It's the first and probably last time, I open a thread. I am a fan of Detective Conan for over a decade now. Just a couple months ago, when we moved to our new home, I found my old DC mangas. Out of boredom and curiosity, I started reading the first Volumes again, caught the old “who is the big boss”-fever and ended up reading them all in a row. Yeah, all of them. Took me two weeks. Now I'm here, with a cup of coffee and in the mood, to share my funny and weird thoughts. No, I wont discuss what was discussed thousands of times in other forums.
I base my upcoming gibberish only on the mangas and the infamous interview Aoyama's in 2006
http://www.animey.net/specials/42 , where Aoyama said something that made me thinking. No, not the whole “Ai will be surprised'-whatever thing.
At some point, Aoyama was asked about the success of Detective Conan and whether he expected DC to last so many years.
No, of course, he didn't. How could he? Indeed, he thought DC will end after a couple of months or Volumes. So far, nothing unusual, but while reading the first chapters of DC, I realized: when those chapters were published, Aoyama had thought the story to end soon. Why is it important? Because that means Aoyama most likely dropped some important hints pointing to the BO very early. Actually, he dropped maybe 'one hint' within the first six chapters.
(BTW, reading all 700something chapters in a row, I have the impression, that maybe a year or a little bit more has passed in the story line. I know, sounds unbelievable, but that is the impression you get if you read everything in a row and not in a decade...)
We can assume, that Aoyama is a professional (lol, it's really late), meaning he had a rough story outline from the very beginning. The concept of Conan, Kogoro, the BO, them being an international organization leading at some point to the US. It helps that Shinichi's parents lived in the US and that being mentioned right away in the first chapter. It opened the international doors early. And before I go back to that maybe'hint', let me emphasize one of Aoyama's drawing styles: smoking. Certain characters or character-types smoke in the story. The cool (like Akai, Matsuda and some suspects) and the dangerous (like Akai and most of the BO, some other murderers). Well, and Kogoro. But he is another story. I think, we have seen pretty much all BO members smoking and drinking alcohol. In the DC universe, the purely innocent don't smoke and drink.
Which brings me to my key figure, my Irene Adler, so to say: Yoko Okino.
Yeah, keep laughing but keep on reading, I bet you will be a bit surprised.
It starts in chapter 6 Vol. 1, three days after the BO 'killed' Kudo Shinichi. Conan is eager to do something, but is advised by Prof. Agasa to keep his head down. Agasa: “If they find out, your body never showed up, they'll come looking for you. Just wait until then. You mustn't get impatient and make the first move.”
Well, if I learned one thing in the DC universe, it is when a case starts with a discussion about the BO, the case most likely is about the BO. So, Conan waits for their move – and meets Yoko Okino in Kogoro's office. I think it is amazing, that this woman/minor character was introduced so early, but than again it is not important. Something else is. Remember the first Yoko Okino case. The stalker who was killed/committed suicide in her apartment but turns out it was her former boyfriend from high school? So, short before Yoko, Kogoro, Conan and Co go to Yoko's apartment, Yoko's manager says to super-excited Kogoro to keep his voice down, cause nobody knows that Yoko Okino lives in that huge apartment complex. It is a secret. Indeed, Yoko states she moved to this apartment secretly cause she wanted to get away from the stalker. Since it was kept a secret, we can assume Yoko wasn't running around and telling people were she lives. We can assume, she didn't have many guests. The character of Yoko Okino seems to be the one of a beautiful, innocent (like Kogoro always states) young woman aka successful actress, scared, you know the story. The group enters her apartment, finds the murdered stalker and makes the first suspect, a female actress co-worker of Yoko, to come by to the apartment, too. She makes herself suspicious cause she uses that statue that was indeed a lighter and so on and so on. That is not the point. The point are three things that are not 'right' in Yoko Okino's apartment.
