Shinichi Kudo

Shinichi Kudo (工藤 新一) is the high school detective protagonist of the manga and anime Detective Conan. While on a date with his childhood friend and romantic interest Ran Mouri, Shinichi encounters two men from a secret criminal organization who force feed him a strange poison that causes his body to shrink back to first grade age. Shinichi takes up the alias Conan Edogawa and plans to use his immense skill as a detective to make Ran's bumbling private detective father famous in hopes that he will find a case involving the secret organization so he can expose its crimes and acquire an antidote that will turn him back into a teenager.

Viz romanized his original name as Shin'ichi Kudo while Shogakukan's website romanizes it as Shinichi Kudoh.

Background
At the beginning of the Detective Conan series, Shinichi is a 16-year old (17, according to the anime) student at Teitan High School who has become famous for helping the Tokyo police solve murder mysteries. Shinichi was born to Yusaku Kudo, a mystery writer, and Yukiko Kudo, a former movie star.

One day, Shinichi brings his childhood friend Ran Mouri 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, Shinichi heads off alone to follow a suspicious man in black, Vodka, who was a suspect in the earlier murder. Shinichi witnesses a blackmail exchange between Vodka and a company president in a secluded area just outside the park, but is too engrossed to notice Gin, Vodka's partner, sneak up from behind. Gin knocks him out and forces him to swallow a new experimental poison known as APTX 4869, and they then leave him to die. However, instead of killing Shinichi, a rare side-effect occurs: his body shrinks into that of his six year-old self. After escaping from well-meaning but skeptical park security, with nowhere else to go Shinichi heads home. He there runs into his next door neighbor and close family friend, Professor Agasa, who warns him that he must keep his identity secret because the Black Organization will kill him and others associated with him should they discover the truth.

Conan Edogawa
Shinichi comes up with the alias Conan Edogawa from Arthur Conan Doyle and Edogawa Rampo 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 Conan to run into a case involving the Black Organization. In the meantime, to protect his identity he is forced to play the part of a first-grader, including enrolling as a student at Teitan Elementary. Three classmates, Ayumi, Genta, and Mitsuhiko, befriend him and pull him into creating the Detective Boys, after which he tries to keep them out of trouble between using Kogoro as a mouthpiece to solve crimes and searching for how to get his big body back with the help of the creator of APTX 4869, Ai Haibara.

Personality
At the beginning of the series, Shinichi is already well-known as a brilliant young detective, the "Savior of the police force", for solving many difficult cases the professionals could not. 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. His father, Yusaku started taking Shinichi to crime scenes as a child, which inspired him to be a detective. Due to his bluntness and matter-of-fact manner, Shinichi can come off as rude and arrogant. However, he cares deeply about human life, unable to understand how any reason could be sufficient motive for murder, and is convinced that driving a culprit to suicide is no better than murder itself. The few times he has been too late to save a life haunt him throughout the series.

Prior to his transformation, Shinichi enjoyed being in the spotlight and was rather arrogant, reveling in making local headlines and receiving fan-mail. Throughout the series, Shinichi's predicament causes him to gain a sense of humility. Shinichi still keeps his flair for the dramatic (like his mother) that can be seen every time he sets out a deduction in pieces building to a climax.

Despite his popularity with the masses and his schoolmates, Shinichi has very few close friends. He is close to Ran and Agasa, and after deaging, he befriended Heiji, Haibara, and to some extent the other Detective Boys. Another reason for his lack of close friends was because his arrogant personality was a negative turn-off to many of his classmates and even teachers, making it hard to befriend him. Even with his close friends (one being older than him), Shinichi doesn't hesitate to call them "idiot", instead of calmly explaining his reason for doing or not doing something, sometimes causing arguments between him and Ran.

Shinichi also had a tendency, since elementary school, to have an air of being the "distant, cool guy". While he is a truly good and heroic individual, he doesn't make it known to others that obviously, and will make some "deductive reasoning" for why he did such a thing. His sensitive nature is also horrible, which was shown most prominently during the Holmes' Revelation Arc, when Ran started crying because she believed that Shinichi not telling her he was in London meant that he was indifferent to her feelings for him. However, instead of trying to comfort her, Shinichi repeatedly asked her about the strange woman she met, and told her to pull herself together.

