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| Amuro Tooru Bourbon arc suspect (3/3) |
BOURBON SUSPECT INTRODUCTORY CASES
Regarding this series guess I'll shout out myself a bit: I've also written about episode 174: The Twenty Year Old Murder Intent case which is a great movie-length episode of a Heiji Hattori case on a ship with great tense atmosphere to it, and I'm thinking of writing about another animated case starring Heiji later, but this time I want to focus on this short case straight from the manga.
I also want to point out that the blog over here is theorizing on one of the biggest mysteries ever created: the identity of the 'Boss' ('Anokata' / 'That person') of Detective Conan's villain organization "the Black Organization" (Conan and co. call it the BO or the Men in Black, as we don't yet know the real name of the org, however the author Gosho Aoyama has said that the name of the organization will be revealed one day and it will have great impact on how we perceive the story I'm sure).
The Wedding Eve Murder Case is in the format of the usual three chapter length short story as most the cases in Conan are and it takes place in volume 75 of Detective Conan. The case introduces readers to a new recurring character, Amuro Tooru, who is one of my favourites in the series right after Heiji Hattori. It's pretty hard to imagine how long we've come from the Wedding Eve case now in 2019 as it was created over 8 years ago and we've even got a movie for Amuro Tooru with Zero the Enforcer, as well as the Zero's Tea Time spin off manga series that is basically a slice of life series starring Amuro. Amuro is a character who in his own way has strong connections to the story and the cast of this series, much like the two other Bourbon arc suspects.
I feel like making this re-read, not for any particularly interesting reason. Lately I've been watching Kindaichi Case Files and those cases are really long so not to get bored I really feel like checking out a case from Detective Conan that introduces a new character and has some interesting twist or two in a normal setting (restaurant during a rainy day in this case). I'll be analyzing the entire case from top to bottom and my review will be posted at the bottom of this long post, so go and read that if you want to. It's sometimes nice to try to do things in new ways. In my review I'll tell you about some of the interesting storytelling mechanisms Gosho uses that I found while reading this case. Btw, I'll be listening to some videogame BGMs while writing and reading this one.
Part 1 - Private Eye (File 793)
Although it's a heavy downpour and the rain keeps hitting the ground outside, a large group of people have gathered in Ristorante Sundayrino restaurant to have fun. People are pulling confetti and congratulating two people of their marriage. Conan and Ran have been brought along to the restaurant by Ran's father Kogoro and they all enjoy a good time. The groom of the day, Banba Raita along with the bride Kamon Hatsune are celebrating the eve of their marriage ceremony that's taking place the very next day. After the ceremony both of them are planning to go on a honeymoon to Paris.Banba and Kamon go to talk with Kogoro who tells them that this night is the only time they can congratulate them due to the Paris trip the two will be leaving to. Banba and Kogoro were friends back in high school so they know each other and decide to introduce the others - Kogoro introduces himself and his daughter Ran and Conan, the boy he's taking care of, to the bride, while Banba introduces Kamon to the group.
Kamon is knowledgeable of the legendary Sleeping Kogoro and is eager to talk with him. On the other hand Ran had also heard that the love between Banba and Kamon happened at first sight. According to Banba the moment they first met felt like a sign of fate, and Kamon even agrees to that statement - "It felt like we had finally been able to meet each other..." It's not wonder that they would believe that all stars were aligning between each other because even the bride's and groom's birth date, blood type and background circumstances are all nigh-identical, it's like they are fated to be together. According to Kanba even when they keep silent about something from each other, they're still capable of knowing what the other was thinking. Ran is surprised about learning all the information on the love between Banba and Kamon but then a waiter brings a piece of cake to the table, and accidentally happens to drop the plate...
The waiter is a darker skinned blond male with glasses. The accident really shook the man up and he keeps apologizing as the cake fell all over Banba's jeans and he's even stepping on the cake. The shaken-up waiter keeps apologizing and explains that it's his first day on the job, so he's not good at serving. Kamon gives the empty plate back to the waiter, gives him a non-romantic wink and tells him that it's all fine; the waiter should bring them a towel or something to clean up with and the waiter decides to head to look for something. At the same time Banba tells her soon-to-be wife that even though the waiter looks handsome, she shouldn't be winking at him, to which Kamon wonders if Banba is jealous.
Kogoro starts to reminiscence his high school days from the sight of Banba's actions - it seems that in their younger days, Banba was a man who quickly charmed girls but was still always possessive of them, he easily got jealous whenever the girls went for other men. Banba gives us information about Kogoro in exchange of Kogoro saying something like that; it seems that in the past Kogoro looked angrily at anyone who tried to make moves on Ran's mother Eri, when Kogoro and Eri went to the same high school.
While Ran is interested in learning more about Kogoro's high school romances, Kamon decides to leave the restaurant to go to the nail salon to get bridal nail tips. Banba tells her that she shouldn't do that because of the heavy rain but Kamon explains that she's not going to decline her appointments - and in case Banba is just suspiciously jealous, the nail salon staff are all female.
Banba tells Kamon that he's going to repeat something one more time: "If you cheat on me, there'll be a hell to pay..." to which Kamon gives him a wink and tells her that that's actually her line to her dearest husband. Before Kamon leaves, she and Banba kiss each other and Ran and Conan look at them while blushing a lot. Kamon promises to be back at Ristorante Sundayrino in two hours to show-off her new fingertips and waves to her husband as good-bye. Kogoro says that Kamon shoul have just waited until the time of the wedding ceremony to put the nails on because she's going to have to remove the nails before heading to sleep tonight. However, Ran gives her father a fact check and tells him that for nail tips, you actually keep them on for 24 hours a day. Kogoro wonders how are they supposed to be able to bath and we get Conan thinking to himself about how being a woman is hard while he drinks what seems to be lemon juice. In fact you can see Ran, Kogoro and Conan drink a lot after finishing their main course. It's a pretty entertaining sight.
