Spoilers follow for the bomber’s identity, the whistle mechanism, the rescue and the ending.
Mayor Nanako Eguchi stages the bombing plot to silence her secretary, Matsuo, who knows about her bribery. She pretends to be the target, directs suspicion toward a land-development opponent and hopes to turn public sympathy into a path to national politics. Conan saves the child endangered by the second bomb, and Matsuo survives; the case ends without a death.
The J.League Starting Whistle is international episode 1267 (Japanese episode 1207), an anime-original collaboration with the J.League. The opening match at the National Stadium becomes a mystery in which football footage, the referee’s whistle and Conan’s own kick all have essential roles.
A season opener turns into a bombing investigation
Conan, the Detective Boys, Ai Haibara and Professor Agasa attend Tokyo Spirits versus Big Osaka. The children are excited, but Haibara is disappointed that her favorite player, Ryusuke Higo, is absent. Sanada’s play and a video assistant referee review draw attention to the pitch.
At the same time, the mayor’s secretary receives a call. A whistle sounds through the phone, and an explosion occurs near Eguchi’s car. Matsuo is left unconscious and critically injured. A sound entirely normal at a football ground has become part of an attack in its parking area.
Eguchi says that she is being targeted. Kogoro, Inspector Megure and Takagi move her to a meeting room and arrange protection. A further bomb warning and a slashed football make it seem that the attack on the mayor is continuing. The person who was actually injured begins to recede behind the supposed danger to her.
A yellow cap points the search in the wrong direction
Iwashimizu, an opponent of the land development, becomes the leading suspect. His yellow cap offers an easy way to pick him out, and the slashed ball appears to reinforce a story of hostility toward Eguchi. Conan’s group uses footage associated with the VAR coverage to track him through the stadium.
The technology first used to examine Sanada’s play now serves a different purpose: locating a person in a crowded venue. Yet a visible suspect and a plausible grievance do not establish who arranged the explosions. Conan begins to question whether the investigation is being guided toward the answer Eguchi wants.
The doll and the contact lens expose two different gaps
Eguchi normally keeps a Nanako doll hanging from her car’s rear-view mirror. Before the explosion, however, she has removed it and put it in her bag. Saving that particular possession raises a question about advance knowledge of the blast. It is a clue to preparation, not a complete explanation by itself.
A second inconsistency concerns her supposed constant protection. Eguchi claims to have dropped a contact lens and has Kogoro search the ground. While his attention is occupied, she has an opportunity to reach beneath a vehicle and place the second bomb. The missing lens is a pretext for creating that brief gap in observation.
The two clues answer different questions. The doll suggests that she expected the first explosion; the contact-lens episode explains how she could act even while someone was guarding her. Neither a protective escort nor her performance as a frightened victim removes the need to account for those actions.
The whistle creates a deadline inside the match
The investigation establishes a two-stage trigger in the story’s bombs. Each becomes active at a preset time and then responds to two sound frequencies, 4.15 kHz and 3.67 kHz, contained in the referee’s whistle. The first attack uses a whistle transmitted through Matsuo’s phone; the next is tied to the whistle ending the match.
The second bomb is beneath the FC BEIKA Junior vehicle. The crowd’s anticipation of the final whistle therefore has a very different meaning for the investigators. As the match approaches its finish, a routine sporting signal becomes the approaching deadline for a rescue.
Kaoru has gone back to that vehicle. The child’s snacks and an ice cream dropped in the parking area help trace the movements that have brought Kaoru close to the bomb. Kaoru is endangered by returning to the vehicle, rather than being selected as Eguchi’s personal target.
Conan makes the rescue his immediate priority. He reaches the vehicle, gets Kaoru away from danger and removes the bomb. With the final whistle approaching, he uses the Power-Enhancing Kick Shoes to send it high into the air. It explodes there when the whistle sounds, without causing new injuries on the ground.
The climax joins the case’s football elements in one action. Conan cannot simply leave the device where he found it; his kick changes where the imminent explosion occurs. The sport that has supplied the setting, the investigative footage and the threat also supplies his way of saving people.
Matsuo’s survival destroys the mayor’s performance
After the immediate danger has passed, news arrives that Matsuo has regained consciousness. Eguchi reacts with alarm, stamps on the Nanako doll and tries to flee. Kogoro restrains her, and police take her away. The secretary’s survival is the development she fears.
Her reaction completes the pattern. The doll points toward advance knowledge, the contact-lens distraction supplies the opportunity to plant the second device, and her panic over Matsuo’s recovery points toward a desire to silence him. Taken together, these observations undermine the account of an uninvolved mayor needing protection.
Eguchi has accepted large bribes connected to land transactions. Matsuo knows about the payments, so his ability to speak threatens her office and her ambition to enter national politics. Killing him would remove that threat; framing Iwashimizu would provide an apparent culprit whose opposition to development already looks useful to her.
She also intends to benefit from being seen as the mayor who survived an attack. The plan combines concealment, blame and political promotion. That calculation makes the danger to the children particularly ugly: her public image of supporting the community is part of the same performance that helps place them at risk.
Returning football guests give the collaboration continuity
The episode forms part of the television anime’s thirtieth-anniversary celebration. Its match and mystery continue a run of football collaborations: it follows the previous J.League television collaboration by three years, and is the fourth television tie-in, or the fifth when the film is included. J.League cooperation on location research and story supervision helps make the stadium more than decorative scenery.
Sanada returns after Promise with a J-Leaguer, international episode 795 (Japanese episode 742), and Behind the Scenes of the J League Finals, international episode 1141 (Japanese episode 1083). His play is central to the match sequence and its use of VAR. Yuka Kageyama also returns as herself after the latter episode.
Together with The Eleventh Striker, those earlier stories form a football strand within Detective Conan. The returning guests and Haibara’s enthusiasm provide continuity here; this case does not add a Black Organization or Akai family revelation. Nor does a returning guest alone confirm another future appearance.
Haibara’s smile brings the story back to ordinary life
The beginning lets the audience enjoy the scale of the opening match before the violence interrupts it. VAR and the whistle first belong to that excitement, then become evidence and a threat. Watching the same details change meaning makes the stadium feel integral to the mystery.
The ending remains bitter because Eguchi has tried to protect corruption by killing a colleague and endangering others. Matsuo’s survival and Kaoru’s rescue prevent that plan from becoming fatal, while Haibara supplies a gentler final reversal: hearing that Higo will return for the next match restores her smile.
Her delight answers the disappointment with which she arrived. It is an affectionate continuation of her established fandom, rather than confirmation of a new relationship with Higo. After the fear attached to the final whistle, the prospect of another match can feel ordinary and enjoyable again.
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