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WARNING! This article contains information from the manga.
Do not read beyond this point if you want to avoid being spoiled.



Renya Karasuma (烏丸 蓮耶, Karasuma Ren'ya?) is the mysterious head behind the Black Organization, who is respectfully called "Ano kata" (あの方, lit. "That Person"?) by his subordinates, and the true overarching antagonist of the entire manga and anime franchise Detective Conan.

His name has been a long-kept secret for most of the series, but on December 13, 2017, Gosho Aoyama finally revealed his identity. Before this important revelation, only Minami Takayama, the director and the producer of the anime staff in The Darkest Nightmare knew who the infamous boss was.

Background[]

Renya Karasuma was a wealthy and influential multi-millionaire who was the most powerful person in all of modern Japan, with an extensive range of contacts all over in the world. He is richer than the Suzuki plutocrats in Tokyo and the Ooka family in Kyoto.[1] He is said to have official died forty years ago, at the age of 99, under quite mysterious circumstances and his legacy is unknown. During his lifetime, he had collected over three hundred pieces of priceless art and antiques.

When his mother died, he inherited the Sunset Manor, a huge western-style manor house, and over time filled his vacation home with his silver crest which depicts a rolled-up crow. Forty years ago, he found a clue leading to a vast fortune left by his mother supposedly hidden in the manor, but he was unable to solve it himself. Consumed by his own greed for the treasure, he hired people to solve the riddle for him and then began killing them as motivation for the others to work faster. After his supposed death, the Karasuma family died out and the house fell into other hands.

He founded the shady Karasuma Group, a big company in Tokyo that pays well as a sponsor but is associated with various bad rumors. He is the man at the center of it all, directing illegal activities and planning crimes to protect and advance the interests of those Conan calls the "Black Organization". While mysteriously operating behind the scenes, the boss communicates with his ruthless subordinates only through text messages. His phone number, encoded as the famous children's song Nanatsu no Ko, is #969#6261. He is responsible for promoting agents deemed worthy and deciding on their alcoholic codenames, but he does not have one of his own because he is the big boss and does not need a codename. However, he does not want anyone in the organization to know about his current location.

Personality[]

He is described as a greedy, corrupt, cruel, and impatient man. He is materialistic as driven by his own greed while searching for the hidden treasure inside the Sunset Manor. Furthermore, he doesn't value human life, as brutally killed numerous innocent people that he invited just as motivation to find the treasure faster. Wise and quiet, intelligent and manipulative, he is ruthless, willing to dispatch senior agents who have been extremely loyal to him for many years for a single mistake. Vermouth says that he is always careful to the extreme, the type to ruin the plan by overthinking it. Somehow, he can maintain loyalty and unity within the organization, despite many members disliking or even outright wishing to murder certain others. The FBI believed he was hoping to nip a potential obstacle in the bud, because a politician hard on crime and not part of the Diet yet may have a chance of becoming the next Prime Minister. He thought Akai could become a silver bullet, someone who is especially dangerous to the entire organization. Unless he brought Conan back alive, Irish thought his true identity is something the boss would find hard to believe.

Appearance[]

He is a crow-like man who has only appeared as an ominous shape. He is bald on the top of his head with the rest of his hair extended to the neck, with a large nose shaped like a beak, and a somewhat obese body shape. His eyes are drooping. He dressed in black with a white scarf, held his left arm behind the back and a walking stick with a ball handle on his right hand with long nails like a bird's leg, and on his left shoulder there is a pet crow, the creepy bird which is also depicted on his crest. He is right-handed.

Plot overview[]

Kaitou Kid and the Murder (Manga: 299-302, Anime: 219)[]

The world's greatest detectives were invited to an old mansion covered in blood in the isolated mountains of Matsumoto, a Nagano Prefecture's rural area at 2 kilometers from Okuno Dam.[2] The host told them that this huge mansion belonged to Renya Karasuma, who died half-a-century ago, and that there is a treasure hidden inside.[3] That name triggers the guests attention, since he had tremendous influence throughout Japan. Conan solved the riddle, peeling off the entire outer walls of the black building and revealing solid gold underneath. Only Karasuma could do something on such a scale, and it must be worth a hundred billion yen. Kaitou Kid had come for Karasuma's treasure disguised as Kogoro, but it was too big for him to carry away and then flees from there. The victim and the culprit were possessed by Karasuma all along.