The time flies by and Banba has drank himself drunk so much that he's started to hit on other girls in the restaurant. Banba claims that because it's his last night as a single, they should have some fun, but the girls tell him that his wife would get angry if he keeps that attitude up. Kogoro looks at the drunk Banba and says that it's ridicilous how he's playing around with other women when he has such a beautiful bride such as Kamon, but Ran looks at him and frowns as Kogoro is exactly like Banba as well.
The darker skinned restaurant waiter then goes to Banba who seems annoyed but the waiter just tells him that Banba's phone has been ringing for the longest - he should probably check what's up. Banba looks at his cell and notices a message from Kamon who sent him a photo of her new fingernails as he wasn't answering the phone, but Kamon is going to come back to the restaurant in 30 minutes time to show them in-person.
The other girls in the restaurant take a note of the message and tell Banba that him and Kamon are very much in love with each other so it's funny how he's acting all flirty with other people. Banba then gets a call - but not on the phone he's holding, but another phone that's in his right pocket. He tells the other girls that he's heading to the restroom. Conan takes a note of Banba answering a second phone and talking on it with a serious expression. What's more, Banba stops his phone call before he heads to the restroom - which means that the caller is inside there. But for now we see a cute scene of Ran drinking from her glass and then asking Conan if something is in his mind or if he saw someone he knows in the restaurant. Conan thinks that Banba's situation is probably nothing important but then he sees the bathroom door open and a man named Haruka Sanji (48), a customer with sunglasses, walks out of there. Conan wonders if this man with sunglasses was the one who called Banba and Haruka then calls for the male waiter and asks for Bourbon on the rocks for a drink but as the waiter is about to turn, he hits Banba with his elbow as Banba walked too close to the waiter. Banba gets very angry at this and curses at the waiter. The girls Banba spends time with tell him that he's been drinking far too much but Banba tells them he's fine, though the male waiter looks at Banba with suspicious eyes through his eyeglasses. Haruka asks if the waiter still remembers his order and yes he does; Bourbon on the rocks it is. Banba looks back at the waiter and Haruka with a very angry face all of a sudden.
Conan asks Kogoro that this party at the restaurant can basically be considered also as a reunion meeting between Kogoro's high school classmates and Kogoro explains that that's true as he remembers that the bride's, Kamon Hatsune's, reunion party is going to be held at a different time. Ran's mother Eri was unable to come to this particular meeting because of her lawyer work. Conan then asks if the customer with the sunglasses that came out of the bathroom was also one of Kogoro's classmates to which Kogoro answers that he doesn't remember seeing the man before, but it's been 20 years so it's possible that the sunglasses man was someone he knew.
Outside the restaurant Kamon had finally returned. She opens her umbrella to protect herself from the pouring rain and gets a sudden phone call while she's outside - a phone call that shocks her.
At the same time in the restaurant a glass drops to the floor, spilling the drink all over the place. Banba and the dark-skinned waiter are both on the floor and a waitress appears to wonder what's going on. According to the waiter Banba all of a sudden struck him without warning. As the waiter asks if Banba is alright, Banba shouts at him to not touch him and gets up. Other people in the restaurant notice that he's bleeding from falling on the glass shards, and they also worry about Banba being too drunk. Banba tells them that he's fine and that he wants to talk to Kamon right now. He decides to call on his phone to her and she answers. As he asks her where she is, she says sayonara and the phone call stops. Kogoro, Conan and Ran seem like they might think she's leaving him for spending time with girls or something but their facial expressions soon change as they turn their heads to the right and look straight out of the restaurant window to see a car engulfed in flames. Banba fears immediately for the worst as he looks at the car. Kogoro tells Ran to immediately contact the police and get an ambulance and fire department to the scene immediately as Kogoro and Conan run outside. Kogoro also orders Ran to not let anyone leave the restaurant as it might be dangerous out there, the car could explode.
Inspector Megure and officer Takagi along with detective Chiba and other policemen have arrived on the scene with the constant rain still coming down. There is one victim inside the car with a completely burnt body. The analysts are currently matching the victim's DNA with medical records. Takagi explains that it's likely that the body is of the owner of the car, Kamon Hatsune. Inspector Megure wonders if it's true that Kamon made a suicide phone call right before the car set up in flames and Takagi answers him yes. Detective Chiba has finished checking up the car and tells the others that there were two suitcases inside the car. Kogoro appears and tells Megure that the suitcases must have been for the honeymoon preparations as the woman who possibly passed away, Hatsune, was going to be married the next day. Megure just looks at Kogoro with a depressed face and wonders why he's at a crime scene again. Takagi wonders why would a woman in that sort of situation ever commit a suicide and Kogoro just says that she might've gotten scared and tried to run away at the last minutes. At the same time Conan has been investigating the premises and notices a fake nail on the ground beneath the car that the police haven't paid attention to yet. Conan ponders if he should start considering the possibility of a murder for Kamon Hatsune's death.
The scene transitions inside the restaurant where Megure explains to Kogoro that the case could be a murder instead of a suicide. According to Megure there was part of skin stuck on the fake nail that Conan had found on the ground and the fake nail was the same nail she'd gotten at the salon according to the investigation. That means that the possibility of a killer attacking her is real as the skin on the fake nail could belong to the culprit. Banba then goes to Megure and pleads him to answer who the killer is. Megure then asks if he's the person who was engaged to the victim to which Banba answers yes. Megure then grabs Banba's bandaged right hand and asks how he was injured. Banba explains that it was from when he fell to the ground as the glass fell on it as well. Then Megure asks him if he recognizes a hair brush that the inspector has in a plastic bag to which Banba answers yes, as it's his and it should've been inside his suitcase.