Despite his intelligence, Shinichi is rather dense when it comes to love or romantic subjects, though perhaps not to the same extent as Heiji Hattori. He struggled to confess his love for to Ran, even after he knew her feelings (as Conan), and temporarily returned to his original body in the Desperate Revival Arc, he was about to confess to her, but chickened out at the last minute. After several failures, finally succeeded in London.

Skills

 * See also: Conan's Skills

Detective skills
Shinichi is very skilled as a detective, often earning him comparisons to Sherlock Holmes. Shinichi has acquired various nicknames because of his prowess, such as the "Heisei Holmes" and the "Detective of the East". He has a keen eye for details, and can spot any unusual aspects in a case that most people tend to ignore or not take into account. He repeatedly demonstrates the ability to recall every detail of an investigation or other topics he cares about, and may have a photographic memory to manage such perfect recall so consistently. Shinichi's fastidious attention to detail allows him to notice minor inconsistencies in crime scenes and suspect testimony, and using astute logic he uncovers the reasons behind those inconsistencies in order to link them to the crime. Shinichi has extraordinarily broad and deep knowledge of many subjects and trivia that help him solve cases, something he likely acquired from incessant reading as a child. Only his father Yusaku Kudo, and the current Kaitou Kid, Kaito Kuroba, regularly surpass him.

Athletic ability
Besides intelligence, Shinichi also has an amazing athletic ability, partially derived from playing soccer, his favorite sport. Shinichi is an extremely skilled soccer player, having been professionally scouted while only in middle school, but he chooses to stay at the amateur level. He initially played to hone his reflexes and often juggles a ball to clear his mind, but he is also an enthusiastic fan of the sport in its own right. In order to defend himself and others from criminals, Shinichi has perfected a signature, powerful precision kick to knock out criminals using soccer balls or whatever substitute is handy. Shinichi's kick is accurate over long distances and he is capable of mentally reckoning the angle of impact necessary to rebound a soccer ball off a wall and strike an attacker from behind. He is also good at skiing and snowboarding.

Aside from soccer, Shinichi exhibits a knack for handling firearms due to his father taking him to shooting ranges from time to time. During the Clocktower Heist, Shinichi is able to shoot and dislodge the support beam of a giant projection screen, which Kaitou Kid had placed in order to fool a crowd of onlookers, with a single shot from a moving helicopter. Additionally, in Movie 2 Conan shot a gun at Ran and the criminal holding her hostage with impeccable accuracy; in doing so, he reminds her of Shinichi.

Shinichi is nimble as well as strong. In the manga, he is capable of considerable acrobatics, jumping great distances and swinging from tree to tree to escape onlookers. The anime and movies augment Shinichi's athletic abilities in addition to what is shown in the manga. He has been able to skillfully dodge a kicking assault from an angry Ran, something very few have ever managed.

Music
Shinichi cannot sing on key in the slightest so he is often accused of being tone deaf. Despite being a hilariously awful singer, Shinichi has perfect pitch and can identify notes accurately even in difficult contexts like the sound of phone button presses forming a melody. Also, to be like his favorite detective, Sherlock Holmes, he plays the violin. This was confirmed in movie 12 Full Score of Fear when he played "Amazing Grace" for Ran. However, he is stumped on what Ran meant when she said, "He has a funny habit when he plays."

Language
Shinichi is well-educated 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. Shinichi also knows some German, at least how to count. Shinichi is not familiar with Italian.

Plot overview
Because the main plot revolves around the fact that Shinichi has become 'Conan' and is forced into hiding, Shinichi is rarely in the series as himself. However, Conan is frequently shown calling Ran using his voice-changing bow tie to sound like Shinichi and sending/receiving text messages from her with "Shinichi's" phone. In these instances, it can be said that the character of Shinichi, albeit in the body of Conan, is appearing, since these phone conversations and text messages allow Shinichi to be himself, however briefly.

Roller coaster murder case
Shinichi starts as himself in the Roller coaster murder case, but by the end he has been transformed into Conan, thus beginning the series' plot. Since then, Conan has temporarily turned back to Shinichi several times.

