Spoilers: This article reveals the vase mystery and discusses the closing image associated with the film tie-in.
The cat broke the vase; Adachi arranged the later cover-up. Mystery of the Lost Treasure is international episode 1178 (Japanese episode 1120), an anime-original companion story to The Million-dollar Pentagram. Its central puzzle is property damage rather than murder, and the person who tampered with the scene is not the one who originally caused the break.
Conan and Sonoko prevent the vase from falling in front of them, only to discover that someone has already held its broken pieces together. A timestamped photograph and the cat’s route through a window explain why the apparent accident conceals two separate events.
Sonoko’s catalogue brings them to a retiring artist
Jirokichi has asked Sonoko to compile a catalogue of treasures. She doubts her ability to judge artworks, but the assignment gives her and Conan a reason to visit the studio of potter Kenzo Ukishima. He is retiring, workers are carrying boxes away, and the remaining works have already been sold.
The visit has a quieter emotional background than its title suggests. Ukishima’s former pupils are facing the end of an arrangement on which they depended. Sonoko’s protectiveness toward Conan on the way to the studio also gives this unusual pairing a warm beginning before the disagreement inside.
Ukishima is holding his bandaged cat. When he opens a window, the animal reacts to a ping-pong ball, leaps away and strikes a stand. Conan and Sonoko catch the large vase before it can fall. Their successful rescue should end the scare, but the vase is already split, with tape visible inside.
Three former pupils and an angry buyer
The former pupils—Katsuyuki Adachi, Miyuki Tachibana and Tomoko Natsume—gather after the commotion. Their argument concerns Ukishima’s retirement and their own futures as much as the damaged vase. The tension gives everyone a reason to behave awkwardly without making that behavior proof of sabotage.
The collector who bought the vase, Sawada, then arrives and threatens legal action over the damage. What seemed like a small studio mystery suddenly has an owner demanding that someone accept responsibility. Conan quiets the confrontation with his tranquilizer, prompting Sonoko to compare the result to Sleeping Kogoro.
The taped pieces and altered stand suggest an attempt to conceal an earlier break and blame a new accident. That makes the timing crucial: who could have broken the vase, and who could have arranged the scene afterward? Those are different questions.
The photograph separates the break from the cover-up
Tachibana had entered the room around 10:30, opened a window and photographed the works, then left around 10:45. Natsume’s photograph provides a firmer boundary: at 10:59 the vase was still intact. The damage therefore cannot simply be assigned to Tachibana because Adachi saw her leaving earlier.
Shortly after 11:00, Ukishima spilled baking soda while preparing to clean. Powder on Adachi’s shoes, considered alongside when workers laid a blue sheet in the passage, places his movements before that floor covering blocked contact with it. These small housekeeping details help expose his opportunity to tamper with the stand.
Adachi admits the tampering but insists that the vase was already broken when he entered around 11:30. Taken with Natsume’s picture, that places the original damage between roughly 11:00 and 11:30. His admission resolves the later deception while leaving the earlier cause to be explained.
The cat used the boxes as a way into the room
The window’s condition and the boxes stacked outside provide the missing route. Ukishima’s cat climbed the boxes, entered through the small window and jumped onto the stand. The vase fell and broke, injuring the cat in the process. Its bandages belong to that earlier accident.
Finding the broken vase, Adachi wrongly assumed that Tachibana was responsible. He tried to protect her by reassembling the pieces and arranging for a cat-related mishap to take the blame. The irony is that his invented explanation came close to what had actually happened, but his interference made the truth much harder to see.
The solution distinguishes damage, suspicion and concealment instead of forcing them into one culprit’s plan. Adachi’s protective impulse explains the lie; it does not make the lie necessary or accurate. The pupils apologize, Ukishima helps arrange their next steps, and Sawada accepts a replacement vase.
What connects this small mystery to the film?
The catalogue assignment and references to Hokkaido provide the broader connection to The Million-dollar Pentagram. The catalogue is also a useful thematic link within the episode: records, photographs and the order in which people saw objects are what establish the vase’s true history.
The final image shows a figure resembling Kaitou Kid against Hakodate’s night view. One possible reading is that it evokes Toichi Kuroba, the first Kid and Kaito Kuroba’s father, rather than simply showing the present-day Kaito. The image alone does not settle the figure’s identity or turn that interpretation into a confirmed event.
The studio mystery remains self-contained. Its most satisfying reversal is that uncovering the truth releases people from mistaken blame, allowing the artist’s retirement to end with some reassurance about his pupils. The movie connection adds another question after that gentler resolution.
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