Stradivarius Murder Case (Manga: 470, Anime: 385)[]

Conan visualizes the boss as a big black figure behind Gin, Vodka, and Vermouth, with an evil aura to distinguish him from all the other minor criminals.

Suspicious Cellphone Case (Manga: 479, Anime: 398)[]

Conan visualizes the boss as a black figure behind Gin, Vodka, and a naked Vermouth in the anime version. It'd be a bad idea to send a message to that address, but Conan is calm, sure that he'll get his chance one day and he'll contact the boss.

Missing Maria Higashio Case (Manga: 1008, Anime: 942)[]

Yusaku and Subaru have reached the conclusion that "ASACA" and "RUM", the dying message left at the scene of Kohji Haneda's murder, is actually one single name: "CARASUMA". When Yusaku reveals it to his son and Agasa, Conan visualizes Karasuma as a shape before Gin, Vodka, a naked Vermouth, Chianti, and Korn, his crest and the pet crow on his left shoulder. That's why Shinichi's parents decided to stay in Japan and think of a plan, just what Conan wanted.

TV Drama Filming Site Murder Case (Manga: 1025, Anime: 995)[]

When Haibara reminds the drug her parents were forced to create by the organization, which shrunk Shinichi and Haibara's bodies, she visualizes Karasuma as a shape behind her parents, the pet crow on his left shoulder, and that drug.

Trapped at Hatoyama Farm (Manga: 1051, Anime: 1053)[]

When Rumi, talking with Sumiko about someone named "Karasuda" (crow field) as a crow, imagines that person all black and sly, a conspirator who's hard to get close to, but someone with such a name might well be a bright and cheery person instead, Conan visualizes Karasuma as a shape and the pet crow on his left shoulder, suspecting that she is a candidate for being the organization's second-in-command, Rum, and might personally know him.

Yusaku Kudo's TV Show Case (Anime: 1072)[]

Conan, Yusaku, and Akai visualize Karasuma as a shape behind Gin, Vodka, and Vermouth, and the pet crow on his left shoulder.

Non-canon plot overview[]

A criminal wasn't made in a day (Hanzawa the Criminal: 20, Anime: TBD)[]

In an old-fashioned requiem shop, Hanzawa visualizes Karasuma as a shape, his crest and the pet crow on his left shoulder.

Black Iron Submarine (Movie: 26)[]

After got texted by Vermouth about the AI system, that could become a threat as she refers it as Pandora's Box, he orders to destroy it. Rum then visualizes Karasuma as a shape, since he initially intended to use that system to locate him.

Name origin[]

"Karasuma" literally means "crow circle", as the logo in his crest. It is a very unusual surname that can also be translated "Karasumaru", one of the old court nobles, or "Ugan", another name for the Wuhuan.

"Renya" is a name also used for women, written with the kanji for "lotus" and "father".

Character inspiration[]

Gosho Aoyama was inspired by the fictional character James Moriarty, the main antagonist in the Sherlock Holmes' series, to create the Black Organization's head.[4] Just like the "Napoleon of Crime", he doesn't show his face and works as a shadow behind the scenes, only pulling the strings on the crimes from far away, sort of like Al Capone did.[5] He is depicted as a cold-blooded person who controls underworld and doesn't leave a single scrap of evidence, remaining anonymous to the public, and the shape similar to Professor Moriarty's in the novels.

Trivia[]

  • The anime version's biblical painting in his former manor's dining room is a replica of The Queen of Sheba visits King Solomon, although with an inverted orientation. Since sunset also indicates an idea of glorious sun that goes out, he is almost like the wise but then corrupt King Solomon.
  • Due to his obese and aristocratic appearance, as well as his bird-like face, he bears a resemblance with the Penguin, the famous Batman villain, one of the author's favorite US comics.

