Manga Review: Case Closed Volumes 83-86 by Gosho Aoyama
Quick recap: Teen detective Shinichi Kudou (Jimmy Kudo in the dub) is shrunk into a pre-teen by an experimental poison. Until he can find a way to reverse the effects, he assumes the identity of Conan Edogawa. He still solves crimes, but it’s harder to get adults to listen to a little kid.
Volume 83 opens with the conclusion of the Red Lady Case. Masumi Sera, tomboy detective, was asked by her brother to assist his old classmates in investigating vandalism at a remote cabin supposedly haunted by a murderer called “the Red Lady.” She invited along her classmates Sonoko Suzuki (Serena Sebastian) and Ran Mouri (Rachel Moore), so she’d have the assistance of Ran’s long-term lodger Conan. As the girls were headed into the bath, they discovered it full of red tomatoes, and beneath those, a dead body!
When Ran’s towel falls off, Conan gets an eyeful so he’s at a bit of a disadvantage in the investigation. Nagoya police detective Yui Uehara shows up alone as her partners Kansuke Yamato and Taka’aki “Kongming” Morofushi are investigating other angles of the original Red Lady case.
The detectives figure out how the murder was done, but it turns out there’s another person in the woods with a knife. Will the police be able to intervene before yet another tragedy occurs?
In a quick postscript, Conan sees a picture of Masumi with a little girl who seems oddly familiar, much like Masumi herself. Maybe a sister? But Masumi has specifically stated she doesn’t have a sister, and that sounded truthful.
Which segues into the next case. Ran, Sonoko and Conan are invited over to the fancy hotel Masumi has been staying in. This gets them tangled up in the case of a romance novelist who has three editors waiting for manuscripts, and has decided to make them undergo an eating contest to see who will get their book finished first. The novelist’s assistant, who lives in the room directly below his, is murdered. There’s only one obvious suspect, but how did he pull it off, and what is the secret of his novel’s final line?
The child who’s been living with Masumi doesn’t trust Conan yet, and tells the teen to tell him she’s “outside his territory” to test him.
The next story starts with the Detective Boys, Conan, Genta (“George”), Mitsuhiko (“Mitch”), Ayumi (“Amy”) and Ai (“Anita”) running into a man in the rain. He drops several bags of leaves and a notebook, and runs off with the bags but leaves the notebook. It’s quickly discovered that the man was a drug dealer with a stash of the very illegal marijuana, and the notebook contains coded information on his next meetup.
Sidebar: In 2014, when this story was originally written, Japan had some of the most restrictive laws about the possession of cannabis in the world, and it was taken much more seriously as a problem than in the United States. As of this writing, that hasn’t changed, though some noises have been made about reforming the law.
The codes turn out to include some trickery involving the subway systems of Tokyo and Osaka, and Conan is forced to call on his western rival Heiji Hattori (“Harley Hartwell”) to coordinate their efforts. Heiji’s childhood friend/sweetheart (though they still haven’t officially admitted it) Kazuha stumbles into the drug bust. We learn some trivia about Japanese narcotics officers.
The final chapter in this volume starts with Ran taking the Detective Boys to the aquarium that was the site of one Shinichi’s cases before he disappeared. We flash back to what sure seems looks like a date, even though Ran claims she wants to get her parents back together and is scouting the location for that purpose. The sharks are acting oddly, and it turns out a man is dead!
But this volume also has a special feature talking about the creation of several of the Detective Conan characters and a mini-interview with the creator (though some of the answers are “that’s a secret.”
Volume 84 is the twentieth anniversary of the manga–yes, that means next year will be the thirtieth anniversary! Good thing that no one ever ages in this series.
We pick right up with the Aquarium Murder Case, which turns out to take place directly between the Plane to America and Amusement Park cases. Somehow, a man’s been stabbed to death in plain view of the aquarium visitors. The solution turns out to involve shenanigans with smartphones which wouldn’t have been possible in 1994 when the series actually started.
Ran and Shinichi (via phone and Conan’s voice changer) wind up being romantically clumsy as he seems to fixate on her breasts.
Next up, the Detective Boys and Dr. Agasa (eccentric inventor) go to a kite-flying contest. A man falls into the river and nearly drowns. It seems like an accident, but Conan spots that the rope barrier that should have prevented it has been cut. Now the kids need to figure out how the attempted murderer lured the man into position to fall even though not a soul was near him.
Hey, we haven’t seen Kougoro Mouri (“Richard Moore”), Ran’s father and incompetent private eye, in a while. He’s returning from an unusually successful session at the pachinko parlor, when he discovers that his ex-wife is in the hospital (he’d turned his phone off while gambling.) It turns out to be a case of appendicitis caught in plenty of time.
While at the hospital Kougoro and Conan run into Amuro Touru, a waiter at the Poirot Cafe who has made himself the famous “Sleeping Mouri’s” apprentice. He’s also Bourbon, an agent of the Black Organization that shrank Shinichi. He’s supposedly looking for a friend of his who was hospitalized, Rikumichi Kusuda. (He’s since died, but the authorities are concealing this fact.) Amuro also reacts oddly to the word “Zero” being shouted from behind him, trying to pass this off as a childhood nickname.
