Special Post Two (Part 1) Interview with Aoyama Gosho March 2014

(This interview comes from my translation of the interview posted in the March 14th "Detective Conan Newspaper". I will try to buy next month's issue and post the rest of the interview)

An extra long interview that lasted over 2 hours with Detective Conan creator Aoyama Gosho (50). This time, he talks about the black orginization, how he creates tricks for cases, Kaito Kid...and he gives a full report on his future plans.

So... Please Enjoy! ^o^

I(Interviewer): So, It seems you have decided on the overall ending already right? Have you even planed the final scene?

A(Aoyama): On January 4 this year (2014) I went on a kind of talk show event held in my hometown in Tottori Prefecture, called "Let's Have a Chat with Aoyama Gosho Day!! 2014". And, there we had talked about the black orginization, and the identity of their Boss. I had revealed that the Boss was someone that has already made an appearance and we already know their full name. So, it's a character we already know, and we also know their full name, but there has been some mistake that has gotten out there.It's been going around the internet...and it's wrong!!

I: That would be that it's Professor Agasa...

A: Right right. And it's even being said that it's the woman that Agasa liked, Fusae-chan ( Fusae Campbell Kinoshita), but that's wrong too. hahaha. Even personally, I think their story ended up beautifully. And it's been said many times that that story is just too nice, and that it just has to be her, but I don't think I want to have that be a major plot point.

I: So, at the present moment, are there no other hints about the identity of "that person".

A: No, not for now. Just please look forward to it. (laughs)

I: So then, the black orginization is full of mysteries. But, what sort of orginization are they, and what is their goal? World Conquest?

A: Well, the world....or rather, they want control of lot's of money. They're moving stealthily in the shadows...sort of like (Al) Capone did right? Or, sort of like the image of the bad guys in 007 or something...sitting there stroking a cat. It's probably best not to say too much.

I: Is there any standard procedure when you're drawing the black orginization?

A: As for the members, like Gin or Vodka, their names must be some type of alcohol. But, I'm running low on different types. They're all distilled alcohols. And the girls, like Sherry and Vermouth, are named after sweet alcohols. (As for why) I just think it sounds cool.

I: And as for Haibara Ai, did you intend from the start to have her on the side of the black orginization, or did you always plan to have her develop in the way she has?

A: Yeah, even in volume 2 she had already made an appearance, though it was just a silhouette. And, because she's was a character sort of in between Conan and the orginization, her name Haibara (灰原) came from Haiiro (灰色) meaning grey.

I: The movie that came out at the end of last year "Lupin the 3rd VS Detective Conan THE MOVIE" (The second cross over movie) there's a scene where Haibara gets in the bath with Mine Fujiko. So, what direction is Haibara going from here on out?

A: Hahaha....Yeah, I don't know. I guess nature will have to take it's course (Laughs) The bathing scene was a little surprising. At first, my editor handed me the story board and was like "Aoyama-sensei, there's a scene here where Haibara gets in the bath with Fujiko!" And, I had read the script and didn't remember there being a scene like that in there. So, when I asked if we should have them cut it, he said that Monkey-sensei (Monkey Punch: the creator of Lupin the 3rd) requested there be a scene with Fujiko in the bath. So, I thought, if it's going to be in there I wanted it to be cool, so I added a bunch of lines, and there was a lot of content that got cut. There probably aren't any manga artists who are cutting things from animations. But I had originally wanted to be an animator.

Haibara's lines are my true intentions

I: The lines that Haibara says when she's merely muttering to herself are impressive and actually very poetic.

A: The only person thinking them up is me, so I struggle with it. She herself is an easy character to write, because the things she says, I could say in real life. The things I couldn't have Conan say inspire what Haibara says. And you could say that those things are my true intentions. If there were someone that killed a person to protect a bear, Haibara would look at them with an angry face and say "You can't take animal rights that far", but if it were Conan he would say some harsh words. Because they'll say some indiscreet line with a stern face, Haibara and Kogoro are valuable.

