What's the identity of Rum?

[shabaaz22]

Just saying someone might have a prosthetic eye but no one knows it, could be possible

[kentasaiba]

Animal Crossing: "Actually, Rum has already appeared lol"[2]

What about the old man at the robber-case? We can't see his eye. Probably he wanted to observe Bourbon.

[unclesporkums]

Well, in that case, it could be anyone. People are still too hung up on the "old man" part of the puzzle, yet this guy just seems bland and uninteresting. To me, he's simply "random suspect guy".

[Mario2000]

How can anyone seriously consider Matsumoto as a suspect of being a Black Organization member if we have the episode about the attempted murder on his daughter where we have a photo of him at her wedding 3 years later? He isn't in handcuffs and is very much alive. Or is it possible that the story will last 3 entire years and he will be acquitted at trial and still be around after that? I am not sure but I think I read somewhere the story is supposed to last 1 year only, although I can't remember the link and therefore can't verify how reliable this information is. If anybody heard something about that, please tell.

[jimmy_kud0_tv2]

How can anyone seriously consider Matsumoto as a suspect of being a Black Organization member if we have the episode about the attempted murder on his daughter where we have a photo of him at her wedding 3 years later? He isn't in handcuffs and is very much alive. Or is it possible that the story will last 3 entire years and he will be acquitted at trial and still be around after that? I am not sure but I think I read somewhere the story is supposed to last 1 year only, although I can't remember the link and therefore can't verify how reliable this information is. If anybody heard something about that, please tell.

The Matsumoto photo of three years later is from chapters 78-80

The whole "1 year" thing is simply because the aquarium case chapters 882-884, Ran says that not even a year has passed since that flashback, which would have taken place not long before Tropical Land chapter 1.

The series kind of takes place in comic book time. The months that take place in-series are based on when that particular case or series of cases start. We even had a change of year in-series during chapter 594, including new years coin presents. Still, its best to keep the whole series within one solid year so that every time a character says something happened XX years ago, we can line all of those up perfectly, rather than having to guess which events actually took place 10 years ago, or which events actually took place 11 years ago based on where they happened in the series.

Truthfully there is still no way to know whether that photo is actually still valid considering how early it takes place in the series (volume 8). Plus, a photo does not actually tell us whether he is a good person or not. While personally I do not suspect him of being a member of the BO, but the photo only shows that he is not in jail 3 years later, nothing more.

[Startold]

I don't know if this topic is the right place, but I'm reading all the interviews Gosho gave to find where he mentionned using (or not using) the word "Rum" as a codename. One of the first times he talked about this name was in an interview for the release of the twenty-first volume of the "New Edition" of the Urusei Yatsura series.

On the cbox:

StartoldRyuu: [Gosho] talked about the name "Rum" in an interview for "Urusei Yatsura "New Edition"".
StartoldRyuu: Gosho says: "Yes, their name is a pain. The only one left wich is famous and cool is "Rum" ... "
Shadow: hmm then the 'i won't use it [the word "Rum" as a codename)' comes from the Urusei thing?
StartoldRyuu: Nope, the "i won't use it comes from elsewhere".
StartoldRyuu: This Urusei Yatsura interview comes from the "New Edition", wich was published, according to Wikipedia, "between November 17, 2006 and March 18, 2008". So it was way before Rum was actually introduced in the manga.
StartoldRyuu: We can notice too that in the interview, Gosho doesn't say "RUM", but "ラム".

Gosho also stated that there will be a new member/new members after Amuro in the manga. I'll try to translate the full sentence.

"Gosho said that after Amuro there'll also be a new member/new members. Even though he didn't say clearly, but it seems that there won't be only one." (translation by Black Demon)

[irishock]

Spoiler:

[unclesporkums]

HAHAHA!Nice one!

[Nemomon]

Spoiler:

[AzureHaseo]

Spoiler:

Just like Conan suggested, the old part about RUM doesn't mean he is actually old, as Kansuke could be seen as one because of his cane and not his age.
So, could the feminine part not be just the hair but something else? Like having a stuffed toy or an animal key chain *im looking at you James*.
I actually think those are more childish than feminine, but it was an example.

[unclesporkums]

Spoiler:

Kansuke's damaged eye is always closed. Ai said that Rum had an artificial replacement eye, not just a missing one. What purpose would a fake eye serve if you can't see it?

[Kor]

I don't want to start a new thread over this, and some people did raise the possibility this character might be suspicious or related to Rum, so I'll post this here.
While some of the newly emerged characters of the recent years may seem suspicious with their actions, it's also important to know some of the context behind them.

Fukui Yuzuki
c6251555 from the cbox let us know that the character's name is actually the name of a real fan who won in a contest and as a prize got their name used for a character in the manga. This character hasn't appeared since her only case appearance. Her apparent insight during the case might be simply because she's a bit of a "special" character, but not because she's supposed to be of importance.
Because this is the name of a real person, the likelihood of this character being a villain doesn't seem too high.
More info and speculation in these links (Chinese and Japanese).
http://tieba.baidu.com/p/2669719329?pn=0&
http://conan.vivicaru.net/post-10586

Also had something to say about Sakurako, but I can't find the source right now, so I'll post it later if I find it.

[unclesporkums]

Never mind. The poster forgot the woman=light alcohol codename rule.

[Kleene Onigiri]

Then, is Bourbon a strong alcohol? I was told it wasn't one.

Also, is it Gosho who said that strong alcohol were for men and light ones for female BO agents ?

"Interviewer: Is there any standard procedure when you're drawing the black organization?

Aoyama: As for the members, like Gin or Vodka, their names must be some type of alcohol. But, I'm running low on different types. They're all distilled alcohols. And the girls, like Sherry and Vermouth, are named after sweet alcohols. (As for why) I just think it sounds cool."

http://meitanteikonanplot.blogspot.in/2 ... -with.html

Rum happens to be a distilled alcohol made from sugarcane.

I don't think we can say for certain that RUM is male. For one the question was for the "standard procedure", so RUM might not be the standard.
Second, Rum is a distilled alcohol but also sweet. Rum actually has a long range how it taste or how it is distilled. It fits a lot with the description of what the RUM agent is supposed to be like:

- muscle-man aka strong: there is strong rum similar to whiskey (usually darker)
- feminine: there is also sweet rum (usually lighter color)
- old man: rum needs to age to be able to be called rum

[Kor]

A followup to my earlier post.
Still wasn't able to find that thing about Sakurako (it was in a German forum), but iirc, Gosho said something along the lines of liking her VA. Considering that her VA's name is Sakura, and Gosho is known for choosing voice actors, my speculation that she's merely a guest character that appears every once in a while, and there's nothing suspicious about her (and Gosho intended from the start to have Sakura voice Sakurako).

I know some people point out that she kinda realized Conan is way too smart for his age, but at the same case, the culprit also implied how both Conan and Heiji solved the mystery. Plus, in her other two case appearances, she didn't really go on with some sort of suspicion regarding Conan. She just went with the flow of the cases.
She's one of those characters that we know her background surprisingly well. We know about her single mother, and we know that later after she died, Sakurako also became a housekeeper. We know she was a year behind Chiba and Naeko. And we know she's continuing to work as a housekeeper or helper/agent. I really don't think there's any reason to be suspicious of her.