Kazumi Tsukumo (Yoshiko Sakakibara) is the villainess of "The Weather Girl Kidnapping Case", episode 5.17 of Case Closed (airdate November 9, 1998). She was a newscaster at Studio 8 News, but prior to the episode, she was replaced by new employee Aki Asano, causing animosity between the two women.
Furious at Aki for taking her position, Kazumi began sending her anonymous death threats before luring her to the news station's prop room under the pretense of giving her a news lead. Once she arrived, the evil Kazumi drugged Aki with ether and left her bound and gagged in the prop room, allowing everyone to believe that Aki had run away out of fear of the death threats. Kazumi's ultimate goal was to destroy Aki's reputation and have her fired from the news station.
But Conan Edogawa and his friends, having talked with Aki earlier that day and learned of the death threats she was receiving, were able to communicate with the bound Aki, who was using her cell phone to send coded messages to Conan's pager. Ultimately, her messages led Conan and the others to find where she was being held, and her last message to Conan revealed the identity of her kidnapper. Conan and his friends confronted Kazumi (who had donned a black mask) as they entered the prop room and found her standing over the incapacitated Aki, with Genta Kojima and Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya tackling Kazumi when she tried to flee.
After being revealed as the kidnapper and unmasked by Conan, Kazumi shoved Genta annd Mitsuhiko and confessed to her villainous deeds, expressing her hatred of Aki for (in her mind) stealing her job and of her news station for replacing her with someone "younger and prettier". She also proclaimed that she didn't deserve to be replaced after all the work she'd done to make the news channel as successful as it was, to which Conan reminded her that she could've instead worked harder to maintain her position and that her villainous acts would more than likely result in her career ending. Kazumi was presumably arrested offscreen for kidnapping Aki.
Trivia[]
- In the English dub, Kazumi's name is translated as Katie Banwell and she is voiced by Monica Rial. Kazumi is also notable as currently being the last Case Closed villainess to receive an English dubbed name from Funimation Entertainment.
- Monica Rial (Kazumi's English dub actress) also voiced Case Closed villainesses Ryoko and Chikako Ikeda.
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