The fifth and final murder mystery ad starring the all-female idol group AKB48 in a campaign to promote Ezaki Glico's Ice no Mi candy aired on Wednesday, revealing the culprit behind the murder mystery story in a 4-minute video. Detective Conan (Case Closed) manga creator Gosho Aoyama wrote the story based on an original plan by Yasushi Akimoto (6 Angels, Oh! My Konbu).





















In the story, AKB48 members discover the body of fellow idol Rena Katō. Atsuko Maeda appears as a detective and volunteers to handle the case. Katō leaves the cryptic messages "N" and "23K.24AB," and all 89 current members of the idol group become suspects. A nine-chapter manga illustrated by Masaki Gotō debuted in Shogakukan's Weekly Shonen Sunday on July 4. Atsuko had her final performance as a member of the group in August after earlier announcing that she would be "graduating" from the group.

The virtual AKB48 "member" Aimi Eguchi already appeared in an Ice no Mi commercial last year.

[Via Mainichi Shimbun's Mantan Web]