Postby WolfenAmphithere » March 12th, 2011, 9:31 pm
I'm going to go with the Bourbon speculation. I believe that the most important pieces to this guy's identity are on the title page, and the final page.
Title page: As an artist myself, I know how to control a reader's gaze. Why does Gosho purposely point our attention to the BRITISH FLAG on Conan's back pocket? He probably got those pants in London as a souvenir. While this character was never shown to be present in the London case (yes, I double-checked), if he were Bourbon he would have figured out by now that Shinichi Kudou traveled to London, not Conan... at least on all of the records. However, Conan himself appeared on TV claiming to be Holmes' Apprentice. So to someone who looked up that record, how did Conan get to Japan? Where was the supposedly-missing Shinichi? Bourbon is said to have a lot of deductive skill, and wouldn't miss something like that.
Final Page: NewGuy says Conan's name, and not only is this the first time he says Conan's name, but it's the first time ANYONE has said Conan's name in this chapter. Even Ran and Sonoko didn't say it before they met him. In fact, they hardly even spoke to him during the chapter. Also, we have a clearer look at his face on this page. Quite a few people have said that his eyes look like Akai's, and given that Akai is so popular it's easy to see how people would hope it's Akai. However, His face/hair could easily be KID's, and he could have just used some makeup. But really, now, I think that's mostly hopeful fans, as well (I agree, it'd be awesome). However, the final clue is the title to the chapter. NO ONE has mentioned this style of martial arts in the series to my memory, and if any recurring character had been a practitioner I think we'd know by now. If it were Akai, he would've beat the crap out of someone for us already-- he's too badass not to. Kid either has too big of an ego, or really doesn't know any martial arts: we have NEVER seen any evidence of this kind of knowledge either in Conan... or Magic Kaito. NewGuy wasn't faking his skill; no one who wasn't very skilled would take on "Kanto's #1" knowingly.
We have never seen Bourbon's true face-- we don't even know for sure if we've seen him in disguise. We also know virtually -nothing- about him except that he's like a detective and that he tends to do things on his own- both of which describe NewGuy as far as we can see at this point. The way he said "Conan-kun" at the end of the chapter sounded more ominous or like a challenge to me than anything else. Someone said that if it were Akai, it'd advance the plot. This would be equally true if it were Bourbon.
This would also fit Chek's theory of Scar Akai being Bourbon if NewGuy's eyes are any indication. He looks similar enough to Akai to disguise as him without speaking, and if Chek's theory is correct, Akai has already reappeared as Subaru. Why would he change his disguise now?
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Spoiler:
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