Did Itakura get another mention since his murder case?

Forum reserved for discussing specific points of the story—mostly from the manga. Be warned, these discussions will be current with the manga and will spoil many plot lines for anime-centric fans.
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Adel34

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Did Itakura get another mention since his murder case?

Post by Adel34 »

Aoyama made such a big deal out oh his program which "cannot be completed for the sake of humanity", but I can't recall a time he or the program was ever mentioned since then and that was years ago. Or maybe I've missed some information. Do we know anything more about this program or Itakura? I'm only watching anime, but trying to keep up with the plot developments of the manga. Was, for example, he mentioned in the Rum arc as of yet?
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Swagnarok

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Re: Did Itakura get another mention since his murder case?

Post by Swagnarok »

Yes, in the Bell Tree Express case (701-704). He was mentioned as having been seen arguing with Sharon Vineyard, if I recall.
I don't think Gosho's forgotten about him, and I think that at some point in the future Gosho will elaborate on the matter.
Adel34

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Re: Did Itakura get another mention since his murder case?

Post by Adel34 »

I see. Thanks for the info. I'll look into that case again.
Whiskey
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Re: Did Itakura get another mention since his murder case?

Post by Whiskey »

Yeah, Itakura's program is one of the series biggest mysteries along with Vermouth's age. We've been waiting for the answers to this for so long already...
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Tantei San
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Re: Did Itakura get another mention since his murder case?

Post by Tantei San »

Most likely the Program either has the antidote, some secret info on the Organisation, some other dark businesses of the organisations, info on haibara's parents death, or has the info about Vermouth's age secret , hence the reason why she was into it and went on to fight Itakura for it as far as i remember.
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Spimer
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Re: Did Itakura get another mention since his murder case?

Post by Spimer »

Itakura was but a Computer Graphics programmer, and the famed program was something he'd begun working on before Tequila approached him but had given up on it due to his increasing bad sight.

Then Vermouth incited him to contact them and told him to finish it in a year's time, that's when he wrote he couldn't complete it "for humanity's sake" in the diary.

So whatever it was it wasn't related to the BO originally, it was something else.
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champagne

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Re: Did Itakura get another mention since his murder case?

Post by champagne »

I'm just wondering... Do you think the cats that Itakura mentioned in his diary are of any significance? Why would Gosho bother to throw this in or was that really just to add to the atmosphere or the like? I think from the get-go it was obvious for many people that it was Vermouth on the phone and especially after Mystery Train this seemed to switch to confirmed... But now all of a sudden a few crazy thoughts crossed my mind:

During Mystery Train we learn that Conan and Yukiko also assume that Vermouth was on the phone ordering the software and that she probably changed her voice during the call. We also learn that she (as Sharon) clashed with Itakura on some film set. What if the reason she argued with Itakura was not because she urged him to continue the software, but because of the exact opposite - she heard that the BO has assigned him to work for them and since she is against whatever they're working on, she began to feud with him?


So who could have been the female on the phone if not Vermouth? Apparently there were cats around and there is actually a female BO agent who is well known to us readers/viewers to love pets: Sherry! What if she used to have cats? Plus: The phone call in question was a year ago, so it would fit the timeline (she was still in the BO at that point).

Vermouth or Sherry - does it matter? What would be the difference since both are from the BO anyway? Here's the score:

For some unknown reason it seems like that Vermouth is secretly absolutely against the APTX research/the goal of the BO. If she is the one who wanted the software so badly, it would suggest that it's something of her own interest or maybe even something that would actively work against the goal. So if it's something that is not in the BO's interest, why would Gin and Vodka (and Tequila) be involved in this? We know that Vodka was in charge of the transfer and that Gin joined in as soon as he realised that Vodka screwed up.
If Sherry was the female on the phone, it would make sense that the software is something that supports her drug research/the goal of the BO since she seemed to be the driving force behind it. In that case it would explain why other BO agents are also involved with Itakura since it's in the Organisation's interest.

I realise there are some points that pretty much point to Vermouth when it comes to the identity of the female caller, but then again these points don't make it impossible that it was Sherry either:
a) The female wore lipstick and we haven't seen Sherry wearing lipstick yet, but we haven't seen much of her anyway, so it's certainly not too crazy for her to put on some lipstick.
b) That quote "We can be both god and the devil..." totally sounds like something Vermouth would say, but Sherry is pretty eloquent as well and has often come up with profound lines. She has also lived in America, so probably speaks English as her 2nd language. But I admit: Randomly switching into English language doesn't seem like something she would usually do.
c) The caller not being Vermouth would also mean that Conan's deduction is wrong since he thinks it was Vermouth and I don't know if this is something Gosho would do :D
d) The caller not being Vermouth would also mean that there is a surprising twist in this affair and I don't know if this is Gosho-esque. As things stand it looks more like that he just straight up wants to tell us: Vermouth ordered the software. What is weird about that, I already mentioned above.

So my crazy theory was all of a sudden built on Itakura's remark that he heard crying cats while talking to the woman on the phone and who knows if that was supposed to mean anything...I don't even expect Gosho to surprise us like this, but I wanted to share my thoughts with you anyway and hear what you think.

PS: I couldn't figure out how to upload images to my post. I actually wanted to add some panels from the manga to make it all easier to understand, so I hope you get my reasoning despite the lack of images.
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ProfParanoia

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Re: Did Itakura get another mention since his murder case?

Post by ProfParanoia »

champagne wrote:PS: I couldn't figure out how to upload images to my post. I actually wanted to add some panels from the manga to make it all easier to understand, so I hope you get my reasoning despite the lack of images.
You upload the images to another site and place the url between [img*][/img*] tags (remove *).
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champagne

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Re: Did Itakura get another mention since his murder case?

Post by champagne »

@ProfParanoia: Thank you :)! I might try it out next time I feel the need to add images!
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shinichi1977

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Re: Did Itakura get another mention since his murder case?

Post by shinichi1977 »

champagne,

I do admit, Gosho is partially guilty for Sharon's portrayal on the account that he's attracted to her, and he's not the first author to treat their creation in such a way. Having said that, I'd recommend a rewatch or reread of the Bell Tree Express. The mere assumption Vermouth is against the organization in the sense she's actively fighting it is a very wrong one. The author himself made it pretty clear Vermouth never gave up on killing Shiho, who she blames as sole survivor for what happened to her in the past. Since the FBI was already in the know about her targeting Sherry, she set up Bourbon to do it for her. Heck, she even got access to Shiho's phone e-mail address thanks to Bourbon.

The other thing is, Shinichi rarely shares merely assumptions. The caller needing to change their manner after already being known by the target had confirmed it was Sharon or more specifically Yukiko confirmed that detail for him (that is if you handwave away the fact, that the American film industry is not like the Japanese one, such major scuffles aren't kept secret, Hollywood's supposed best actress wouldn't have gotten any new gigs after that, but the Japanese film industry culture is the one Aoyama knows).

Vermouth is a narcissistic sociopath with a lack of compassion, ever at the ready to kill a small child. Her "protection" of Ran and Shinichi are self-preservation, if they were targeted, it would come out what she did and she'd die.

As for We can be both God and the Devil since we're trying to raise the dead against the stream of time... your idea only works if Shiho had a massive head injury before Agasa had found her, as otherwise, she would not only remember "yeah, I totally said that" but also the password with which Vodka sent the e-mail to the cottage. Even before Kir's assassination attempt, Shiho's policy of non-intervention did not include getting information on the drug that could turn her back and thus leave.
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