Did Detective Conan instill a desire to play soccer, no matter how temporary, in anyone else when they first saw it, or was that just a quirk that 11 year old me picked up while watching? No, literally, I remember that in middle school I would get excited whenever it was my class’s turn to do the soccer unit in PE, because then I had the chance to be like Conan. Now, of course, I wasn’t the greatest at soccer, but the excitement I felt was real.
Why bring this up in relation with this episode? I’ll provide the info and let you figure out exactly why my brain chose to make the connection.
EPISODE 10: The Blackmailed Pro Soccer Player
Anime Original or Manga Sourced?: Manga sourced, Chapters 68 through 71
Is this my first time experiencing this story?: No
Oh yeah, we’re at Episode 10 for Sara Watches Detective Conan now! Yay! Still a small drop in the bucket compared to how many episodes are in Detective Conan (and that’s even excluding the movies and TV specials that I currently have access to, as well as the TV specials and OVAs that have yet to be licensed in America), but hitting the double digits for episode numbers is still an accomplishment! Now, yes, this is for a series that I already know I love due to originally watching it in middle school, but I still think this is a major accomplishment!
This is also the first episode since Episode 7 where I’ve actually done a rewatch of this case prior to working on this post, as Episode 10 was included in the second episode selection that was released on Crunchyroll and Netflix alongside Studio Nano’s English dub of those episodes. This is also one of the few episodes that I watched in that English dub. The other episodes that I watched in that English dub that I’ve already covered were Episodes 1-5 and Episode 7. However, as I’m utilizing the main Detective Conan page on Crunchyroll for Sara Watches Detective Conan, my review will be based on the original Japanese audio with the English subtitles provided.
The episode begins with Conan, Genta, Mitsuhiko, and Ayumi having a discussion about an upcoming soccer match and which of the teams they believe is better. I’ll be honest, due to the knowledge I have now, whenever the name “Hideo” was brought up, instead of remembering “oh yeah, that’s his real name!”, my brain went “why are they misspeaking and mistyping this guy’s name?”, though I looked it up and it was just that I forgot that the name I remember is a nickname for Hideo, one of the members of the Tokyo Spirits, a soccer team within the universe of Detective Conan. Go ahead, put the dunce hat on me.
Also, yes, I’m not including his last name here on purpose. Trust me, it’ll make sense later.
The group eventually parts ways, and Conan returns to the detective agency, where he sees a girl standing outside and hesitating about going inside. Conan speaks to her and does end up talking to her in a way to get her inside, we find out why she was seeking help. As it turns out, she’s looking for Shinichi…because they were seeing each other?!
Now, there’s only one issue: Conan (aka Shinichi) has never met this girl until now. So right away, we know that the reasoning behind her visit is false. There is chaos that ensues because of this, and during it, the phone rings. Conan points it out, but because Ran and Kogoro are still too focused on the fact that Shinichi was supposedly seeing someone. So, with no other choice, Conan himself picks up the phone.
And the phone call is from Agasa. He’s tries to let Conan know about the battery of a new gadget, but Conan decides to play it off as Shinichi calling to pass along the message that Shinichi would call Ryoko Akagi — the girl asking for help — later. But ah, that gadget–no, no, gotta hold it in and wait until later to talk about it. I cannot spoil that gadget yet.
Anyway, Ran decides that they should head to Ryoko’s place, even using her karate into intimidating Ryoko to allow it. Kogoro turns it down, and while Conan tries to pass as well, Ran manages to get him to not pass via her look of anger.
As a result, the two girls and the teenage detective stuck in a child’s body find themselves arriving where Ryoko lives, with Conan picking up on details that seem out of place. It also seems that Ryoko herself doesn’t know the layout of where she claims that she lives.
Things also get suspicious when Ryoko ignores Ran when Ran tries to strike up a conversation with her, though Conan’s more focused on investigating the place. He finds a room that definitely looks ransacked. No, literally, I want you guys to look at this.
Conan spends some time analyzing the room, though at this point he only narrowed down the identity of who this room belongs to, as well as seeing a picture of the person the room belongs to and another person. And when we’re back with Ran and Ryoko, we can see that they’re busy watching a soccer game, where it seems Hideo Akagi is struggling to do a good game.
However, after Conan looks at the game and notices both the oddity of a player doing poorly when they weren’t in prior games and that he feels like he’s seen the person before, after he makes the connection that Ryoko doesn’t live here, he makes the connection that the older person in the photo is Hideo.
