Forum reserved for discussing specific points of the story—mostly from the manga. Be warned, these discussions will be current with the manga and will spoil many plot lines for anime-centric fans.
It's the usual poll. You can change your vote at any time. Ya'll know the drill by now.
I hope Yamamura remembers to bring his cucumbers to ward off the kappa. Since it has been established that Yamamura has about as much tolerance of the supernatural as Ran does, expect a wacky case and no help from the cops.
The most suspicious point is that Ran did not scream upon finding the body; who is this Ran and what did they do with the real one! It can't be Kaito Kid because he would have fainted in fear of the fish smell so the only suspects left are... Vermouth or Bourbon. dun dun duuuun!
Last edited by Chekhov MacGuffin on June 15th, 2013, 5:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I've been putting it off, but here is the preliminary evaluation of the case so far.
The drowning story seems suspicious because the details don't fit together well. If Numayama Tatsuhiko had his leg wedged between the rocks and then was later washed downstream, his shoe would likely still be on or - if having come off - would have been washed down as well, since if his whole body was jarred free, there is no reason why a lightweight shoe wouldn't as well in the swift current of a flash flood. If it was simply his foot with the shoe on that was trapped, the child could probably slip his foot out of the shoe to free himself. The water is shallow so he wouldn't have to submerge himself at all to undo it. The only way I could see the Tatsuhiko getting trapped and not being able to remove the shoe would be if a rock rolled on his leg and foot. The problem with that is it doesn't match the state the shoe was found in. Araiwa Kazuki noted it was found wedged between the rocks, not with a rock on top of it.
It could be an accident if Tatsuhiko stepped poorly and wedged his foot between rocks, lost balance because of it, was knocked unconscious against a rock after slipping, and then drowned as the water rose... I wonder if an autopsy could tell if there was a sharp knock made before death despite having many bumps that occurred after...
Whoever was dressed as the kappa could not have predicted that Kogoro and Ran would show up then. Whatever the kappa had intended to do at the river, he meant to do it in private. Kogoro drove to the gravesite. Although it is within line of sight of the small window in the attic of the Ryokan, a car is still probably the fastest way to get there so none of the suspects could have beat the Mouris to the gravesite.
One idea is that one of the suspects knew that Ran had left her phone and was waiting for them to come while dressed as a kappa; however I don't think this is what happened. None of the suspects could have ensured Ran would forget anything in the first place. It might be possible the kappa took advantage of the stray cell phone. Tokubi Rokurou and Araiwa Kazuki probably didn't notice she had it out since they were busy balancing on the stones and when Ran set it down were busy getting themselves out of the river. They probably didn't know about it. It might be possible that Nohira Bousuke or Numayama Banzou saw her set it down from the ryokan, but how could they be sure when she remembers it and if she would get it that night or tomorrow morning? In conclusion, I don't think the kappa guy intended for anyone to be around.
My hunch is that the kappa was removing the shoe from the gravesite.
I think there is a good chance the kappa of the past was the father dressing up to drum up advertising for the inn. His son may have drowned because he was out looking for the kappa. The current kappa may also be the father, or it could be the murderer dressed up.
I found it strange that no one questioned why Kogoro would think the drowning case was a murder, how Kogoro knew about the incident, or what was his relationship with the drowned child Numayama Tatsuhiko.
Tokubi could have intended to get a ride in detective Mouri's car in order to do something, like ensure Kogoro visited the supposed location of the drowning. The letter to Kogoro specified that he wished to meet in the early morning. I'm going to guess Kuchibashi Village is small so there would be few people traveling inbound early in the morning. Nohira Bousuke specifically mentioned almost no one comes to the ryokan these days. Therefore, Tokubi wouldn't accidentally pick the wrong car. His... extreme... method of signaling that he wants a ride would be to ensure he gets picked up.
I am going to guess we will discover next week that Numayama Banzou was drowned. If it were any other way, it would be easy to sneak up behind him while he is in the attic, kill him, and then dump water and fish oil on his corpse. Gosho usually likes to make things harder than that. He could have been drowned in a sink (filled up with river water too fool the forensics later), and then covered in water and fish oil after being moved to the attic. If it is established that Banzou was indeed drowned somewhere along the river and the wet body had to be moved through the ryokan, I am hypothesizing a tarp was used to prevent the carrier from getting wet.
The contents of everyone's bags are likely going to be important as they were shown to us. Few details like that are superfluous.
Last edited by Chekhov MacGuffin on January 8th, 2010, 8:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Abs. wrote:
What significance do you suppose lies in the "But that was about 10 years ago, I thought…" statement?
I don't know. If Tokubi Rokurou was the culprit, he may be bluffing and pretending not to know exactly to alleviate suspicion. It could be he genuinely didn't remember. Maybe there was some sort of trick to the kid's death. I think he have to hear more from him and more about the kid's death too before we can sort that one out definitively.
Now that I'm actually looking at it, that's not the only thing that's off...
10 years from Tokubi Rokrou
11 years from Araiwa Kazuki
11 years from the letter
11 years from Numayama *B/Panzou 12-13 years from Nohira *B/Pousuke (I'm having issues with their names)
Last edited by Abs. on December 30th, 2009, 6:40 am, edited 1 time in total.
The "kappa" at night was probably digging up for the dead kid's shoe. I suspect that that the plastic bag guy might have put some water in the plastic bags or bottles and brought it back to the inn (since the water smelled fishy (lol)). That student knew also about the attic window which was suspicious.
I think, the kid's father played 12-13years ago the role of the kappa and his child and that student-suspect saw him from the attic window and perhaps out of curiosity they or at least the kid who drowned went to the river to catch the kappa. Then the accident happened, the father felt guilty and stuff and stopped dressing up as the kappa.
Then again I do have my doubts, the artist, ex-teacher guy seems to be suspicious too. Hm...
You can change your vote at any time. Ya'll know the drill by now. 
Made by Mizzicco! THANK YOU!!!
