Detective Conan Episode 568: Inspector Shiratori, Memories of the Sakura (P1)

Summary

Case Closed

Case Closed, known as Meitantei Conan (名探偵コナン?, lit. Great Detective Conan, officially translated as Detective Conan) in Japan, is a Japanese detective manga series written and illustrated by Gosho Aoyama. The series is serialized in Shogakukan's Weekly Shōnen Sunday since February 2, 1994, and has been collected in 73 tankōbon volumes as of September 2011. Due to legal considerations with the name Detective Conan, the English language release was renamed Case Closed.[1] The story follows the adventures of Jimmy Kudo, a prodigious young detective who was inadvertently transformed into a child after being poisoned.

Since its publication, Case Closed has spawned a substantial media franchise. The manga has been adapted into an ongoing animated television series by Yomiuri Telecasting Corporation and TMS Entertainment; the animated series has reached its twentieth season. The series has spawned three original video animation series, fifteen animated feature films, three live action dramas, one live action series, numerous video games, and many types of Case Closed-related merchandise. A two-hour television special titled Lupin the 3rd vs Detective Conan was aired on March 27, 2009, and featured a crossover with the series Lupin III.

Funimation Entertainment licensed the anime series for North American broadcast in 2003 under the name Case Closed with the characters given Americanized names. The anime premiered on Cartoon Network as part of their Adult Swim programming block and was discontinued due to low ratings. The first six films were released on Region 1 DVD in North America. Viz Media later licensed the manga series for English-language publication in North America and used Funimation's renamed title and cast. As of July 2011, 39 volumes have been published by Viz Media.

Compilation volumes of the manga have sold more than 120 million copies in Japan. In 2001, the manga was awarded 46th Shogakukan Manga Award in the shōnen category. The anime adaptation has been well received and ranked in the top twenty in Animage's polls between 1996 and 2001. In the Japanese TV anime ranking, Case Closed often ranked in the top six. Both manga and anime have had positive response from critics for its plot and cases.

Plot

Jimmy Kudo is a 17-year-old high school prodigy who frequently helps the police to solve cases. During an investigation, he is attacked by two criminals, codenamed Gin and Vodka, from the syndicate called the Black Organization. They force him to ingest an experimental poison, APTX 4869, which is supposed to kill him, and leave him to die. A rare side-effect of the poison, however, transforms Kudo's body into that of a child instead of killing him.

Adopting the pseudonym Conan Edogawa, Kudo hides his identity to investigate the Black Organization. He intends to pretend to be a child until he can find enough evidence to apprehend the syndicate, after which he can then safely find and administer a cure for his current condition. Edogawa enrolls at Teitan elementary school and forms the Junior Detective League with three other children in his class: Amy Yoshida, Mitch Tsuburaya, and George Kojima. To further cover up his activities, he moves in with his childhood friend Rachel Moore, whose father, Richard, works as a private investigator. Kudo continues to solve criminal cases as Conan, but usually poses as Richard Moore with the help of special gadgets invented by his neighbor and friend, Hiroshi Agasa.

Shiho Miyano, a member of the Black Organization and creator of APTX 4869, tries to leave the syndicate after her sister's murder, but is held captive by them. She attempts to commit suicide by ingesting APTX 4869; however, like Kudo, she is transformed into a child. She manages to escape and enrolls in Conan's school under the pseudonym, Anita Hailey. She joins the Junior Detective League and assists Conan in his investigations on the Black Organization. Conan's quest has led him to help the FBI to plant a CIA agent, Kir, inside the Black Organization as an undercover spy.

In 2007, Aoyama hinted he had the ending planned out but he has no intention of ending the series yet.

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Saturday, May 23, 2020

0 Detective Conan Episode 568: Inspector Shiratori, Memories of the Sakura (P1)

Episode 568: Inspector Shiratori, Memories of the Sakura (Part 1)

Scenario: At the theaters, the Detective Boys run into Shiratori who is depressed since Sato's affection is being directed towards Takagi. Shiratori reveals that he is bind to Sato because of an encounter he had with her in the past. Shiratori explains Sato as a young girl stood up to two thieves by herself. Shiratori helps her stop the thieves and in return receives from her a drink with paper folded sakura. Conan questions if the girl was actually Sato as their personalities differ greatly. During the movie, Shiratori runs into a woman named Nami Kasakura who offers him a drink with paper folded sakuras causing Shiratori to consider the possibility she was the girl in the past. After the movie, Kasakura tells Shiratori she is being stalked and asks him to investigate. At her apartment, Kasakura's boyfriend is found dead. Conan suspects Kasakura but her alibi supposedly states she was at the theater the whole time.