With the pieces in place, however, Conan realizes exactly why Hideo isn’t on his a-game during this game. Sneaking off into the bathroom, we get the debut of a gadget so good, it was only used in this episode (in regards to the main series) and only has the chance to show up again if Conan’s pre-movie speech needs to bring up Agasa’s gadgets. Referred to on the Detective Conan World Wiki (whose page for this sucks in my opinion) as the Portable Bento Box Fax, and referred to in the subtitles on Crunchyroll as the Mobile Boxed Lunch Fax Machine, I’d like to introduce you all to what I affectionately call…
THE BENTO BOX FAX MACHINE! 😀
Look, for the content I’ll be covering in my writeups for the main series, it only appears in this episode, I can call it whatever I want. It is genius. You take a fax machine and shove it in a bento box. While the portion that the fax machine interface is hidden in is fake, it appears that the rest of the food is real.
This delicious fax machine also has the ability to make calls, which is what Conan uses (in combination with the Voice Changing Bow Tie to replicate Shinichi’s voice) to share what he’s figured out: that Hideo is getting blackmailed into playing the game poorly. Conan also gets Ryoko to fax the details to him, alongside a note that was found at the scene.
Ryoko does end up crying because of the understanding, much to Ran’s annoyance, causing her to grab the phone. When she realizes she could hear her own voice layered, and even tests it, she puts the pieces together to come to the truth: Shinichi is somewhere in here, causing her to get suspicious and start looking for him.
While Conan is about to come out of the bathroom, hearing her looking for him forces him back into the bathroom to hide. Thankfully, she doesn’t catch him yet, so Conan’s still able to sneak back out just in time to see Hideo try and throw another kick only for one of his teammates to recover it and score, much to Hideo’s terror. And as it turns out, the person who has Hideo’s younger brother isn’t happy about that score.
Conan goes back to investigate the room and finds a game. As it turns out, this game ends up being an important clue for both the motive and who ended up taking Hideo’s younger brother. Conan tries to relay this information over the phone as Shinichi, but unfortunately Ran manages to figure out exactly where he’s hiding and demands an explanation.
So, Conan pulls the only move he can. He has Ryoko get Ran to take the receiver from her, claiming that he wants to share a message that he only wants Ran to hear. As Ran waits for the message…
…Shinichi hangs up. Okay, I know this was literally just retelling a joke, but I found it too funny to not point out here. And as it turns out, that hang-up was a cover for Conan to skedaddle and fall, stating that he saw Shinichi run off. Ran has Ryoko lead her to the suspect’s place.
All three of them head there, and once inside, not only do we see Hideo’s younger brother completely unhurt, we learn that while the suspect is currently holding a grudge against Hideo but holds no ill will against the kid.
Hideo also gets informed that his brother is safe, and his game picks up from there. Ran, however, still isn’t satisfied, and keeps up her search for Shinichi, even dialing him due to receiving the number for the Bento Box Fax Machine. Due to Conan being unable to make a run for it in time, however, Ran hears the receiver ringing in his bag, meaning Conan really has to run for it.
While he gets away, he can’t get the receiver out, though it stops ringing on its own. While Ran catches up, Agasa also arrives, and Conan decides to use the Shinichi voice one last time in the episode to deliver a message to Ran, though I’ll leave that exact message for you to find out when watching the episode.
As the post-credits scene reveals, the police didn’t get involved and it took time for all parties to accept everything.
Something I will note is that while I watched this episode on Crunchyroll, there was no episode preview attached. It seems this video mastering is the same as (or at least similar to) the one used in the episode selection, as that one didn’t have an episode preview either. But because I literally have a thing on the side telling me what the next episode is on Crunchyroll, I can tell you two things about the next case.
- This is a very important case for Shinichi’s development.
- It’s the first ever extended episode in the series!
To clarify the distance for that last bullet point:
- Standard Episode: An episode that is ~23 to 24 minutes long without ads.
- Extended Episode: Any episode that takes up multiple standard episode slots. Can be broken down further to double-length episode, triple-length episode, quadruple-length episode, and quintuple-length episode.
So not only is the next case the first extended episode, it’s also the first double-length episode! I’ll talk more about it then!
Previous Post: Episode 9
Next Post: Episode 11 (Unless a double-length episode requires additional writing time on my part, this post will go live on September 23rd, 2026 at 12 PM [PDT])
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