Megure explains that the DNA evidence on the brush match the DNA on the fake nail roughly. To this Banba starts to lose his composure as he understands what Inspector Megure is getting at. All the evidence point towards Banba. Then Takagi appears and says that they don't have an exact match so the police would like Banba's approval to reach a definitive determination. Banba freaks out but Kogoro goes to him and tells him that he should calm down as he didn't kill Kamon, to which Banba says that of course he didn't. The darker-skinned waiter then makes his appearance and says that it's possible Banba hid his wounds when he struck the waiter and the glass broke - it was as if Banba wanted to get injured. However the waiter's inclusion makes Banba angry and then the sunglasses man, Haruka Sanji, also makes an entrance and tells the waiter that he's more suspicious than Banba as the waiter must have killed his "beloved woman before she became someone else's." The waiter and Megure wonder what's going on and then Banba tells what's been on his mind for the longest; the waiter has been meeting with Hatsune in secret for a while now, so he must've been her secret lover. Megure asks the waiter if what's being said was true and a group of people gather around to listen. The waiter claims that he's indeed been meeting up with her but that's because Kamon had hired him as a private eye. That means that the darker-skinned waiter is in fact a detective - he is Amuro Tooru, a 29 years old private eye.
The first chapter of the Wedding Eve case is quite entertaining, and as I guessed there are things I haven't picked up on before. Pacing-wise I think that the case moves really well. The reference with the sunglasses detective ordering "Bourbon on the rocks" to check Amuro's voice is pretty cool. Did you notice that in this chapter the scene of the burning car wasn't the cliffhanger of the chapter but they've even gone pretty far in the investigation already. I'm not into the idea of "apartment cases" (restaurant in this case) in detective fiction due to their limited settings as the cases take place in one place, but Detective Conan really manages to make them feel entertaining somehow. I believe part of the reason is the fact that my brain automatically enjoys short stories more due to them not being overwhelming. If a short case flops, then it doesn't piss me off. For example imagine paying for a volume and it only having one case that has bunch of good and bad in it coming out with a mediocre product, that's something that'd piss me off.
The inclusion of Megure's deductive reasoning about noticing Banba's wounds and Megure instantly coming to the conclusion that the wound might be from Kamon scratching him with the new nails, and the DNA match on the nail make this case pretty interesting. The introduction of Amuro is also somehow pretty genius as there was this very subtle adultery plot in the backgrounds and it turned into a circle of lovers investigating each other via detectives because of jealousy.
Part 2 - Genome (File 794)
The first chapter of the Wedding Eve case was a nice breather from the format of the longer detective fiction cases I've been reading lately. In this part we move to chapter 794 to see the investigation of Kamon Hatsune's death in a burning car. The suspicion has quickly turned towards Mouri Kogoro's old friend Banba Raita who Hatsune was about to get married with the next day, but things took another turn when the waiter of the restaurant where Banba, Kamon and our main characters were celebrating the duo's wedding at, turned out to be a detective named Amuro Tooru that Kamon had hired - and Banba thought the waiter was his fiance's lover instead.Banba is surprised at the waiter claiming to be a detective as it's definitely odd that the detective happened to be a waiter at the restaurant where they were holding their wedding party at. Amuro Tooru, the waiter-detective, tells him that it's not by chance as he had Kamon specifically choose the restaurant where he was working part-time. Banba asks aggressively why Kamon would have done something like that and Amuro just smirks at him and tells that it was to observe Banba's actions; Amuro was hired by Kamon to investigate whether the man who seemed to hang out with other girls had a lover. Amuro's job was to surveillance Banba which is why he threw the cake on Banba at the beginning of the first chapter on purpose to stop him from talking with girls, however, Amuro's actions were in vain as that didn't stop Banba from hitting on the women at the restaurant.
Amuro explains that because of Kamon's death in the burning car in the restaurant's parking lot, even if Banba wanted to confirm Amuro's statement's legitimacy, it's now impossible, however the man in sunglasses should be able to testify on the matter that Amuro did take an assignment from Kamon as he was at the place where Amuro was giving Kamon his report on Banba's background check. Megure wonders who the man with the sunglasses is but Amuro nonchalantly tells him that the man is probably a detective who's been hired by Banba as it seemed as if Kamon had been meeting with someone more and more recently. The sunglasses man found out the secret meeting place of Kamon and the person she was meeting but as the man had a hood and a hat on, there was no way to identify him at the meeting place, however the sunglasses man, Haruoka Sanji, did recognize the man's - Amuro's - voice when Haruoka has come to the restaurant which was when Haruoka personally called Amuro to his table to confirm whether he had the same voice or not, and that's when he contacted Banba and confirmed it to him. Before calling for Amuro Haruoka had called Banba to the restroom to tell him that the waiter, Amuro, could be the man Kamon was meeting and that he'd call waiter to confirm the voice after leaving the bathroom.
According to Haruoka Amuro's hypothesis is very correct but Haruoka never considered Amuro to be a detective as he managed to escape from Haruoka trailing him. Officer Takagi and Kogoro wonder why Banba was about to marry Kamon if he knew she was meeting with a mystery man and why Banba never asked his fiance anything about the situation. Banba tells them that he thought that Kamon might hate him if she knew that he had hired a detective to investigate her, him and Kamon were so close that they even told each other that they were adopted.
