Just to be clear here, Okiya only popped the question of whether he could stay at Agasa's after he arrived and talked with Agasa a bit. Before then, Okiya's stated intention was to meet the professor. If Conan wanted to prevent Okiya from staying at Agasa's, he would have had to speak up after Okiya asked if staying with Agasa would be OK. Conan didn't. Additionally, Agasa only asked if Ai had a problem with it, which would have made it awkward for Conan to chime in.
Also there is no reason for Okiya, regardless of his identity, to suspect there is something going on just because he was refused a temporary stay at a house. Would you let some random person you met five minutes ago who walked in off the street stay at your place suddenly? On the flip side, if a complete stranger you just met five minutes ago declined your request to temporarily stay at their house would you suspect them of suspicious activity? The real suspicious one in this picture is Conan - a little boy suddenly decides to allow a random stranger to stay at a house belonging to an unrelated teenage friend without consulting him beforehand.
But Conan saw the problem, and interfered, though it wasn't his house, and he didn't have to make any suggestions at all. Instead, he made the suggestion for Okiya to stay at his house.
But I do understand what you mean. It's odd for a random guy to ask to stay at your house. Conan seemed strange for letting the random person stay at his house. However, Okiya seemed to be under the impression that they both already knew what he wanted from them (Ai thinking he was a BO member, Conan acting oddly cordial), so Okiya put it upon himself to ask. If they had turned Okiya down, Okiya would ask why not, and they would be left with the hanging question. If they allowed hm to stay, without any suggestions, then Ai would be left with the suspicious man. Even Agasa seemed ready to say yes to Okiya, until he asked Ai. Still, your theory seems to back this up much more than mine...so I'll wait and see.
The strangest part is also (to add to what you said): WHY WOULD OKIYA ASK TO LIVE WITH Agasa and Ai? He doesn't know them (supposedly) and they don't know him, and how could he possibly think they would allow him to stay with them, out of the blue?
Even scar Akai has spoken - to a man to hand back his phone. Also scar Akai is deliberately playing the mute act in front of the FBI (and the readers). Unless Gosho wanted to make Okiya mute as well, speaking was unavoidable given his introduction - as a case suspect.
This is what I'm saying: Gosho could've just made Okiya a silent, and mysterious character "to the reader/watcher" like he's doing with Scar Akai. He didn't have to give him a "voice" just yet. Okiya could've been created to play the mute act, but he wasn't. He was given a distinct different voice, that didn't seem to apply to Akai just several episodes later within the same season. So my question is, will Okiya's voice be "lost in the world of disguises?" or will it still "exist as a character"? I have never seen main protagonist in this manner, where the voice, look, mannerisms, and abilities (like cooking and watering plants) are completely wiped from existence as if they never existed. When Akai takes off his mask, the Akai actor will be left or the Okiya actor? Meaning either voice could be gone, Akai or Okiyas. So either Akai's voice was fake, or Okiya's. One voice will have to stay, because both actors would not be able to stay as they are if Okiya is the disguise.
It's different when someone's voice is replaced, as with Kogoro, when there are two actors for one character. It'd be different if two actors both had the seiyu in cast and credits as Akai. But only one Seiyu has been announced for Akai, and in the SAME cast and credits in each episode, Okiya's voice is still the same. Akai's voice was not replaced by Okiya's, it remained the same as it had since Clash of Red and Black, therefore stating that if he does have a different voice, he is changing it somehow....
If he is, he has to be using something. Because you said that they are using Okiya's voice as a part of the disguise (so it wouldn't be obvious), that means the "disguised voice" must also be revealed, along with everything. So when the mask comes off, there needs to be an explanation as to why he disguised his voice as well. I can't decide where the disguising of his voice could be taking place on his body.
Unless, you are implying that Okiya's voice is not a part of the disguise....and if it's not....it's just there because they couldn't find a better way to disguise Akai's voice (though that would mean it's still a disguise)...So though Okiya and Akai do not have the same voice within the same season, it's not a disguised voice, it's just there to temporarily ease the voice of Akai...until his original voice could return? Or maybe the Akai voice was fake, and the Okiya voice is real? So Akai's voice will be lost in the world of disguises, though his voice has appeared AFTER Okiya's too? Someone's voice is going to have to stay, and the other is temporary if the theory is correct.
Also Okiya's voice also have to be a disguise, otherwise Ran would've noticed if it was Akai's voice. So their voices can't be too similar. So, obviously Okiya's voice is part of the disguise. So that means Akai changed his voice too.
Which would mean, Akai is using a disguise machine, which I'd need to find just exactly how he could've changed his voice....and have no clue how he could've done that.
As I said above twice already, it would be too obvious a hint to use the same voice actors. The point I was making above was because they have to use different voice actors, it doesn't matter how different they sound because even when one voice actor is deliberately trying to copy another voice actor, as in Kogoro's case, they still don't match. Therefore you can't use as evidence the difference in their voices in the anime. Let's not have a repeat of the hair dye thing please...