Everyone gets temporarily distracted when a patient’s tea party turns deadly. This one has a particularly tragic motivation.
Police detective Takagi, who isn’t in the loop on the Kusuda case, lets some info slip to Amuro.
This leads to the next case, when the English teacher that replaced FBI agent Jodie Starling at Haido Elementary is assaulted and put into serious condition unable to speak. She turns out to be the one who coached Jodie in how to pass as a teacher, and so that agent and her new partner Agent Camel get drawn into the case, as do Conan and Amuro.
While this case is genuine, Amuro’s involvement is specifically to get the FBI agents separated so that one of them can be tricked into giving the details of what happened to Kusuda. He’s also laying down heavy hints that he’s at the very least a triple agent.
Volume 85 follows immediately after, revealing that the “Jodie” Agent Camel was talking to was actually the Black Organization master of disguise Vermouth. He let her know the details of how Kusuda disappeared. This allows the BO agents to piece together that FBI agent Shuichi Akai is still alive and how he faked his death.
So it’s time for a convoluted game of cat and mouse, as Bourbon tries to prove that Conan’s neighbor Subaru Okiya is in fact Shuichi Akai, while the FBI agents are being chased down by mysterious third parties. All this while the Macademy Awards are being shown on television, and yes, that’s relevant. Akai puts in an appearance but is he not Okiya after all? Lots of disguises going on.
Having temporarily thrown the Black Organization off the scent, Akai reveals that he’s gotten information from his mole in the organization, Kir. But it’s just one word. “Rum.” Forboding, as the Detective Boys deal with Dr. Agasa’s silly magic trick.
Time for a new case! Shogi player Shukichi Haneda is up for his seventh title, which will make him one of only two players ever to collect the complete set, so that he can finally propose to police officer Yumi Miyamoyo. Hilariously, Yumi doesn’t know he’s a famous shogi player because she pays zero attention to the sport, but that doesn’t matter to the person who’s kidnapped her.
Shukichi has just six hours to use the clues to find the criminal mastermind, or he loses both the title match and Yumi’s life. Fortunately, the Detective Boys and Dr. Agasa are available to help!
Then it’s back to the hotel where Masumi’s staying. She’s invited Conan alone in hopes of sounding him out about meeting the mysterious child. But Sonoko and Ran tagged along, so Masumi deflects into a pool party.
An obnoxious heiress is making everyone’s life miserable at the pool, so it’s no surprise when she turns up dead. Except that her body wasn’t in the pool when the missing heiress was being searched for, and when the body appeared there, everyone had an alibi. How was it done?
Volume 86 concludes the Swimming Pool Murder Case. The real mystery turns out to be how the victim avoided being murdered before now. Ran is beginning to twig that she’s met Sera before, and she also catches a glimpse of the mystery child.
Ai confirms to Conan that there is a Black Organization member named Rum, who’s supposed to be near the top of the organization. She only ever heard rumors about him, which made it sound like he was either a master of disguise or used a lot of decoys. But he was supposed to have one tell–a missing eye.
The Detective Boys run into a child who’s been watching an apartment because the lady who lives there told him to, she was afraid of dying. Sure enough, she’s been hung, in what looks like a clumsy attempt to fake suicide. But which of the three men who visited in the last hour was it? Another case with a particularly tragic twist.
Then it’s time for Kougoro, Ran and Conan to team up with Heiji and Kazuha again. Turns out there’s an isolated inn with reports of a kamaitachi (sort of a sickle weasel youkai), including a blurry picture of it apparently flying above a hot spring. Of course, there’s no such thing as monsters. But what’s causing the seemingly supernatural events, including the death of the inn owner by what sure looks like a sickle wound that could only have been inflicted by something flying over water?
Part of the answer involves kudzu, but our detectives are not in Nagoya as they thought, but Gunma, which means that the investigating policeman is the incompetent Misao (“Magnum”) Yamamura. This slows the conclusion of the case as he bungles.
Kougoro drives Ran and Conan over to Nagano (which is very close) to visit the historic site of the battle of Kawanakajima. It’s one of the battles that famous strategist Kansuke Yamato was involved with, concerning the “Woodpecker Strategy.” Why yes, the same strategist the police officer they know was named after. And here he, Yui and “Kongming” (named after a famous Chinese strategist) are! They’re supposed to be meeting another detective squad here.
Conan notes that Kansuke only has one eye. And some missing pieces in his past. Hmm. The group does some historical tourism stuff while waiting for the other squad, the leader of which is noted for an unusually high number of suspect kills. That fellow turns up dead, with what looks like the imprint of a woodpecker foot on his forehead.
During the investigation, the new director of Nagoya’s police detective division, Hyoe Kuroda, shows up. He’s a large, powerful-looking man…with only one eye. And some missing time in his past. Hmm. Another police officer is killed, with the same mark on his forehead. I think we have a pattern! It’s notable though, that Kansuke had beef with both men, so he’s a prime suspect.
Or is it “the war god Bishamon”?
By this deep in the series, you should know whether you’re into this or not, it’s more of the same. 83 has that special character design extra, while 84-85 feature the continuing Black Organization ploline. While 86 introduces the Rum identity mystery and introduces a couple of suspects, it’s not as essential to the story, so might not be as high a priority for the person just here for the arc story.