I: Even if Kogoro is an idiot who's always joking around, he does have some cool moments doesn't he.

A: I created him with the image of just a generally bad detective. He has a habit of misreading things, but he's actually very important. When he should be cool, he isn't. He's very easy to write. I can easily write some perverted thing I'm thinking. I'm probably most like Kogoro.

I: So it's safe to say that your true intentions/thoughts are hidden in Haibara and Kogoro's lines?

A: Yes, those two are very easy to write.


I: How do you think up the tricks?

A: It's painful. Every time it's very difficult. But, there are times when my editor will also come to me with an idea. When we go into a meeting I'll ask "have you seen anything interesting recently? Have you read any novels? Is there anything we could use?" and if there's anything interesting, we'll use it. Of course, we'll end up changing everything about it though. And then we'll start asking various people things. My younger brother is a doctor so, I'll ask him about the time of death, rigor mortis, how much postmortem lividity appears etc. It's important to wring out the foundation.

I: Do you ever try out the tricks in real life?

A: For ones we can test, we test mostly all of them. A long time ago there was one where an answering machine was used as a tape recorder and then the tape was recovered. We had to actually test that. And just recently we tested if you could float a tomato on water using salt. We wanted to know how much salt would it take. And in order to get it to float, you have to put a ton of salt in the water. So, we didn't know what to do with that. But, at first, if you put just enough salt in there so that it's not quite floating, but it hasn't quite sunken either, and then you just barely sprinkle a tiny bit more in, it floats right to the top. And I thought that was really cool.

I: If you test things too much you'd probably get hurt wouldn't you.


I: There is a lot of variation in the stories, but do you ever reference cases that occurred in real life?

A: Actually I don't reference cases that have actually happened. That would probably be a little inconsiderate. But, actually a few weeks after I had drawn the Bus Jacking case, something similar to that had occurred in real life. I thought "Oh man, this is bad. Should I stop drawing Conan." Although, I could probably use cases from a long time ago. Like the "3 hundred million yen case" (He is referencing the largest heist in Japanese history. It occurred in 1968 in Tokyo, and has yet to be solved.) But I couldn't reference cases that are still ongoing or that have recently occurred. It might seem like I'm making fun of it, or making light of it, and that wouldn't be good.

I: Of the tricks and the story, which do you think of first?

A: Without a doubt, the tricks. And then I write a story for the tricks. Because I start with the most difficult thing and go from there. The trick will take about a half a day, or about 6 hours. If it goes quickly, maybe 3 hours. But even in 1 day, there's stuff I can't get done. There are times when I'll only get to sleep about an hour and a half. So, I'll be like "I'm gonna sleep, so hang on a little while."

I: Of these past 20 years, what trick are you most satisfied with?

A: Hmm...What would that be? Maybe I should ask you that. But, the code with the sun and the moon (vol 12),  the secret to that was originally from Sherlock Holmes in "The Adventure of the Dancing Men". That's one that you can figure out on your own. That's also the first Holmes story I read. I was really excited and very moved. I was a kid, so I couldn't read English, but I still thought it was really cool. Even if it said, this person is an "L", as a kid it still didn't click immediately and I would read it while referencing the dictionary.I was in about 2nd or 3rd grade. I thought "wow, Holmes is cool. I want to do that someday."　

I: Where do you get the news and lingo related to the police and investigations?

A: I've asked the Tokyo Metropolitan Police. They'll tell me various things.


Kid is a sneaky character

I: Kid is also a very popular character. Could you tell us the details of his creation, and your future plans for him? Is he going to be involved with Conan and the black orginization?