At night, Sato congratulates Shiratori and Takagi on a case well-resolved (even when Shiratori gives the credit to Takagi's stubborness) and brings them canned coffee as thanks. Shiratori, however, has a memory of a little girl who looks a lot like a younger Sato offering him a paper cup with flowers made out of straws, and hesitates before taking his can. Then he refuses a dinner invitation since tomorrow is his day off and he intends to do other things; Sato and Takagi leave to a ramen restaurant, and Shiratori looks at them sadly.

At the theatres, the Detective Boys run into Shiratori, who is still depressed after it has sunk in that Sato's affection is definitely being directed at Takagi. Shiratori tells the kids that he hasn't fully given up and then tells them the actual reason behind his love for Sato: he believes that he's bound to her through destiny, because of an encounter he had with her in the past. He says that when he was a little boy, once he was in a bookstore and walked into Sato as a young girl, who stood up to two thieves by herself; Shiratori helped her stop the thieves and in return received from her a drink with a paper folded sakura ring around it, made of paper straws. Before leaving, she told him why she added the ring: because these paper sakura look like the symbol of the Tokyo Police Force, which she admires very much,. That meeting is what made him desire to become a policeman instead of a lawyer.

Ai listens to this story, and she question whether that girl was actually Sato since her words sound as something too "girlish" for a tomboy like her, who is tougher than most men. Not to mention, even when Shiratori is sure that Sato is the girl from his past, in reality he didn't know her name; he's mostly going by the physical similarity and her starry-eyed admiration for the police.

Due to a mistake, Shiratori is stuck watching a movie with the children rather than the one he intended. He then runs into a young woman named Nami Kasakura, who accidentally spills his drink but quickly offers him one with paper folded sakuras, just like those from the girl from the past, which causes Shiratori to consider the possibility Kasakura was the girl instead of Sato. The kids also recognize her, since they returned her her wallet few before the start and promised to treat them to lunch as thanks. Shiratori and Kasakura seem to get on well, and Ai and Conan wonder if this will go further.

The screening itself goes without hitch, save for an incident towards the end that scares even Ai. When it's all done Shiratori apologizes for having fallen asleep in the middle of the movie, but Kasakura doesn't mind and Ayumi says it's because of work. Upon hearing that he's a police inspector, Kasakura tells Shiratori she is being stalked and asks him to investigate. She adds that she asked her boyfriend Yoshirou Soumei to stay over at her place to help her, but when they go inside her apartment, they find Soumei dead.

Nami calling her boyfriend but she scream is dead with cellphone. Takagi and Megure arrive to help Shiratori with the investigation. It's established that Soumei was killed around 2 PM, during the movie that they all went to, and that his murderer probably took Soumei's spare key and locked the apartment to try fooling the police. Megure says that the killer was most likely Kasakura's stalker, who beat Soumei to death to get him out of the way, but then he turns and says that the other possibility is that Kasakura herself killed him. Shiratori mentions how she was sitting next to him, but Megure says that the apartment is less than five minutes away by car or taxi so it's not unplausible to have her as a suspect since she could've easily pretended to go to the restroom. Having dozed off at some point, Shiratori's testimony isn't foolproof.

Takagi says he checked on Soumei's cellphone, and it has a call from around the time of his death. Kasakura admits that she got a call from him, but she cut it off since she still was in the theater. Shiratori can't confirm it, but Ayumi does since she saw something lit up and it could have been Kasakura's phone. Genta and Mitsuhiko also mention seeing Kasakura's hat-covered head, but Ai wonders if this is an all-too good alibi for her. The talk is somewhat derailed by Genta and Mitsuhiko talking about "something scary"; Kasakura mentions a specific scene of the Gamera movie - but Ai says what happened after that was the really scary deal, and Kasakura talks about it too. Her reply puzzles Conan, however.

Shiratori checks on his notepad to check on the time and the movie's length, and a small paper sakura falls off. Conan sees it but Shiratori picks it up and keeps it, then asks Takagi to go to the theater to check on other details. Once Takagi is gone, Shiratori and Megure ask Kasakura if they can check on her place, to see if the stalker left any clues or cameras around; Conan does his own search, until Megure tells him to wait in the corner. As Shiratori takes a look in a cupboard, his eyes go wide at something, but he denies finding anything when asked. In the meantime, Ayumi is on her own doing something. Genta and Mitsuhiko ask her what's going on and she shows them she's been using the paper straw wrappers to make sakura flowers, which are just like those the "girl of destiny" and Kasakura made.

In the meantime, Conan tells Ai that Kasakura said she was a big fan of movies with special effects, but has no memorabilia related to such stuff; they also discuss how, for a super popular movie showing, the seats around Kasakura and Shiratori were empty. Conan is also bothered by how easily the group became Kasakura's witnesses and concludes that Shiratori has his own thoughts about the case.