Shinichi Kudo
| Shinichi Kudo | |
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| Japanese name: | 工藤 新一 (Kudou Shin'ichi) |
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| English name: | Jimmy Kudo |
| Age: | 16-17, 6-7 as Conan |
| Gender: | Male |
| Date of birth: | May 4th |
| Relatives: | Yusaku Kudo (father) Yukiko Kudo (mother) |
| Nicknames: | Detective Geek Detective of the East The savior of the police force Cool Guy (Jodie Starling) Silver Bullet (Vermouth) The Heisei Holmes |
| First appearance: | Manga: Chapter 1 Anime: Episode 1 |
| Appearances: | TV: 570+ Movies: 14 Specials: 12 Openings: 28 |
| Cases solved: | 583 (One episode solved by Ran) |
| Keyhole number: | Volume 1 |
| Japanese voice: | Kappei Yamaguchi Minami Takayama (young) |
| English voice: | Jerry Jewell |
| Drama actor: | Shun Oguri |
Shinichi Kudo (工藤 新一 Kudou Shin'ichi) is the protagonist of the manga and anime. Viz romanized his original name as Shin'ichi Kudo while Shogakukan's website romanizes it as Shinichi Kudoh. Shinichi Kudo was a well known High School Detective who helped solve cases which the police could not. One day, he investigates a suspicious man. Later he is attacked and forced to swallow a poison called APTX 4869 which turns him back into a child. Now he lives with his childhood friend Ran Mouri and helps her father Kogoro Mouri solve cases hoping that they will run into a case involving those strange men, part of the Black Organization, who forced him to drink the poison. He takes on the alias Conan Edogawa to keep his real identity secret from everyone (besides a select few) to protect his loved ones, particularly Ran.
Contents
Background
At the beginning of the series, Shinichi brings his friend Ran to a local theme park called "Tropical Land", to celebrate her victory in the Metropolitan Karate Championships. He later ends up solving a murder case there.[1] As they are leaving, Shinichi witnesses a suspicious exchange between an unknown man and Vodka in a secluded area just outside the park. He leaves Ran and investigates but does not notice Gin, Vodka's partner, who knocks him out and forces him to swallow a new experimental poison known as APTX 4869. They then leave him to die. However, instead of killing Shinichi, a rare side-effect occurred. It shrinks his body so it appears to be that of his six year-old self.[2] In desperation and confusion, Shinichi heads back to his house and runs into his next door neighbor and close family friend, Dr. Hiroshi Agasa who warns him he must keep his identity as the Black Organization will endanger his life and others associated with him.[3]
Conan Edogawa
Shinichi comes up with the alias Conan Edogawa after Arthur Conan Doyle and Edogawa Rampo and pretends to be a distant relative of Agasa's who places Conan in Ran's care.[3] Ran's father Kogoro Mouri, owns a Detective Agency which may allow him to run into a case involving the Black Organization. He is signed up at Teitan Elementary to further protect his identity and makes friends with some of the kids and forms the Detective Boys.[4]
Personality
At the beginning of the series, Shinichi is a 16-year old[5][6] student at Teitan High School. He is already well-known as a brilliant young detective who has solved many difficult cases that the professionals could not and, therefore, is known as the "Savior of the police force".[1] Shinichi was born to Yusaku Kudo, a mystery writer and Yukiko Kudo a former movie star.[7] He is extremely intelligent, and even from a young age, was very intuitive and observant. Due to the influence of his father, and the general laissez-faire environment at home, he has long been an incessant and persistent reader, especially of mystery novels.[8] Yusaku started taking Shinichi to crime scenes since sixth grade which inspired him to be a Detective.[9] Besides his intelligence, Shinichi is an extremely skilled soccer player. At first, it was to hone his reflexes but he grew fond of the sport.[1] Shinichi is also known for his inability to sing, but was revealed to have perfect pitch. [10][11] He is also a skilled violinist, taking after his idol Sherlock Holmes. He is skilled in English, as he once conversed with and translated for an American diplomat, and later solved a case in London without evidence of any language barrier.[12][13]
Shinichi is a good friend to Ran Mouri whom he has known since kindergarten.[8][14] Shinichi has not found any interest in other girls.[15] After changing into Conan, Shinichi sometimes calls her over the telephone and imitates his normal voice with the voice-changing bowtie, so that she is not worried about him.[16] He convinces her that he is off solving a very difficult case and will return once the investigation concludes.[17] Shinichi/Conan is not without sexual fantasies regarding Ran; the most obvious example being his getting nosebleeds or blushing when he sees her in a bathing suit, or when Ran pulled him into an onsen with her.[18]
Relationships analysis
Since Shinichi is not featured as prominently as Conan throughout the series, only a few of his relationships with other characters have been substantially explored.
