Hello! I hope your day is going well ^^ I was wondering if you had any thoughts on the latest case, especially chapter 1141?
File 1141-1143 Review
Hi, it's going well thank you. Yes, I have indeed a lot thoughts on the latest case, and especially File 1141. This case-opening chapter was without a doubt one of the most exciting and highly anticipated moments in the history of this series in terms of mystery lore.
This case started with Kogoro seemingly sneaking around talking to someone about preparing a gift for someone that is a teen girl, despite Ran's birthday being revealed to be awhile away (File 1141). This leads to Eri getting involved in trying to figure out if Kogoro had some secret affair going on.
All of this leads to Eri mentioning how a client of hers mistook a cat's cry for that of a baby's, leading to them talking about how female cat's mating cries can sound like that of a baby's...
...which lead to Conan getting triggered and recalling in flashes none other than one of the biggest DC mysteries that has been shelved for decades, the Itakura software & Vermouth mysteries from Vermouth arc (from File 380).
These were direct redraws from File 380, when he was reading Itakura's diary about Itakura's meeting with Tequila, reluctantly accepting the software order from Vermouth, his regrets and fears of its consequences for humamity, as well as including Conan's recall of Haibara's similar line as Vermouth that was he was pondering (acting "against the stream of time").
This moment couldn't have been less expected to take place right now amidst the unresolved plots of Rum arc, which made for a very impactful development for me. The significance of Conan suddenly recalling this is that it's Gosho's narrative technique of reviving subject matters that are about to be addressed soon, meaning... we are about to finally develop this old highly awaited mystery from decades ago, which is not short of insane and exciting at the same time.
As for why/how Conan recalled this subject matter, it makes sense that it has to do with the long-running "Cat's cry" mystery that Agasa mentioned was noted in Itakura's diary from when Itakura was conversing with Vermouth on the phone (File 398), since Eri was just talking about a cat's cry.
What's more, there is a possibility that Conan may have also reacted to Eri's mention of "give him a good taste of his own medicine" & Ran's "Don't you think that the medicine is working too well?".
That is because it fits perfectly well with how Conan even recalled Haibara's warning of "not rushing things" and that "humans can never go against the stream of time" and that "if they forcibly try to change that they'll be punished" (File 191/380) (alluding to tampering with biological time/age manipulations and its consequences, as referenced even by Masumi in regards to the antidote's age correcting effect in File 1037). Because if what Haibara was referencing was how the Boss (over-100-year-old Karasuma Renya) forcibly tried to revert time on his body to a youthful state by "taking his own developed medicine" in a rush, and then it leading to that "the medicine worked to well" and shrank him into the age of a 7-year-old kid, it would directly coincide with those trigger words that Conan heard. If Conan was able to recall those intrinsic details from those lines, then it might be indicative of that Conan had previously speculated this far internally about Haibara's and Vermouth's words and later forgotten them as time passed (hence his confusion over his sudden recall),... that the BO are trying to "raise the boss from the dead against the stream of time" (fix his current state with a drug) after "getting punished from previously having forcibly gone against the stream time" (taking a drug that worked too well and got him stuck in an undesired state).
For more details on my BO research & goal theories, check my posts below:
💬 5 🔁 4 ❤️ 20 · Hi! I hope you’re doing well. I want to ask what’s your opinion on the difference between the drug that Shiho’s parents di
💬 0 🔁 5 ❤️ 26 · Karasuma Renya "Child of Seven" Theory · How old do you think Karasuma is now? Is he still an old man, or is he a younger
As for why Vermouth ordered the completion of Itakura's software, I have written my theory about it in detail in the post below:
💬 0 🔁 4 ❤️ 24 · Itakura Software Theory · Master, what do you think Itakura was forced to create for the BO? What kind of software could i
We also got to see the first meeting between Eri and Amuro, as well as Amuro giving a little hint of acknowledgement of Conan's hidden capabilities, but this time from the perspective of his newly acquired awareness of his true identity (File 1141).
I do wonder if this meeting and Eri's hunch about Amuro's true profession is gonna go somewhere, like for example her finding out that he is a Public Security officer as a result of them intertwining in a criminal case. Eri finding out and keeping his occupation hidden (just like Koumei) would be something in character and fitting for her, which I would also appreciate (especially if it leads to them working more honestly together in cases).
Ultimately, it was revealed by the end of the case (which was overall enjoyable, albeit simple and straightforward) that it was indeed Kuriyama (Eri's paralegal assistant) that Kogoro was secretly communicating with to get help in deciding Ran's birthday present ahead of time (File 1143).
I thought it was promising for Gosho to already tease Ran's birthday this soon (despite it being awhile away), since it's almost as if he is signaling the beginning of something major to transpire soon in association with the case that involves Ran's birthday. It could be something related to ShinRan's relationship, but it could also be related to some major main plot status quo change. Ran's birthday is something Gosho has had in mind for awhile (probably since the mention of Shinichi's birthday back in Movie 4), so it's gonna be very exciting to see what he has planned for such a monumental event.
Considering that we didn't further develop Conan's memory triggers in the resolution chapter, my current prediction for the upcoming case is that it will involve Conan further recalling and reinvestigating the Itakura software mystery (potentially after getting new leads). Gosho had recently teased in an interview related to the premiere of Movie 28 that the FBI & Camel (with his new appearance) will make a return in the manga soon, and considering the FBI's tight connection to Vermouth (who ordered the software), I could see there being some form collaboration between them and Conan partaining to Itakura's software in the horizon (leading to Conan's eventual deduction on what the software's purpose was).
As for what I predict Ran's birthday will bring us in the future, it would be that it will be a case that forces Shinichi to return for his romantic endeavors, only to then face off against Rum, who has been hunting him down (essentially being the Rum arc climax). I could then see Shinichi boldly revealing his deductions about what the BO has been up to with their software interest to Rum, leading to Rum fully acknowledging Shinichi as his enemy and attempting Shinichi's assassination with determination and then Shinichi officially being declared dead to the public, fooling all of his acquaintances as well as his enemies with a fake death stunt (except for Ran, and the people who know his true identity of course). This would fit well with why Gosho decided to tease both the resurrection of the Itakura software mystery and Ran's birthday in the same case (without any payoff on both fronts).