East versus West Detective
Shinichi's next real appearance after shrinking is in Volume 10, when a strange detective from Osaka named Heiji Hattori arrives at Mouri Detective Agency looking for Shinichi in order to determine which of them is the better detective. A strange combination of having a cold and drinking the baijiu that Heiji had brought along allows Conan to briefly grow into Shinichi once again. However, he develops an immunity to the alcohol and cannot replicate the transformation.

Desperate Revival
In Volume 26, Conan is able to become Shinichi using an Antidote (prototype) that Ai Haibara synthesized. As himself, he tries to surprise Ran by disguising himself as a character in her play, but is interrupted by a murder case and ends up revealing himself to his entire high school. Heiji Hattori covers for him and Shinichi is able to spend about 48 hours as himself, albeit with a brief collapse about halfway through. He turns back into Conan just as he seems to be about to confess his feelings to Ran.

Shiragami case
Shinichi's next appearance is not until Volume 62, when, while on a case with Heiji, Conan goes missing and 'Shinichi' seems to appear. The 'Shinichi' is actually someone who had gotten plastic surgery to look like Shinichi Kudo, and is actually trying to blame Shinichi for a murder. The real Shinichi hides in the forest until he can clear his name. Shinichi had been temporarily restored by another of Haibara's prototypes, but this time by accident; Agasa mistakenly gave them to Shinichi thinking they were cold medicine. After the case is solved Shinichi transforms back to Conan, but luckily, Haibara secretly followed him there and gives him another antidote, saving him from revealing his identity to Kogoro, Ran and Kazuha. While driving home from the case, the group is stopped by another murder which Shinichi and Heiji investigate together, despite increasing pangs that warn of his imminent reversion to Conan. After the case is resolved, Ran tries to stop Shinichi from leaving, saying she has something to tell him. Shinichi stops her, saying "According to my deductions, what you have to say and what I have to say are the same thing." Ran seizes his hand while he is transforming back into Conan, and though Haibara knocks her out with Conan's wristwatch, she refuses to let go of his hand. Haibara and Professor Agasa have to cut and re-pin Conan's shirt onto him because Ran is still clutching his hand and he refuses to pull out of her grip.

London
In Volume 71, Conan, Ran, and Kogoro are invited to England by a rich, elite British woman, Diana Kingstone, after Kogoro finds her cat under the table in Poirot Cafe. However, since 'Conan Edogawa' doesn't have the proper credentials to fly internationally, Ai gives him a prototype pill so that Shinichi and Agasa can fly low-profile to England on the same plane that Ran and Kogoro are flying. Ai provides a second prototype pill for the return journey, but Conan uses it while Ran was pursuing him in London. During that trip, Shinichi answers Ran's hurt feelings over his behavior with the fact that he cares for her and that he likes her; unfortunately, before she could respond or confess in kind, Shinichi has to vanish and becomes Conan again. Luckily for Conan, Shinichi's parents appear because Ai had expected him to use the second pill, and they provide him with an extra antidote to let Conan return to Japan.

Flashback Appearances
Shinichi has appeared in several flashbacks.

Shinichi's first case
One year ago, Shinichi solved his first case by himself on a plane flying to New York City. The second half of this trip is retold in the next flashback.

New York City
One year ago, Shinichi went to New York City with Ran to meet up with his mother and see a play called the Golden Apple in Volume 35. There, they met Vermouth and Shuichi Akai for the first time.

Heiji's Memories
During a call to Conan, Heiji talks about a brilliant detective kid he met at a skiing trip during middle school who was actually Shinichi who he competed with to solve the mystery.

Challenge from the original Kaitou Kid
In Volume 55, a flashback revealed that as first-graders, Shinichi and Ran had been given a riddle by the original Kaitou Kid, Toichi Kuroba.

Movie 7
In Movie 7, Heiji was injured and Kazuha kidnapped; her abductors threatened to kill her unless Heiji showed up for her. Believing Heiji to be unable to do so, Conan contacted Ai and asked if there was any way for him to briefly become Heiji. Ai gave him medicine to simulate the effects of a cold, then he drank some Baijiu which had changed him in his and Heiji's first manga appearance. Conan became Shinichi for approximately an hour, but according to Ai he was extremely weak and sick for the entire time.

