Spoilers: Both murders and the final attempted killing are explained below.
Rube Goldberg Machine (Part 1) and Rube Goldberg Machine (Part 2), international episodes 1169-1170 (Japanese episodes 1111-1112), form an anime-original case. Kawamoto kills Inoue with the contraption, while Tanaka kills Shimada separately. Their crimes overlap, but they are not the work of a single murderer, and exposing them still leaves another trap to stop.
An easy job ends beside a suspicious chimney
Conan, Ran and Kogoro visit a holiday-home area to investigate an intruder that turns out to be a raccoon. On the way home they encounter Inspector Misao Yamamura investigating what appears to be an accidental death at a large villa.
Inoue, chairman of a popular yangnyeom chicken business, was drinking coffee on his balcony when a chimney fell onto him. Conan finds cuts at the chimney’s base, showing that its stability had been deliberately weakened.
The nearby associates offer several avenues of suspicion: his wife Nanako, company president Tanaka, investor Shimada, wealthy old friend and shareholder Kawamoto, and his mistress Teshima. Business, money and personal grievance all overlap around the victim.
The machine turns a daily habit into an alibi opportunity
Inoue’s fixed habit of drinking coffee on the balcony at six each morning supplies the timing. A chain of devices can be prepared beforehand, allowing the person who arranged it to be somewhere else when it reaches its final action.
The scattered objects include domino-like boards, balls, a lever, an automatic bird feeder and a hatchet-launching mechanism. A hatchet lodged in the roof and the weakened chimney connect the strange equipment to a lethal purpose.
A Rube Goldberg machine uses a sequence of elaborate linked actions to achieve a result. Here, its attraction as a spectacle is also the trap for the investigation: once the contraption has been recognized, the person known for building such devices seems to provide an almost ready-made answer.
Why Shimada looks too conveniently guilty
Shimada belonged to a Rube Goldberg machine study group as a student and had spoken threateningly about such a method. Plans found in his hotel room seem to join expertise, intent and preparation in one suspect.
But the plans were planted by Kawamoto. Footprints matching his distinctive limited-edition shoes expose his entry into Shimada’s room and turn the apparently decisive plans into evidence of a frame-up.
Kawamoto’s conspicuous effort to establish an alibi on security cameras adds to the suspicion surrounding him. The key physical connection remains the footprint evidence: it explains how incriminating material reached the room of the man everyone was being encouraged to pursue.
Shimada's scarf points to a different killing
Reports of Shimada’s whereabouts send Yamamura and the police in different directions. When Shimada is found dead, the scene initially suggests suicide. His scarf, however, does not fit the expensive clothing he otherwise favors.
Removing the cheap scarf reveals strangulation marks. Shimada was strangled and his body thrown from a bridge; the scarf was used to hide the neck injuries. Ran recognizes the kind of inexpensive scarf because of one she gave her father, giving her observation a concrete role in the deduction.
The method differs sharply from the elaborate first killing. That difference is a reason to reconsider a single-perpetrator explanation, though the difference in style alone would not identify the second murderer.
Tanaka killed Shimada amid the turmoil following Inoue’s death. As company president, he was under pressure over the secret sauce recipe and increasingly hostile investors. The murder is comparatively improvised, and anonymous calls with false sightings help scatter the investigation.
Tanaka’s lack of interest in clothing helps explain why he failed to notice how unsuitable the cheap scarf would look on Shimada. The false sightings and the attempt to conceal strangulation belong to this second crime, not to the chimney mechanism.
Kawamoto's grievance does not end with Inoue
Conan uses Yamamura’s sleeping figure to deliver the deduction and separates the two murders. Kawamoto is responsible for Inoue’s death; Tanaka is responsible for Shimada’s.
Kawamoto’s grievance centers on Nanako leaving him for Inoue just before their wedding vows. His resentment extends to both members of the couple. The business’s sauce recipe and a prenuptial condition affecting Nanako’s inheritance form part of the surrounding entanglement, but the old betrayal is the personal core of his revenge.
Arrest does not stop a machine already prepared elsewhere. Kawamoto reveals that Nanako is also a target, and she is on her way to a place selected for another contraption. Conan uses the old history to infer the destination, while Ran and Kogoro race to intervene.
Why the chapel rescue completes the case
The final danger is at a granite chapel. Ran interrupts the mechanism by throwing a heavy ornament, with Kogoro alongside her in the rescue. The action gives the deduction an urgent consequence: identifying the culprit is useful only if the next victim can still be protected.
The physical chain of the device becomes an apt image for the resentments driving the case. One man sets up an elaborate murder and frame-up, another exploits the confusion, and the first man’s plan continues moving after his exposure. Ran and Kogoro are the ones who stop that motion.
The eventual revelation that noodle-soup base is the secret flavoring offers a welcome release after the danger. The contrast recalls the raccoon opening, but the lightness now comes after two murders and a narrowly prevented third attack.
What makes the two-part story work is the distinction between connected circumstances and a single plan. The devices are built to make every action follow the previous one. The human crimes only appear to fit that same clean pattern until the separate evidence is examined.
Comments