So, the truth of the matter really is that Banba had hired a detective - Haruoka - to trail Kamon, while Kamon had hired a detective - Amuro - to trail Banba, both due to suspicions of adultery. Kogoro tells Banba that if Banba had hired him, Kogoro would have immediately known that Amuro was a detective [DOUBT]. Banba explains that not only is Kogoro famous so he'd stick out like a sore thumb, but Banba had already decided on introducing Kogoro to Kamon in the first place so she'd know Kogoro. Kogoro tells Banba that if he'd handled the situation, Kamon wouldn't have committed suicide in the first place and he says that the reason for the car fire might have been Amuro calling Kamon to tell her about Banba's flirty behavior inside the restaurant while Kamon went to the nail salon. Amuro gets shaken and tells Kogoro that he'd never made any phone call like that to Kamon and that it's not likely that she would have killed herself just because of Banba's flirting while drunk.
Inspector Megure stops Amuro to ask Banba about another phone call situation. Right before the car was set ablaze, Banba had called Kamon and she'd said implied suicide. Banba tells the inspector that Kamon had talked about "sayonara" while crying over the phone. He checks his phone's call log records and shows the detectives that Kamon had spoken with him at 8:54 p.m. this very night. The time of the 110 call from Ran was at 9:21 p.m. meaning a 30-minute gap. Ran explains that she'd called the ambulance and the fire department before the police and those calls took a while. Sadly, by the time the ambulance and the fire truck got to the scene, the inside of the car was already almost completely burnt.
Conan then wonders about the fire. Normally the part of the car where people ride would be made of things that wouldn't burn easily, so it's weird that the car was completely ablaze. Ran also notes that it seemed like something was exploding around the time as well. Takagi tells them that the exploding material were spray pain cans as there was a huge amount of them along with paper and cardboard in the car. Whatever set he fire, those would make the flames spread.
Megure wonders why the car had objects like those in them and Banba explains that him and Kamon were planning to decorate the entire car with spray paint and stencils after the party that they were holding this night. They wanted to surprise everyone by going to their wedding ceremony the next day with a car like that, because it was all a secret for the big day,no one actually knew about it, which makes Megure more suspicious about whether or not Banba is telling the truth.
Banba then shows the inspector an e-mail he'd gotten from Kamon that says that she'd "finished gathering all the materials." Megure checks Banba's phone and notes that the e-mail was received this same day at 8:18 p.m. from Kamon. She also mentions that she's coming back in 30 minutes. The e-mail was a photo mail that appears to be from the nail salon. Megure looks at Banba and says that this all means that not only Banba knew that the car would be filled with flammable material, he also knew the time when Kamon would come back to the restaurant.
Megure's implications make Banba shudder. The inspector explains that if the killer was Banba, he could have sneaked out of the restaurant, ambushed her in the parking lot, put her back into the car and then set the car into flames. What's more, one of the fake nails she'd just gotten that was on the ground had a small piece of human skin on it. Analyzing the situation, it's very likely that the skin came from Kamon resisting her attacker and the skin got there from her scratching the killer. The DNA from the piece of skin was close to matching with the DNA found on Banba's hairbrush... Banba asks that what the problem is because it's just an approximation. Amuro answers that "approximate match" means that skin had been contaminated by the rain that ha been falling as well as the dirt on the ground, so the information on the data is not 100%. However as long as the ones sharing the DNA matches are not relatives, there is no such thing as an approximate match on the genome scale. Thus the conclusion Amuro came to is that it's natural to assume the DNA matches coming from the same person.
Banba gets angry at Amuro and tries to punch him but Amuro manages to dodge him and Banba falls to the ground. Amuro seems shaken and tells Banba to calm down as he asks Kogoro to grab Banba as he might aggressively come at Amuro again, but Kogoro doesn't bother to do that and just tells Banba to calm down, explaining that the hair from the hairbrush used on the DNA test isn't necessarily Banba's own - Kamon could have used the brush as well. As Banba is still on his knees from trying to rush Amuro, Conan notes something odd about Banba from behind while looking at his shoes.
Kogoro tells Banba to let the detectives take a DNA sample from Banba to make sure. Conan wonders how Banba could have killed Kamon as he looks at his shoes still. Banba gets up and tells the detectives that he agrees to have his DNA taken, and Takagi takes him with him. Conan thinks that he'll just wait for the DNA analysis to make sure of the situation, and think of the situation he just found out after that comes out. Ran tells Conan that DNA analysis is pretty amazing as in the past, all we could do was to figure out blood types from saliva but nowadays it's possible to definitely know whether or not we are talking about the exact same person. Conan agrees to it and Ran tells him that now it is even possible that if someone completely changed their appearance and tried to fool everyone that they were a different person, it would be easy to find out right away and Conan gets a rather comedic face and agrees to what Ran just said once more - while clearly thinking about himself being exposed.
Takagi shouts for the inspector and tells him that there is one door in the back of the restaurant that leads to the parking lot but when the incident happened, the heavy rain caused it so that no customers were leaving, the door was locked. That means that the only way to get out the restaurant was the front entrance to the restaurant. Takagi explains that if someone wanted to leave the restaurant any other way, there is a window in the restroom that they could use, however under the window there's a large puddle of water, in other words if anyone had gone through there they would have left footprints and become dirty, however none of the customers in the restaurant have their clothes or shoes dirty of mud or even wet. What's more, at the time of the incident there was a heavy gust of wind, because of that Kamon's umbrella had flew to the edge of the parking lot. Conan thinks of the wind and remembers that when they walked to the restaurant there was a pretty strong wind as well.
