Who is Pisco really?
Why did Gin kill him?
Pisco is a member of the Black Organization who enters the story in Volume 24, during the Reunion with the Black Organization arc. In public, he is a powerful figure in the business world. Behind that respectable image, however, he carries out an assassination on the organization’s orders.
Pisco’s true identity is Kenzo Masuyama, the 71-year-old chairman of a major automobile manufacturer. He is also a veteran member who has served the Boss for many years.
This article explains Pisco’s identity, why he dies, how he discovers Ai Haibara’s secret, his ties to other Black Organization members, and where he appears in the manga, anime, and a movie. Major spoilers follow.
Pisco Is Kenzo Masuyama, a Veteran Black Organization Member
Pisco is the codename of Kenzo Masuyama, the 71-year-old chairman of a major automobile manufacturer.
- Codename: Pisco
- Real name: Kenzo Masuyama
- Age: 71
- Public occupation: chairman of a major automobile manufacturer
- Position: a veteran Black Organization member who served the Boss for many years
- Japanese voice actor: Yasuo Muramatsu
- Status: deceased
Masuyama is known as a successful businessman, but he also works in the field for the organization and kills on its orders. His time in the main story is short, yet it reveals how thoroughly the organization can blend into respectable society. His old ties to the Miyano family and his fate also expose the Boss’s ruthlessness.
His Public Face as the Chairman of a Major Automobile Manufacturer
In public, Kenzo Masuyama is a prominent businessman and the chairman of a major automobile manufacturer. He attends a memorial gathering for film director Akira Sakamaki alongside notable figures from politics, business, and entertainment.
To everyone around him, he looks like an elderly man who has earned status and fame. In reality, that distinguished chairman is an assassin for the Black Organization. His position may have made it easier to enter elite gatherings and approach a target, although the story does not establish how far his company or business activities were used for organizational work.
What is clear is that the Black Organization does not operate only in the underworld. Even someone at the center of the business establishment can possess a codename and perform its dirty work. The gulf between Masuyama’s public and private lives is what makes him so unsettling.
A Veteran Who Served the Boss for Many Years
Pisco is a veteran who has served the Black Organization’s Boss for many years. Unlike younger field operatives, he knew Atsushi Miyano and Elena Miyano and had been involved with the organization since the period when they were conducting drug research.
That history connects Pisco not only to Ai Haibara in the present, but also to the organization’s older research and relationships. If he had survived, he may have possessed more information about what the Miyanos researched and how the Boss was involved at the time. The evidence discussed here does not establish the extent of that knowledge, so it should remain a possibility rather than a conclusion.
His fate shows that long service offers no protection when the organization decides someone has become a danger. Indeed, a veteran who knows many secrets may become especially disposable after a serious mistake.
A Veteran, but His Formal Rank Is Unconfirmed
Pisco is an influential veteran, but his formal rank within the Black Organization remains unclear. He has a codename, receives an important assassination assignment, and has served the Boss for years. Those points are clear.
There is no basis in the evidence discussed here for calling him a formally designated executive, Gin’s equal, or Gin’s superior. The method by which he communicated with the Boss is also unknown. The safest description is therefore a veteran, codenamed member who served the Boss for many years.
Whatever his exact place in the hierarchy, the Boss ordered his elimination and Gin carried it out. The sequence makes one priority unmistakable: protecting the organization’s secrecy mattered more than Pisco’s past service.
What Did Pisco Do? The Assassination of Shigehiko Nomiguchi and Haibara’s Abduction
Pisco assassinates politician Shigehiko Nomiguchi on the organization’s orders. He then suspects that Ai Haibara is Sherry, captures her, and confines her in a wine cellar.
Although the killing itself succeeds, a photograph exposes the method, and Pisco is eliminated after reaching the truth about Haibara. His apparent success turns into a fatal failure within the same case.
He Shoots Down a Chandelier to Assassinate Shigehiko Nomiguchi
Pisco’s assignment is to kill politician Shigehiko Nomiguchi. Nomiguchi has ties to the organization, and his arrest could bring an investigation closer to it. Pisco acts to silence that risk at the memorial gathering for film director Akira Sakamaki.
When the room goes dark, Pisco fires at a chandelier and sends it crashing onto Nomiguchi. Nomiguchi is crushed and dies. Rather than shoot his target directly, Pisco makes the death resemble an accident.
Hitting the chandelier in darkness indicates that he is accustomed to handling a gun, but it does not by itself establish that he served as a specialist sniper. The assassination succeeds; Pisco’s failure is that he does not conceal how it was done.