OVA 9
In OVA 9, Conan takes another prototype antidote. However, it proves less effective than the prototype she used during the Desperate Revival arc; Conan became Shinichi, but only for a few hours, and remained in a feverish state, unable to wake up until he had reverted back to Conan. During his time unconscious, he had a vivid hallucination that he had grown to age 17 again as Conan and that Ran, aged 27, was about to marry Tomoaki Araide.

Relationships
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 been friends and playmates since kindergarten, though Shinichi's tendency to drag Ran along into minor trouble caused some censure from her mother. Shinichi has liked Ran since at least the first year of middle school, and turned down any other potential love interests as a result, but she has never realized this. Shinichi was similarly oblivious to Ran's regard until Ran confessed to Conan that despite his faults, which she is well aware of, she has liked Shinichi for some time. Shinichi has since confessed his feelings to Ran in the non-canon 4th movie 'Captured In Her Eyes' (which Ran mistook as his attempt to get her memories back), and made attempts to say something during temporary cures in the manga and anime, but cases always seem to interfere until the cure runs out. Shinichi since then has finally canonically confessed to Ran in the case in London. Ran has yet to verbally return his confession, but Shinichi is confident he now understands how she feels already.

Shinichi's initial disappearance troubled Ran to the point of insomnia and nearly going to the police. Since then, Shinichi sometimes calls Ran over the telephone and imitates his normal voice with the voice-changing bowtie so that she doesn't worry about him. He convinces her that he is off solving a very difficult case and will return once the investigation concludes. In reality, he is the brain behind her father's rapid rise to fame as a detective.

Shinichi/Conan is not without sexual fantasies regarding Ran, the most obvious evidence being his nosebleeds or blushing when he sees her in a bathing suit, or when Ran pulled him into an onsen with her. For her part, Ran often blushes when thinking of Shinichi, especially when Sonoko teases her about their relationship. Her attitude towards Conan is one of more open, sisterly affection, such as giving him hugs or holding his hand. Shinichi has some concerns of bodily harm should Ran realize that not only has he been lying to her, but they've shared a bed and taken a bath together.

Shinichi and Ran appear to share a close empathic link due to their strong feelings for each other, making each of them feel the other's worry and agitation in times of extreme danger.

Yusaku and Yukiko Kudo
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 who remains partially involved in the industry. 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.

Hiroshi Agasa
Although not related by blood, there is a strong family-like bond between Shinichi and Hiroshi Agasa. Agasa was the first to know about Shinichi's shrunk predicament and was the one to tell him to keep it a secret. Most of the gadgets that Shinichi has were made by Agasa to help Shinichi catch the criminals and solve the cases as Conan. He also knows about Shinichi's romantic relationship with Ran and sometimes teases him about it in front of her (when Shinichi can't do anything about it since he is Conan).

Heiji Hattori
When they first meet, Conan 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.

Detective Boys
So far, Shinichi did not canonically meet the detective boys before becoming Conan. In the non-canonical animated special, OVA Magic File 2, four years prior to him becoming Conan, a thirteen-year-old Shinichi came across the Detective Boys, Genta, Mitsuhiko, and Ayumi, while they were still three years old. He needed their help in confirming a client's alibi. Also, in the first live action drama and the first episode of the anime, the Detective Boys are seen sneaking into Tropical Land for treasure. Ran then says, pointing to the children, "It was like that last time, huh?" to Shinichi.

Ai Haibara
Ai Haibara, a defector from the Black Organization who was shrunk with the same poison as Shinichi, 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, 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. She loves to tease him or otherwise insult him, pointing out his weakness.

Juzo Megure
Inspector Megure has worked together with Shinichi to solve many cases. During Shinichi's first case on the plane to New York, Megure seemed irritated that Shinichi was poking his nose into a murder case. Since then, because Shinichi has proven himself solving cases one after the other, Megure has grown to respect Shinichi and his deductive abilities, thanking him for his assistance.