References[]

  1. Detective Conan SDB Black Plus (2018).
  2. Anime-original information: see the invitation and sign.
  3. The host dummy wears a frightening phantom's purple hood with two eye slits, just like the members of the KKK, one of the secret societies that were the sources of inspiration for his organization.
  4. Aoyama's latest interview for NHK (2017).
  5. Interview with Aoyama Gosho March 2014.

Site navigation[]

Black Organization
Executive Agents Renya KarasumaGinPiscoRumVermouth
Codenamed Agents CalvadosChiantiKornTequilaVodka
Agents Rikumichi KusudaAkemi MiyanoAtsushi MiyanoElena MiyanoKi'ichiro Numabuchi
Undercover Agents Ethan HondouBourbonKirScotch
Former Agents RyeSherry
Others Antonio GomezYoshiaki HaraKate LaurenMasaaki OkakuraBlack BeardAquavitArrackCuraçaoGenericIrishRieslingStout
Conglomerates
Karasuma Group Renya KarasumaAtsushi MiyanoElena Miyano
Suzuki Group Ayako SuzukiJirokichi SuzukiShiro SuzukiSonoko SuzukiTomoko Suzuki
Tomizawa Group Taichi TomizawaTatsuji TomizawaTetsuharu TomizawaYuzo Tomizawa
Families
Agasa Family Hiroshi AgasaKurisuke AgasaTeiko Agasa
Akagi Family Hideo AkagiMamoru Akagi
Akai Family Shuichi AkaiTsutomu AkaiShukichi HanedaMary SeraMasumi Sera
Chiba Family Kazunobu ChibaYoichiro Chiba
Enomoto Family Azusa EnomotoSugihito Enomoto
Hakuba Family Saguru HakubaHakuba Family Father
Haneda Family Ichiyo HanedaKohji HanedaYasuharu Haneda
Hattori Family Heiji HattoriHeizo HattoriShizuka Hattori
Higo Family Rikuo EndoRyusuke Higo
Hondou Family Eisuke HondouEthan HondouHidemi HondouHondou Family Mother
Glass Family Apollo GlassJuno GlassMinerva Glass
Ito Family Megumi ItoTamanosuke Ito
Karasuma Family Renya KarasumaKarasuma Family Mother
Kojima Family Genji KojimaGenta KojimaKojima Family Mother
Kudo Family Shinichi KudoYusaku KudoYukiko Kudo
Kuroba Family Chikage KurobaKaito KurobaToichi Kuroba
Matsuda Family Jinpei MatsudaJotaro Matsuda
Megure Family Juzo MegureMidori Megure
Miyano Family Akemi MiyanoAtsushi MiyanoElena MiyanoShiho Miyano
Morofushi Family Hiromitsu MorofushiTaka'aki Morofushi
Mouri Family Eri KisakiKogoro MouriRan Mouri
Nakamori Family Aoko NakamoriGinzo Nakamori
Okita Family Sōji OkitaSoshi Okita IIISoshi Okita VI
Ooka Family Momiji OokaOoka Family Mother
Sato Family Masayoshi SatoMiwako SatoSato Family Mother
Senma Family Furuyo SenmaKyosuke Senma
Starling Family Jodie StarlingStarling Family FatherStarling Family Mother
Suzuki Family Ayako SuzukiJirokichi SuzukiShiro SuzukiSonoko SuzukiTomoko Suzuki
Tomizawa Family Taichi TomizawaTatsuji TomizawaTetsuharu TomizawaYuzo Tomizawa
Toyama Family Ginshiro ToyamaKazuha ToyamaToyama Family Mother
Tsuburaya Family Asami TsuburayaMitsuhiko Tsuburaya
Yamamura Family Misae YamamuraMisao Yamamura
Yoshida Family Ayumi YoshidaYoshida Family Mother
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