He Locks Ai Haibara in a Wine Cellar
Pisco notices Ai Haibara at the memorial. She senses the presence of the Black Organization and is overcome by fear. Although she tries to disappear into the crowd, Pisco captures her and locks her in a wine cellar.
He does not see her as an ordinary child. Her face reminds him of Shiho Miyano, the researcher once known within the organization as Sherry. In her life as Ai Haibara, she attends Teitan Elementary School with the Detective Boys; her situation parallels Shinichi Kudo’s life in a younger body. From the cellar, Haibara communicates with Conan and Hiroshi Agasa while searching for a way out.
After drinking baijiu, Haibara temporarily returns to Shiho Miyano’s adult body. The case suddenly combines a public murder, the exposure of Haibara’s identity, and a temporary reversal of her physical condition. That sharp shift is what gives the arc its oppressive tension.
His Friendship with the Miyanos Helps Him Recognize Haibara as Shiho Miyano
Pisco can approach the truth about Haibara because he knew Atsushi and Elena Miyano. They had told him about a drug under development, and he also knew the face of the organization researcher called Sherry.
That background lets him recognize traces of Shiho Miyano in the young Haibara. During the incident, he also witnesses the physical change from adult Shiho back into Haibara’s child form. However, the material does not establish that Pisco fully understood APTX 4869’s child-shrinking effect before this case.
What can be said safely is that he had heard about the drug in development and then saw a body shrink during the case. For Haibara, the danger comes not only from current operatives such as Gin, but also from veterans whose old ties can lead them to her present identity.
Why Did Gin Kill Pisco?
Gin kills Pisco because a camera captures him at the moment he fires at the chandelier. If the image became public, Masuyama could be suspected of Nomiguchi’s murder, creating a path for investigators to examine his associates and potentially reach the Black Organization.
Pisco completes the assassination but leaves evidence that threatens the organization’s secrecy. That mistake is enough for the Boss to abandon a veteran who had served for years.
The Photograph of the Assassination Is the Decisive Failure
Pisco’s decisive mistake is allowing a camera to capture him aiming his gun at the chandelier. The crime takes place in darkness, but the camera flash leaves an image of Kenzo Masuyama holding the weapon.
If that photograph appeared in a newspaper, the chandelier’s fall would no longer look like a simple accident. As a powerful businessman, Masuyama could face scrutiny of his connections, money, and network. For the Black Organization, the greater danger was that an investigation of Pisco might create a trail leading back to the group.
He succeeds in killing Nomiguchi, yet a single photograph changes him from the organization’s assassin into its next target. That abrupt reversal demonstrates how little a successful result matters when secrecy has been compromised.
The Boss Orders the Silencing, and Gin Carries It Out
Gin fires the fatal shot, but the decision is not presented as a personal grudge. The Boss abandons Pisco after he leaves evidence of the crime, and Gin carries out the order.
In the wine cellar, Gin points a gun at Pisco and tells him, “You climbed this far with the organization’s help… You have enjoyed a good enough dream, haven’t you?” (unofficial translation)
The remark strongly suggests that the Black Organization helped Masuyama obtain his social position. Even so, neither that status nor years of loyalty protect him after his mistake. Gin follows the order and shoots him.
The cellar is later engulfed in fire. The scene leaves Pisco’s death and the destruction around it swallowed by the chaos of the blaze.
The Black Organization Will Kill Even a Veteran Who Fails
Pisco’s death shows that even veterans and long-serving contributors are not safe inside the Black Organization. He is 71, has served the Boss for many years, knew the Miyanos, and was trusted with an important assassination.
None of that matters once he leaves evidence that could endanger the organization. Its secrets take priority over an individual’s loyalty and accomplishments. A conventional case might end when the culprit is exposed and arrested; here, the culprit is killed by his own side after the truth emerges.
Solving the murder therefore does not restore safety: an internal execution makes the ending colder still.
Was Pisco Incompetent? Capable, but Responsible for a Fatal Mistake
It would be too simple to dismiss Pisco as wholly incompetent. His practical skills and powers of observation are considerable, and he does kill Nomiguchi as assigned.
- He shoots down a chandelier in darkness.
- He makes the assassination resemble an accident.
- He recognizes Sherry’s features in the young Haibara.
- He possesses knowledge of the Miyanos and their drug research.
At the same time, he makes fatal mistakes in controlling the scene.
- A camera captures him firing the gun.
- The resulting photograph threatens to become public evidence.
- Haibara and Conan are able to resist his plan.
- A fire breaks out in the wine cellar.
- He dies without reporting Haibara’s identity to the organization.
