Detective Conan: episode 3

I said to myself that after doing the second episode, I would move on to the first case Mouri solves without Conan's help. But after seeing this episode again, I realized that this is also important, for this is an introduction to what I said earlier that I would discuss later on. So as much as I would like to move on to the next one, I have to do this first.

Detective Conan episode 3: And Idol's Locked Room Murder Case

It has been three days since Shinichi turned into Conan, and he now lives with the Mouri's, and sleeping in Kogoro's room (can you just imagine the room smelling like beer or sake every night? I pity Conan.). He's frustrated that he still hasn't heard any news about the men in black, he lives with 'The Great Detective Mouri' who drinks everyday and watches Yoko Okino's shows, and is back at grade school, with Genta, Ayumi, and Mitsuhiko pestering him to be friends with them.

At Professor Agasa's house, Conan is annoyed that he still hasn't found anything about the men in black. Agasa remarked that people around him would be in danger if Conan does find them. Which reminds Agasa, Ran went there yesterday looking for Shinichi. With tears in her eyes, she said that Shinichi didn't go to school and he's not at home. She was about to call the police when Agasa assured her that he might be in another strange case.

This information saddened Conan, but Agasa changed the subject and gave him a new device, a voice changing bow-tie that would help him with his investigations. All Conan has to do is to rotate the dial to alter the pitch and frequency of the voice that he wants to imitate, either male of female.

That night, Genta, Ayumi, and Mitsuhiko went to the agency to pursue Conan and make friends with him (they sure are persistent). A car loads in front, and a woman in a hat rang the bell. A groggy (and cranky) Mouri opened the door and told her that it's close, but a split-second after, he realizes that the woman is none other than his idol-crush, Okino Yoko. From his ghastly and frightening countenance, he changed swiftly into a dashing man to cater his idol's needs.

Turns out, Okino Yoko thinks that she has a stalker who comes into her house every night for she sees her furniture arranged, strange photos are sent, and receives a phone call with no one answering on the other end. The manager, Yamagishi, requested to keep this investigation a secret. After signing Kogoro an autograph and writing down her address and number, they all went to her place. The three kids then opened the trunk with Ayumi firm in being friends with Conan.

Okino Yoko opened the door to her room with a scream, which startled everyone that made them come to the door as well. The kids rushed in the scene as well, which only means that they're busted by Conan. A dead man was lying face down on the floor at the door of Yoko's apartment.

(Sorry about the screen caps, I just find their reactions funny. And also, I welcome you to the first murder case in the series.)

The police arrived with Inspector Megure complaining that Mouri was with her, saying that it's just like the old days. Okino Yoko said that she turned off the heater when Inspector Megure noticed that it's on high. Not only that, Conan noticed the dried watermarks around the corpse. And a chair in the middle of a messy room was still standing. Just then, Mouri and Megure creeps up behind his back and Conan turning back into a kid who blames Ayumi.

A knife was used to stab the man in the back that belongs to Yoko. She and Yamagishi were asked to look into the victim's face in case they recognized him. As Yamagishi was about to stand closer, he slipped and fell on the victim as Conan notices the manager's hand over the victim's, grabbing a single hair strand and put it in his pocket, which dropped to the floor.

Conan's now getting suspicious as to who the killer is, but what he needs is more evidence. So he looks around the room and found an earring under the sofa. Mouri then starts accusing one by one starting with the manager as the suspect, for he has a spare key to Yoko's room. But, he says, he lost it 2-3 days ago, with Yoko agreeing as a witness. Because the others think little Conan is a nuisance, he used the bow tie and to make Megure lean to inspect the earring. Yoko recognized it to be Ikezawa Yuuko's; a former star who became famous at the same time as her.

Yuuko was requested to come to the crime scene, for Mouri suspects her as the killer, because she hated Yoko when she had the lead in a drama. Inspector Megure thinks it's Yoko, while Conan/ Shinichi is wondering about the manager's weird actions and the strange markings in the room.

Ikezawa Yuuko said that she has never been in that room, but she did admit that the earring is hers. However, the security guard stated that he saw someone come in that looked like hers. Annoyed, she left the scene to go to the washroom, a move that surprised Conan.

When Conan called Mouri and Megure 'Uncles' to clarify something, Mouri screamed at him so Ayumi kicked him in the foot and chased her. Ran told him not to disturb him and hugging him, she said,

If Shinichi was here, with these kind of cases, he would solve them easily. Where did he go? That deduction fanatic...

Flustered and embarrassed, he replied,

He'll definitely return soon. So, don't worry!

Suprised that such words were uttered, he said that he was just guessing.

Yuuko has been insisting that she's not the criminal while she grabbed the unique lighter from the table casually. A move that caught Conan's eye, thus making a remark loud enough for everyone to hear. She even knows where the bathroom was, so how could it be her first time to be at that apartment? She admitted that she comes to the place a few times because she wanted to look around for any evidence to a scandal. But when she went there this afternoon, the victim tried to kill her so she had to protect herself and run away from him, leaving her earring behind.

The dead man was finally identified by the name of Fujie Akiyoshi, who went to the same high school as Yoko. She admitted that he was an ex-boyfriend, but she had no motive to kill him.

