Manga Review: Case Closed, Vols. 89 & 90 by Gosho Aoyama
Quick recap: Shinichi Kudou (Jimmy Kudo in the dub) is a genius teen detective who is shrunk into a preteen by an experimental poison administered by agents of the Black Organization. (So called because they all wear black.) Taking the psuedonym Conan Edogawa, Shinichi continues to solve cases, but must hide his true identity from those around him lest they be targeted by the men in black. This causes problems as who would believe even a very smart second-grader is a detective? See my many previous reviews for more.
This volume opens with the conclusion of an indy band murder. The victim was strangled, but with what? We learn a little bit more about Sera’s brother, mainly his name, but that triggers Amuro’s memories of the man her brother murdered.
Next up, the Detective Kids and Dr. Agasa head to a department store for Christmas shopping, but first a very nice lunch! After lunch, the kids scatter to different floors to seek out the presents they’d like. The chef gets stabbed in the back staircase, and Conan’s just a little too late to see the perp, but asks the Detective Kids to watch the stairwell. Each gets a brief glimpse of the suspect, but their descriptions don’t match, and none of the suspects who tried to leave the store match any of the descriptions.
The solution lies in understanding the nature of how surrounding objects change your perceptions. The larger plot arc has a moment when Ai (Anita) has some smudged mascara around her eyes that make her look like the little girl Sera’s been hiding.
Next up, Detective Chiba of the Tokyo Police Department checks in with Patrolwomen Yumi and Naeko about a cold case he’s working that they were near at the time. He still doesn’t remember that Naeko was his childhood sweetheart, which irks her (though she refuses to just tell him) but Naeko hears some other traffic cops being catty about Chiba’s weight and she secretly sends him diet tips that somehow actually work.
Over at the Mouri residence, “Sleeping Detective” Kogoro Mouri (Richard Moore) is hired by a teenage girl named Hina Wada. She wants him to look into a mysterious UFO she saw a few months back. Hina, it turns out, is a friend/rival of Ran Mouri’s (Rachel Moore) as they are on opposing high school karate teams. This sort of case isn’t Mr. Mouri’s forte, but since his favorite actress is on a paranormal investigation show right now, he’s willing to go along. Ran and Conan tag along as usual.
As you might expect, their investigation crosses paths with Chiba’s cold case. Two men were found in hardening concrete, one dead of suffocation (before falling into the concrete). The second man was alive, but claimed he didn’t remember how they got there. The men had quarreled, but given their positions in the concrete, the second man couldn’t have possible committed the murder.
The reason it’s coming back up now is because the man suddenly claims to remember that an alien from an UFO pulled the first man into the air and killed him, then dropped him into the concrete. There was a bright light, and when the second man woke up, he was being dug out of the concrete.
Conan quickly realizes that aliens are not responsible for this crime and has to break the killer’s alibi by proving how it was done, which also happens to solve Hina’s case. Chiba returns to the police station with a solved murder, and the policewomen now admire his more svelte look. Naeko doesn’t want the competition and quickly sends anonymous chocolates to fatten her crush back up.
Then it’s back to Yumi’s love life. Her absent boyfriend had given her an envelope that she was not to open until he had collected “all seven.” He’d never told her what seven he meant, and she’d forgotten all about it until recently when he finally told her he had the seventh. And now he’s been unable to make time to meet up with her and explain what that was all about. By coincidence, she learns that her boyfriend Shukichi is actually the shogi (Japanese chess) player Master Taiko, and the seven things he was collecting were shogi championships–with seven he’s champion of all Japan!
So that envelope probably contained a marriage registration form with his name already filled in as a form of marriage proposal. Yumi then remembers she’d accidentally tossed the envelope into the recyclables! When she and her friend reach the recycling dropoff, the stack is already gone.
Fortunately, Conan and the Detective Kids see her wailing, and Conan points out it’s not recycling day. Sure enough, the stack of papers and magazines is in front of her apartment door with a sharp note about the correct date. But the envelope isn’t in there! It turns out that the custodian has it, but he’s not going to give it up without a test. He thinks that Yumi is unworthy of Shukichi, so she must solve his puzzles before he’ll turn over the envelope and registration form.
This includes, among other things, origami and high school level math. The puzzles are solved, but there’s a new roadblock to Shukichi and Yumi finally getting together. And the Black Organization plot pops up when Ai suddenly remembers that Shukichi’s brother in law, also a shogi champion, was murdered by them.
Conan, Ai, and Doctor Agasa look into the older case online. Someone posts information about it every so often, only to suddenly take it down again. One of the puzzles involves the fact that he was holding a pair of scissors he’d been cutting something with. And as it just so happens, Doctor Agasa just learned of a murder case involving scissors he’d invented.
Next door neighbor Subaru (who is actually Sera’s presumed dead brother in disguise) shows up with a clumsy excuse and invites himself on the investigation. The token police detective is Takagi this time. The victim was a notorious real estate shark who had a lot of enemies, so had all dangerous objects removed from his home (and used Dr. Agasa’s special safety scissors) and had guards posted to keep visitors from bringing in weapons.
The one possible suspect, who discovered the body, was not carrying anything remotely like a weapon. Subaru reveals that the case 17 years ago was uncannily like this one–and was the reason he’d joined the FBI in the first place.