Pisco is capable in execution, but fails at evidence control and at responding to the unexpected. The contrast is severe: one photograph costs an accomplished public figure both his standing and his life.
Why Pisco’s Discovery of Haibara’s Identity Matters
Pisco reaches the conclusion that Ai Haibara is Shiho Miyano, also known as Sherry. He also sees the physical shrinking connected to APTX 4869.
Had he shared that information with Gin or the Boss, Haibara’s present life would likely have faced immediate danger. The precise consequences are hypothetical, but the intelligence itself would have been extraordinarily dangerous.
He Witnesses the Shrinking Phenomenon
Pisco had heard about a drug under development from Atsushi and Elena Miyano. That knowledge, together with the resemblance between the child Haibara and Shiho Miyano, helps him identify them as the same person.
During the case, he witnesses adult Shiho Miyano change back into Haibara’s child body. From this, he can recognize that the drug-related phenomenon may shrink a body rather than simply kill its subject.
The material does not establish that he understands the drug’s mechanism or the conditions that produce the change. Even limited knowledge, however, brings a Black Organization veteran dangerously close to one of Conan and Haibara’s greatest secrets.
He Dies Before Reporting Haibara’s Identity to the Organization
Pisco identifies Haibara, but dies before he can pass that information to the organization. None of the scenes discussed here show him reporting to Gin, Vodka, or the Boss that Ai Haibara is Shiho Miyano.
At least at this point in the story, Gin and the others therefore do not receive the shrinking secret from him. Haibara’s identity is exposed to an enemy, only for that enemy to be eliminated almost immediately by his own organization.
Conan and the FBI do not erase Pisco’s knowledge. The Black Organization’s merciless internal discipline ends up preserving Haibara’s secret. That is not a triumphant rescue, but an uneasy reprieve produced by the enemy’s own priorities.
A Link Between the Miyano Family and an Older Generation of the Black Organization
Pisco directly links the period when Atsushi and Elena Miyano were alive with Ai Haibara’s present. The Miyanos were involved in drug research for the Black Organization, and their daughter Shiho later became a researcher with the codename Sherry.
Pisco knew the couple and had heard about the drug they were developing. He was therefore one of the older members positioned to know something about the Miyano family’s research and its treatment within the organization. The exact scope of what he knew remains unclear.
His death removes one more possible witness to that older era. Had he lived, he may have been able to reveal more about research preceding APTX 4869 or the Miyanos’ status, but the evidence discussed here does not confirm that knowledge.
Pisco’s Relationships with Black Organization Members
Pisco served the Boss for years, worked with Vermouth during the assassination, and was ultimately killed by Gin. Movie-only material in Detective Conan: The Raven Chaser also presents Irish as having regarded Pisco like a father.
These relationships combine orders, utility, loyalty, and, in the movie-only case, personal affection. They should not all be treated as the same kind of bond.
Gin: Eliminates Pisco on the Boss’s Orders
Gin is the operative who follows the Boss’s order and shoots Pisco. The scenes discussed here do not depict the two as close friends or personal enemies. To Gin, Pisco is a member whose mistake has endangered the organization and whose elimination has been authorized.
Their formal rank relative to one another remains unconfirmed. There is no safe basis here for saying Pisco was Gin’s superior or equal. What is established is only that the Boss made the decision and Gin served as executioner.
Gin’s readiness to kill a long-serving elderly member without hesitation reinforces his cold obedience to the organization’s priorities.
Vermouth: Assists with Nomiguchi’s Assassination
Vermouth assists Pisco during the operation against Shigehiko Nomiguchi. She attends the memorial as actress Chris Vineyard and acts inside the venue. By using handkerchiefs to confuse the investigation, she helps create conditions in which Pisco can move away from the scene.
Her role demonstrates an ability to manipulate both appearances and the direction of an investigation. Pisco, meanwhile, becomes a target for elimination while Vermouth continues working for the organization. The veteran exits in the same arc that leaves Vermouth in place as a future threat.
The material does not show that Pisco knew any secret about Vermouth’s age or her relationship with the Boss. What is confirmed here is limited to their cooperation in the Nomiguchi assassination.
Irish: Regarded Pisco Like a Father
In the movie-only story Detective Conan: The Raven Chaser, Irish is said to have regarded Pisco like a father. Irish is an original Black Organization member created for the movie, and the relationship is not presented as a literal blood connection.
Within that movie-only continuity, Irish resents Gin for killing Pisco. His attachment gives Pisco’s death an emotional consequence beyond the original case.
The organization may classify Pisco as a failed operative to be erased, while Irish remembers him as someone worthy of affection and respect. That contrast belongs to movie-only evidence and should not be used to establish Pisco’s manga or anime relationships more broadly.
