Holmes no Mokushiroku

Holmes no Mokushiroku (ホームズの黙示録^?, lit. Holmes' Revelation) is the 217th story arc of the Japanese manga series Case Closed, known as Meitantei Conan (名探偵コナン^?, lit. Great Detective Conan, officially translated as Detective Conan) in Japan.^[1] The arc was published in Shogakukan's Weekly Shōnen Sunday magazine between August and October 2010 from issues 36 to 46 and consisted of 10 chapters.^[2][3] The individual chapters were then collected into tankōbon volumes 71 and 72 which were released in Japan on February 18, 2011 and June 17, 2011 respectively.^[4][5] The majority were encapsulated into the 71st volume which became the 21st best selling manga in the first half of 2011.^[6] The Case Closed anime adapted the arc into episodes 616–621 and was broadcasted on Nippon Television Network System between May 21, 2011 and June 25, 2011. The episodes were rated the top six watched anime during its run.^[7] The arc follows Shinichi Kudo, who is under the pseudonym Conan Edogawa after being forced fed the poison APTX 4869 which turned him into a child, as he visits London and becomes involved in a bombing case.

Plot

Conan, Ran Mori, and Kogoro Mori are given a free trip to London after finding a cat that belongs to Diana Kingstone, a rich British woman. Since Conan Edogawa is not a real person, Ai Haibara gives Conan two antidotes for the APTX 4869 poison in order to use his true identity, Shinichi Kudo, to board the plane. Before the trip, Ran sturdily researches for souvenirs to give to Shinichi as a sign of her affection. As Conan, he tells Ran he will board a plane with Hiroshi Agasa. He takes one of the antidotes, and the four travel to London. After the antidote wears off, Conan and Agasa rendezvous with Ran and Kogoro and visit the Sherlock Holmes museum. Ran calls Shinichi asking what kind of souvenir he wants there. Conan answers Shinichi's cellphone, using his voice-changing bowtie to create his original voice. He attempts to rush Ran's call as people begin to stare at him and consequently upsets her.

Conan overhears a child named Apollo Glass asking for Holmes to solve a list of riddles as someone's life is at stake. Posing as Holmes' apprentice, Conan takes the riddle and leaves with Agasa to decode it. Ran wallows over her fight with Shinichi and runs into Minerva Glass, a professional tennis player, who tells her that, like tennis, "Love is Zero" and putting effort into love causes misery. Deciding that she will help Conan solve the riddle, she calls Shinichi and asks for his help. Conan answers that the first riddle, "A rolling bell rises me," refers to Big Ben and accidentally reveals he is in London. Conan realizes if Ran catches him near Big Ben, she will be able to deduce his identity as Shinichi. He becomes cornered and is forced to take the second antidote to the APTX, regaining his Shinichi identity, and confronts Ran. Believing that Shinichi was hiding from her, Ran is hurt and repeats Minerva's words before running away. Shinichi catches her and confesses his feelings to her. He then rebukes Minerva's statement by exclaiming that everything starts from zero.

The next day, the police reveal that the serial killer, Sabara Hades, is the man who has been giving the list of riddles to the children around London. With guidance from Shinichi, who eventually returns to being Conan, Kogoro and Ran travel around London decoding the riddle. The second riddle, "My portion is like a chilled boiled egg like a corpse," leads them to City Hall where dolls engraved with Mazarin Stone are found. Remembering a quote by Sherlock Holmes in The Adventure of the Mazarin Stone, they behead the doll and discover an engraved letter "T". The third riddle, "I finished up with a whole pickle," leads them to 30 St Mary Axe where they find scratched up pens labeled as Dancing Men. Relating to another quote of Sherlock Holmes in The Adventure of the Dancing Men, they match the top and bottom caps to reveal the letter "N". Ran and Kogoro revisit Big Ben following the fourth riddle, "It rings again for my hatred," and find a drain on the Westminster Bridge engraved with "Valley of Fear." They deduce that something had been sunk in the river, and find a drain cover with the letter "A". Apollo leads them to St Bride's Church to solve the fifth riddle, "Now I remember to ask a cake to celebrate in advance," where they find letters entitled A Scandal in Bohemia. Soaking the letter in water reveals the letter "S". The sixth riddle, "I'm a long nosed wizard in a castle," leads them to Elephant & Castle tube station where a strange man carrying a suitcase with the word "identity" on it. Realizing that it refers to the Sherlock Holmes story, A Case of Identity, they find the letter "U" on the inside of the man's pants. The final riddle, "It tells me to finish everything piercing a white back with two swords," refers to the logo of a local porcelain store, which contains an ornament with strings and bells attached to the end. Relating to a quote from A Study in Scarlet, they locate the red string where the letter "R" is located. The letters form the word Saturn, revealing that Hades plans to commit the crime on Saturday. Tracing the locations of the letters on a map reveals the picture of a tennis racquet, leading Conan to deduce that the attack is planned for the finals of the Wimbledon championships.