Megure asks the adultery detective duo for any clues or ideas on the matter, for example if Kamon or Banba were talking about any fights they had or if Kamon had any heavy burdens on her mind that would make her commit suicide. Haruoka Sanji, the sunglasses detective, tells inspector Megure that he hadn't noticed anything like that and that Banba had seemed shocked when Haruoka told him that Kamon was meeting with a man in secret but what seemed to grind Banba's gears more was that Kamon was talking with someone on the phone secretly as well. Haruoka assumes it was Amuro she was contacting but Amuro get shaken and tells him that his contacts with Kamon all happened via email, not on the phone and the only time he met with Kamon in public was when Haruoka saw them that one time. Amuro explains that there was something that did make Kamon seem rather shocked however - Amuro had investigated Banba thoroughly and found out that when Banba and Kamon were both infants, the two of them were rescued from the same hotel fire and taken in and were raised by the same church. Neither had any way to be identified and it's very likely that both Kamon and Banba's parents died in that fire; the fire was very large and took many lives. After learning about this truth Conan starts to ponder to himself.
However Banba and Kamon never were childhood friends in their younger days as Banba was taken in by adoptive parents very quickly while Kamon stayed in the church for a longer period of time. Learning that from Amuro, Kamon's expression had gotten darker, however Amuro didn't know why but Kamon had said that she would investigate the rest on her own.
Conan asks Ran if Kamon was shorter than Ran, who is a high school student. Ran tells that yes, Kamon was indeed shorter than her but she was wearing high-heel boots so she must have been quite a bit shorter than her, of about 150 centimeters. Conan ponders that the average height of a Japanese female is about 159 centimeters as detective Chiba appears. Chiba tells inspector Megure that while the DNA analysis hadn't come yet, according to the forensics report, there is one fake nail that's missing - a different fake nail than the one they found, so two had dropped. Megure thinks that the remaining nail might've dropped in the car and burnt somewhere, but Conan has a different possibility in his mind and runs outside.
Conan asks an inspector outside the restaurant where they'd found the umbrella. The inspector wonders what a little boy like him would do with such information and Conan tells him that it's all for uncle Kogoro who'd "asked me to come and find out." The inspector shows Conan that the umbrella was caught on another car at the end and Conan takes his wristwatch off and puts on the flashlight on it and starts looking at the area below the car. If the fake nail had been inside the umbrella that was dropped and then blown away by the wind, it'd logically be around the car. Conan scans the area some more and finds the second fake nail beneath the car and its tire - completely saved from being affected by the rain so the nail is mostly clean. At the tip of the nail there is also skin and blood visible on it, so it can be used for a more definitive DNA analysis. Conan tells the investigator that the fake nail is under the car and that it belongs to the woman who'd passed away so the inspector should be careful. Conan walks back towards the restaurant and thinks about how it'll all most likely become clear now - the identity of the culprit, and if his deductions don't have any holes to them, a very sad and unwelcome truth will be exposed. Ran runs to Conan and starts nagging at him about something like not being allowed to go out at night like that, but he can't hear what she's saying while he's in his thoughts.
The second chapter of this restaurant case focused on revealing the deductions from the clues that were laid in the first chapter. The circle of detectives investigating each other's clients because Banba and Kamon suspected they were cheating each other with some lovers is a pretty cool concept. The chapter also showed the reader some styles of how Amuro handles his cases when he deliberately dropped the cake on Banba to try to stop him from flirting with the other girls or him easily dodging Banba and then acting like he's shocked. It's interesting to see both Inspector Megure and Amuro so easily recognize all the possible tricks the culprit could have been using - Megure especially ironically just shines in this case with how he immediately just explains how Banba's explanations can be used against him, I'd love to see a case with Megure taking on some manipulating bastard. The clues about the past of Banba and Kamon are pretty neatly and quickly explained in this chapter as well, as I remember in the first chapter they explained how they came from similar backgrounds. Other than that it was a pretty normal mid-case chapter, they went over a lot of little details from the times of phone calls / e-mails / the incident, and the possibilities of doors being used as well as how the flame spread so easily in the car.
Part 3 - Destined to Re-enter the Flames (File 795)
The Wedding Eve short series heads towards its conclusion with the final chapter cover of Conan standing outside the restaurant at which a sad tale is about to be told. Banba, Kogoro's old friend and the groom of the victim is sitting at Ristorante Sundayrino angrily shouting about how things turned out the way they did and he hits his bandaged arm to the table where he's sitting at with Kogoro and the police watching them - the punch hurt. Kogoro tells Banba that he needs to calm down as his situation isn't looking good right now - Kamon Hatsune, the person who Banba was supposed to marry the next day, was burned to death in her car outside the restaurant. Couple of the fake nails she'd gotten just 30 minutes prior to her death were dropped on the ground next to her with human skin on them - she must have scratched her attacker. The DNA from the skin was an approximate match with the DNA found on Banba's hairbrush. Kogoro explains to Banba that it's only natural he's being suspected of murdering his wife and Banba starts to bite his fingernails in anxiety.
Kogoro asks Banba if he'd ever let anyone that particular hairbrush ever before but Banba claims that he doesn't remember anyone using it. Banba explains that him and Kamon started living together half a year prior it's possible that Amuro Tooru, the detective Kamon had hired, might've been brought to his home by Kamon while he was out, and Amuro might've used the hairbrush as well. Amuro tells Banba that he's never been to her house before but Banba tells him that no one even knows if he's actually a detective as now that Kamon is dead, there's no one to prove Amuro's words true. Banba says that since Amuro is clever enough to be able to make himself disappear from the sight of the detective Banba had hired to trail Amuro, its possible that Amuro'd come to his house and picked all the hair from his hairbrush and planted other person's hair on it with the intent of framing Banba. Amuro tells him that Banba shouldn't attribute such "spy-like behavior" to him and
Megure stops the two from talking and tells them that Banba's wrong as the second DNA analysis on Banba's saliva had finally come through, and the results are the same. The hair found on Banba's hairbrush has been confirmed to be Banba's hair. Banba himself gets shocked and Amuro starts his monologue, explaining how the case went down.