Conan was having a hard time identifying who the killer is, so he observed the crime scene once again, only to notice a round dent on the wooden floor. Recalling his deductions one by one,he was finally able to solve the puzzle. Mouri randomly pinpointed Yamagishi as the murderer. A refuting deduction was made by Mouri as he blamed the manager for the murder. Conan couldn't take it, so he threw an ashtray to Mouri's back, sending him to sleep.

This is how the Legendary Sleeping Kogoro began. Mouri (or in this case, Conan) started with the three's accused alibis, and said that Yamagishi is the most obvious killer because of his actions. He finds it weird that the victim was holding on to a strand of hair, to put the blame on Yoko when in fact, it was a suicide by Fujie himself. It was a possible, easy trick to pull off. After setting the temperature on high, grabbing Yoko's strands of hair from her comb, and standing on a chair, he aims his back at the knife that's embedded on an ice block, which would melt and leave a dent on the floor.

Mouri believes that Fujie still loves Yoko very much, and all he wanted was to talk to her. He even had Yuuko mistaken her as Yoko, but since he saw her run away from him, he became even more depressed. Yoko was stunned, for he was the one who broke up with her. Yamagichi spoke up, saying that he persuaded Fujie to break up with her. This revelation was interrupted by an officer when he announced that a diary was found while searching around the victim's house.

In the diary, Fujie says he couldn't forget Yoko after the break up. That even if he wanted to ruin her career, he still wants her back. The last words written were "I need to at least clear up the misunderstanding or I won't be able to live.". A sad ending indeed.

The ash fell on Mouri's lap, he wakes up. Inspector Megure gained more respect for him, as his deductions were correct. Conan felt drained after the case, which piqued Ran's attention, but has no clue of his actions. As for the three, they are more than determined to make friends with Conan after what happened. 

Ran and Conan were in the middle of the street when they saw Okino Yoko performing in one show. With tears escaping her eyes, she said that if she was Yoko, she wouldn't have the strength to go on and go back to her nomal life. In her case, she feels useless because Shinichi has only been gone for a few days and yet, she can't sleep anymore. Ran was silently crying as Conan stood there holding her hand.

At the office, Ran was still crying and worried about Shinichi who has been gone for week. She was wondering why it had to be him who was taken away. Something terrible must have happened to him, she assumed. The phone rang, and behold, it was none other than the man himself. He told her that he had to be away to do a case, and he was worried that she might be bawling her eyes out for him. They do their usual banter, and he assured her that he'll be back soon. As they continue talking on the phone, these thoughts were running on his mind: Sorry, Ran. I will return to my normal self and tell you, using my real voice, the true feelings in my heart... (SQUEEEE. Yey for anime OTP.)

Comments:

I mentioned in the second episode that this episode is a pivotal part of the series because we learn how Kogoro Mouri became the famous 'Sleeping Kogoro' that made everyone terrified just hearing his name and gave him a lot of fans, and which caused the man's head to grow even bigger. This is how he would solve all the cases that he would encounter, and trust me when I say that he'll do it most of the time, because we still have a long way to go as far as this series' impending end.

Oh, and here we were told that Inspector Megure and Mouri used to work together, when Mouri wasn't an alcoholic and separated with Eri yet. I think this was 10 years ago, when Ran was still 7 years old. More background is in the second movie, The Fourtheenth Target, regarding Mouri's history as a police officer and why he and Eri separated. If you haven't seen a lot of DC episodes, seeing this movie won't hurt you.

Professor Agasa may look like a useless, incompetent inventor at first, but he invents gadgets and tools that would help Conan in the toughest situations despite all his random (and sometimes useless) creations.

Did anybody else find the kids Ayumi, Genta, and Matsuhiko annoying? Yeah well, Conan did, for he usually calls them spoiled brats. Or was it Sonoko? Anyway, this was where they were first introduced and later on they would form a group called the Detective Boys Junior League (DC fans, correct me if I'm wrong because I don't want to look for that episode myself. And I don't think this has a hint of sexism in it because the women here in this series are awesome.). Ayumi's probably my favorite in the three though, it's mostly Genta that irritates me especially when he acts on his instincts that are only for his needs. You would notice it when you watch the series and dig deep into the characters and get to know them better that Ayumi and Matsuhiko are the likeable kids in the series. But, more faces would be coming either big or small, and if they seem important to the plot, I would definitely recap them.

On to our main characters (who doesn't love talking about them? Because I just love it when Gosho-sensei gives them their moments). After seeing 248 episodes of Detective Conan (as of this recap), I would say that Ran is the best female partner a shounen male character could ever have (but that's just me of course, unless you've seen more animes than I have, then you can argue my opinion). She's quite a headstrong girl especially if it concerns other's welfare. I admit, whenever she talks about how she misses him or just about any mention of Shinichi would bring tears to her eyes. I guess it's because she's been with him everyday that she's used to having him around and not seeing him would make her worried. It's the same with Sonoko actually, or for any person that she loves. She can't bear to see others in pain, and she would rather take it for that person. But enough of that. We'll have more episodes to discuss Ran's qualities later.

I always wait for the ending credits because it has the best scenes. And here it is again, Gosho-sensei has given us another proof of the feelings of these two lovely characters. We'll see their relationship progress as they meet different people and acquire different values that might be suited for each of them when they do get together. I'm saying 'might', because right now the series and manga are still ongoing, so we don't really know who will end up with who. But then again, they're childhood friends and the show's main OTP. The main couple shouldn't be much of a giveaway, right?