Kudo Shinchi wrote:@Jd- About Akai appearing as himself on the Mystery Train; I'm pretty sure it was because Amuro at that point had already seen Okiya once, during the Detective Nocturne case. They both saw each other very briefly during the car chase. ... If Akai appeared as Okiya on the MT case, Amuro would know where to start looking right away, since I'm pretty sure he wouldn't just drop the fact that someone on the train with a grenade had directly interfered with his plan. Even if Akai ditched his Okiya identity right after that and disappeared, that would seem only more suspicious to Amuro, who would probably then decide to stay around anyways to investigate further, and what ended up happening for real in the story would happen anyways. Akai would have to come back with a new identity, since his mission as Okiya is staying hidden AND protecting Haibara, and in that case he'd make himself more conspicuous, as having Okiya disappear and be replaced by yet another new person would scream suspicious.
While they did see each other briefly, there isn't really an explanation in-series in place right now to explain why Akai had to show his face at all to toss the grenade apart from introducing a bit of drama and giving Gosho a reason to put Amuro back on track, and why Akai didn't take more precautions when he boarded the train in the first place. We're led to believe they came prepared for a lot of eventualities, but apparently they missed a pretty big one.
I'm OK with Amuro eventually working his way down to Okiya, but there is nothing in place right now that gives a real, solid reason for Akai to risk reigniting that investigation when his elaborate death was almost entirely confirmed. The risk-reward ratio is entirely in favor of the Black Organization, unless Akai and Conan know something major that we haven't even considered yet. After all, we have to factor in not just Amuro finding Akai himself but all of the side effects involved. Amuro, as soon as he saw Akai, completely changed tacts. From then on, he focused on Conan, on Sera, on Mouri, on Ran, on everyone that was even remotely involved in the situation, when otherwise he was ready to give up. There had to be a better logical way to handle that situation than outright handing him the answer. The way it's gone so far just made it seem like Amuro couldn't have done it without Akai's appearance there. He had fallen for the entire ploy just like everyone else, and the only reason their elaborate plan failed in the slightest was because of Akai's sudden appearance. From the outside looking in, it really doesn't feel like a lot of thought went into that move on Akai's part.
Naturally, given that this is Conan, I can take or leave all of that for the purposes of driving the story along, but what I cannot simply gloss over is the fact that Kir was instantly hung out to dry. Even if it turns out that Akai knows Amuro well from the past and thinks he knows how Amuro will react and everything else, Kir's life really shouldn't be put on the line in an already volatile situation. We were led to believe for an entire arc that re-introducing Kir to the organization would be driving in a wedge of steel the organization could never remove. A lot of importance was placed on getting her back in and completing her cover, which now seems like something that isn't as important as Akai coming back. As soon as Akai is confirmed back alive, Kir either has to die or has to flee the organization. So, expediting that process seems a bit pointless and fruitless given that, in the Conan world, it's only been (if the past is any indication) at most a month or two since she got back inside.
In short, Gosho almost has to have something more going on here, or else the Mystery Train will be remembered a lot like the Red Shirts in a couple of years.
I also want to note something else about the Mystery Train here. If we're sure that Amuro would have worked his way to Okiya, why would we not expect him to maybe think the whole thing was a setup? He has no real reason to believe that Shiho died there that day given that
the guy he is chasing just revealed that their side is pretty good at faking deaths. Akai appearing there should be a bit of a red flag that maybe--just maybe--not everything is as it seems and maybe--
just maybe--everything was a bit too convenient for their side as well. That would mean Amuro may not buy the Shiho death shenanigans and the entire thing would be wasted anyway. I'm really, really hoping there's some unseen angle to it that tidies up that case.
