Rum Arc & Anokata's Identity

The hunt for Rum, the Organization's second-in-command, culminates in the eventual revelation of Anokata — the Organization's leader whose identity Aoyama had withheld since the series' first chapter — and reframes the entire long-running plot around its closing movement.

The Rum arc is the structural movement Aoyama has been preparing for since the early Black Organization material in volume 9. Rum, the Organization's second-in-command and the figure whose identity has been one of the series' most carefully maintained mysteries, is revealed across a long sequence of arcs in the post-volume-90 serialization. The hunt converges on three Organization-connected figures — Hyoue Kuroda, Wakita Rikumichi, and Kanenori Wakita — each of whom Aoyama develops as a plausible Rum candidate before revealing the actual identity in the late-volume material. The Rum revelation sets up the eventual identification of Anokata, the Organization's ultimate leader, which Aoyama confirmed in the post-volume-95 arcs. The revelation reframes the entire series' Organization plot in retroactive light: figures who have appeared throughout the series in apparently mundane contexts are revealed as having been positioned by Anokata for decades of serialization. The arc has been compared to the close of long-running mystery serializations such as Naoki Urasawa's [Monster](/manga-series/monster) for the structural elegance of its long-deferred reveal. The post-Anokata arcs continue the closing movement of the Organization plot. Aoyama has indicated in interviews that the series will eventually reach a definitive conclusion — Shinichi will return to his original body, the Organization will be defeated, and the long-deferred Shinichi-Ran relationship will be resolved — but the manga remains ongoing in 2026 and the closing arcs have not yet been depicted in the serialization.