A: Well, he's originally from my previous work called "Magic Kaito". I created that because I really liked Arsene Lupin and Lupin the 3rd. And recently he got involved a little with the black orginization during the Bell Tree Express case (the mystery train case from vol 78) but from here on out I don't think he will very much. Kaito Kid is a very sneaky character. He can disguise himself, and he can change his voice and stuff. It's better if he's an enemy. He's too sneaky to be an ally. There are a lot of female fans of his, but I don't plan on bringing him out too much.(wry smile)

I: There are creators who decide how much a character will make and appearance completely on their own.

A:Yeah, there are. Just freely doing whatever they want. When there's a movie, saying things like "No, don't have them say something like that" and then changing everything. Then they'll notice how it ends and really just change everything.

I: The Conan anime is faithful to the original.

A: Yeah, that's because it's a very long story. If it wasn't faithful to it, it would become inconsistent. And at the beginning I asked them to please do just as the original does.

I: When a movie comes out, I heard you are very involved.

A: I am. There's the feeling with a movie that you can do larger scale things that you couldn't do in a manga.

I: I also heard that there was an idea to set something up that would link the "Lupin the 3rd VS Conan THE MOVIE" with the 18th Conan movie "The Sniper from another Dimension".

A: The setting is the "Tree" but we weren't allowed to use the name "Sky Tree" (The Tokyo Sky Tree is a tower recently built in Tokyo). They weren't sure about having people dying there. They were probably right about that. (wry smile)

I: I guess there aren't too many differences between making it a movie, or for TV, but the TV series is steadily becoming larger scale.

A: Just as long as they don't interfere with the original.

I: Last year the Conan series was awarded the Fujimoto's "Special Series Award". There was an award recognizing the people who make it, and as one of the great anime which have crossed over to become movies.

A: Yeah, that's amazing isn't it.

I: Even as a movie and anime, you're still pretty involved aren't you?

A: I feel I might as well get involved. At first I was just going to completely leave it up to them, but then I thought, well, I better not. And I ended up changing things on all the scripts. And I was wondering if that's really something a manga artist does. It was a lot of work. After I would finish the name (the term for the "story board" like stage of a manga) I would read scripts and check them. That's a lot of work.

(Continued in the next issue)

Murder on the Belltree Express

Agasa, the detective league, Kogoro, Ran, and Sonoko, are all taking a trip on a mystery train, where a case will be staged by the staff and the passengers must try to solve the mystery. Sera also shows up. She says that it's just a coincidence because she is a detective too and so naturally would want to ride a mystery train. Actually, she saw the photo of Sherry the kids had taken and so wanted to go along in order to get information on her.

Kudo's mom, Subaru, Sharon (Vermouth), and Bourbon are also on board. Vermouth is disguised as Shuichi, and bourbon stays hidden most of the time. While Vermouth knows that Sherry is Haibara, Bourbon does not, and so he has let the black organization know that he expects Sherry to be on board. Their plan is to capture her and kill her. Gin and Vodka are waiting at the train station where the train is headed.

Vermouth knows that, especially because the other kids (the detective league) are there, once Haibara realizes the black organization are on the train to capture her, she will take the antidote to turn herself back to her normal body so that if she is killed, and her body gets discovered, it won't be her in child form. So, once she has done that, Vermouth and Bourbon set up a trick to make Haibara go to the back of the train while everyone else goes to the front. There, Bourbon confronts her at gunpoint.

However, Conan overheard Vermouth talking to his mom while she had her phone out, and so he put Haibara to sleep with a tranquilizer dart. Then he got the help of another person who he discovered was on the train while investigating the murder that also happened to occur, that person being Kaito Kid. Conan has him disguise himself as Sherry and go to the back of the train in her place.


When Vermouth disguised as Akai confronts Sera and knocks her out in order to keep her out of the way, Conan and the others know this and so Subaru takes Sera and puts her safely in their room to sleep. Before she got knocked out, she called scar Akai (Vermouth) "Shu-ni". The "Shu" uses the same character as Akai Shuichi's name, and the "ni" uses the same character from "big brother". So, it seems to be revealed at this point that Akai Shuichi is Sera Masumi's older brother.

