History Recap / TheKindaichiCaseFilesOperaHouseTheThirdMurder

** The architect who built the opera house hotel lived long before any of the participants in the present-day murder case even existed, so no one doubts he has since deceased in the present time. While his structures have contributed to the murder cases that are related to the structures he built, there's no trace of his body being discovered anywhere within, including the labyrinthine secret passageway. As the result, Kindaichi chalks the builder's final fate up to AmbiguousSituation, believing that he eventually left the island in secret to live out the rest of his life elsewhere.

* BreakingOldTrends: In the previous two Opera House murders, the culprits were likened to Eric, the titular Phantom of the Opera, having been driven to murder by the loss of their respective 'Christines'. [[spoiler:This time around, the culprit is likened to ''Christine'', having committed the murders to avenge the death of Eiji, who is the one in this case likened to the Phantom - right down to letting the culprit go so she could pursue her dreams.]] Also, unlike the previous two serial murders in Uta Island, no one gets hanged in this case.

* DeceasedFallGuyGambit: The culprit confesses to have overheard the troupe members mocking Eiji for his [[ScarsAreForever face burns]] and saying he had started the fire in the training camp shortly after reading the contents of [[ApocalypticLog the notebook Eiji wrote in his final moments and left behind]], after which the script of the serial murder plot was written in the culprit's mind.

* BreakingOldTrends: In the previous two Opera House murders, the culprits were likened to Eric, the titular Phantom of the Opera, having been driven to murder by the loss of their respective 'Christines'. [[spoiler:This time around, the culprit is likened to ''Christine'', having committed the murders to avenge the death of Eiji, who is the one in this case likened to the Phantom - right down to letting the culprit go so she could pursue her dreams.]]

** Director Kurosawa overlaps this trope with BusCrash, as his disappearance and presumed death happened after the second opera house murder case, at which time he was still alive and well. The scheduled performance of ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' was intended to be the final tribute to him before it got derailed into a serial murder case.[[labelnote:*]]The ''Mini-Vacation'' spinoff that has Amagi and Sato credited for story suggests he had faked his death to run away from creditors, but since this is a gag manga spinoff its canonicity is dubious at best.[[/labelnote]]

** Director Kurosawa overlaps this trope with BusCrash, as his disappearance and presumed death happened after the second opera house murder case, at which time he was still alive and well. The scheduled performance of ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'' was intended to be the final tribute to him before it got derailed into a serial murder case.

* BreakingOldTrends: In the previous two Opera House murders, the culprits were likened to Eric, the titular Phantom of the Opera, having been driven to murder by the loss of their respective 'Christines'. [[spoiler:This time around, the culprit is likened to *Christine*, having committed the murders to avenge the death of Eiji, who is the one in this case likened to the Phantom - right down to letting the culprit go so she could pursue her dreams.]]

* ManOnFire: As revealed in the culprit's own confession, the culprit saw a dying fellow aspiring actor being thoroughly immolated before collapsing while they were trapped in the fire engulfing the actors' training camp building, which served to illustrate to how badly the fire had spread by that point.

* TheHermit: As the mystery story reporter, whose grandfather was the previous owner of the opera house hotel discloses, the man who built the hotel and sold it to the reporter's grandfather later on was very reclusive and always wore a mask over his face. It turns out he also built an underground passageway leading to a hidden room below the theater where he could observe the people above without being noticed.

* FallingChandelierOfDoom: The culprit kills the first target by manipulating the wiring that holds the chandelier weighing 200 km[[note]](about 450 lbs)[[/note]] in the theater to make it fall onto the victim while said victim is on the stage.

* GracefulLoser: The mystery story reporter concedes defeat to Kindaichi regarding their investigative deduction as the case arc is ending, understandably disgruntled though he is, especially since the culprit had designated him as an UnwittingPawn to help plant the illusion of an outsider being possibly the killer.

* DeathByLookingUp: [[ZigzaggedTrope Zigzagged]]. The first victim looks up to the ceiling inside the theater in a rehearsal for ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera'', just in time to see the FallingChandelierOfDoom coming down to kill on impact. When Kindaichi demonstrates the trick for said FallingChandelierOfDoom during SummationGathering, he has the mystery story reporter stand where the first victim stood, and the reporter looks up to find... the phantom's mask falling into his hands.

* PeekABangs: The current owner of the opera house hotel has hair covering her right eye.

* StalkerWithACrush: After two troupe members have fallen victim to murder, an actor who used to belong in the same troupe but has since left discloses to Kindaichi when he inquires that Eiji showing up as an audience member in every stage performance the culprit would star in, always donning a masked disguise, much the same way the Phantom follows Christine in her performances in ''Theatre/ThePhantomOfTheOpera''. Then this gets played with near the end when the culprit confesses to have always sent a ticket to each and every theatrical performance the culprit would star in in the hope that Eiji would show up to watch the show, which he always did.

* AccidentalMurder: [[ZigzaggedTrope Zigzagged]]. As Eiji detailed in [[ApocalypticLog the notebook he left behind]], the troupe members were the ones who started the fire at the training camp due to playing with fireworks indoors while drunk that resulted in a fire that raged out of control and claimed three lives and would have killed the culprit as well had Eiji not gone back inside the burning building to look for survivors. While those deaths were accidental, the troupe members begged and pleaded with Eiji to keep quiet about the truth behind the fire, [[MovingTheGoalposts inquiring him to wait until one more performance was done for them to confess each time he brought it up]], until they eventually resorted to tricking Eiji into [[TamperingWithFoodAndDrink drinking something that was laced with sleeping drug]] before abandoning him in a thick forest at Mt. Fuji with no way to contact anyone else, intending to [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident leave him to die in the forest to pass his death off as suicide in case anyone found him]].

* HeKnowsTooMuch: Implied. Based on the contents in [[ApocalypticLog Eiji's notebook]], they resorted to tricking him into [[TamperingWithFoodAndDrink drinking something that was laced with sleeping drug]] before leaving him to die alone in a thick forest after he insisted that they confessed to the truth about the fire they started before he would agree to their request of leaving the culprit so that they could ride on the culprit's success.

** The architect who built the opera house hotel lived long before any of the participants in the present-day murder case even existed, so no one doubts he has since deceased in the present time. While his structures have contributed to the murder cases that are related to the structures he built, there's no trace of his body being discovered anywhere within, including the labyrinthine secret passageway. As the result, Kindaichi chalks the builder's final fate to AmbiguousSituation, believing that he eventually left the island in secret to live out the rest of his life elsewhere.

** The architect who built the opera house hotel lived long before any of the participants in the present-day murder case even existed, so no one doubts he has since deceased in the present time. While his structures have contributed to the murder cases that are related to the structures he built, there's no trace of his body being discovered anywhere within, including the secret passageway.

* BigShutUp: After the first victim dies from FallingChandelierOfDoom and a member of the troupe's subsequent FaintInShock, two other members of the troupe argue against each other, with one of them snapping at Kenmochi when he tries to speak, which results in Kenmochi bellowing to keep the criminal investigation started.

* LukeIAmYourFather: Eiji was actually the son of both director and the proprietress of the opera house hotel back when they were together, though the proprietress never revealed it until near the end of the case arc, long after Eiji had already passed away.

* TheLostLenore: Eiji was the culprit's beloved, and the discovery of the truth behind the fire that gave him his [[CareerEndingInjury career-ending]] [[[[ScarsAreForever scars]] and his subsequent disappearance and presumed death, both of which were the troupe members' doing (accidentally in the former and deliberately in the latter) is a major factor in the culprit resorting to murder.