It’s difficult being a boy genius. Not only does everyone look to you to solve all their strange mysteries and murders, but sometimes you wind up drawing the ire of a global organization which goes out of their way to kill you. But their attempt fails, leaving you trapped inside the boy of an eight year old version of yourself. It’s a distressingly common set of circumstances.
Seriously, this is the plight of one Shinichi (or Jimmy, for dub fans) Kudo, a teen detective who has to take on the identity of Conan Edogawa to keep his loved ones safe as the Black Organization make an attempt on his life. This list covers everything anime fans who remember Case Closed reruns on Adult Swim might need to know about the star of the series, Conan himself.
10 ORIGINS OF CONAN'S NAME
Shinichi being turned into a little child forced him to come up with another identity pretty quick. Placed on the spot, he came up with his new name by looking around at his environment.
His first name is Conan, thusly named after Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. His last name is Edogawa, after Edogawa Ranpo, the pen name of a famous Japanese fiction writer. Interestingly enough, this pen name is a reference to the author Edgar Allen Poe.
9 LOVES SOCCER
Everyone needs a hobby. For Conan, that hobby is usually just being a detective and solving cases. But he also has a deep love for the sport of soccer. He’s incredibly athletic, mostly because when he’s not being a modern-day Sherlock, he’s playing soccer.
As Shinichi, Conan was so good he was scouted to play professional soccer while still in middle school! This also aided him as Shinichi, as he developed a pretty solid kick to take out criminals if he or someone else was in danger. Though he’s much smaller now, his talent remains.
8 IS TONE DEAF
There’s no such thing as someone who’s good at everything. Despite being the best detective and a pretty solid soccer player as well, Conan is pretty pathetic at singing.
He’s occasionally described as tone-deaf because he’s so poor at singing on key. However, despite this, the character actually hears in perfect pitch, and was once able to finish a case early on in the series because he was able to decipher a message by playing the piano with exactly the right notes. Also, because of his admiration for the great detective Sherlock Holmes, he aims to pick up the violin.
7 EVENTUALLY FOUND AN ANTIDOTE
The first thing a lot of people think about when they watch Case Closed is how long the series runs, as it’s a bit absurd to have a teenager have his age cut in half and no one ever realize he was missing for 800, 900+ episodes.
Fortunately, Shinichi eventually meets Ai Shibara, a former scientist working for the Black Organization. She’s able to synthesize an antidote for the ATX 4869 that turned both her and Conan into the current versions of themselves.
6 FBI KNOWS HIS IDENTITY
From the very beginning, the main conceit of the storyline of Case Closed is about keeping Conan’s former identity as Shinichi a secret. He hasn’t been able to tell most of the people in his life that he cares about for fear of risking their lives against the Black Organization.
Only a few people are actually aware of what happened to Shinichi, and a number of them are in the FBI. Yes, the FBI makes occasional appearances in Case Closed due to their involvement with taking down the Black Organization, a group they’ve been after for twenty years.
5 HAS WORKED WITH KAITOU KID
This is always an interesting match-up. Goshi Aoyama created Magic Kaito 1412, a series about a gentleman thief who returned the objects he usually stole. It’s only natural then that Kaitou Kid, the world’s greatest thief, would eventually have to meet up with the world’s other greatest detective.
Conan’s usually trying to capture him, but the fact that both of them are meant to be main characters means he can’t be the smartest person in the room with him, leading to some pretty great showdowns. Fortunately, there’s more than enough threats big enough to make the two work together, and Kaitou Kid’s even helped Conan maintain his secret identity.
4 TEAMED UP WITH LUPIN
Conan’s brush with Kaitou Kid isn’t the only gentleman thief he’s had to deal with. On two separate occasions, Conan’s had to work with the original anime gentleman thief, Lupin the III himself.
The first time around happened back in 2009 in the television special Lupin the III vs. Detective Conan, and the second happened in a film in 2013 with the nearly identically titled: Lupin the III vs. Detective Conan...the Movie. They really needed a subtitle guy for their marketing department to step up. The film centers around Conan’s attempt to capture Lupin, while Lupin tries to make off with the famous jewel known as the Cherry Sapphire.
3 SHARES A VOICE ACTRESS WITH ENVY
Sometimes realizing who voiced two completely different characters makes sense, as the characters share some similarities and thus the voices being similar isn’t very surprising. And then sometimes they have absolutely nothing in common, helping one realize the range certain voice actors and actresses have.
Minami Takayama, the voice actress for Conan for instance, was also responsible for voicing Envy in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. His English voice actress, Alison Viktorin, in addition to having quite the resume, has also voiced Sherria from Fairy Tail.
2 HIS PARENTS PRETENDED TO BE THE BLACK ORGANIZATION
Sometimes people have no choice but to be amazing. As Shinichi Kudo, Conan grew up with Yusaku and Yukiko, two incredible individuals. Yusaku is famous novelist who was a boy genius himself, while his mother Yukiko was a famous actress who retired to have a family with Yusaku.
Since then, the two have encouraged Shinichi to find his own path, but once they realized the kind of trouble he was in, once pretended to be the Black Organization, making fake attempts on his life to help Shinichi realize the danger he was in. Still, he survived, proving his resolve.
1 CARRIES A TON OF GADGETS
Of course everyone is aware that Conan has a watch which is able to shoot out tranquilizers that knock out...well, mostly just Ran’s dad Kogoro. They’re also aware of his voice modulating bowtie. But the series didn’t stop there—after all, if you’ve got someone watching over you that’s basically a super scientist, why not keep getting new gadgets.
Thus Conan’s got shoes that enhance his kicking ability, glasses which can track criminals and double as binoculars, and a solar-powered turbo skateboard. Once Shinichi takes down the Black Organization, he should really look into getting a utility belt...and perhaps a cave.