Ran Mouri deserves better than what she has to deal with in Case Closed. Not only is her father a cocky jerk whose best days of being a detective were long behind him before Conan came along and started knocking him out at the end of episodes to solve a case, but her crush/best friend is a jerk too. He’s been working on a case for almost 1000 episodes, barely ever making time for her.
She’s one of the sweetest characters in anime, and this list is meant to show some respect to her, as one of the most long-lived presences on Japanese airwaves and in anime for almost 25 years.
10 INCREDIBLY LUCKY
For whatever reason, Ran is the exact opposite of her dad, Kogoro. She managed to figure out mahjong so quickly she was not only able to stop Kogoro from losing his shirt, but also get winnings from everyone else at the table with him.
She’s constantly doing well in luck based games like this, perhaps to make up for the fact that her dad has is terrible at almost everything except Judo.
9 HOW SHE MET SHINICHI
Ran wasn’t exactly the most popular girl when she was younger. New to a school, she spent a lot of time having to deal with mean kids who wanted to take their shot at the new girl.
While her best friend Sonoko has had Ran’s back several times, she met Shinichi under similar circumstances. While being picked on by bullies, Shinichi came to Ran’s defense. It’s not the only time he helped her either, he also saved her from being kidnapped at one point.
8 IS AFRAID OF GHOSTS
Everyone is afraid of something or another, and there’s no person that’s completely fearless. In Ran’s case, she’s afraid of ghosts and the supernatural. She’s dealt with everything from guns to places burning down around her with a shrug, but anything supernatural seems to genuinely freak her out.
However, the main reason for this is because her physical skills as a martial artist would be ineffective. (Can’t beat Ghost Types with Fighting moves, after all.) One villain even made the mistake of assuming she would be helpless even if she knew he wasn’t a ghost, and wound up with a sound thrashing.
7 STILL USES A REGULAR CELLPHONE
In a world which has become almost wholly reliant on cell phones, smartphones aren’t just the dominant kind of phone used. They’re almost the only kind of phone anyone has these days, whether they’re top of the line or a couple years old. But Ran has stuck with the classic cellphone for years now, though likely with good reason.
After Shinichi once caused her phone to fall into a sewer, he replaced it for her and took her to a theme park called Tropical Land. He also got her a sea cucumber strap, meaning she probably refuses to replace it because it’s a gift from her crush. That, and probably the battery life is great.
6 HER NAME COMES FROM THE CREATOR OF LUPIN
No, not that Lupin. Although...kinda. Her name is based off a Japanese pronunciation of Maurice Leblanc, the French novelist responsible for Arsene Lupin, the gentleman thief.
However, it’s also not too far off to suggest that she gets her name from the Lupin series as well. Ran Mouri was the name of one of the writers for Lupin the III: Part II, the second (and by far longest) series that ran from 1977 to 1980. It seems Gosho Aoyama really, really loves Lupin.
5 ONCE OFFERED A MODELING JOB
Though Aoyama goes out of his way to develop Ran beyond just a pretty face, there’s no questioning her beauty. She’s constantly being hit on by other guys, so it’s lucky for Shinichi she only has eyes for him, or it would be a pretty sad show for him.
She’s so pretty in fact, that she was once offered an opportunity to become a fashion model in episode 20 of the series, “Fashion Sense”. Of course, since it’s Case Closed, this inevitably led to the group stumbling into a murder that involved another fashion model, but the offer for her to become a model was legit
4 EXCELLENT AT MARTIAL ARTS
Ran’s love of Karate is a basic fact, but she isn’t just good she’s absurdly good. She’s done everything from dodge bullets to beating up dozens of goons.
Initially, Ran picked up a love for karate after seeing the national champion, Satoru Maeda, in combat when she was only ten. But since then she’s had six years of training, and become quite the threat in her own right, even winning a Karate Championship once. She doesn’t need anyone’s help, she just gives out the hands.
3 HAS TRIED TO REUNITE HER PARENTS
Ran is constantly trying to play matchmaker with different characters in the series, even mistakenly attempting to pair Conan off with Ai, a member of the Detective Boys. But the couple she wants to happen the most is her father and mother getting back together.
Though they’ve been separated for years, she’s constantly trying to get them to run into each other, and hopefully rekindle their feelings. It’s a totally understandable hope, even if it’s unrealistic to expect a lawyer to want to date a detective who’s terrible at his job.
2 FIGURED OUT SHINICHI IS CONAN
There are some real Superdickery elements to Ran’s relationship with Conan and Shinichi. From the beginning, Shinichi has been trying to keep his identity secret to everyone so he can avoid getting them in trouble. But Ran’s a smart girl, and she’s come to think Shinichi and Conan were the same person time and again.
At this point, it happens roughly every fifty episodes, with Conan always coming up with more elaborate explanations to convince her she’s wrong. Spending so much of his time lying to her seems like it’d have negative consequences, but that would require the show to end.
1 STARTED DATING SHINICHI
For most dub viewers, it’s unlikely they ever got past the first fifty or sixty episodes. Though the series ran on adult swim for a while, it never quite took off like some other anime did, and was dropped after a couple years. But the anime continues to this day, with the series having reached the quadruple digits in episode counts.
For decades (in our time), Shinichi and Ran haven’t ever been able to say how they felt about one another. But as of chapter 1008, the end of the Missing Maria Higashio Case, it’s been confirmed the two are actually dating one another! Now if she could just get him to tell the truth about being Conan...