Ran Mouri
Ran Mouri is Shinichi's childhood friend and canonical love interest. They have known each other since as early as kindergarten[8] and had been playmates since then, which caused some censure from Eri Kisaki.They are very close together, and have even been together as long as the time of children all the way to young adults. They have some what of a love/hate relationship in the beginning, but when she first met Conan (Shinichi's transformed identity), she told him that she was in love with him for some time, which caused Shinichi/Conan to blush furiously. They are living together with her dad and he helps solves crimes with her father (without her noticing), making him appear as a great detective for most of the cases that Shinichi has solved himself.
Conan has shared a great deal of affection to Ran since him being Conan including hugging, holding hands, and at even one time they slept in the same bed and even took a bath together (which caused him to get a nosebleed). Shinichi has confessed his love to Ran in the 4th movie non-canon 'Captured In Her Eyes' (which Ran mistook as his attempt to get her memories back). At one time he tried to confess his love properly (some viewers say to even propose) to Ran, but was interrupted by a case that got held there. Also, when Shinichi went missing, Ran was worried sick and she was afraid that something bad had happened to him and almost went to the police. It is also shown that she couldn't even sleep because she missed him all to much. Shinichi would often use his bow tie to mimic his real voice and called her, telling her that every thing's alright and he's getting a difficult case done. Throughout the series, they have a romantic relationship that started as childhood friends but develop into true love.[19]
Ai Haibara
Ai Haibara is the third girl that seems to have somewhat romantic feelings for Conan/Shinichi, although she never truly admits it. Indeed, it is a mystery just exactly what she feels for him, whether friendship or otherwise. Some people, such as Conan's mother and Gin, have stated that she has feelings for Conan. It could be said that, because of their almost equal level of intelligence as well as similarities in their pasts (i.e. they're both victims of the APTX 4869), she finds it easier to talk to him.
His parents
Yusaku and Yukiko Kudo are both aware that Conan is in fact Shinichi. His parents are even more famous than he is, with Yusaku being a famous mystery novelist and Yukiko being a retired actress. They currently live in the United States and travel extensively, having left Shinichi in Japan on his own when he was fourteen. Though he sometimes finds his parents' carefree ways to be annoying, he loves them dearly. Yusaku is also a detective with the same keen eye for details, and similarly to Holmes' brother Mycroft, Yusaku always seems to solve a case one step ahead of his son.
Professor Agasa
Although not related by blood, there's a strong family-like bond between Shinichi and Hiroshi Agasa. Dr Agasa was the first to know about Shinichi's real identity and was the one to tell him to keep it a secret. Most of the gadgets that shinichi has where made by Dr Agasa to help him catch the criminals and solve the cases. Dr Agasa also knows about Shinichi's romantic Relationship with Ran and sometimes teases him about it in front of her (When he can't do anything about it since he is conan).
Heiji Hattori
Heiji is often referred to as Shinichi's detective rival from the West. Even though Heiji discovers Shinichi's secret, he decides to keep quiet (though sometimes he slips up and calls him Kudo in front of others). After Heiji realizes the truth they become close friends with a common interest in solving mysteries. They have solved many cases together, and Heiji is the person Shinichi turns to for advice or for confirmation regarding a deduction.
