Hiroshi Agasa

Hiroshi Agasa (阿笠 博士), most commonly referred to as Professor Agasa (阿笠博士), and known in the Funimation dub as Hershel Agasa, is a character in the manga and anime franchise Detective Conan. Agasa is Shinichi Kudo's next door neighbor and family friend. The first person to learn that Conan Edogawa is actually Shinichi, he invented all of Conan's special gadgets as well as the Detective Boys' badges and flashlight-watches.

Background
Hiroshi Agasa is an inventor and Shinichi's next-door neighbor. He makes his living with a wide number of patents and inventions, including video games (of which the Detective Boys are enthusiastic test players). While many of his inventions are useless or have even damaged his in-house research laboratory, Agasa has been successful enough to live in a large house and even rebuild it when necessary. He has been a friend of Shinichi and Ran since their childhood years.

After Shinichi was shrunk by the APTX 4869, the first person he met and entrusted himself to was Agasa. After having been convinced that the little boy was Shinichi, Agasa was also the first one to advise Shinichi to exercise caution in his pursuit of the Black Organization. He also helped Shinichi in establishing his new identity as Conan Edogawa, including constructing several gadgets which help Shinichi in carrying on his detective work surreptitiously. In order to perfect Conan's cover, he also enrolled him in Teitan Elementary and thus came to know the children who would form the Detective Boys. When Shiho Miyano fled the clutches of the Black Organization, she fled to Shinichi's house but collapsed from exhaustion near Agasa's doorstep. Agasa subsequently took her in, learned about her true identity and helped her establish her new identity as Ai Haibara. He also entrusted Shinichi's parents with the secret about what has happened to their son.

Ever since these beginnings, Agasa has been an invaluable friend for Shinichi and the Detective Boys as a confidant, paternal friend, and someone to hang out with. He often takes the children on trips, most of which turn into criminal cases instead.

Childhood and relatives
Agasa went to Teitan Elementary and then Okuho middle school. He met Fusae Kinoshita during sixth grade, though she moved away during the fall term and his family moved from Tokyo to the countryside soon after the term ended.

Agasa has a rich accountant uncle named Kurisuke Agasa who died 50 years before the present timeline at the age of 38. The uncle liked gadgets. Kurisuke's sister, Teiko, was alive until a year ago when she passed away at age 76. Agasa’s cousin’s granddaughter is of the right age to be introduced to Takagi.

Personality
Hiroshi Agasa is a jovial, caring and outgoing person and has many friends in his community, a fact which helped him in his covering up of Conan's and Haibara's true origins (he simply claims that they are the children of his friends and acquaintances). Agasa is highly intelligent, having achieved at least one advanced degree and managing to invent a slew of useful gadgets. He is especially proud of his inventions, and their quality must have been recognized, since they have already been used during official events. While a bachelor, he is very paternal and enjoys the company of the Detective Boys. Agasa has a special love for pasta and tomato juice.

Shinichi Kudo/Conan Edogawa
Conan treats Agasa like an uncle. Due to the fact that they both share the secret behind Shinichi's transformation and knowledge about the Black Organization, Conan often comes to him when in trouble or seeking for help.

Ai Haibara
The relationship between Haibara and Professor Agasa is rather unusual, if not humorous. Despite what their actual (and apparent) ages are, Haibara often times acts more like a mother to the professor, constantly reminding him to watch what he eats. On several occasions, she has removed fattening foods from his reach, and is attempting to help get him into better shape. There have also been instances where she'll instinctively step in front of Agasa to protect him from danger. Out of all the people she's met, Haibara seems most comfortable about acting herself with Agasa; which might be attributed to the fact that he was the one who found her after she escaped the Black Organization, and took her in.

Though they only realized the fact some time later, Agasa knew her parents when they were still alive—especially her father, Atsushi Miyano—even though he didn't know at that time that they'd had children.

Yusaku Kudo
Agasa and Yusaku are good friends.



Fusae Campbell
Fusae Campbell, today a successful fashion designer, was Agasa's first love in their childhood years. Because of her half-American heritage she has blonde hair, which made her the target of ridicule among her fellow students and thus very shy; she usually wore a large hat to conceal her hair. Three months after meeting Agasa, her family abruptly moved away, but she promised to return every ten years to a special place to meet him again. However, Agasa could not figure out what location she meant, until the Detective Boys and Conan find the original note she left behind and help him realize the answer to her clues. While they did not openly talk about their feelings during their brief reunion, there is a hint that their relationship is now beginning to grow.

Name origin
Agasa's name comes from mystery writer Agatha Christie. His first name Hiroshi is a pun as it is written with the same kanji for hakase (博士). Agasa's English given name "Herschel" likely comes from the physician friend of V. I. Warshawski, Dr. Charlotte “Lotty” Herschel.

Additionally, his great uncle and aunt, Kurisuke (栗介) and Teiko (定子), get their names from the Japanese pronunciation of Christie (クリスティ) (Kurisuke obviously comes from Kurisu (クリス), but Teiko comes from Tei (テイ), and alternate writing for Ti (ティ)).

Trivia

 * Professor Agasa has a mole on his butt with a hair sticking out of it (which Conan revealed while trying to prove his real identity to Agasa).
 * In a fan poll, Professor Agasa was voted as the character most likely to be the boss of the Black Organization. In an interview, Gosho Aoyama stated that Agasa is not the boss.
 * Professor Agasa has a built in television in his car.
 * Professor Agasa's car is a yellow Volkswagen Beetle.