According to Amuro the truth behind the case started from jealousy. Banba had misconstrued Amuro, the person hired by Kamon to investigate Banba himself, as Kamon's secret lover. Fueled by those thoughts, Banba must have been filled with rage that began to take a form of killing intent. As Banba learned of when Kamon was coming back, with a car full of flammable items no less, he'd decided to make his move and ambushed Kamon as she came back to the restaurant, and then burned her to death. All the puzzle pieces are coming together. Banba looks at the smirking Amuro with hatred from hearing his deductions.
Detective Takagi asks Banba to come to the police station with them. Banba tries to ask help from Kogoro, but he has no way to help. Amuro looks at the leaving Banba in a weird manner, thinking. Takagi tells Banba that the police car is not at the entrance so if he doesn't have an umbrella, he'll get wet as the heavy rain started pouring down again, but Banba tells him that it doesn't matter. At the same time Conan goes under the table, flips out his wristwatch tranquilizer, and Sleeping Kogoro makes his appearance.
Takagi opens the restaurant front door and both him and Banba get ready to go to the downpour but they are stopped by none other than Sleeping Kogoro himself. Sleeping Kogoro asks Banba if it's alright for him to leave just like that and then he re-states the question but Banba still decides that there's no other choice if he wished to confirm his innocence. That's when Sleeping Kogoro makes bold claim: Banba is not the killer!
Amuro, Ran, inspector Megure and the rest, including other restaurant customers that have gathered around, wonder what Sleeping Kogoro is talking about. The inspector says that Kogoro shouldn't say that Banba is innocent just because he's following the police procedures accordingly and going with them to the station out of his free will as there's a high chance Banba is just playing around, thinking that as long as he cooperates and doesn't spill the beans, he'd be fine.
Kogoro tells everyone to think back to the circumstances that happened during the time of the car fire. Amuro thinks back. Kogoro continues with his talk and says that the door that goes out to the parking lot from the back of the restaurant was locked due to the heavy rain and the exit and entry through the bathroom window was highly unlikely due to the large puddle of water that was on the ground right beneath the window. The culprit would have gotten wet and muddy, something Banba's not. Kogoro tells everyone that thus, there was no other way to leave other than through the front door but for Banba to be able to do that, it shouldn't be possible, as Banba was the star of the party; someone would have immediately seen Banba if he were to leave as everyone was on him for going to the bathroom as well.
Amuro smirks at Sleeping Kogoro's deductions and gives another possibility of how the incident went down. Amuro tells everyone how it's possible that no one simply noticed Banba; he must have disguised himself when he went to the bathroom. If he had hidden clothes in there before the party, it would be possible. If Banba had something like a knit cap and a long jacket, it would be hard to recognize him. As Banba is the star of the party he could have used that to his advantage to make everyone recognize how he looked. Banba asks Amuro how he's going to explain the phone call he got from Kamon right before the car started burning. Amuro tells him that it's likely he didn't make any actual phone calls at that time but he'd instead waited to ambush Kamon and called her when she'd gotten out of the car to make his move. When Kamon's attention was distracted by the call, she'd failed to look behind her back where Banba must've been waiting to knock her unconscious, however Kamon managed to fight back a bit and scratch Banba with her fake nails. After the attack Banba forced her into the car and hurried back in the restaurant after setting the fire. After changing his clothes Banba must have purposefully attacked Amuro to make the glass drop so that he could hide the wound after getting new wounds from falling down. Then, right after Banba pretended to call Kamon and made everyone around think that she'd said her farewells with the "sayonara", instead, she didn't actually say anything as she was in the flames by then. Amuro tells everyone how he'd instantly cast his eyes out the window towards the burning car to make everyone else put their attention to it being Kamon's car, and thus, Banba's drama act of a sad to-be husband who'd lost his wife in a suicide was finished. The spray cans that exploded from the heat when everyone was running out was simply Banba getting luck.
Banba tells Amuro that he's wrong and that Kamon really did say sayonara over the phone to him. Banba asks the officers to look for Kamons phone but Takagi tells him that the phone was already found completely burned to a crisp, and even then there's no way to know what she'd said. Megure then asks Amuro that his deduction would mean that the police should have found the hidden clothes in the restroom, that they haven't found. Amuro explains that Banba must have cut them up into pieces with a knife or scissors and flushed them down the toilet. A knit cap would be no problem to flush down and a very light windbreaker is possible to be cut into small pieces as well.
Sleeping Kogoro then asks Amuro about the last piece of the clothing; what would Banba have done with the shoes? Amuro wonders why he mentions those but explains that Banba should have no reason to try change his shoes because if he was always on the move, no one would distinguish Banba's generic-looking shoes. Kogoro then tells Banba to take his shoes off and show what's under them and everyone seems surprised about what he's talking about. The proof under Banba's shoes... is cream-like substance. Ran remembers that it's most likely from the chocolate cake that Amuro threw on Banba as Banba stepped on it. Banba had stepped on it before Kamon had even left for the nail salon. This means that if Banba had gone outside with those shoes, under the constant heavy rain and on the wet road, the cream should have mostly been washed away. That cream proves that Banba hadn't been to outside, however Sleeping Kogoro tells them that at first he'd thought the cream was but a set-up by Banba himself, it might've been possible that he'd used some kind of method to change his shoes so that he could show Kogoro the cream on the bottom of his shoes so that Kogoro would testify for Banba that he'd not left the restaurant. However, since the cake was something Amuro had dropped on the ground and thus a completely random incident and due to the fact that Banba never even mentioned the cream to them, and even the fact that Banba was fully ready to leave the restaurant to go into the rain where all the critical evidence would be washed away, Sleeping Kogoro was then convinced that the cake was not a fake evidence but the proof that could be used to prove Banba's innocence.