Conan and the others enter the stadium with assistance from Diana to observe the finals where Minerva is participating. Minerva, having received a threat from Hades, attempts to ask for help by serving "help" in braille into the court. Conan calls out to her revealing he understood her message. Deciding to trust in him, Minerva serves the message "Game Set Death Mom", revealing that Hades plans to kill her mother, Juno Glass, when the match ends. Conan realizes the stuffed bear given to Juno contains an explosive with the detonator is in Hades' hands. Deducing that Hades is in the stands directly opposite of Juno, Conan is able to locate him by observing the head motions of the crowd; unlike other members of the crowd, Hades is not moving his head left and right following the ball but instead stares directly at Juno. Conan runs into his parents, Yusaku Kudo and Yukiko Kudo, who assist him in apprehending Hades and give him another antidote to the APTX to return to Japan. With the culprit captured, Minerva is able to focus on her match and defeats her opponent, becoming the champion of the tournament. Before returning to Japan, Ran relays Shinichi's words to Minerva. Minerva, having made up with Ares Ashley, acknowledges that everything starts from love.

Production

In 2003, the creator of the Case Closed series, Gosho Aoyama, had stated he would draw a story arc taking place in London.^[8] He traveled to London visiting the sites that would appear in the story arc and specially noted the drain on the Westminster Bridge where the "Valley of Fear" was engraved and the phone booth near Big Ben. For locations Aoyama had not visited, he used Google Maps. Aoyama has stated that the most difficult part in creating the story arc was using English in the text. Aoyama also revealed the inspirations he had for some scenes of the story. Minerva Glass, a fictional tennis player made for the arc, was based on professional tennis player Steffi Graf. The scene where Conan calls out to Minerva during her tennis match was inspired by an event during the 1996 Wimbledon Championships where a fan jokingly shouted his proposal to Graf during her semi-finals match. For Shinichi's confession to Ran, Aoyama created the scene with Sherlock Holmes' poor ability with relationships and the phrase Yakkai na Nanjiken (厄介な難事件^?, lit. "A troublesome and difficult case") in mind.^[8]

Anime adaptation

The Holmes no Mokushiroku story arc was aired on the Case Closed anime series as episodes 616–621 and aired between May 21, 2011 and June 25, 2011 on Nippon Television Network System.^[9] The opening theme music for the episodes were "Don't Wanna Lie" by B'z and the ending theme was Tsukiyo no Itazura no Mahou (月夜の悪戯の魔法^?, lit. "Mischievous Magic on the Moonlit Night") by Breakerz.^[10] Episodes 616–617 were directed by Takaomi Kanasaki (金﨑貴臣^?), 618–619 by Shigenori Kageyama (影山楙倫^?), 620–621 by Seiki Taichu (大宙征基^?). Each episode had different producers; the six producers were: Minoru Tozawa (戸澤稔^?), Shigeru Yamazaki (山﨑茂^?), Fumiharu Kamanaka (鎌仲史陽^?), Tomomi Ikeda (池田智美^?) Kouichirou Kuroda (黒田晃一郎^?) and Akira Yoshimura (吉村あきら^?).^[10]

Reception

The majority of the arc was collected into Tankōbon 71, which sold 262,116 copies in its first week.^[11] It reached 526,693 in May 2011 and was the 21st top-selling manga between November 22, 2010 and May 22, 2011.^[6] The episodes of the anime adaptation received an average household rating of 7.2, 8.6, 9.4, 8.8, 9.9, and 7.9 respectively.^[7]

References