But two actors are not trying to copy one another. There is no proof of that. One was signed as Okiya, the other was signed as Akai. They were not both signed as the same character within the cast and credits. "Too obvious a hint?" Well, there have been many cases where voice played a key role, and the distinction of voice was important (as in a case where Kobayashi heard a voice in the alley way, and had to find distinction between TWO characters). When it comes to single characters (like two actors both playing Kogoro) it is different. But both characters appear in the same season, and have two different seiyus credited as two different characters? That's money that they're pouring into an actor and fake that didn't even need to have a "voice" yet, that could've been left as an "enigmatic figure" by Gosho so it could work with the anime or given the same voice as Akai.
That means the only way to explain the two of them becoming "one person" would be to explain that "the other cast member played the disguise"(or in other words that actor was only around to play the disguise in which the other actor couldn't provide the 'disguise voice', which would mean that Akai "changed his voice" into the other "character's voice" (in other words after he's revealed, his voice in 563-564 can come back, but the other voice was only used not to make it obvious that he was disguised...). To stay away from that obvious streak, they would also have to supply an explanation of how Akai was able to use a different character's voice (maybe with a voice changing machine?). They couldn't just say, it would've been too obvious...and then there are some people that say "Why didn't Ran recognize the obviously similar voices?" Why didn't Jodie?
This was like when Heiji was disguised as Shinichi. It could be written off as "they replaced Heiji's voice with Shinichi's" but we are credited that they are two separate characters. And so when Heiji took off the mask, there was an explanation as to how he sounded so much like Shinichi. If Okiya was Akai's other half, the credits would have to credit him as so...it's part of giving some rights to the actor...some acting agreements I believe.
This is the reason they couldn't credit Scar Akai as a character in the credits and cast, and so he is not recognized as a "real character yet". Why didn't they do this with Okiya? I'm sure Gosho considered how it would be in the anime, and how it would sound. Did he consider that Okiya would just snatch off his face and voice and become "All Akai"? that means apart of Akai will be lost, and so would part of Okiya. Okiya's face, and voice, or Akai's original face and voice. And someone's mannerisms.
Did they switch between each other? Akai's actor gets credited as Akai one day, and Okiya's actor gets credited another day for Akai? It doesn't seem to be so in the cast and credits. That would mean they would have to sign as each other, and someone's character will lose it's place in the cast and credits: namely Okiya. There would have been no point in crediting Okiya if he is not a recognized character.
No, he was a low ranking codenamed member. He hadn't even met Gin yet. Kir at this point is higher ranking than Akai was.
In Clash of Red and Black Akai said he got in through Akami, and worked his way through the ranks through Akemi's sister who was higher ranked (Ai). He was so good that he became an executive member, working alongside Gin as Rye. But Gin found him out. He became an executive member, so at this point, he probably knows a lot about the BO.
You are making the assumption that Okiya knows Shinichi and Conan are definitely connected. He may not. If anything it's the opposite of what you say; Okiya has definitely expressed interest in Conan's identity but hasn't clearly so far for Ai's identity. We know from what he said to Ran that he looked around Shinichi's house for traces of the landlord: clothes, journals, and albums, but found nothing personally identifying. (chap 639 pg. 5) Also Conan specifically warned Ran not to talk about Shinichi to Okiya. Okiya's interactions with Ai have been relatively normal. Okiya did visit Agasa's during the haunted warehouse case, but Ai was out at the time. Catching her at Ikkaku rock was nothing special either. The photo he took had Conan as well as Ai in it, so it isn't clear who is the target -if anyone.
I'm not assuming that he knows Conan is Shinichi. But I don't think he particularly cared at first until he was asked by Conan to stay there, and examined his new home. When he asked to stay with Ai, Ai was his target, and he didn't seem to care about Shinichi then. But when he stayed at Shinichi's house, he saw that it was odd that there were no signs of an owner.
Ai doesn't know Akai as Akai. She only knows him as Moroboshi Dai who was Rye. Remember she tells Conan she wants to meet Akai before the Shiranpuri case in R.vs.B. She did sense Akai when he was around.
Also, it Akai instructed two other people to watch the DB during the "death in the dark" case. They probably passed the photo on to him - he probably didn't take it himself because he wanted to keep his distance.
Even when he's next to her, she doesn't sense him. you have as one of your evidences in RED in your siggy that Ai feels a BO presence from Okiya just like she does Akai. But I don't remember her ever feeling a BO presence from him. I remember that she felt a BO presence in Bus Hijack, but it wasn't Akai, it was Vermouth, and she never felt Akai following her during the case where they spent the night with the film crew. Usually Haibara notices that type of presence right away. I don't remember her sensing a BO presence from him at all, like she does Okiya.
She was paranoid when she saw his face, but even when he was behind her without her noticing, like in the bus or when he was following her to the film place, she didn't feel his presence. She felt Okiya's presence from first glance. She only began to be paranoid by Akai after Conan pointed out that they were being followed by him. But before then, she didn't feel anything. She became on gaurd after she noticed him stalking her. The other BO members she didn't need Conan to point them out. Her senses kicked in instantly, and the stronger the presence the more she felt it over the others.
During the film case where he first followed her, there was no other BO member, and she didn't notice him even then.
No,
the reference was to point out that Conan said his house would be the best place to spy on. The Conan not ignoring Ai bit was a common sense argument.
Oh okay. Gotcha.
That Vermouth confrontation always take me "aback" as well....