1.First of all. The lighter statue is the Statue of Liberty. Why would an innocent person like Yoko Okino whom we never seen smoking have a lighter in the form of the statue of liberty? The lighter indeed looks like something people would buy as a souvenir, very specific. Was Yoko Okino in New York and brought herself a souvenir? Maybe, but bot likely, cause a non-smoker would buy something else. Unless, somebody else she knew was in New York and brought her the lighter souvenir. Somebody, who smokes, somebody who visits Yoko on a regular base and misses a lighter in her apartment... well, who do we know lived in New York at this time, smokes, comes to Japan every now and then and is a famous colleague of Yoko, by herself? Name it, you get it.
2.Which leads to me to point number two. Chapter 9, Vol. 1 page 3, there is an ashtray on the table, right in front of the couch, where the lighter was nearby. Somebody sits on the couch, using the lighter. BTW, it is the same ashtray, Conan uses to knock out Kogoro since he doesn't have the tranquilizer-watch yet.
3.When Conan uses the ashtray, it is seen, that there are three cigarettes in there. Kogoro smokes one cigarette, but he is still holding on to his cigarette. The other female suspect smokes too, but she lost her cigarette shortly after lightening it. You can see her long, unsmoked cigarette in the ashtray. That leaves two other cigarettes in the ashtray that must have been there before Kogoro, Conan and Co arrived. We can assume, that our suspicious “smoker” (hello X-files) visited Yoko Okino shortly before. Well, it might have been the female co-worker, but she was careful not to be seen in Yoko's apartment. Why would she smoke in Yoko's apartment and leaving traces that somebody was there? And Yoko didn't seem bothered at all with cigarettes in the ashtrey.
To summarize, there is this young charming and recurring actress Yoko Okino with a New York souvenir in her apartment, an astray, although she doesn't smoke or smokes secretly (which would make her even more suspicious in the DC-universe). She contacts Mouri three days after Kudo was murdered and no body was found. She comes well along with Ran. Too many coincidences come together in one case, if you ask me.
And it doesn't stop there.
In Vol. 10, chap. 5, Shinichi Kudo appears again after drinking the Chines. alcohol. Vol.11 chap. 4 Conan is in serious trouble because of Kogoro who suspects Conan, but Kogoro is suddenly distracted by Yoko Okino who pops up at the Nichiura TV studio to see Kogoro. It is not a big thing, I know, but I think it is worth mentioning that she pops up at Nichiura TV, saying she works there and wanted to see Kogoro.
Throughout the story, Yoko Okino pops up on TV, radio, poster and so on and so on.
Vol. 48, chap. 9 page 3. When Yoko Okino uses her cell phone in front of Conan, Conan has a flashback of Vermouth. He blames it on him getting paranoid. What if he's not?
Same Vol. Same chapter, it is Yoko Okino who introduces Rena Mizunashi to Kogoro Mori, saying they are friends/colleagues. For crying out load, it was her, who invited Kogoro to the TV studio in the first place and made it possible, that they ran into Rena Mizunashi. Page 4, she literary drags Rena to Kogoro. It was Yoko who suggested to Kogoro to stop by at Rena's apartment. And for some reason, she mentions that she wont tag along with them cause she has work to do. How convenient is that? And has anybody ever paid attention to the older guy on page 5, who shows obvious interest in the conversation on the next table? Older dude, black suit, smoking?
Vol.53 chap. 552 page 16, Kogoro states he got many requests from Yoko Okino.
Chap. 562 page 7, Kogoro calls Yoko … he has her phone number.
Chap. 591 page 3, Yoko Okino doesn't trigger Ai's BO sense.
Chap. 595, Kogoro is watching TV, Yoko Okino sings, while she sings, crows are noisy outside … Kogoro starts humming the seven children song... this really is just coincidence...
… but throw everything together and keep in mind that Irene Adler was a beautiful actress, somebody who tricked Holmes till the very last second of the case... .
Is there somebody else out there, who thinks that this is weird (I mean Yoko, not me writing a novel at two o'clock in the morning.)?