The episode opens with Yusaku Kudo, Shinichi’s mystery novelist father, leaving the police station and being questioned by reporters. At first, he’s asked about being consulted for a case where Kaito Kid was framed for a crime he didn’t commit. I recently watched the Case Closed: The Fist of Blue Sapphire anime film, where Kaito Kid was framed for a crime he didn’t commit, so I was more amused by this reference to Kaito Kid than I might have been otherwise. Near the end of the interview, when Yusaku is asked what message he would give to Kaito Kid, he says something along the lines of, “if Kid is grateful for what I did, I’d be happy to give him a copy of my latest novel.” I thought this was amusing as well, especially when he adds in that if he knew where Kaito Kid lived, he’d deliver the book to him personally.

But before the comment about Kaito Kid and the novel, Yusaku announces that he’s also been asked to help advise the police on a series of locked room murder cases. He says that he’s already figured out the locked door trick, but that he will be announcing the culprit during a live television broadcast later in the week. Right after we see Yusaku’s interview, we see a shadow person watching this interview and grinning.

We then see Yukiko (Shinichi’s mother) and Conan at a local pharmacy, where we learn through their conversation that she and Yusaku had eaten out the night before and now Yusaku isn’t feeling well. It’s the day of the television broadcast, so her plan is to have Conan go over all the information that Yusaku has on the cases, and then she would disguise herself as Yusaku and have Conan use the voice-changing bowtie so the broadcast can go on as planned. We see a shadowy person overhearing their conversation, and again, we see them grin.

At the Kudo home, we see Yukiko sharing images with Conan on a tablet as she explains the important details for each case. This allows the audience to have an idea of what’s going on, in addition to giving Conan the information he needs to solve the case. After they go through everything, Conan quickly figures out the locked door trick. As Yukiko heads out to get her disguise on, we hear in Conan’s thoughts that he’s already figured out who the culprit is.

After a little while, Conan realizes that Yukiko is taking an awfully long time to get ready. When he goes to check on her, he discovers that she had eaten the same thing as Yusaku the previous night and now she also has food poisoning. When the doorbell rings, Conan thinks it’s the television crew arriving early, and he’s planning to send them away. However, what awaits him at the door is someone looking like Yusaku Kudo… and Conan realizes it’s Kaito Kid in disguise. Kaito Kid says he overheard Conan’s conversation with Yukiko at the pharmacy and he wanted to do something to repay Yusaku for clearing his name. Reluctantly, Conan agrees to let Kaito Kid pose as Yusaku so the television broadcast can go on as planned.

Unfortunately, they really don’t have time to discuss the case before the television crew arrives to begin setting up in Yusaku’s study for the live broadcast. While the crew is setting up, Conan begins filling Kaito Kid in on the case. While looking at the pictures, Kaito Kid points something out that Conan hadn’t said anything about when he looked at these same pictures. I have a feeling Conan did notice, but hadn’t said anything out loud about it, and I’m feeling confident that this detail will be playing a role in determining who the culprit is. This episode ends shortly before the live broadcast is scheduled to start, and from the preview, we see that the live broadcast will be taking place in the next episode.

As I was watching the Case Closed: The Fist of Blue Sapphire anime film recently, I was lamenting the fact that we hardly see Kaito Kid in the anime series anymore. Yes, he’s always been a character whose appearances have been hit and miss over the years, but it seems like we saw him more regularly in the earlier years of the series compared to the more recent ones. I was tickled enough when Kaito Kid was mentioned at the beginning of the episode, but I was even happier when I discovered that Kaito Kid would be playing an important role in this multiple-part episode. Since Kaito Kid shows up in the opening credits, I knew we’d have to see him at some point, and well… here he is!

It appears that this story is canon from the original manga source material. There’s definitely a much different feel to the writing in comparison to the recent episodes, and to be honest, there’s always been a different feel to the writing between the stories that come from the manga and the anime original ones. And because of that different feel, I’m confident that this is indeed a canon story from the manga.

Even though this episode was more about setting up the story and the situation rather than on solving the case, I found I wasn’t bored by it. Since the preview shows that the case is going to be solved in the next episode, I’m really looking forward to seeing it to find out what one truth will prevail.

Additional posts about Case Closed:

Advertisement