So, back at the back of the train, Bourbon holds Sherry (Kaito) at gun point (but doesn't shoot as he doesn't really want to kill her), and sets down a bomb that he is going to use to detach the back car from the rest of the train, and then later the black organization will capture her. However, Vermouth has planted more bombs at the back, probably in order to avoid Sherry getting caught and telling the organization something about her she doesn't want her to. That's probably related to why she hasn't told anyone that Conan and Haibara are Kudo and Sherry. So, Bourbon detonates the bomb(to detatch the car, not kill Sherry), but just as he does so, we see a glimpse of Akai Shuichi through smoke.

So, Bourbon and the rest of the black organization now believe that Sherry is dead.
But, Vermouth sees Haibara get off the train with Conan and the others, so she knows that they saved her somehow, but she(Vermouth) doesn't say anything.

Kaito escapes the explosion via his hang glider.
After thinking that he saw Shuichi on the train, Bourbon asks Vermouth for the files related to the events right before and after Akai's death, and then says he's going start re-investigating him. (It's from this point he really starts to piece together what happened.) Also, in the next case, Bourbon happens to get involved and he notices Conan making deductions. At the end, he is talking to Vermouth on the phone and says he has a new interest in The Sleeping Kogoro, while actually talking about Conan. (meaning, now he is investigating Kogoro's office to get info on Conan rather than Sherry, as he thinks Conan has to do with Akai's "death", which he does).

Sera Masumi

Conan, Ran and Sonoko meet someone on a bus, while they're on their way to a hotel restaurant, who's going to the same hotel. On the roof of that Hotel while investigating a murder she says that she is a detective and the her name is Sera.

Her full name is Sera Masumi. She seems to be suspicious of Conan's true identity when she fakes a mistake in her deduction to get Conan to make his.

Sera says that she was born and raised in Tokyo but since three years ago she had been living with her parents in America. But, she just now returned to Tokyo. Also, Conan says he feels like he may have met her before. This is probably linked to the fact that she is Akai Shuichi's younger sister. Since Shuichi also lived in America and works as an F.B.I agent it would make sense that she lived there with him. She was probably notified of his "death" and has come to Japan to investigate. So, also, Conan may recognize her just because she resembles Akai, or he may have actually known her in the past, as she seems to hint that she knew Kudo well.

Sera notices that someone was living at Kudo's house and found out from Mitsuhiko and Genta that it is Subaru.

Sera is seen at her room at the hotel she's living at, deleting photos from her computer, including the one of the reflection of Haibara, and saying "for data at least...its an easy task to accomplish." (This may have something to do with the mysterious girl who appears later with Sera, who looks a lot like herself (Sera) and also like Haibara. That girl is currently still only known as "Sera's little sister from outside the domain" (possibly meaning "half-sister"))

Although, Sera knows the F.B.I was in Japan on investigation (when her brother was "killed") it's not clear if she knows what the investigation was about or who she thinks is responsible for Akai's "death".

Sera seems to definitely suspect Conan of being Kudo. She may even already know for sure.

When Camel shows a picture of Sera to Jodie and James, Jodie doesn't recognize her at first, but then thinks that she resembles someone. James says he doesn't know her, however, he knew right away that she was a girl (unlike everyone else) and had sort of a shocked face when he saw the picture.
He probably remembers her as Akai's sister clearly.

In a later case, Sera is asking Ran and Sonoko about what kind of girl Haibara is, and Ran says that she's like an adult who's become a kid because she's always saying adult like things. Then she says "You may not know this, but just like Shinichi, Conan is also a huge Holmes fan." And, Sera then thinks to herself  "Yeah, I know...I've known since a long time ago." Since she must know Conan's true identity, and likely knows Haibara's now too, at this point she probably has a fair amount of knowledge of the overall situation but not everything.