Amuro gets aggravated and asks about the DNA evidence. The skin on the tip of Kamon's fake fingernails approximately matches Banba's own DNA, meaning the evidence against Banba is still there. Sleeping Kogoro asks Amuro if he'd ever considered that the skin under the nails was her own - and the implications of what that'd mean. Amuro tells Kogoro that he'd already explained that as long as the DNA matches weren't from blood relatives, an approximate genome match is completely impossible. The chance that someone would posses the same DNA as another is a whopping 4 700 000 000 000 to 1, much lower chances than winning any lottery on earth. What's more, females wouldn't even possess the Y-chromosome that males have, so it'd always be easy to come to the conclusion that the skin was Banba's.
Sleeping Kogoro tells Amuro that it's because of the rain and dirt on the ground that the skin had been contaminated; this might have led to an approximate match that is approximate match exactly because the gender chromosomes cannot be identified properly. Amuro asks Kogoro if he seriously thinks that two people of the nigh identical DNA would meet by chance, happen to fall in love and get married, the implications of that are ridicilous and the entire thing sounds impossible. Sleeping Kogoro tells everyone that even if their meeting had been left to chance, the two being drawn to each other on the other hand was inevitable... as the two of them are twins. [This is a pretty sad revelation honestly...]
In the beginning of the case Banba and Kamon had said that both of them share the same birth date and blood type and even if they kept things hidden from each other, they'd be able to know what the other was thinking. Banba seems shocked and tells Kogoro that's not proof of them being twins but Kogoro tells him what Amuro had found during his investigations - when they were infants, Banba an Kamon were both rescued from the same hotel fire and taken in by the same church with their identities unknown. Banba seems surprised, and doesn't know of the hotel fire incident. Takagi tells him that their parents most likely burned to death so no one knew the children were twins.
Inspector Megure asks if it's true that twins share DNA. Takage tells him that for identical twins, it's possible, however they have to be both male or female. Amuro explains that there are rare case examples. Before it's divided, if the fertilized egg has XY (male) chromosomes, upon splitting into two embryos one may lose its Y chromosome so one stays as an XY (male) and the other will become an XO (female), thus, they can be born as opposite sex identical twins.
Banba asks if Amuro is joking however amuro asks him if he knows how tall Kamon was. He tells Amuro that she was in the low 140 centimeters and it'd always bothered her how short she was (remember the average female height in Japan is 159 cm). Amuro tells him that then, there is indeed a high possibility of all that's been said to be true as for opposite sex identical twins the female is prone to short stature that stems from the Turner's Syndrome.
Banba then asks why would Kamon's own skin be under her nails in the first place then. Sleeping Kogoro tells him that it's clear that when Kamon heard from Amuro that her and Banba were rescued from the same fire and she had said that she'll "investigate the rest on my own" to Amuro, the investigation Kamon was holding must have only been about the DNA analysis to determine whether Banba and her were identical twins. It's likely that when she came back to the restaurant area from the nail salon and got out of the car, she'd gotten a call from the DNA analyst and had received the report confirming that the two were identical twins, forbiddn to marry. The reason why her own skin was on her fake nails was thus most likely because those results made her so horrified that she clawed at her own face with enough force to rip the fake nails off while crying. At that time the other fake nail dropped under the car and the other fake fake nail was picked by the wind where it flew under another car along with the umbrella; the skin on the second fake nail not being as contaminated. That fake nail is being analyzed at this very moment and once the results come in, then it will all be clear.
Inspector Megure answers a call from he call from forensic analysts. The talk with them about the DNA analysis on the mostly uncontaminated second fake nail came in, confirming to e an exact match with Banba's DNA, except for the gender-signifying portion of the DNA. Since the DNA also matches the DNA the forensics got from Kamon's burnt-up body, it's confirmed that the skin on the fake nail is in fact hers and it was all indeed a suicide.
The hired DNA analyst contractor had called Kamon at the worst possible time; it's possible that the contractor heard that the two were getting married the next day and wanted to notify Kamon as soon as possible. It all ends with Banba falling to his knees to cry about his bride Kamon Hatsune and Conan narrates the rest of the case; it might be that Kamon had wanted to end her life the way it began, as to separate the path of fate that flames had made the two of them take.
The epilogue of the case is about Kogoro, Conan and Ran spending time at a coffee house, Cafe Poirot that's right next to the Mouri Detective Agency, and Amuro Tooru makes his appearance as a waiter once more. It appears that after seeing the great Sleeping Kogoro's deductive skills at Ristorante Sundayrino, Amuro wants to become Kogoro's apprentice because he'd realized his own inexperience as a detective.
Because of seeing Kogoro's superior skills and he himself failing, Amuro decides that he wants to start all over from the beginning as a private eye and has already gone as far as to become a part-time worker to be close to Kogoro whenever a case calls - Amuro definitely wants to be part of the next big case to learn more. Kogoro however tells him that he has an unwritten rule of not taking any disciples but Amuro whispers to his ear that he's willing to pay per case a certain sum of money, which causes Kogoro's eyes comically to turn into yen bill logos and he immediately hires Amuro. From now on Amuro can call Kogoro "Mouri-sensei." Conan looks at Amuro while drinking his juice and ponders about him being a pain to deal with. First Okiya Subaru who's an university student mystery maniac, then Masumi Sera who is a high school student detective like Heiji and Shinichi, and now Amuro Tooru... recently one after another, detectives seem to gather near our main characters as the plot begins to move forward.
That's one long overview finally down. It's actually surprising how much content Gosho can fit into a normal-length chapter to a three-chapter short case. The case ends in a sad way that feels sadder after going doing this overview. The build-up to the revelation of the two detectives is also really well done.