The Boss and Renya Karasuma: Years of Service End After One Failure
Pisco served the Black Organization’s Boss for many years. The evidence discussed here identifies the Boss as Renya Karasuma. Pisco benefited from the organization and rose to a high position in the business world.
Once he leaves a photograph that threatens the group, however, the Boss abandons him. There is no sign that his loyalty or accomplishments earn mercy. Whether Pisco contacted the Boss directly, and where he sat in the formal chain of command, remain unknown.
The elimination order nevertheless shows that the Boss will discard even a veteran when organizational secrecy is at stake.
Pisco’s Manga, Anime, and Movie Appearances
Pisco’s principal appearance while alive is in Volume 24 and anime Episodes 190-192 (Japanese episodes 176-178), the Reunion with the Black Organization arc. Within this arc, his identity is exposed, he assassinates Nomiguchi, discovers Haibara’s secret, and is shot by Gin.
In the movie Detective Conan: The Raven Chaser, Pisco does not return alive for a new mission; his name appears through Irish’s history. That relationship is movie-only evidence.
Volume 24 and Episodes 190-192 (Japanese Episodes 176-178), Reunion with the Black Organization
Pisco’s identity, the Nomiguchi assassination, Haibara’s confinement, and Pisco’s death all occur in the Reunion with the Black Organization arc.
- Volume 24, File 7
- Volume 24, File 8
- Volume 24, File 9
- Volume 24, File 10
- Volume 24, File 11
- Episode 190 (Japanese episode 176), “Reunion with the Black Organization (Haibara)”
- Episode 191 (Japanese episode 177), “Reunion with the Black Organization (Conan)”
- Episode 192 (Japanese episode 178), “Reunion with the Black Organization (The Resolution)”
Pisco makes his full entrance and dies within this single arc. Despite that brief span, the story connects an assassination, Haibara’s exposed identity, the Miyanos, APTX 4869, Vermouth, and the Boss. It combines a murder investigation with the pressure of escaping the Black Organization.
The arc is important not merely for understanding Pisco, but also for understanding Haibara’s relationship with the organization.
Vermouth’s Debut and Haibara’s Temporary Restoration
The arc also advances Vermouth’s role and the mystery of APTX 4869. Chris Vineyard attends the memorial, introducing the figure later revealed as Vermouth as an active presence on the organization’s side.
Haibara drinks baijiu and temporarily returns to her adult body as Shiho Miyano. This strongly demonstrates that the physical change is not necessarily one-way and can be reversed temporarily under particular circumstances. The episode does not establish a general or reliable cure.
Returning to her original body does not make Shiho safe. Gin targets her on the rooftop, placing her life in danger again. Her adult form represents hope, but in front of the organization it is also the form most readily recognized.
Detective Conan: The Raven Chaser: Pisco Is Named in Irish’s Dialogue
Pisco does not return from the dead in Detective Conan: The Raven Chaser. The movie-original operative Irish speaks of Pisco as someone he regarded like a father.
Irish resents Gin for carrying out Pisco’s execution, and that feeling affects his actions in the movie. This is movie-only evidence: the original arc presents Pisco as a veteran eliminated for leaving evidence, while the movie adds the perspective of someone who cared about him.
To the organization, Pisco is a failed member to erase; to Irish, he was personally important. That difference gives Pisco another dimension without changing the evidence level of the original story.
Summary
Pisco is Kenzo Masuyama, the 71-year-old chairman of a major automobile manufacturer. His main appearance is brief, but the contrast between a celebrated businessman and a Black Organization assassin is striking.
He is a veteran with ties reaching back to Atsushi and Elena Miyano. He succeeds in killing Shigehiko Nomiguchi, but a photograph catches him aiming his gun at the chandelier. That evidence costs him both his position and his life.
Pisco also identifies Ai Haibara as Shiho Miyano and witnesses her body shrink. He dies before the available story shows him reporting that intelligence to Gin, Vodka, or the Boss. The organization’s ruthless elimination of one of its own consequently preserves Haibara’s secret.
Pisco’s death demonstrates that longevity and loyalty cannot protect a member who threatens the Black Organization’s secrecy. In the same arc, Vermouth remains as a new danger, while movie-only material later connects Pisco’s death to Irish’s resentment of Gin.
Although he dies within one arc, Pisco leaves lasting connections to the Miyano family’s past, the Boss’s cruelty, Vermouth’s emergence, and Irish’s movie-only motives. Few characters reveal the reach and brutality of the Black Organization so quickly.
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