Episode 184: The Cursed Mask Laughs Coldly
This is a long one, but it is SO worth it. 10/10 Detective Conan episode. A must watch, truly. Enjoy!
Mouri is going to be in a car accident charity. On the way there, he drives recklessly in the snow, and almost runs over a tree that fell in the road. It tells him to go home or he’ll regret it. When he gets there, he meets the other charity people: Katagiri Masanori – the photographer who travels across the world to take pictures of beautiful sceneries, Matsudaira Mamoru – the homerun king, and Nagara Haruka – the Yuki Onna and super popular tarot prophet. (As opposed to the super unpopular one). They look upon the enormous mask mansion, while Zelda music plays in the background, wondering which of the two front doors they should choose. As if on cue with their thoughts, the doors on the west side of the mansion ease open, and a pretty maid steps out. Just as they are deciding to go through those doors, the east side of the house opens, and an identical maid steps out. Speaking in unison they tell them that only those who sleep on the east side of the house can enter through the east doors, and only those sleeping on the west side of the house can enter through the west doors, and if anyone breaks these rules, they will be cursed by the masks.
Mouri, Ran, and Conan go in the east side of the house, while the other three enter in the west. The maid proceeds to take them to the mask room, which is essentially a room filled with really frightening masks, including the 200 cursed masks made by some Spanish guy. This is when you meet the rest of the suspects: Suou Beniko – president of the Mahogany Promotions. Former pop star, Inaba Kazuyo – a secret writer, and Aikawa Touya – A rock star in the middle of a world tour. They have dinner, and discuss the people they know who have died in car accidents, including rock star’s mother and Katagiri’s wife.
That evening, they hang out in the mask room and play billiards, and Conan beats Ran at chess. They think they’re going to have a really good night when suddenly the doors open, and the identical maid twins enter once more, speaking hollowly through the room, unanimous voices blending together as one, ghostly tone. “We actually have to lock the doors at midnight exactly. The masks like to walk around and kill people at night if we don’t close the doors.” In the middle of the night, Conan receives a call, and a creepy voice on the other end of the line informs them that the curse of the masks is going to strike. They go running around in the house and get one of the creepy maids to unlock the mask room door, only to discover that all of the 200 cursed masks are missing. This is when they hear a thud and shout, and they go running to Suou’s room. They find the door locked, so they break the glass and put a 6 year old in to find out if she’s okay. She’s been stabbed, and the bed and room are covered with the 200 masks. Because the only way into the room is either through the locked door or the bolted sealed door that’s been sealed for many years, they deduced that the only people who could have committed the crime were those on the west side of the house, meaning everyone except for Mouri, Ran, Conan, and the rock star. Therefore the rock star is the culprit.
He killed her because she killed the photographer’s wife, and blamed it on his mother, who then died. The way in which he killed her is very interesting. It involves connecting a bit of stretchy string to a knife, and then connecting each of the 200 masks behind the knife, through the air vent above the door. Takagi then demonstrates how once you’ve created a pile of knife and masks, you can pull on the stretchy string from the other side of the air vent, and the pile becomes a caterpillar-esque monster that whips dangerously around the room until taut. It interestingly points directly to where the victim’s neck would be if she slept like a board in the dead center of her bed, on her back, facing the ceiling, without moving, 3.5 meters from the door. By inserting something like a ruler, you can then force the masked monster knife to plunge forward the necessary 10 more centimeters, and kill the person. Lastly, the murderer would cut the stretchy string and pull it back through the vent, sending the masks showering about the room.
So remember: knife, string, masks, ruler, scissors. Please get an adult to help you with this project.