This volume continues the scissors case. Our detectives cleverly unravel the killer’s overly complicated plan, helped by a “that’s how you get ants” moment. But perhaps more importantly, they now know why there were scissors in the old case. The clues point to a bodyguard named “Acasa” (technically Akasa, but the murder victim didn’t have all the letters) who was actually the Black Organization’s assassin and now second-in-command, Rum!
Next up, “Sleeping” Mouri is invited to be on a talk show with another detective, Gaito Hotta. Kogoro is initially not interested, as Hotta is a “spirit detective” who allegedly speaks to the dead. Kogoro is maybe not the sharpest tool in the shed, but even he doesn’t buy that. 99% of his revelations could have been achieved through previous research. And Hotta’s big triumph was finding a body in the woods…that wasn’t the one he’d been hired to locate. But Mouri’s favorite actress is the host, so…(at this point I think people just hire her specifically in case they need to lure him in.)
Conan decides to go along to the planning brunch as by “coincidence” the case Hotta is promising new information on is the 17-year-old one he’s become interested in. But when they and the producer go up to Hotta’s hotel room, he’s already dead, with the murderer(?) escaping off the balcony. Unfortunately the one guy who (allegedly) can talk to ghosts is the corpse, so he’s not helping.
The one location a human killer could have reached from the balcony (just barely) is the next room’s balcony, and the balcony after that is too far to reach. But the next hotel room happens to be occupied by Sera! What a coinkydink. She claims that she’s alone in the room and no one came in from the balcony.
Sera stalls as there’s actually a little girl also in the suite who has to hide before the place is searched. Conan almost finds the girl before getting distracted and losing his voice-changing bowtie. He doesn’t realize it before knocking Kogoro out to do the usual “Sleeping Detective” schtick. Uh-oh! Now police detectives Megure and Takagi will expect a quick resolution, and Conan can’t give it to them!
Fortunately, the little girl is very smart, and has already figured out how to use the bowtie. With some help by Sera, she’s able to solve the case just as Kogoro Mouri would. The suspect tries to flee, but the little girl overpowers him before ducking back into cover, and Sera accidentally calls her “Mom” in front of Conan. Oh, and it turns out Hotta’s big reveal would have been wrong. Probably. But all the fuss has attracted the attention of the Black Organization.
The next story starts with a flashback by Bourbon, remembering how Akai (now posing as Subaru) killed his best friend Scotch years before. It turns out he’s zoning out while talking to master of disguise Bourbon, who also knows that Conan is really Shinichi but is keeping it from the rest of the Black Organization for her own reasons.
(This plotline is getting more convoluted by the volume.)
Subaru, meanwhile, is getting some help from Ran and her friend Sonoko (Serena) cleaning Shinichi’s house. He asks if they’ve noticed anyone unusual hanging around their friend, possibly named Asaka? No, but the name just happens to be the title of an upcoming single by an older rock star. Funny thing, the announcement spells it “Asaca.” Conan, also present, gets immediately interested.
Sonoko, who has passes to the final rehearsal, because of course she does, agrees to take Conan with her and Ran, and Subaru, who is suddenly a fan of classic rock. When they arrive on the day, though, the rehearsal’s been postponed while the star works on some last minute edits. Most of the band and crew are out to dinner, and the rehearsal will start too late for Sonoko and Ran, who have school in the morning. Turns out Sonoko wasn’t the one who had the initial idea for the backstage tour.
It was Amuro/Bourbon, who’s here with his fellow Cafe Poirot employee Azusa. Conan quickly twigs that Azusa is being impersonated by Vermouth. Interestingly enough, it turns out that Subaru and Amuro actually are fans of the rock star. Concerns over people’s covers being blown are put aside when a fire marshal inspection reveals that the rock star has been hanged!
Police detectives Megure and Takagi show up, and now the stage is full of detectives!
We get more flashbacks of the death of Scotch from the slightly varying perspectives of Bourbon and Akai. Ran realizes that Azusa is being impersonated by a criminal she’s met before, but since she’s never been read in on the Black Organization, doesn’t know why.
The case is solved and we learn the tragic backstory behind the song title “Asaca”…which turns out to have nothing to do with the Black Organization.
Time for something lighter! Hattori (Harley) and Kazuha, detective and friend who’s a girl from Osaka, have been invited to find the lost treasure of the Tokugawas. Supposedly there are clues in the village of Yadori. They’re here to invite Mr. Mouri (but actually Conan) along, but the older detective points out that even if the treasure is found, it will belong to the government and the finder’s fee will be a pittance. There’s a school break, so Ran and Conan get to come along anyway.
The teens are met by the village mayor, who’s hoping they’ll work for meals and exposure because Yadori already spent its budget on archaelogy and history experts in an effort to boost their tourism. A number of potential suspects are around, but no murder yet, probably. Quite a few years ago, an excavator died in a landslide, leaving the cryptic word “nue” near him.
The nue is a chimera-like monster with a chilling cry. Could it have been responsible for the landslide?
Hattori’s real purpose in coming was to find a scenic spot to finally declare his love for Kazuha.
But soon there are spooky events afoot, seemingly caused by the Nue, culminating in a historian’s death!
There’s a chart explaining the relationships between the various people in the Sera/Amuro/Subaru subplot, but one of the bios was accidently placed twice.
These volumes have some plot movement in the subplots, if not the myth arc, so will be important to collectors. The art and writing remain consistently decent. You should know by now if Detective Conan is right for you.
Content notes: Murder, suicide. A miscarriage in the backstory.