Toichi Kuroba
Despite the fact Toichi and Shinichi only met once prior to Toichi's death, it's worth mentioning Toichi referred to Shinichi as his "older brother" and himself as the "younger brother". This is because of Yusaku, Shinichi's father, being the father of the name of Kaitou Kid, Toichi's secret identity.
People who know Conan's real identity
There are only a few characters in the series who know Conan's real identity and none have betrayed Conan's identity to date. The main characters to know the secret are Hiroshi Agasa, Conan's parents, Heiji Hattori and Ai Haibara. Sharon Vineyard also knows, but for unknown reasons she has kept it a secret from the rest of the Organization. Eisuke Hondou, the younger brother of C.I.A. agent Hidemi Hondou, also knows and keeps Conan's secret. Kaitou Kid also knows Conan's identity in the movies, though it is not clear whether he knows Conan's secret in the actual anime and manga. However, Kid seems to know there is something unusual about Conan, as whenever he tries to publicly steal he usually reveals that he only wants to compete with Conan as thief and detective.
Name origin
In Japanese etymology, the name Shinichi means "one truth", which Shinichi occasionally uses as a motto.[20]
See also
References
- ^ a b c Episode 1: Roller Coaster Murder Case.
- ^ Aoyama, Gosho (1994-07-15). "File 2" (in Japanese). Detective Conan. 1. Tokyo: Shogakukan. p. 59. ISBN 978-4091233714.
- ^ a b Episode 2: Company President's Daughter Kidnapping Case.
- ^ Episode 4: The Coded Map of the City Case
- ^ Aoyama, Gosho (1994-07-15). "File 2" (in Japanese). Detective Conan. 1. Tokyo: Shogakukan. p. 59. ISBN 978-4091233714.
- ^ Aoyama, Gosho (1997-07-15). "File 1" (in Japanese). Detective Conan. 5. Tokyo: Shogakukan. p. 12. ISBN 978-4091250452.
- ^ Aoyama, Gosho (2005-05-05). "File 10" (in English). Case Closed. 5. San Francisco: Viz Media. p. 163. ISBN 1-59116-633-0.
- ^ a b c Files 5-8, Detective Conan volume 55
- ^ Aoyama, Gosho (2008-01-15). "File 5" (in English). Case Closed. 21. San Francisco: Viz Media. pp. 74, 78. ISBN 1-4215-1456-7.
- ^ Aoyama, Gosho (2007-01-16). "File 4" (in English). Case Closed. 15. San Francisco: Viz Media. ISBN 1-4215-0445-6.
- ^ Aoyama, Gosho (2005-09-08). "File 5" (in English). Case Closed. 1. San Francisco: Viz Media. ISBN 1-59116-978-X.
- ^ Aoyama, Gosho (2008-01-15). "File 5" (in English). Case Closed. 21. San Francisco: Viz Media. ISBN 1-4215-1456-7.
- ^ Files 743-752, Detective Conan.
- ^ Aoyama, Gosho (2006-05-16). "File 7" (in English). Case Closed. 11. San Francisco: Viz Media. ISBN 1-4215-0441-4.
- ^ Chapter 5, Detective Conan volume 26.
- ^ Aoyama, Gosho (2004-09-07). "File 10" (in English). Case Closed. 1. San Francisco: Viz Media. pp. 180–182. ISBN 1-59116-327-7.
- ^ Aoyama, Gosho (2004-09-07). "File 10" (in English). Case Closed. 1. San Francisco: Viz Media. pp. 180–182. ISBN 1-59116-327-7.
- ^ Aoyama, Gosho (2006-01-10). "File 4" (in English). Case Closed. 9. San Francisco: Viz Media. ISBN 1-4215-0166-X.
- ^ Aoyama, Gosho (2006-05-16). "File 7" (in English). Case Closed. 11. San Francisco: Viz Media. ISBN 1-4215-0441-4.
- ^ Aoyama, Gosho (1996-18-01). "File 3" (in English). Case Closed. 10. San Francisco: Viz Media. ISBN 1-4215-0316-6.
