Spoilers follow for the staged robbery, the gang’s objective and the ending.
Follow Them! Detective Taxi 2, international episode 1213 (Japanese episode 1155), is an anime-original case in which an apparent jewel robbery distracts attention from a more useful prize: information about wealthy visitors. Yoko Matsuda is involved with the criminals, and the diamond left in the well helps expose the gap between the apparent crime and the actual plan.
This is the second Detective Taxi story, following Follow Them! Detective Taxi, international episode 1033 (Japanese episode 976). The returning driver, Genki Ishikawa, is an ardent Kogoro Mouri admirer whose enthusiasm carries the investigation from a shrine festival into a pursuit.
The festival attracts jewels, expensive cars and unwanted attention
Ishikawa brings Matsuda to Tsubaki Shrine for a jewel-washing festival held once every ten years. The belief that washing gems increases their value attracts wealthy participants and jewelry-store owners. In the parking area, Ishikawa notices two men photographing the license plates of expensive cars.
He reports the suspicious behavior at the Mouri Detective Agency, but Kogoro is occupied making sandwiches for Conan, as he promised Ran. Unable to persuade his hero to join him immediately, Ishikawa decides to investigate alone. The contrast between his excitement and Kogoro’s domestic task sets the comic tone.
An attempted robbery leaves both the jewel and the driver behind
Back at the shrine, Ishikawa encounters the disturbance involving Matsuda and is struck from behind. A television report brings Kogoro and Conan to the scene, where they learn that someone apparently tried to steal her diamond. Yet the jewel is still in the well.
Ishikawa’s taxi is still in the parking lot, but the driver is missing. A noise leads Kogoro to the trunk, where Ishikawa has been bound and shut inside. The suspected thieves have made a commotion and incapacitated a witness without taking the obvious valuable object.
Ishikawa identifies one of the men photographing the cars as his attacker. The red substance around his mouth is another misleading detail: it is ketchup, not blood. His alarming appearance and the reactions around Matsuda disrupt what might otherwise look like a straightforward staged scene.
Matsuda chose the last turn for a reason
The shrine charges one hundred thousand yen for each jewel washed. Other participants take part together, but Matsuda is alone at the end with a single diamond. The order is ordinarily determined by lot; she volunteered to go last. What initially seems to make her an easy target is therefore a position she chose herself.
Conan uses Sleeping Kogoro to explain that Matsuda’s apparent victimhood is part of the deception. Her performance creates a distraction at the moment the men need one. The commotion near the well should not be treated as reliable evidence that she is separate from the criminals.
While attention is elsewhere, the men photograph the festival register containing information about its wealthy guests. Their interest in the parked cars belongs to the same process of identifying promising targets. The diamond is not the only valuable thing the festival has gathered in one place.
The register points toward the next victim
Kogoro asks a shrine maiden which visitor has brought the most jewels. That question changes the investigation from reconstructing the disturbance to predicting the gang’s next move. Conan and Ishikawa set off to reach the likely target.
The owner of Wonder Jewelry’s Ginza store is attacked and a bag is stolen. Matsuda is among the criminal group involved in this next incident, confirming that her earlier role cannot be understood simply as that of a frightened victim.
Conan and Ishikawa pursue the group in the taxi. The fleeing criminals use kick scooters, and Conan joins that form of pursuit to bring the case to a close. The driver’s determination to work beside Kogoro has finally made his taxi essential to stopping the actual theft.
A chaotic comedy with a clear change of target
The episode shares the earlier Detective Taxi story’s Urasawa-scripted comic excess: the unusual festival, Ishikawa’s unrestrained admiration, Kogoro making sandwiches and ketchup masquerading as a dramatic injury. The pace can feel deliberately overwhelming, but the central deduction gives those distractions a direction.
The unnerving idea beneath the silliness is that the guests’ information may be more useful to thieves than the single jewel in front of them. Once Conan sees that shift, the unclaimed diamond and Matsuda’s chosen time slot cease to be isolated oddities. They form part of a diversion that prepares another crime.
The finish supplies a chase rather than a murder revelation. Ishikawa’s eagerness can be reckless, but the story also lets it become useful, and Kogoro eventually joins the work his admirer hoped to share with him. That combination of absurdity and affection is the sequel’s strongest appeal.
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