Shinichi Kudo | |
Profile | |
English name: | Jimmy Kudo |
---|---|
Age: | 17 (6-7 as Conan) |
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 (Vermouth) The Heisei Holmes |
Physical | |
Gender: | Male |
Hair color: | Dark brown |
Eye color: | Blue |
Statistics | |
First appearance: | Manga: Chapter 1
Anime: Episode 1 |
Appearances: |
TV: 533+ Movies: 18 Specials: 12 Openings: 27 |
Cases solved: | 558+ (Most done as Conan) |
Keyhole number: | Volume 1 |
Actors | |
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 Detective Conan. Viz romanized his original name as Shin'ichi Kudo while Shogakukan's website romanizes it as Shinichi Kudoh. Shinichi was a highly regarded high school age detective who had the skills to solve even the toughest of cases and outwit even professionals. The story begins with him taking his childhood friend Ran Mouri to Tropical Land, where after many events transpire, he is forced to swallow an experimental poison entitled APTX 4869 by Gin. After losing consciousness, he awakes to find that his body had been reverted back to that of his child self, but his mind remained the same. His close family-friend Hiroshi Agasa warns Shinichi not to tell anyone what happened and enact a fake identity to protect everyone around him. Thus he does, becoming Conan Edogawa until one day they can find a permanent antidote.
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. As they are leaving, he 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 or seven year-old self. 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.
Conan Edogawa
Shinichi comes up with the alias Conan Edogawa after Arthur Conan Doyle and Edogawa Ranpo and pretends to be a distant relative of Agasa's who places Conan in Ran's care. 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.
Personality
At the beginning of the series, Shinichi is a 17 year old student at Teitan High School. He was already well-known as a brilliant young detective who solved several difficult cases that professionals could not and, therefore, is known as the savior of the police force. Shinichi was born to Yusaku Kudo, a mystery writer and Yukiko Kudo a former movie star. 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. Yusaku started taking Shinichi to crime scenes since sixth grade which inspired him to be a Detective. 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. Shinichi is also known for his inability to sing, but was revealed to (ironically) have perfect pitch. He is also a skilled violinist, taking after his idol Sherlock Holmes. He apparently can speak English, as he once conversed with and translated for an American diplomat- and solved a case in London with little trouble from a language barrier. On top of that, he seems to have prior knowledge of the German language, being able to decode the dying message of a German foreigner before he lost consciousness.
Shinichi is a good friend to Ran Mouri whom he has known since kindergarten and he hasn't found any interest in other girls. 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. He convinces her that he is off solving a very difficult case and will return once the investigation concludes. 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.
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 and had been playmates since then, which caused some censure from Eri Kisaki.They are very close together, they 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 met Conan (who is Shinichi but she doesn't know it), she told him that She was in love with him for some time, probably ever since they first met, which caused Shinichi/Conan to blush like mad. They are living together with her dad and 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 cause she missed him all to much. So what Shinichi used his bowtie to mimic his real voice and called her, telling her that everything'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.
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.
Professor Agasa
Although not related by blood, there's a strong family-like bond between Shinichi and Hiroshi Agasa.
Heiji Hattori
When they first meet, Shinichi and Heiji seem bound to become lifelong rivals, especially after Kudo bests Heiji in their first case. Even though Heiji discovers Shinichi's secret, he decides to keep quiet (though he often slips up and calls him Kudo in front of others). After Heiji realizes the truth, the two have become best friends, and consult one another on cases, developments concerning the Black Organization, and even their "girlfriends". They have solved many cases together, and Heiji is the person Shinichi turns to for advice or for confirmation regarding a deduction. Heiji has, on several occasions, declared himself to be Shinichi's best friend or brother.
Heiji still maintains some of his original feelings of rivalry, and gets annoyed if anyone claims Shinichi is better (or even equal), and will often go to great lengths to show that the "west" (Osaka) is better than the "east" (Tokyo). Shinichi usually starts off acting like he is disinterested in the frivolous competition, but may then become competitive himself if Heiji starts "winning" or someone bruises his ego. Others, like Ran and Kazuha, see them both as equally skilled detectives.
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.