Spoilers follow for the murderer, the false alibi and the meaning of the three glasses.
Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya's Detective Notes 4 is an anime-original case, international episode 1251 (Japanese episode 1192). Entertainer Hakozaki kills the actor Tonai and tries to shift suspicion toward his obsessive fan Nojima. The three glasses are partly the result of burglars entering after the murder, so the scene combines deliberate staging with an unplanned intrusion.
Mitsuhiko’s reading of the Sherlock Holmes story The Abbey Grange helps him notice the glasses, but the solution requires more than recognizing a literary pattern. He has to connect what he sees with the clocks, the remaining fan letter and Conan’s separate investigation.
A cat leads Mitsuhiko and Haibara to the body
Mitsuhiko has been reading Holmes in the park when he meets Haibara following a stray cat on the way home. They reach the house of Hakozaki, a once-famous entertainer, and find a bleeding man dead on the floor. A young man, Nojima, is also there.
Nojima says he is a fan who has come to collect a fountain pen at the manager’s request. He claims that the key normally kept beneath a flowerpot is missing, but that the door was already unlocked. Entering the house, he says, led him to the body.
The room appears to have been ransacked, suggesting a burglary. Mitsuhiko is particularly struck by three glasses on the table, recalling the Holmes story he has just been reading. The apparent similarity gives him a starting question rather than a ready-made answer.
Why the fan looks suspicious
Police identify the victim as Tonai, an actor short of money who had connections with Hakozaki. Nojima has apparently been lingering near the house for several days. His intense interest in the entertainer and familiarity with the property make him an easy person to suspect.
Other details resist that simple explanation. A table clock and the victim’s wristwatch do not fit neatly together, and Nojima’s fan letter is conspicuously left on the desk when other mail is absent. The evidence appears to advertise his presence almost too clearly.
The useful question is not whether Nojima has behaved inappropriately. It is whether that behavior proves murder, or whether someone else is exploiting it to make him a convincing suspect. The case deliberately separates those judgments.
Conan follows the missing correspondence
Conan leaves to investigate Hakozaki’s agency and the rubbish disposal area. His inquiries reveal that Tonai has been blackmailing Hakozaki over an old scandal. The victim’s demand for money supplies the entertainer with a motive absent from the initial fan-centered theory.
The lone fan letter is significant because the other correspondence has been hurriedly disposed of. Investigating what is missing leads to the evidence of blackmail. What remains on the desk is therefore useful for two different reasons: it draws suspicion toward Nojima while revealing the selective removal of other material.
The burglars explain why not everything was planned
The burglars who happened to enter the house are also caught. They say that Tonai was already dead when they drank wine there. Their activity accounts for the glasses without making them participants in Hakozaki’s murder plan.
That is an important correction to the temptation created by the Holmes reference. A recognizable arrangement of objects need not mean that one person arranged every part of the scene. The room records both the killer’s work and something that happened afterward.
The testimony also gives the investigation a sequence: the death precedes the burglars’ drinking. Their wrongdoing is real, but the story does not confuse it with the killing simply because their traces appear beside the body.
Hakozaki’s clock and recording scheme
Hakozaki kills Tonai at home, then manipulates the scene’s indications of time. In the episode’s reconstruction, heating affects the apparent progression of rigor mortis, while the table clock and Tonai’s watch have been moved forward. Their displayed times cannot be accepted as neutral evidence.
A voice recorder supports a false account of Hakozaki’s movements. The combination is meant to make the body, the clocks and the apparent alibi tell a more convenient story than the actual sequence of events.
Nojima supplies a ready-made alternative suspect. His devotion, visits around the house and correspondence can all be presented as signs of danger. Hakozaki uses those existing facts rather than having to invent an entirely new person to blame.
The solution comes from putting the weaknesses together: selective disposal of mail exposes blackmail, the clock discrepancies challenge the timing, the heating and recorder explain the staging, and the burglars’ testimony separates the later intrusion from the murder. No single glass or watch solves the whole case by itself.
Mitsuhiko gets to express his own deduction
Mitsuhiko builds the explanation from his own observations and presents it in his own words. Conan’s outside work supplies support where it is needed, while Haibara’s help and Mitsuhiko’s intermediate mistakes keep his progress from feeling effortless.
Hakozaki’s murder and false alibi are exposed. The outcome does not turn Nojima’s troubling behavior into innocence in every possible sense; it establishes that he is not the person who killed Tonai. That narrower distinction is what the evidence supports.
Why the fourth Detective Notes case earns its title
The satisfying development is that Mitsuhiko’s hobby becomes a tool for asking better questions. He notices a resemblance to a story, then pays attention to the actual clocks and objects instead of merely reciting a fictional detective’s solution.
The overlapping burglary and murder give the mystery a texture beyond a single perfect fabrication. Some odd details are planned, others accidental, and the investigation has to distinguish them. That makes the eventual reconstruction more rewarding than assuming every clue belongs to one elaborate trick.
Conan’s quieter supporting role leaves room for Mitsuhiko’s growth. The ending’s appeal comes as much from seeing him take a genuine step forward as from identifying Hakozaki. The series’ notebook premise feels most convincing when observation becomes reasoning of his own.
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