prove for his innocent and to ensure that none of them have altered any of the crime scene.

Kogoro borrowed the key for the house that is next door and confirmed that Akaike have also did, which was under the name of Tawake, and might have duplicated the key beforehand. Essentially, he gave himself away by pretending to make a dentist appointment and later pretended to cancel it. Therefore, only the person who committed the crime knew that Tawake would die soon, and to reduce the trouble for the dentist. So this determines that Akaike must be the culprit. The motive is that Tawake used all of his apprentices as ghost-writers and Akaike wanted to free everyone from Tawake.

Trivia

Bookshelf

• Almost every design in this episode pays homage to those renowned mystery writers and novels.
• The trick that was referred in this episode and was claimed to be exceedingly renowned among detective novels, referenced from the Japanese novel called Matchlock (火縄銃), written by Edogawa Ranpo, in April 1932: completed in 1915, but not published during lifetime.
• All the four apprentices names are related to japanese writers:

• Naoya Akaike - Naoya Shiga;
• Miyuki Degawa - Miyuki Miyabe;
• Ryunosuke Bito - Ryunosuke Akutagawa;
• Haruo Chigasaki - Haruo Sato.

• All novels on the bookshelf that are displayed in this episode corresponds to some of the Gosho Aoyama's Mystery Library from Detective Conan manga volumes:

• 推理小説と言う切れ - ミステリと言う切れ - A piece called a mystery- volume 98;
• 不自然||アンナチュラル - Unnatural - volume 96;
• ブラックコーチ - クロコーチ - Black Coach - volume 97;
• 0.1%の証明 - 99.9-刑事専門弁護士- - 99.9-Criminal Lawyer- - volume 94;
• 万能探偵Cの事件簿 - 万能鑑定士Qの事件簿 - Universal Appraiser Q's Case Files - volume 91;
• 義賊探偵山猿 - 怪盜探偵山猫 - Phantom Thief Detective Lynx - volume 90;
• 戒下明日香の日記帳 - 掟上今日子の備忘録 - Memorandum of Kyouko Okitegami - volume 88;
• 川上三郎の考察 - 江神二郎の洞察 - Insights of Jiro Ejin - volume 87;
• 副屋警視の訪問 - 福家警部補の挨拶 - Greetings from Lieutenant Fukuie - volume 85;
• 氷羊羹 - 氷菓 - Frozen dessert - volume 83;
• 青龍刺青の女 - ドラゴン・タトゥーの女 - Girl with dragon tattoo - volume 84;
• 事件解決は朝飯前で - 謎解きはディナーのあとで - Mystery Solving After Dinner - volume 82;
• 捜査官はBARにいる - 探偵はBARにいる - The detective is in the BAR - volume 81.

• Restaurant Danny's Dining reappears in this case.

In other languages

Language	Title	Translation
Catalan (Catalan dub)	L'escriptor a qui li deien el Diable	The writer who was called the Devil
French (Subbed)	Un Romancier qu'on appelait Roi-sorcier	A novelist who we call King-sorcerer
Thai	นักเขียนนิยายที่ถูกเรียกว่าจอมมาร	A novelist known as the demon
Vietnamese	Tiểu thuyết gia được gọi là quỷ vương

See also

• Season 31