The point was it was a hint to readers to consider the possibility that some of the characters could be from the American alphabet agencies. (Jodie blatantly said FBI) This is an example of the kinds of hints Gosho uses to let readers know something is in the realm of possibility and should be considered. This kind of *hint hint* moment hasn't happened yet for possibilities like Akai has a brother, there is a rival org, etc.
Good point, good point.
I answered to this above.
Well if Okiya is Akai, it obvious that Conan would trust him as soon as he could confirm Akai's disguise. If Okiya is someone else, the burden is on you to explain why and how Conan would suddenly trust someone when plenty of nice people before have turned to be not so friendly like many case culprits and !Araide. It isn't because Okiya likes Holmes - remember there was a whole case of where all the suspects were Holmes-lovers and someone in the B.O. seems to like the detective given the APTX data password..
Right and this is the hole I see in my theory. There would have to be a reason Conan trusts Okiya so much if he isn't Akai....I'll find it.
See, I took that as interfering. Conan stepped in and said "Stay at Shinichi's house". To me, that says that Conan decided for Okiya that it wasn't best for Okiya to stay in Agasa's house based on Ai's comfort-ability. And telling Okiya to stay at his house it could have been to ward off suspicion. If anyone rejected Okiya from staying anywhere near Ai, and Conan had never spoken up about Shinichi's house, the seemingly already suspecting Okiya would really suspect something was going on. If anyone allowed him to stay at Agasa's house, it would be uncomfortable for Ai. So Conan made it less suspicious by allowing Okiya to stay at his house, while still making sure Okiya is not directly in the presence of Ai by staying with her.
Because having a character who couldn't talk would be silly. What would Okiya do? Mime? Gosho first and foremost writes manga where sound isn't an issue. It's up to the anime's directors with a little help from Gosho to work out the logistics of translating the speech into voices. Using the same voice for both characters would be a ridiculously obvious hint -which is bad. Also, there is a limited pool of voice actors to choose from, so it isn't really a good idea to try to point out the difference between the voices as a clue. Think about how different Kogoro's old and new voice actors sound and they were intended to match as closely as possible. The manga takes priority over anime and unless the manga says the voices sound very similar or different (I'm talking about the voices, not the words) then how the characters sound in the anime is irrelevant.
Akai didn't talk in his introduction. He was silent and mysterious so we didn't know who he was. At first he was an enigmatic figure. All the other characters talked because they were all different characters. Vermouth hardly talked as Araide-sensei. But as herself she did. They could've made Okiya an enigmatic figure...they're doing it with Scar Akai....
With Kogoro, They CHANGED his voice actor, which is different, and got rid of the old one. But within the same season, they used Akai's voice actor and Okiya's voice actor separately. In 563-564 Akai's original voice actor was used, which is a little after 542-543 where Okiya's different voice actor was used in the same season. So they didn't CHANGE Akai's voice actor, they simply gave an actor to Akai, and gave an actor to Okiya, making them sound different from one another. If there is a limited pool, why get a totally different actor for Okiya? It must not be that limited. They didn't get rid of Akai's voice actor because his original voice actor appeared several cases after Clash of Red and Black, even including after the last Okiya case. So they didn't replace Akai's voice with Okiya's. Unless, Okiya is going to change his voice into Akai's voice in the next Okiya episode....I don't know about that.
I wouldn't call it the beginning since we are 2.5 years into Okiya's introduction. Also Okiya can't be Vermouth since Vermouth showed outside of the Beika Department Store at the same time Okiya was stuck on the floor with the bomb.
Well, it kind of took a while to get a lot of evidence on most of all the enigmatic characters (look how long it took to bring out Vermouth). Technically, it's the beginning.
I know it's not Vermouth, I was just saying we can never think it's that simple.
Good question. Perhaps Akai decided the recognition risk was worth getting close to Ai for since Bourbon is out and about and supposed to be looking for Sherry.
If that's the case, why didn't he just tell her who he was? She would feel much more at ease, or at least hint to her who he is....
Okiya was staying out of the way by renting an apt nearby, close, but out of the way. I agree Okiya is spying, but who could blame him if he's Akai? His former girlfriend's sister mysteriously shows up as an elementary school student with a remarkably sharp boy with some unknown reason for fighting the org who is probably in the same situation. Who wouldn't want to figure out what is going on and uncover Conan's real identity?
Why would Akai need to spy? If Akai was in the organization, he more than likely also knew about the drug. He was also an executive member, and he knew that Ai was really Shiho. He doesn't need to find out about it. He knew that during the same case Vermouth revealed to be Araide...and when Ran saved Ai's life, that Ai was Sherry. And Okiya asked to stay with Ai, not Conan. So obviously Okiya's target is Ai. If he wanted to uncover Conan's identity, wouldn't he stay near Conan, and wouldn't he have asked to stay at Shinichi's house first? But he asked to stay with Ai, so obviously he's not out to uncover Conan's identity. This person seems to not know who Ai is, and is out to find out, that is why he is spying.
You bring up a good point here: Akai is taking a risk by staying close to Ai. If Akai intends to protect Ai,
he does need to stay close enough to protect her and observe the surroundings for danger. (The situation in the ref is different but the feeling is the same) I suppose he is balancing the danger to himself and Kir with the ability to protect Ai. From Akai's perspective, he has figured out that Vermouth hasn't shared Ai's shrinking condition with anyone else, or Sherry would have already been discovered. Akai probably doesn't know why, but I suppose he is gambling on Conan's abilities, his own intuition, and on Vermouth having to take a different tact since Conan has already foiled her plans once before and is on the lookout. He also gets the opportunity to look into Conan as well. I agree it is a risky move, but not without benefit.
Well, he's doing a pretty good job of hiding from Vermouth then, because the dude changed his hair, his eyes (with glasses), his mannerisms, and his voice.
Also, I wanted to know, and maybe this was addressed, but does Ai keep her BO scent even after someone has revealed to be good? Or does she lose the scent? When it came to Akai, she knows he's not a bad guy anymore....but does she still sense the BO around him? Or would she know him if she sensed him, which would be a different scent from the other members? She seems to know exact senses. She senses when Vermouth is in the room separately from when Gin is in a room. They don't seem to carry the same scent though it is all a BO scent. If it was Akai, wouldn't she sense him EXACTLY like she does Vermouth and Gin?
I don't technically remember Ai actually ever sensing a BO presence from Akai. She would sense Vermouth in a room, or Gin. Even in the Bus Hijacking case, it was Vermouth she sensed who was disguised as Araide-sensei not Akai. Also, during the film episode when she was being followed by Akai she didn't sense him.