BOURBON SUSPECT INTRODUCTORY CASES
Review of Wedding Eve Murder Case
It's
not often that I make two posts about the exact same thing but guess I
just have something to say about this one as there are couple of interesting things I want to mention. I wanted to re-read a
shorter case and decided to check this one out pretty thoroughly - there is
some unorthodox writing used by Gosho Aoyama here to introduce a
new overarching character into the story. The case starts with two
lovers partying with the groom's, Banba's, old classmates which happen to include
Kogoro. The bride's, Kamon's, party would be held at a later point.The aesthetics for this case are pretty balanced, it's technically a party at an Italian restaurant but the heavy rain kind of pulls the mood to a more balanced state and it's basically just Kogoro, Conan and Ran eating at their table while others have fun. The moment Kamon leaves the restaurant to go to the nail salon Gosho drops a pretty cool hint with them both saying to each other that if the other would cheat, there'll be a hell to pay, and when they leave the moment with their kiss is actually really powerful after you finish the case. Normally you'd not see something like that in real-time in these manga, but in a flashback instead. Right after Kamon leaves, Banba starts flirting with the other girls and it's pretty funny to see the mention of how he's exactly like Kogoro.
Then there's the scene with Banba's two cellphones, which is pretty cool as they don't get focused on, you kind of understand why he has another phone if you follow the case. Banba gets a phone call, talks aggressively and then shuts the call and after that goes to the bathroom. Then a man with sunglasses comes out of the bathroom and goes to the table, calls the waiter nearby to give him an order to get bourbon on rocks. Then a drunk Banba comes and hits the waiter, and the sunglasses man asks him if he remembers the order, which the waiter does.
Throughout the night Banba acts really aggressively and keeps shouting at the waiter, even hurts himself by trying to attack the waiter as the glass breaks on the floor. Then he calls Kamon who tells him sayonara on the phone and her call cuts. As Kogoro and the rest look out the nearby window, they see a flaming car, and the scene quickly transitions to when Inspector Megure and the rest are already on the scene. Megure himself was honestly pretty impressive in this case as he immediately tracked down in a flash of all the things that you'd try to figure out a culprit would be doing to trick the police in a case. It's actually not easy to see but after paying attention I really like that, of course it wouldn't lead to finding the culprit but it was never presented in an impressive way in the first place, he just does stuff like pointing out possibilities of tricks these characters would be using. It kind of feels like the police actually do work and know what they're doing.
Later we learn that it's actually been an adultery investigation and the sunglasses man introduces himself as detective Haruka Sanji who has been investigating Kamon because he was hired by Banba who was suspicious that Kamon had a secret lover. Later it's revealed that Haruka came, went to the bathroom to tell that he might know who the lover is, then came back to confirm it, and the part with Banba hitting the waiter was never focused on in the explanations either but you can easily see what's up when you connect it to Haruka re-asking his order.
Then on the other end of the spectrum we have the waiter, who introduces himself as Amuro Tooru, a detective hired by Kamon to investigate Banba on whether or not he has a secret lover. Kamon leaving for the nail salon was planned and Amuro being a waiter at the restaurant was technically planned as Amuro told Kamon to tell Banba that they should hold the wedding celebration party at the Italian restaurant where he worked part-time... Amuro deliberately throws the cake on Banba's clothes at the beginning of the case to make him look dirtier so that he won't go flirting with the girls when Kamon leaves, but Amuro's plan fails and Banba doesn't care. Banba's aggressive actions towards Amuro are written in sort of subtle way despite being so clear as Amuro is the man Kamon has been meeting, and the case focuses on that at times, like with Banba claiming that Amuro visited his house and used his hairbrush. The timing of Banba's actions become more frequent after Haruka confirms Amuro's voice being the voice of the 'lover.' Also I have to note that it's interesting to see Amuro play a part in the death of the victim in this case, since if Amuro hadn't investigated on Banba's and Kamon's past and told her his findings, she'd still be alive. There's some pretty heavy grey areas that Gosho traveled through on this case when you consider that and the ending, the whole thing ends up feeling somewhat melancholic with the rainy atmosphere and the mentions of fate, even though it started off with a party at a restaurant. I must note that Detective Conan movie 22: Zero the Enforcer, which also starrs Amuro, focuses on dark grey areas in the justice system as well.
So yeah, while the ending of the case and the build-up to it is naturally what gathers people's attention, there was another twist in this case that gets resolved in the middle and it's actually not even presented as a big deal and it's hinted at really well very subtly. What I'm talking about is the revelation of what Banba and Kamon were doing in the backgrounds. The case is actually about an awkward circle of two detectives being hired to investigate each other of adultery by a suspecting bride and groom who - due to their sad circumstances - are basically capable of thinking the exact same way the other is, and even knowing their thoughts.
On hindsight, if we look at it superficially, the Wedding Eve Murder Case actually seems quite basic. Conan, Kogoro and Ran visit a place where they meet people and then one of them does something and ends up dying while the others have an alibi. The setting is a restaurant but it's basically formatted like an apartment case as even though the death happens out-doors, some of the trick focus is on whether or not the suspects went out of the restaurant somehow. This case also introduces three more characters aside from the victim so one could, at hindsight, say that it follows a very known format to this series as well. However when we look at the plot itself, two of those characters are not really common suspects, the only one claiming that in this case is Banba himself at times simply nagging at Amuro and even that is because he believes Amuro was Kamon's lover rather than actual deductive reasoning being used. Even the main suspect, Banba, is presented completely differently if we were to think about a one-suspect format, as he's completely oblivious to the case yet active in other ways such as hiring a detective and being aggressive towards Amuro. Also, when we look at the true identity of the culprit, despite it being a very common idea in crime fiction in general, even that is seldom seen in this series. It's quite interesting to think about what Gosho can do with more special settings and case ideas with this type of writing styles being used.