Kaitou Kid
Despite the fact Toichi and Shinichi only met once prior to Toichi's death, it's worth mentioning that Toichi referred to Shinichi as his "older brother" and himself as the "younger brother". This is because Yusaku created and thus was the father of the moniker Kaitou Kid, Toichi's secret identity. Toichi's son and successor, Kaito, has also only crossed paths with Shinichi as Shinichi once, during the Clocktower heist. Kaito thought Shinichi made the heist harder (and thus less boring) in Saguru Hakuba's absence, and Shinichi found Kid's intention of 'stealing' the Clocktower in order to save it from demolition to be fairly admirable.

In their next encounter, however, after Shinichi had become Conan, Kid disguised himself as Ran in order to steal the Suzuki Black Star pearl. When Conan cornered him on the Suzuki cruise ship, Kid suggested that he'd stolen all of Ran's clothes to impersonate her, and left her naked on the deck. While this ended up being a bluff, Conan was shocked and infuriated. In subsequent encounters between Kid and Conan, Conan displays a much more intense desire to capture Kid. In several instances he appears to be able to 'sense' Kid's presence; knowing Kid is close by often causes Conan to behave far more frenetically. However, in several instances, beginning with the "Big Adventure in the Eccentric Residence" case, when Kid does Conan/Shinichi a favor, such as saving Genta's life in the aforementioned case, Conan reciprocates by halting his investigation just shy of capturing Kid, thereby allowing him to escape unhindered.

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. Vermouth also knows, but she has kept it a secret from the rest of the Organization to protect Shinichi because he had saved her life in New York. 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. Ran gets suspicious on occasion, but so far Conan has managed to trick her into thinking Conan and Shinichi are two different people. Finally, Subaru Okiya has seen Conan use Shinichi's voice with his bowtie voice modifier. Since Subaru Okiya is actually Shuichi Akai in disguise, this means that Akai knows about it as well.

Name origin
Shinichi's given name is a pun on "one truth". The "ichi" (一) means "one" and "shin" can be read as truth (真), however the kanji actually used for "shin" (新) in Shinichi's name means "new". Shinichi's family name "Kudo" comes from the fictional detective Shunsaku Kudo created by Nobumitsu Kodaka. The ON-readings of the kanji for "Kudo" mean "craft" or "construction" (工) and "wisteria" (藤). "Shinichi" may also have come from "Shinichi Suzuki", a famous violinist. (Shinichi Kudo plays violin) His English name, Jimmy, rhymes with Shinichi.

General
"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

- Shinichi, quoting Sherlock Holmes from The Sign of the Four, ch. 6

"There is no deduction that is superior or inferior... because there is only one truth."

- Episode 49, talking to Heiji

"One truth prevails!"

- One of Shinichi's catchphrases.

"The only ones who can miss a kick draw are those who have the courage to kick it."

"Zero is where everything starts! Nothing would ever be born if we didn't depart from there..."

- Episode 621, confessing to Ran in front of Big Ben

"A trick is nothing but a puzzle mankind came up with. If you use your head, you can uncover the logical answer."

- Episode 191, talking to Heiji

"It's always the little things, that we overlook, that are the most important."

"The strong one doesn’t win. The one who wins is strong."

Specific
"You're a troublesome and tough case, you know! With all these distracting emotions... Even if I were Holmes it'd still be impossible to figure out! The heart of a woman whom one likes... How can anyone accurately deduce that?"

- Shinichi confessing to Ran in London.

"Serial killer: Why did you save me?

Shinichi: Is a reason necessary? I don't know why you would kill someone but as for saving someone... a logical mind isn't needed, right?"

- After rescuing the serial killer, NY Case.

"Zero is where everything starts! Nothing would ever be born if we didn't depart from there..."

- Shinichi, confessing to Ran in Episode 621

"A detective who uses his deductive powers to corner a suspect and then does nothing to stop them from committing suicide, is no better than the murderer himself!"

- Telling Heiji why letting the criminal commit suicide is wrong.

"Because I love you. I love you. In this world, more than anyone else."

- Conan/Shinichi to Ran in Movie 4, Captured in Her Eyes, replying Ran on why he keeps protecting her.

Quotes about Shinichi
"You're gonna be a great detective."

- Akimoto to Shinichi.